News in English

8. April 2017, 21:58

EU hosts Afghan donor conference

The European Union is hosting a donors’ conference in Brussels on Afghanistan. More than 70 countries are expected to pledge another 3 billion dollars in aid for Afghanistan over the next five years. In exchange, the Afghan government will be asked to do more about corruption and encouraged to take back tens of thousands of failed asylum seekers. International security analyst Shashank Joshi says more money is not going to solve Afghanistan’s problems: “The Afghan government is in such a poor state of function. More money is not going to fix that. Ultimately you need a political solution that will fix Kabul’s problems, bring the government together and ultimately be able talk to the Taliban in a way that works.”

Kaine and Pence clash at V.P. debate

The U.S. Vice-Presidential debate has taken place in Farmville, Virginia. Hillary Clinton’s running mate, Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia, focused heavily on the New York Times revelations that Donald Trump might not have paid any federal tax in the past 18 years: “He stood on the stage last week and when Hillary said you haven’t been paying taxes, he said: “That makes me smart.” So it’s smart not to pay for our military? It’s smart not to pay for veterans? It’s smart not to pay for teachers? And I guess all of us who do pay for those things, I guess we’re stupid.” Trump’s running mate, the Indiana Governor Mike Pence, defended Kaine’s accusation that the Republicans were running a campaign based on insults: “If Donald Trump had said all the things you said he said, he still wouldn’t have a fraction of the insults that Hillary Clinton levelled when she said that half of our supporters were a ‘basket of deplorables.’”

Hurricane Matthew hits Haiti

Hurricane Matthew has the southern coast of Haiti and the neighbouring Dominican Republic. A number of deaths have been reported and the United Nations are describing the powerful storm as the largest humanitarian event in Haiti since the devastating earthquake there six years ago. Corrigan Clay is a local resident: “Crops are probably all destroyed and this is going to mean really devastating hunger at some point. But in the immediate aftermath, I think that was a bad storm but at least it wasn’t an earthquake.” Matthew has now moved off the north-eastern coast of Cuba towards Florida, where warnings are in place.

Three Europeans win Nobel Chemistry Prize

This year's Nobel Prize for Chemisty has just been announced in the Swedish capital Stockholm. This year's prize has been awarded to a trio of European scientists: the Frenchman Jean-Pierre Sauvage, Fraser Stoddart from Scotland and Bernard Feringa from the Netherlands. The three men were recognised for their designs of machines on a molecular scale. The machines conceived by the laureates are a thousand times thinner than a strand of hair and they could be used to deliver drugs within the human body.

Historian Brigitte Hamann dies

The German-born Austrian author and historian, Brigitte Hamann, has died. She was 76. She was probably best known for her 1999 book Hitler’s Vienna.

The weather

Increasing cloud with regions east of Salzburg seeing a few rain-showers and even snow in higher elevations. The south-west will see the most of any sunshine. Top temperatures are ranging from only 4C to 14C.

Übersicht

• News In English