News in English

8. April 2017, 21:58

Erdogan holds talks with EU officials

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is holding talks with EU officials in Brussels to discuss the refugee crisis. Turkey is home to at least two million Syrian refugees. Erdogan is expected to press for more EU involvement to end the war in Syria. Meanwhile, Turkey says a Russian warplane violated its air space on Saturday and that it scrambled Turkish F-16 fighter jets in response. The Turkish foreign ministry has spoken to Moscow about the incident. Russia has been carrying out air strikes in Syria in support of President Bashar al-Assad's forces.

IS "blows up" Palmyra arch

Islamic State militants have reportedly blown up another monument, the Arch of Triumph, in the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra. The site has been described by UNESCO as one of the most important cultural centres of the ancient world. Antiquities expert Amr Al Azm: "it's a very iconic landmark in Palmyra. Anyone who's visited Palmyra would be familiar with it. It sits right at the entrance to the colonnade and now it appears that they've actually blown it up."

Investigation after strike on Kunduz hospital

The medical charity Doctors Without Borders is calling for an independent investigation into an air strike which hit its hospital in the Afghan city of Kunduz, killing at least 22 people including medical staff. It says it thinks the bombing was carried out by international coalition forces which had been providing support for Afghan troops in their battle with Taliban fighters. Doctors without Borders says it had given the location of the hospital to both Afghan and US forces to avoid being caught in the crossfire. Spokeswoman Vickie Hawkins: "we last updated on the coordinates - the GPS coordinates of this hospital - on 29th September. International and Afghan military forces knew exactly where we were."

130 killed in Guatemala landslide

Rescue teams in Guatemala are continuing to search for the missing in the wake of a landslide which has killed at least 130 people. A similar number are unaccounted for.

17 die in flash flooding in France

At least 17 people have been killed in flash flooding in France over the week-end. The government has declared a natural disaster in the south eastern tourist region of the French Riviera.

Centre-right coalition wins Portugal poll

Portugal's centre-right coalition has won yesterday's general election, which was widely seen as a referendum on austerity policies. However, the government of Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho appears to have lost its absolute majority in parliament.

Nobel Prize for medicine announced

William Campbell, Satoshi Omura and Youyou Tu are the winners of this year's Nobel Prize for medicine. They won the award for their work on parasitic diseases.

Author Mankell dies at 67

The Swedish author Henning Mankell, author of the Inspector Wallander novels, has died at the age of 67. He'd been suffering from cancer.

The weather

Quite sunny but with some cloud about. Highs are ranging between 14 and 22 degrees.

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