News in English

8. April 2017, 21:58

Iran reduces nuclear enrichment capabilities

The International Atomic Energy Agency says Iran has carried out the first steps to comply with demands that it downgrade its nuclear capabilities in exchange for the reduction of economic sanctions. Under the terms of an interim agreement reached last year between Iran, the European Union, and six major powers, Tehran has started shutting down some of its uranium enrichment capabilities. The EU’s foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton says it is a significant event: “This is an important day in our pursuit of ensuring that Iran has an exclusively peaceful nuclear program.”

Iran invited to Syrian peace talks

The United Nations has invited Iran to attend an international conference aimed at ending the civil war in Syria. The main Syrian opposition alliance says it will boycott the talks if Iran is at the table because Tehran backs Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. France has said Iran should attend only if it accepts the creation of a transitional government to replace the Assad regime. The conference is due to open in Geneva on Friday following a foreign ministers meeting in Montreux on Wednesday.

Street violence in Kiev

In Ukraine, tensions are high in Kiev following overnight clashes between police and protesters in which dozens of people were injured and vehicles were set on fire. The EU and US are calling for calm, and later today the government and opposition will meet.

Putin: Militants will not disrupt Olympics

A militant Islamist group says it carried out suicide attacks last month in the Russian city of Volgograd in which 34 people were killed. In an online video, the group also promised to attack next month’s Winter Olympics in Sochi. President Vladimir Putin says the radicals will not disrupt the games: “Extremists are narrow-minded people. Even if they set themselves noble goals, by committing terrorist acts, they’re drifting further and further away from achieving those goals.”

14 die in Taliban bombing

A Taliban suicide attack today on Pakistan’s main military headquarters in Rawalpindi killed 14 people. 18 others were wounded. This comes one day after a similar bombing in northwestern Pakistan left 20 people dead and 30 others wounded. The Taliban says the violence was in revenge for the death of one of its commanders who was killed last year in a U.S. drone strike.

Claudio Abbado dies in Italy

One of the world’s leading classical music conductors, Claudio Abbado, has died at his home in Bologna, Italy, following a long battle with cancer. He was 80 years old. He conducted many of the world’s leading orchestras, including the Vienna Philharmonic and Vienna State Opera. Roger Wright is the director of the Proms Festival in Britain: “He said very little in rehearsal; it was all there in the performance. An extraordinarily elegant conductor and one who was really very, very supportive of musicians, a sort of musical colleague.”

The weather

This afternoon will remain cloudy with a few scattered rain showers and snowfall above 1100 meters. Highs today are ranging from 2 to 12 degrees.

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