News in English

8. April 2017, 21:58

Middle East talks underway

After 4 weeks of conflict, a 3-day cease-fire between Israel and Hamas is holding for a second day. Negotiators for both sides are in the Egyptian capital Cairo for indirect talks which are aimed at securing a longer-term truce. The US Secretary of State John Kerry says they should use the opportunity to move towards broader negotiations: "finally now that cease-fire is hopefully in place in a way that can allow parties to come to the table and be able to not only deal with the question of how do you do a sustainable cease-fire, but the more critical underlying longer-term issues of how are we going to make peace."

Rising concern over eastern Ukraine

The United Nations says civilians in eastern Ukraine are facing increasing hardships such as limited access to water supplies because of the ongoing conflict between government forces and pro-Russia separatists. John Ging, who's the director of UN humanitarian operations, told the UN Security Council that the humanitarian situation was worsening and that more efforts must be made to end the conflict.

WHO holds Ebola meeting

The World Health Organisation is holding an emergency meeting to discuss how to tackle the outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus in West Africa. Around 900 people in Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Nigeria have been killed by the disease since February.

China earthquake death toll rises

The authorities in China say the death toll from last Sunday's earthquake has risen to nearly 600. The quake struck a mountainous area, destroying thousands of houses and triggering landslides.

Russian group accused of hacking

Internet security experts say a Russian group has stolen over a billion internet user names and passwords in a series of hacking attacks. The US company Hold Security says the stolen information came from over 400,000 websites including those of large companies.

Rosetta catches up with comet

After a space journey that has lasted a decade, Europe's Rosetta spacecraft has started orbiting a comet, something that's never been attempted before. Scientists say Rosetta will do this for a year before trying to send a probe to land on its icy surface. Dr Geraint Jones says they're trying to find out whether comets brought water and carbon to earth: "one of the really big questions that Rosetta's addressing is: did comets kick-start life on earth? Did they bring to earth the key ingredients for this primordial soup that later led to the development of life?"

The Weather

There’ll be occasional sunshine with showers easing off in the East. But some isolated thundery showers in the West. There’ll be a lively wind at times and highs - depending on where the sun's out - ranging between 18 and 28 degrees.

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