News in English

8. April 2017, 21:58

Alarm over unrest in east Ukraine

Ukraine says it has seized back control of a government building in the eastern city of Kharkov from pro-Russia separatists and arrested 70 demonstrators, in what it called anti-terror operations. Authorities in Kiev said they hoped government buildings would be freed in Lugansk and Donetsk as well. The United States State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki has said secretary of state John Kerry has spoken to his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov to express concerns Russia is orchestrating the unrest in eastern Ukraine: “He conveyed to foreign minister Lavrov that the United States is watching events with great concern, and noted the Ukrainian government’s assertion that this appeared to be a carefully orchestrated campaign with Russian support.” Lavrov has rejected accusations of Russian involvement and has accused Ukraine of taking actions which could lead to civil war.

EU data law is “invalid”

The European Court of Justice has declared invalid an EU law requiring telecommunications firms to store citizens' communications data for up to two years. The Court said the data retention directive violates the basic rights of respect for privacy and protection of personal data. The ruling followed objections to the court from Austria and Ireland.

Mölzer withdraws from EU election

The lead candidate for Austria’s Freedom party in European Union elections in May, Andreas Mölzer, has said he is withdrawing his candidacy and will not appear on the party list, because he had lost the trust of party members. Recent comments by Mölzer have been widely condemned as racist. He had also drawn comparisons between the EU and the Third Reich.

Iran “hopeful” at Vienna talks

Iran says it hopes enough progress will be made at talks with six world powers on its nuclear programme in Vienna this week, to begin drafting a final agreement in May. Iran and negotiators from the United States, France, Germany, Britain, China and Russia have said they want a final accord completed by late July, to end concerns Iran is seeking to build nuclear weapons, in exchange for a lifting of sanctions.

Signals lost from possible plane blackbox

Australian officials say a ship which picked up possible signals from the black box recorders of the missing Malaysia Airlines plane has been unable to detect any further transmissions. They said an underwater drone to find the black boxes and any wreckage would not be deployed unless more signals were received.

China tries anti-corruption activists

Two anti-corruption activists from the New Citizens' Movement in China have gone on trial on charges of disturbing public order. Other members of the group have also been prosecuted, despite a crackdown on corruption announced by President Xi Jinping.

The weather

Rain moving in from the west with scattered thunderstorms. Some hours of sun continuing in the east and south east. Top temperatures 7 to 24 degrees.

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