News in English

8. April 2017, 21:58

Refugee boat capsizes near Crete

The Greek coastguard says more than 340 migrants have been rescued off the island of Crete after their boat sank. At least 700 people are believed to have been aboard the vessel. The International Organisation for Migration says this is the third shipwreck near Crete this week. The head of the IOM in Greece, Daniel Estras, says new refugee routes from north Africa are putting many more people in danger: “The problem with this kind of movement is that they are big ships and when you have a shipwreck it’s immediately a lot of people, a lot of victims. When we had the small boats coming to the Greek island the number was really a lot less.”

Syria allows limited aid supplies

The Syrian government of Bashar Assad says it has given the United Nations and the Red Cross approval to send humanitarian aid convoys into at least 11 of 19 besieged areas this month. The UN Security Council meets today to discuss airdrops to people cut off from aid, following Syria’s failure to allow deliveries earlier.

Hollande calls for Middle East peace effort

The French president, François Hollande, has said upheaval in the Middle East has made a settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict even more urgent. Speaking at the opening of an international conference in Paris, he said wars in the region and the spread of international terrorism had created new obligations to seek peace. Neither Israel nor the Palestinians are attending the meeting which hopes to establish a basis for a full peace conference later this year.

Paris on flood alert

Paris is on high alert with flood waters on the River Seine expected to peak within hours. A number of bridges have been closed. The death toll from flooding in Germany has now reached ten, with two people drowned in Romania.

Indian police and squatters clash

Officials in India say at least 24 people including two senior police officers have been killed in clashes with squatters in the town of Mathura in the north east of the country. The squatters had been occupying a park for two years.

Clinton denounces Trump as unstable

The Democratic front runner in the United States presidential election Hillary Clinton in a major address has attacked the presumed Republican nominee Donald Trump as dangerously incoherent, unstable and unfit to hold the office of president. Trump has declared Clinton should go to prison over her use of a private server for emails while she was secretary of state.

Missing boy found in Japan

In Japan, a seven-year-old boy who went missing in a forest for six days after his parents abandoned him as punishment, has been found alive. The boy, Yamato Tanooka was found in an army hut.

The weather

Changeable with rain and thunder showers. Some sunny spells and top temperatures 17 to 26 degrees.

Übersicht

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