The UN Security Council on Tuesday adopted a resolution demanding the protection of hospitals and health workers in conflict zones.

“All too often, attacks on health facilities and medical workers are not just isolated or incidental battlefield fallout, but rather the intended objective of the combatants. This is shameful and inexcusable,” the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki Moon told the Council.

The UN chief urged all Member States, parties to conflict and other relevant actors to heed the Council’s demands by:

He urged all member states to ensure:

- Facilitating humanitarian access

West Papuan activists and other political leaders have called on the UN to support an internationally supervised referendum on independence for the region, which is currently a province of Indonesia.

Independence leader Benny Wenda was joined by UK opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn, Tongan Prime Minister ʻAkilisi Pōhiva, Vanuatu minister Ralph Regenvanu and governors from Papua New Guinea, alongside other British MPs and human rights activists at a meeting in London.

"It's about a political strategy that brings to worldwide recognition the plight of the people of West Papua, that forces it onto a political agenda, that forces it to the UN, and ultimately allows the people of West Papua to make a choice about the kind of government they want and the kind of society in which they want to live," Mr Corbyn said, hailing the "historic" meeting.

The Kosovan football association has joined the European football governing body, UEFA, despite strong objections by Serbia.

The membership was granted in a vote which passed 28-24. Kosovo can now apply to join FIFA, the world governing body of football.

Kosovo played their first international friendly in 2014 after being granted permission by FIFA. Several Kosovar players have chosen to play for different countries as Kosovo was not fully recognised, including Manchester United and former Borussia Dortmund player Adnan Januzaj, who decided to play for Belgium.

Approximately 30 air strikes hit rebel held areas in Aleppo despite Syria’s military declaring a temporary period of ‘calm’ on Saturday.

 The Syrian army announced a 24 hour period of calm in the capital of Damascus late on Friday, and a further 72 hour ‘regime of calm’ in rural areas.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that at least five people were killed in Aleppo in the early hours of Saturday, reports Reuters.

The Pentagon says the US air strike which hit a hospital run by Medecins sans Frontieres and killed 42 people was not a war crime.

General Joseph Votel said that the "tragic strike" was due to human and technical error and confirmed that disciplinary charges are being brought against US personnel.

US forces thought the hospital building had been seized by the Taliban however as the mistaken strike was "unintentional", no war crime had been committed.

"The investigation found that the incident resulted from a combination of human errors, process errors and equipment failures and that none of the personnel knew they were striking a hospital," he said.

The killing of rebels in Burundi has “ominous echoes” of the Rwandan genocide said the Economist in an editorial this week.

“In recent months repression has gathered steam” in Burundi said the editorial, noting President Pierre Nkurunziza’s “youth militia terrorises his opponents, many of whom are Tutsis” and that “hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people, mostly young men, have been “disappeared””.

“More targeted sanctions, which hurt the president’s cronies personally, are needed,” it said.

The United Nations on Thursday warned of what it called the "catastrophic deterioration" in the Syrian rebel held city of Aleppo after air strikes by the government destroyed another hospital, killing several doctors.

"I could not in any way express how high the stakes are for the next hours and days," the chair of the UN humanitarian task force, Jan Egeland said.

The UN envoy Staffan de Mistura meanwhile urged Washington and Moscow to help revitalise the ceasefire that was now "barely alive".

The hospital targetted in the air strike was supported by Medecins San Frontieres.