Close to 50 civilians have been killed and many more wounded in missile attacks on at least five medical facilities and two schools in northern Syria, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said.

Experts doubt pariah state’s claim of first hydrogen bomb test

United Nations secretary general Ban Ki-moon has offered a grim assessment of prospects for defusing the latest wave of violence between Israel and the Palestinians.

Good afternoon. Here’s all the news you need to know this lunchtime.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has appealed for calm after weeks of deadly unrest during his visit to Jerusalem.

Pope Francis declared that there is a “right of the environment” and that mankind has no authority to abuse it, telling more than 100 world leaders and diplomats at the United Nations that urgent action is needed to halt the destruction of God’s creation.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon has proposed that a new international body should be set up to assign blame for chemical attacks in Syria’s deadly conflict.

Survivors of the US’s atomic bombing of Nagasaki, during World War 2, gathered to mark its 70th anniversary yesterday.

The 193 member states of the UN have reached agreement on a development agenda for the next 15 years that calls for eradicating poverty and hunger, achieving gender equality, improving living standards, and taking urgent action to combat climate change.

EU plans to destroy the boats of smugglers bringing desperate migrants across the Mediterranean and share the refugee burden more evenly came under fresh fire last night from within and outside the EU.

UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon has urged Europe to do more to save lives in the Mediterranean migrant crisis.

United Nations secretary-general Ban Ki-moon has said Ireland has sent a message to the world with its overwhelming support for gay marriage.

Ban Ki-moon is to be awarded an international peace prize for his role in tackling climate change, global conflicts and natural disasters, it has been announced.

US President Barack Obama urged countries to tackle violent Islamist militancy around the world and rejected as “an ugly lie” suggestions that the West was at war with Islam.

At least three people have been killed and dozens more injured in twin suicide bomb attacks in Nigeria.

President Barack Obama is offering help to French officials to pursue terrorists responsible for what he is calling a “horrific shooting” at a satirical weekly newspaper.

CELEBRITY SHEEP ENGLAND: A sheep is to turn on the Christmas lights of a Derbyshire town.

UN HEAD MEANS AUSTRIA, THANKS AUSTRALIA

More than 5,000 additional healthcare workers are needed to fight Ebola in the three most affected countries in West Africa, the president of the World Bank has said.

The UN is establishing an ebola crisis centre with a goal of stopping transmission in affected countries within six to nine months, the UN chief said, as the death toll from the outbreak surpassed 2,000 for the first time.

The United Nations is establishing an Ebola Crisis Centre with a goal of stopping transmission in affected countries within six to nine months, the UN chief said, as the death toll from the outbreak surpassed 2,000 for the first time.

Under cover of darkness, 40 Filipino peacekeepers escaped their besieged outpost in the Golan Heights after a seven-hour gunbattle with Syrian rebels, Philippine officials have said.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is demanding an end to the violence in Gaza “in the name of humanity”.

Thousands of Palestinians protesting against the fighting in Gaza clashed with Israeli soldiers as the violence spread to the West Bank.

The UN's Secretary General says he is "appalled" by an attack on a school in Gaza which has killed at least 16 people.

John Kerry flew into Israel’s main airport today despite a US ban in a sign of his determination to achieve a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip – despite little evidence of progress in negotiations.

The UN secretary-general said it is his “hope and belief” that his emergency mission to the Middle East will lead to an end to the fighting between Hamas and Israel.

Israeli air strikes pummelled a wide range of targets in the Gaza Strip today as the UN chief and the US Secretary of State began an intensive effort to end more than two weeks of fighting that has killed at least 570 Palestinians and 29 Israelis.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has said it is more urgent than ever to avoid another Israeli-Palestinian war that could spill into the Middle East and called on both sides to agree a ceasefire.

Syria has said any attempt to deliver humanitarian aid to rebel-controlled areas without government approval is tantamount to “an attack on the state” as well as its territorial integrity and political independence.

Al-Qaida-inspired militants have pushed deeper into Iraq’s Sunni heartland, conquering Saddam Hussein’s hometown of Tikrit as soldiers and security forces yielded ground once controlled by US forces.

Preparations in Rwanda for the commemorations for the 20th anniversary of the genocide were overshadowed by a major spat with France amid renewed allegations that Paris was complicit in the killings.

MINE’S a flat white. Plus a couple of squares of dark chocolate and a few cups of Earl Grey tea.

Russia's foreign minister has justified the use of Russian troops streaming into neighbouring Ukraine's Crimea region as a necessary protection for his country's citizens living there.

Ukraine’s United Nations ambassador has asked an emergency session of the world body’s Security Council “to do everything possible now” to stop Russian “aggression” as troops took over the strategic Crimea region.

US secretary of state John Kerry has called for all nations to do more to stop global warming.

Children in Syria have been tortured, maimed and sexually abused by President Bashar Assad’s forces and recruited for combat by the rebels fighting to topple him during the country’s near-three-year-old conflict, a United Nations report said.

Children in Syria have been tortured, maimed and sexually abused by president Bashar Assad’s forces and recruited for combat by the rebels fighting to topple him, a new United Nations report said.

Peace talks to carve a path out of Syria’s civil war got off to a rocky start yesterday as a bitter clash over Bashar Assad’s future threatened to collapse negotiations even before they had begun.

UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon withdrew an offer for Iran to attend Syria peace negotiations yesterday after Tehran declared it does not support the Jun 2012 political transition deal that is the basis for the talks.

The UN secretary-general has withdrawn his invitation to Iran to join this week’s Syria peace talks, saying he is “deeply disappointed” by Iran’s statements today.

UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon has deplored the use of chemical weapons in Syria and demanded that those responsible are held accountable.