NAGORNO-KARABAKH: According to Armenian news reports, a ceasefire agreement with Azerbaijan was reached today to end the two days of fighting in the separatist region.

The agreement, brokered by Russia, was announced by the ethnic Armenian authorities in Nagorno-Karabakh and reportedly led to a sharp decrease in hostilities.

RUSSIA: President Vladimir Putin has accepted an invitation from his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping to visit Beijing in October during the Belt and Road summit.

Speaking after a meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Moscow, Mr Putin said that the two countries were “integrating our ideas of creating a large Eurasian space,” noting that China’s Belt and Road Initiative is part of that.

COLOMBIA: The government and a dissident offshoot of left-wing rebel group the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc) agreed today to resume peace talks and implement a 10-month ceasefire.

The Farc-EMC group had previously refused to lay down its arms after the main group, formed in the 1960s as the armed wing of the Communist Party, signed a peace deal in 2016.

The ceasefire is due to begin on October 8.

AFGHANISTAN: The United Nations said today that it had documented more than 1,600 cases of human rights violations committed by Afghan authorities during arrests and detentions.

Urging the Taliban government to protect the rights of detainees, the report by the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan said that nearly 50 per cent of the violations consisted of “torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment.”