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.

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 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.

A US embassy worker, who was also the editor of Bangladesh's only LGBTI magazine was hacked to death on Monday in Dhaka.

A statement from the U.S. Embassy said Xulhaz Mannan was a "dear friend."

"We abhor this senseless act of violence and urge the Government of Bangladesh in the strongest terms to apprehend the criminals behind these murders," Marcia Stephens Bloom Bernicat, the U.S. ambassador to Bangladesh, said in the statement.

The US placed travel restrictions on North Korea's foreign minister while he was in New York for the meetings at the UN, according to the Department of State.

Ri Su-Yong was only able to travel between his hotel, the UN, the North Korean mission and the airport, according to spokesperson John Kirby.

The move came after North Korea launched missile tests over the weekend.

The US president Barack Obama on Monday announced there would be upto 250 more special forces deployed in Syria.

The increase is intended to help militia fighters gain territory from Islamic State.

"A small number of special operation forces are already on the ground in Syria and their expertise have been critical as local forces have driven ISIL out of key areas,"  Mr Obama said whilst speaking in Germany.

"Given their success I have approved the deployment of upto 250 additional US personnel in Syria, including special forces to keep up this momentum."