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BBC News with Fiona MacDonald.
The White House says the U.S. First Lady Melania Trump has brokered a local ceasefire for a frontline town in a Russian-occupied part of Ukraine, where there are fears of a humanitarian catastrophe. The Kremlin says the evacuation process could take several days. Helena Humphrey reports from Washington. In a statement, First Lady Melania Trump said she had secured a ceasefire in the southern Ukrainian city of Oleshky, following discussions with Russia and Ukraine. She described it as "a frontline war city on the brink of disaster," with up to 2,000 people unable to leave. The aim, according to the White House, is to allow humanitarian aid into the city and prepare for the evacuation of civilians. Ukraine has been air-dropping food and medical supplies into the area in recent months amid concerns over a looming humanitarian catastrophe this winter. The Israeli prime minister has threatened a major offensive in the occupied West Bank after Palestinian gunmen killed two soldiers before being shot dead themselves. Benjamin Netanyahu said the military would force Palestinians out of the neighborhood in Hebron where the gunmen had lived. James Landale is in Jerusalem. The prime minister rushed to the area, promising to lock the city down and destroy the neighborhood where the gunmen lived. Mr. Netanyahu also promised to prepare a large-scale military operation across the West Bank. He said it would be similar to previous operations against refugee camps where residential areas were bulldozed and thousands of people were displaced. The prime minister was speaking during a brief pause in his campaign for re-election. His reputation as a so-called "security leader" is a key issue in next week's ballot. Seven people have been killed and 34 injured in Jordan in an attack on a church by three gunmen who are yet to be identified. They stormed the Greek Orthodox Church in a village in the Karak region, opening fire on a big gathering offering funeral prayers. Kenya has announced a second death from Ebola. In the meantime, a major vaccination trial is underway in eastern Congo. This report from David Bamford. Kenya now has nine confirmed cases of Ebola. In this latest fatal case, the victim was a close relative of the Kenyan man who died earlier this month after arriving from the Democratic Republic of Congo via Uganda. Meanwhile, Nigeria has said its first confirmed Ebola patient, a Ugandan-born Swiss woman, has an infection that appears genetically related to the case in Kenya. The epicenter remains Congo, where nearly 10,000 people have been infected, of whom nearly 5,000 have died. On Friday, the first participants were vaccinated in a large-scale trial, testing potential vaccines against this type of Ebola. World news from the BBC. President Macron of France has condemned what he called "a racist terrorist attack" after a man opened fire in the western suburbs of Paris, killing one person and injuring four. The suspect, who is now under arrest, had shot from his car using an automatic weapon in bursts. The man who died was of African origin. The U.S. government has filed a lawsuit seeking to block Alaska's result in the midterm elections if the Republican candidate endorsed by President Trump does not win his seat in the Senate. Mr. Trump says Dan Sullivan is having his bid for re-election curtailed by another Republican hopeful called Dan J. Sullivan. He's argued the presence of two Dan Sullivans will confuse Alaskans and could split the Republican vote. The artificial intelligence company Open AI says it's no longer going to allow its models to access the internet while they're being trained. More details from our North America technology correspondent Lily Jamali. Open AI's new approach comes after its AI agents hacked external websites and government databases while carrying out assigned tasks. They were shown to be able to switch off systems that are supposed to monitor them for safety. In July, the company admitted its agents breached the testing environment and hacked the AI platform Hugging Face. Open AI's latest models will be trained without access to the internet for now. The company says it will continue to work on better safeguards. Experts in the field of AI safety are calling for a slowdown in the technology's development. They warn that rogue AI agents pose an existential threat to humans. Vincent Kompany, the coach of the German football club Bayern Munich, has been taken to hospital after collapsing during training with the reserve team. The club said the 40-year-old Belgian was undergoing tests and would remain under medical care. It added that his coaching staff would oversee training and match activities until further notice. BBC News. |