News in English

8. April 2017, 21:58

French anger over US spying claims

The French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius says he has summoned the American ambassador to protest at allegations in Le Monde newspaper that the US National Security Agency intercepted millions of phone calls, text messages and emails in France between December last year and January 2013. Le Monde says the data, based on leaks from the former US intelligence analyst Edward Snowden, suggests the NSA monitored businesses and officials, as well as terrorism suspects.

Fears Australia´s bushfires could merge

Australian officials are warning that three bushfires in New South Wales could merge to form one massive blaze. Over 200 homes have been destroyed since Thursday as scores of fires burn through thousands of hectares of land in the Blue Mountains outside Sydney. Steve Warrington, the Country Fire Authority´s Deputy Chief Officer, says one of the fires has a 300 km front: "Just the edge of the fire, on one edge, the head of the fire is 300 km. It´s not like a house fire or factory fire that´s stationary and doesn´t go anywhere. This is literally in the lap of the gods. It will go wherever it wants to go."

Luxembourg´s PM set to form new government

Luxembourg´s Prime Minister, Jean-Claude Juncker, is expected to be asked to form a new government, after his Christian Social People's Party won Sunday´s general election. The centre-right party, which suffered its worst result since 1999, will have 23 seats in the 60-seat parliament.

Greek court appearance for Roma couple

A Roma couple is due to appear in court today in Greece, suspected of abducting a blonde girl known as Maria. The four-year-old child was found during a raid on a Roma camp in central Greece last week. DNA tests showed that she is not related to the couple, who insist they were given her legitimately.

Date set for Syrian peace conference

The number of Syrian refugees in Turkey has exceeded 600,000 and more than 400,000 of them are living outside refugee camps - that´s according to the Turkish disaster management agency. Meanwhile, a date has now been set for a long-delayed Geneva peace conference, aimed at bringing together Syria's government and opposition. It´s scheduled to start on 23 November.

Another leak at Fukushima

Highly radioactive water has reportedly overflowed from storage tanks at Japan's Fukushima nuclear power plant, after its operator Tepco failed to respond quickly enough to heavy rainfall. But Tepco says it´s unlikely that contaminated water could have made it into the sea.

The weather

Mostly sunny but cloud in the southwest. Top temperatures today from 15 to 23.

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