News in English

8. April 2017, 21:58

Many missing in migrant boat disaster

Search teams in the Mediterranean say they don't expect to find any more survivors from a boat carrying around 600 people which sank off Libya yesterday. The UN's refugee agency and the Italian coastguard say around 400 people were rescued. 25 bodies have been recovered so far. The packed fishing boat had sent out a distress call but reportedly overturned as people rushed to one side of it when a rescue vessel came into sight. Leonard Doyle is a spokesman for the International Organisation for Migration: "we have to remember that these are people who are not used to being at sea. They're in very small boats and they're terrified. So when they see what looks like protection coming or rescue, it's quite understandable that they would go to one side and it really speaks to the situation of the smugglers who really care little for human life and over-pack their vessels."

AI visits Traiskirchen

A team from Amnesty International has started its investigation of the conditions at the severely overcrowded asylum seeker reception centre at Traiskirchen in Lower Austria. It's expected to release its findings and recommendations later this month.

Malaysia confident over plane fragment

Officials in Malaysia say they're sure that a fragment from a plane found on an Indian Ocean island and now being examined in France is from the missing Malaysia Airlines aircraft which disappeared last March. However, investigators have stopped short of confirming the link. The search for the plane has been led by Australia. Prime Minister Tony Abbott: "the search must go on but what we have found in the western Indian Ocean does seem to indicate that the plane did come down more or less where we thought it did and it suggests that for the first time we might be a little bit closer to solving this baffling mystery."

17 killed in Afghanistan helicopter crash

Officials in Afghanistan say 17 soldiers have been killed in a military helicopter crash. It went down in a remote region of Zabul province. Investigations are underway.

Obama defends Iran deal

The US President Barack Obama has defended the international nuclear deal with Iran. In a speech at American University in Washington, he said abandoning the accord would open up the prospect of war. The July agreement reached in Vienna calls for Tehran to curb its nuclear programme in return for the lifting of economic sanctions

Japan marks Hiroshima anniversary

People in Japan have observed a minute's silence to mark the 70th anniversary of the nuclear attack on Hiroshima towards the end of the Second World War. In the city itself a bell tolled at 8.15 this morning to mark the moment when a US aircraft dropped an atomic bomb. 70,000 people were killed instantly, while a similar number died later from radiation poisoning.

The Weather

Mostly sunny and hot with isolated heat storms in the West. There'll be a moderate to lively wind. And highs are ranging between 28 and 37 degrees.

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