Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) and Migrant Offshore Aid Station (MOAS) are to jointly launch a search and rescue mission in the Mediterranean to help migrants who risk their lives to flee conflicts and reach Europe.

Using the ship MY Phoenix from May to October, the service will attempt to rescue some of the thousands who are predicted to attempt to cross the Mediterranean by boat. An estimated 3,400 people have died so far this year attempting to reach Europe.

Arjan Hehenkamp, MSF's general director, told the BBC the situation was "dire", especially since the Italian navy's search and rescue mission, Mare Nostrum, ended last November.

“Europe has turned its back on people fleeing some of the worst humanitarian crises of our time,” continued Mr Hehenkamp. “The decision to close doors and build fences means that men, women and children are forced to risk their lives and take a desperate journey across the sea. Ignoring this situation will not make it go away. Europe has both the resources and the responsibility to prevent more deaths on its doorstep and must act in order to do so.”

Bangladesh executed the leader of the Islamist opposition Muhammad Kamaruzzaman in Dhaka on Saturday, after finding him guilty on charges on war crimes and genocide.

Mr Kamaruzzaman, the 63 year old assistant secretary general of the Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami party, lost his final appeal against the sentence, which was handed down last year for crimes committed during the Bangladeshi 1971 war of independence, earlier this month.

The country is now bracing for a wave of protests by supporters of Mr Kamaruzzaman, the second man to be executed as part of the Bangladeshi government war crime trials.

However concern has been raised regarding the standard of the trials being conducted, with a UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights official saying, “given serious concerns about the fairness of trials conducted before the tribunal, the government of Bangladesh should not implement death penalty sentences.”

A former senior Bosnian Serb military officer has had his life sentence for genocide upheld at an international war crimes court last week.

Zdravko Tolimir, head of Bosnian Serb military intelligence, had most of his 26 grounds for appeal dismissed by Judge Theodor Meron, president of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.

Though Mr Tolimir had convictions relating to the forcible transfer of Muslims from Žepa, a town near Srebrenica and other smaller scale massacres dropped, others relating to his role in the killing of 8,000 Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica were upheld. The sentence remained unchanged.

“In light of these genocide convictions alone, the appeals chamber considers that Tolimir’s responsibility does not warrant a revision of his sentence,” said Mr Meron.

The Dutch parliament passed a resolution this week recognising the mass killings of Armenians, Greeks and Assyrians by the Ottoman Empire during World War One as genocide.

The resolution, tabled by Dutch Member of Parliament Joel Voordewind, was supported by a wide range of parties, stated Greek Reporter.

“This is an important signal from the Dutch Parliament to the Turkish government to acknowledge its past actions,” said Mr Voordewind. “I hope in the end this will bring both countries to a better understanding and reconciliation with each other.”

The leader of the Muslim Broherhood in Egypt has been sentenced to death, along with 13 others.

A court in Cairo said Mohammed Badie and the other members of the Muslim Brotherhood were guilty of planning attacks against the state and confirmed the death sentence.

The Reuters bureau chief for Baghdad left Iraq after he was threatened on Facebook and Shi’ite satellite television after reporting on lynching and looting in Tikrit.

Ned Parker received death threats and had his picture published on a Satellite television show calling for the expulsion of the Reuters journalist.

Local militia allied with Yemen’s government said they captured two Iranian officers advising Houthi rebels on Friday reports Reuters.

Sources on the ground told Reuters that an Iranian colonel and captain were captured in two separate districts that have seen heavy advances by Houthi militants.

A Spanish judge has ruled 7 Moroccan officials accused of orchestrating killings in Western Sahara from 1975-1991, should be arrested and extradited to Spain to face charges of genocide.

Judge Pablo Ruz ruled this week that some of the victims in Western Sahara had Spanish identity cards, since they had lived in the area when it was a Spanish colony. Some of the accused include members of the current government.

The Palestine Liberation Organisation has rejected requesting the Syrian military to launch military action against Islamic State in the Yarmouk refugee camp in Damascus.

A statement on Thursday said the PLO refused to be drawn into the “hellish conflict” in Syria.

"We refuse to be drawn into any armed campaign, whatever its nature or cover, and we call for resorting to other means to spare the blood of our people and prevent more destruction and displacement for our people of the camp," it said.

Palestinian militant group Aknaf Beit al-Maqdis has been coordinating with Syrian rebel forces in their fight against IS and the Syrian government.

The United Nations said it is extremely concerned about the safety of Palestinians and Syrians inside the camp.

"In the horror that is Syria, the Yarmouk refugee camp is the deepest circle of hell," UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said on Thursday.

"A refugee camp is beginning to resemble a death camp. The residents of Yarmouk - including 3,500 children - are being turned into human shields."

The United States Secretary of State John Kerry and Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez held closed door talks in what were the highest level talks between the two nations in over 50 years.

Closed door discussion were held after the arrival of the two statesmen in Panama, who are there to attend the 2 day Summit of the Americas, reports the BBC.

A Palestinian was killed and several others wounded by Israeli military after a Palestinian militants funeral turned violent after stones were thrown at Israeli soldiers, reports Reuters.

The University of Cape Town has removed a monument to British colonialist Cecil Rhodes, after students campaigned for its removal.

The statue, targeted alongside other monuments to leaders of the colonial-era, was unveiled in 1934.

Protesters said the statue had "great symbolic power" and glorified someone "who exploited black labour and stole land from indigenous people".

"I contend that we [the English] are the first race in the world, and that the more of the world we inhabit the better it is for the human race," Rhodes once said.

Some white South Africans opposed the decision to remove the monument and are rallying to protect statues of 19th Century president Paul Kruger in the capital Pretoria, and 17th Century colonialist Jan van Riebeeck in Cape Town.

Ayatollah Khamenei, the supreme leader of Iran, said today there is no guarantee there will be a final deal after negotiations on its nuclear programme with world powers.

Mr Khamenei said in a statement "it is possible that the untrustworthy side [the P5+1] wants to restrict our country in the details".

"I have never been optimistic about negotiating with America. While I was not optimistic, I agreed with this particular negotiation and supported the negotiators," the statement went on.

The supreme leader and President Hassan Rouhani said Iran would not sign a final deal unless sanctions were lifted "on the first day" of implementation.

The proposed agreement says Iran will cut its stockpile of enriched uranium and the number of centrifuges it runs, in return for a phased lifting of UN, US and EU sanctions once the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), confirms Iranian compliance.