News in English

8. April 2017, 21:58

Police identify Jakarta attackers

Police in Indonesia have identified four out of five of the attackers who carried out yesterday's bomb and gun attacks in Jakarta in which two civilians died. Two of them were previously convicted militants. All the attackers died in the assaults. The Islamic State group has said it was behind the violence. Jakarta's police chief Tito Karnavian says greater international cooperation is needed to deal with the threat: "what we need today is to strengthen our capability and also share information with others. Because this is not home-grown …it’s connected to global networks."

Medical help for Madaya

UN agencies say a mobile clinic and medical team is on its way to the besieged Syrian town of Madaya. The Syrian government has given permission for the clinic to enter the town where over 30 people are reported to have died of starvation in the last month. Aid has been delivered this week to thousands of people in Madaya.

New Ebola case in Sierra Leone

Officials in Sierra Leone have confirmed a death from Ebola - just hours after the World Health Organization announced an end to the outbreak in West Africa. The country had been declared free of the virus on November 7th. Yesterday, the WHO had warned that more flare-ups could happen.

Turkey denies deportation report

The Turkish government has strongly denied claims that it's breaking international law by deporting Syrian refugees back to Syria. According to media reports, a number of Syrians have been detained and forced to sign papers stating that they were returning voluntarily to Syria. They were then driven back to their homeland. Amnesty International says it believes hundreds may have been deported. Amnesty spokesman Andrew Gardner says the EU must take action: "this is absolutely illegal in the sense that you cannot forcibly return someone to a place where their life and their rights are in danger. The EU needs to wake up to the fact that on its own borders international law is being broken on a regular basis."

SPÖ announces presidential candidate

In Austrian news, the executive committee of the Social Democrat party has nominated the Social Affairs minister Rudolf Hundstorfer as a presidential candidate. The election takes place in April.

Kurt Bergmann dies at 81

Finally, the initiator of the ORF's campaign "Licht ins Dunkel” Kurt Bergmann has died. The former ÖVP politician and ORF manager was 81.

The weather

It’ll be changeable with cloud, a bit of sun and a few snow and sleet showers, mostly on the northern side of the Alps where there'll also be a strong wind. Most of the sun will be in eastern Tyrol and Carinthia. Highs ranging between minus 4 and plus 6 degrees.

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