The Summit on Refugees and Migration took place yesterday at the UN General Assembly in New York this week, with world leaders pledging to adopt a plan aimed at protecting the rights of refugees and migrants. 

193 member states agreed to the “New York Declaration” – a commitment to respond to the needs of refugees and migrants, as well as to find solutions for future humanitarian disasters.

As many as five million people in Somalia do not have enough to eat, warned the UN with hundreds of thousands of children acutely malnourished and requiring urgent assistance.

A report by the global body released this week states that up to t40 percent of the population have been affected by food insecurity amidst conflict between al-Shabab and the African Union backed Somalian government.

A panel of experts warned the UN Human Rights Council of the risk of genocide in Burundi this week, calling for the establishment of a commission of inquiry.

The experts, examining events in the country over the last 14 months, said “gross human rights violations have and are taking place, committed primarily by state agents and those linked to them". "Impunity is pervasive," they added, after Pierre Nkurunziza ran for president for third term.

The war crimes trial against the former Serb paramilitary leader, Dragan Vasiljkovic began on Tuesday in Croatia. 

Mr Vasiljkovic who was a commander during Croatia's war of independence, is accused of murder of civilians, extrajudicial killing of prisoners and torture. 

He was arrested in 2006 in Australia, however was only extradited to Croatia in 2012 and officially indicted in January. In July, he pleaded not guilty, stating "I defended Yugoslavia". 

Independent United Nations investigators said they have compiled a list of suspects who should be prosecuted for possible crimes against humanity in Burundi.

Speaking on Tuesday, Independent UN investigators said that it was impossible to know the full extent of the crimes, but they had evidence of rapes, murders, disappearances, mass arrests and torture.

The Untied Nations suspended its aid shipments into Syria following a deadly attack on a convoy transporting humanitarian supplies on Tuesday, reports Reuters.

The Syrian army and Russia, who is allied to the Syrian government of President Bashar al-Assad, both denied that either of their air forces or armed forces were responsible for the attack.

A memorial to the victims of the Armenian genocide was unveiled in Los Angeles on Saturday at Grand Park. 

The monument marks the genocide which took place between 1915 and 1918 when over 1.2 million Armenians were killed by the Ottoman empire. 

The monument, which comprises of two parts, is made from volcanic rock in Armenia's Ararat Valley. 

New York remains on high alert today as a series of "intentional" explosions and suscipious devices were found over the weekend. 

Five men have been detained for questioning in relation to the incidents.  

The blast in the Chelsea area of Manhattan, which injured 29 people, is believed to have been from a shrapnel-filled pressure cooker. 

On Sunday a pipe bomb exploded in New Jersey along the route of a charity run. 

An inquiry by the United Nations and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons has found the Syrian military was responsible for carrying out chemical attacks on civilians, Reuters reported.

"It was the 22nd Division, the 63rd Brigade and the 255 and 253 squadrons of the Syrian government," a Western diplomat reportedly told the news agency. 

Fighting appeared to have stopped temporary as the ceasefire in Syria held for one day, with only minor violations reported. 

No civilian deaths were reported for 15 hours of the ceasefire, the UK based group, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported. 

UN aid convoys however were kept on standby however, until a more definitive truce could be assured. 

The US Department of Justice and Department of the Interior ordered a temporary halt on construction of the controversial Dakota Access Pipeline on Friday afternoon, just hours after a federal judge had rejected attempts to end the project.

US federal judge, James E. Boasberg, had initially ruled against the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s request for an injunction against the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline.

In dozens of prisons across the United States, inmates are going on strike as they launched a protest calling for a reform of the American prison system. 

North Korea on Friday conducted its 5th and largest nuclear test yet, causing seismic waves measuring 5.0. 

The country said the test had been of a "nuclear warhead that has been standardised to be able to be mounted on strategic ballistic rockets". 

China's foreign minister on Friday reiterated that it was firmly opposed to North Korea' nuclear tests, Reuters reported.  

A Nepalese Colonel Kumar Lama was this week acquitted of charges of ordering the torture of a Nepalese civilian by the Central Criminal Court in London.