The prime ministers of Kosovo and Serbia have met for the first time in Brussels.

The talks, facilitated by the EU, focused on normalising relations between the neighbours.

EU foreign affairs chief Barioness Catherine Ashton chaired the meeting and said they would "meet again soon... to improve the lives of people and help solve problems and, in so doing, bring Serbia and Kosovo closer" to the EU.

Belgrade has been moving closer to be considered for EU membership and was granted “candidate status” in June.

Serbia has not recognised Kosovo’s independence, but most EU states have full diplomatic relations with Pristina.

The Emir of Qatar is to visit the blockaded Gaza strip on Tuesday, becoming the first head of state to do so since Hamas took over power in 2007. 

The Emir, Sheik Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani is to inaugurate reconstruction projects worth over $250 million.

Confirming the visit, Hamas Prime Minister, Ismail Haniyeh said, "our people to express their good hospitality in welcoming the great visitor of Gaza".

“Sexual violence in conflict needs to be treated as the war crime that it is… It can no longer be written off or treated as an unfortunate collateral damage of war or unavoidable byproduct of political strife.”

“As daunting as the road ahead is, I do not think eradicating sexual violence in conflict is a mission impossible”

“We have the tools to combat this scourge, but we need the political will to implement the relevant Security Council resolutions and a commitment from governments to enforce them,”

“This is not only a women’s issue and it is a global issue. It is occurring in Serbia, Cambodia, Sudan, Sri Lanka, Colombia, and Nepal, among others.”

“We must work with national governments. We must allow them and force them to take leadership in this to be able to build a national framework that will be able to ensure that the cases are prosecuted and the victims have their day in court. Let us put the light on the perpetrators not the victims”

“The message for perpetrators must be ‘there is no hiding place in the world. Wherever you are we will get you.’”

The former spokesperson of Muammar Gaddafi, Moussa Ibrahim has been captured, said the office of Libya's Prime Minister.

The office said he was arrest on Saturday in Tarhouna and was being transferred to Tripoli.

In a statement, the office said:

"Moussa Ibrahim has been arrested by forces belonging to the Libyan government in the town of Tarhouna and he is being transferred to Tripoli to begin interrogation."

Previous reports of Ibrahim's arrest have been proven false.

A former Argentinean army general who led troops in the Falklands war has been arrested over his role in committing alleged crimes against humanity, during the country’s 1976-83 military dictatorship.

82-year-old Mario Menéndez was arrested from his home in Buenos Aires along with 15 others and will be transported to the northern province of Tucumán, where the alleged crimes took place. He stands accused of crimes against humanity whilst leading “Operation Independence” against left wing activists and militants during the country’s “Dirty War”

The 1975 operation is thought to have killed over 700 people, in a war that saw over 30,000 people “disappeared” or murdered.

Earlier this year, former military junta leaders Jorge Videla and Reynaldo Bignone were jailed for the systematic theft of babies from political prisoners.

See our earlier post: Argentina junta leaders jailed for baby theft (05 July 2012)

UN member states have voted Rwanda onto the Security Council, where they will serve for two years.

The country will replace South Africa and occupy the African seat, which was uncontested, on January 1.

On Monday, a leaked UN report accused the Rwandan defence minister of leading a rebel army in the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo.

The DRC raised objections to the candidacy of Rwanda, but Kigali has rejected all allegations.

Human Rights Watch also criticised Rwanda’s selection, saying the country can use its seat to block sanctions against itself.

Philippe Bolopion, UN Directorfor HRW told the BBC,

"If they were, after being elected to the UN Security Council, to immediately stop all their support to M23 that would be great news. But nothing in their recent behaviour would suggest that it would happen,"

The leaked UN report says leaders of the M23 rebel group received “direct military orders" from the chief of defence staff Gen Charles Kayonga, who acts on orders from the defence minister.

Uganda is also accused of supporting the rebels.

"Both Rwanda and Uganda have been supporting M23," said the report.

"While Rwandan officials co-ordinated the creation of the rebel movement as well as its major military operations, Uganda's more subtle support to M23 allowed the rebel group's political branch to operate from within Kampala and boost its external relations," it said.

"The Security Council expresses its intention to apply targeted sanctions against the leadership of the M23 and those acting in violation of the sanctions regime and the arms embargo,"

"It's wrong. This report is very problematic so anybody who would want to take action based on that report would be really unfortunate."

“The ICC suffers a further, significant and probably irremediable defect. The treaty-based permanent court has been ratified by only 121 of the approximately 200 countries in the world,” he said.

“This is a conflict that would never be selected for international attention despite its gravity. The informal tribunal-that may be matched by others and by other internet and computer-assisted processes yet to be imagined-shows that the world citizen can hope courts will serve him well, but can easily find the means to do the job himself if they don’t.”

French President François Hollande has acknowledged that Algerian demonstrators were massacred during a pro-independence rally in Paris in 1961.

The admission marks the first time a French leader has publicly accepted that the killings took place.

"On 17 October 1961, Algerians who were protesting for independence were killed in a bloody repression. The Republic recognises these facts with lucidity," Hollande said in a statement on Wednesday.

"I pay homage to victims 51 years later."

Historians claim more than 200 people were killed, when police, under orders of former Nazi collaborator and Paris prefect of police, Maurice Papon, attacked thousands of Algerian protestors, during Algeria’s brutal war of indepencence from France.

The main opposition criticised the statement, saying that the police force as a whole cannot be blamed.

"While denying the events of 17 October 1961 and forgetting the victims is out of the question, it is unacceptable to blame the state police and with them the whole Republic," head of the UMP, Christian Jacob said in a statement.

Witness reports say how protestors were chased around Paris and bludgeoned to death in police stations, while many bodies were thrown into the Seine.

French authorities banned a book about the killings soon after the massacre and blocked the publication of photographs of the massacre.

Twitter blocked an account belonging to a banned neo-Nazi group on Thursday, preventing Germans receiving or viewing tweets from the account.

The group Besseres Hannover, under the alias @hannoverticker now reveals only the following generic tweet: “Withheld account. @Hannover ticker’s account has been withheld in Germany.”

The move is the first blanket censorship action taken by Twitter.

The Philippines’ House of Representatives has ratified a bill which would criminalise enforced disappearances, which have been mostly sanctioned by the government.

The new law will come into force Presdient Aquino signs the Anti-Enforced or Involuntary Disappearance Act of 2012, which would make the Philippines the first Asian country to enact such a law.

"The occurrence of enforced or involuntary disappearance and the impunity of offenders who are agents of the State are now finally consigned to the past," Representative Edcel Lagman said, according to Interaksyon.

"The same obtained Congressional approval on 20 September 2012, a day before the 40th anniversary of the declaration of Martial Law an era when enforced disappearance was an atrocious tool of the martial law regime to silence protesters and human rights madvocates," Lagman, one of the principal authors of the bill, said.

Hundreds of Filipinos disappeared during the Martial Law period, with disappearances still occurring today.

See below for some of the important features of the bill:

• No war or any public emergency can justify the suspension of the enforcement of the anti-disappearance law
• Command responsibility makes a superior officer also culpable for violations of the law by subordinates
• Subordinates are authorised to defy unlawful orders of superiors for the commission of enforced disappearance
• A periodically updated registry of all detained persons is required in all detention centers
• Secret detention facilities are prohibited
• Human Rights organisations shall participate in the crafting of the necessary Implementing Rules and Regulations