The Taliban have launched an assault on the northern Afghan city of Kunduz last night, as fighters broke a defensive perimeter

Afghan government officials claimed to have repelled the attack but admitted that Taliban militants had entered several homes, as they attacked from four different sides of the city at midnight.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid announced on his official Twitter account that the group had capture several military checkpoints in a “massive operation”.

In an unexpected result to Sunday's referendum on a peace deal agreed by the Colombian government and Farc, Colombians have rejected the agreement, with 50.24% voting against it. 

The peace agreement, which was signed by the president Juan Manuel Santos and the Farc leader, known as Timochenko last week, would allow an effective amnesty for war crimes and permit 10 unelected seats in congress for Farc at the next election. 

Responding to the result, Mr Santos, who had previously said there was no plan B, said, "I won't give up."

Members of Canada’s indigenous population who suffered during the infamous ‘Sixties Scoop’ in Canada have demanded compensation from the federal government, as a growing number of lawsuits are filed.

The largest hospital in opposition-held Aleppo has been forced to shut after it was stuck by cluster and barrel bombs yesterday, as fighting in the Syrian city continues.

“Two barrel bombs hit the M10 hospital and there were reports of a cluster bomb as well,” Adham Sahloul of the Syrian American Medical Society (Sams).

At least 400 civilians, including children have been killed in this week’s fighting according to the United Nations, as a ceasefire between warring sides broke down rapidly.

Colombians on Sunday vote on whether to accept or reject the peace agreement signed last month between the government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). 

Opinion polls carried out in preceding days indicate that the peace deal will be accepted by the people. 

The deal was struck after 50 years of armed conflict and signed by the FARC leader, Rodrigo Londono (alias Timochenko) last Monday. 

It guarantees FARC 10 seats in the congress without election until 2026 as well as allowing FARC members to run for the 2018 presidential and legislative elections. 

The United Nations Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide slammed the president of the Philippines for calling for a campaign to kill millions of drug addicts in a manner similar to the Holocaust in Nazi Germany, where over 6 million Jews were systematically killed by the government.

Special Adviser Adama Dieng said recently elected Rodrigo Duterte’s comments were “deeply disrespectful of the right to life of all human beings,” in a statement issued on Friday.

The UN Human Rights Council on Friday voted in favour of establishing a UN commission of inquiry into alleged human rights violations that took place in Burundi over the past year and a half. 

Burundi, which is facing calls to be removed from the Council, voted against the inquiry unsurprisingly. Nineteen members voted in favour, with 7 against and 21 abstentions. 

Welcoming the inquiry the United States assistance secretary for democracy and human rights, Tom Malinowski tweeted: 

Amnesty International on Thursday published evidence of Sudanese government forces appearing to use chemical weapons on civilians in Darfur. 

An investigation using satellite images and interviews with over 200 survivors has revealed that at least 30 chemical attacks are likely to have occurred since January 2016. 

“This suspected use of chemical weapons represents not only a new low in the catalogue of crimes under international law by the Sudanese military against civilians in Darfur, but also a new level of hubris by the government towards the international community,” Amnesty's director of crisis research, Tirana Hassan said. 

At least two Pakistani soldiers are reported to have been killed in air strikes carried out by the Indian military in Pakistani-controlled Kashmir shortly after midnight.

The Indian military said it had conducted “surgical strikes” against “terrorists… waiting to infiltrate the nation”. India’s director-general of military operations Lt Gen Ranbir Singh said the attack had caused “significant casualties … to terrorists and those trying to shield them”.

He went on to state that India had captured militants during last night’s operation and they had “confessed to their training in Pakistan or in Pakistan-controlled region”.

The International Criminal Court has sentenced a militant from Mali over the destruction of shrines in Timbuktu, in a landmark case that has seen the destruction of cultural sites successfully prosecuted as a war crime by the court.

Ahmad Al Faqi Al Mahdi was found guilty of organising the smashing of the shrines in 2012 after militants captured areas of northern Mali. As the head of the Ansar Dine morality brigade, Mr Al Mahdi called for and directly participated in the destruction of the ancient structures said judge Raul Cano Pangalangan.