News in English

8. April 2017, 21:58

Philippine Relief Efforts Continue

In the central Philippines, relief workers are trying to reach survivors from last week’s super typhoon. An estimated 10,000 people were killed by the storm, one of the most powerful on record. The devastation has been widespread and thousands of people are missing. Most of the death and destruction was caused by huge waves, similar to the Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004. Irish aid worker Orla Fagan says most of the victims are in the countryside: “You’re talking about a rural population. Y’know the worry of the whole thing, the loss of life. It’s terrible for everybody involved.”

UN Climate Meeting Opens in Poland

A United Nations climate conference opened today in Warsaw. The talks are aimed towards working out a new treaty to fight global warming. Some experts believe global warming contributes to massive storms, such as the typhoon which hit the Philippines.

IAEA and Iran sign cooperation agreement

The United Nations Atomic energy agency and Iran have signed an agreement on future cooperation to resolve remaining nuclear issues. It was signed in Tehran by the head of the IAEA Yukiya Amano. It comes after Iran and the so-called E3+3 of major powers failed to reach an agreement in Geneva aimed at easing economic sanctions on Tehran in exchange for concessions on Iran’s nuclear program. US Secretary of State John Kerry has said that negotiating a deal has been strenuous: “We are absolutely determined that this would be a good deal, or there would be no deal. Now, that’s why it is hard.”

Greenpeace activists moved

Thirty people arrested in Russia last month during an anti-oil drilling demonstration in the Arctic have been transferred from Murmansk to St. Petersburg. The group consists of two journalists and 28 Greenpeace activists. They face charges of hooliganism and could spend seven years in prison if convicted.

Political crisis in Slovenia

Slovenia’s parliament will hold a no-confidence vote today over a spending dispute which could force the Eurozone member to seek an EU bailout. Analysts expected Prime Minister Alenka Bratusek’s centre-left government to win the vote.

The weather

Conditions across Austria will remain mostly cloudy with rain and snowfall easing and some partly sunny conditions in Voralberg and Carinthia. Highs today are ranging from 1 to 10 degrees.

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