Syria ceasefire: 'No civilian deaths on first day'

he cessation of hostilities in Syria that came into effect at sunset on Monday is holding well into its first day, reports suggest.
UK-based monitoring group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said it had recorded no civilian deaths in the first 15 hours of the truce.
Residents in the embattled northern city of Aleppo reported calm.
Separately, Israel denied on Monday that Syria had shot down one of its jets over the Syrian Golan Heights.
Syrian state TV reported the country's military had downed an Israeli warplane and drone after the aircraft attacked a Syrian army position in the Quneitra region.
The Israeli military said in a statement that it had attacked Syrian positions after a mortar bomb struck the Israeli-controlled area of the Golan Heights, but that two Syrian surface-to-air missiles missed its aircraft.

'Sporadic attacks'

The truce in Syria was reportedly broken by sporadic attacks carried out by both government forces and rebels after the ceasefire had come into effect.
The Syrian Observatory said they had seen reports of aerial bombardment of some villages in Hama province, and shelling near Damascus.

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The Syrian army has said the truce will be applied throughout Syria for seven days, but that it reserves the right to respond decisively to any violation by armed groups.
A number of rebel factions have given a guarded welcome to the deal but expressed reservations about its implementation.

North Korea's 'biggest' nuclear test sparks global outrage

World leaders have reacted with anger after North Korea carried out its fifth and reportedly biggest nuclear test.

The South accused the North's leader Kim Jong-un of "maniacal recklessness".
China "firmly opposed" the test, Japan "protested adamantly" and the US warned of "serious consequences".
Such tests are banned by the UN, but this is the second nuclear test this year, and Kim Jong-un's rhetoric has become increasingly aggressive.

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The isolated communist nation has been hit by five sets of UN sanctions since its first test in 2006. Talks involving world and regional powers have failed to rein in the North's nuclear programme.
In its statement announcing the underground test, North Korea expressed anger at the "racket of threat and sanctions... kicked up by the US-led hostile forces" to deny a "sovereign state's exercise of the right to self-defence".
The test came on the country's National Day, which celebrates the founding of the current regime and which is often used as a show of military strength.

Syria conflict: IS claims wave of bombings that kills dozens

At least 40 people have been killed in bombings in mainly government-held areas of Syria, state media report.

Four attacks took place within an hour of each other in Tartous, Homs and in a western suburb of Damascus, with one in Hassakeh, dominated by Kurdish forces.
The deadliest incident was outside Tartous, home to a Russian naval base and in the heartland of President Bashar al-Assad's Alawite sect.
The Islamic State (IS) group said it was behind the attacks.
The group made the claim in a statement carried by its affiliated news agency, Amaq.

'Crowd targeted'

The attacks took place between 08:00 and 09:00 (05:00-06:00 GMT) on Monday.
Syria's official Sana news agency reported that 30 civilians had been killed and 45 others injured in the Tartous countryside.

First, a car bomb was detonated on the Arzoneh motorway bridge, a local police source told Sana.
Then, as a crowd gathered at the scene to help the wounded, a suicide bomber detonated his explosive belt, the source added.
Tartous had been relatively unscathed by Syria's five-year civil war until May, when a suicide bomb attack on a bus station by IS militants left dozens dead.
In the central city of Homs, four people were killed and 10 injured when a car bomb exploded at the entrance to the Bab Tadmour district, Sana reported.

China ratifies Paris climate agreement

China's top legislature has ratified the Paris global climate agreement, state news agency Xinhua reports.

The country is the world's largest emitter of harmful CO2 emissions, which cause climate change.
China and the US are expected to jointly announce ratification at a bilateral summit later on Saturday.
In a landmark deal struck in December, countries agreed to cut emissions enough to keep the global average rise in temperatures below 2C.
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What does the climate deal mean for me?
Members of China's National People's Congress Standing Committee adopted "the proposal to review and ratify the Paris Agreement" on Saturday morning at the end of a week-long session.
The Paris deal is the world's first comprehensive climate agreement. It will only come into force legally after it is ratified by at least 55 countries, which between them produce 55% of global carbon emissions.

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Analysis: BBC environmental analyst Roger Harrabin

This is a big step towards turning the Paris climate agreement into reality.
Other nations will still tussle over their own ratification, but this will put pressure on G20 nations over the weekend to move faster with their pledge to phase out subsidies to fossil fuels.
But even if enough other players step forward to make the Paris deal law, huge challenges lie ahead.
Read more by Roger

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When the US - the world's second-largest emitter - follows China's lead, it will bump the tally up to 40%.
Before China made this announcement, the 23 nations that had ratified the agreement accounted for just over 1% of emissions.

Image copyright AFP

Image caption The Paris deal struck last December was seen as a major break

Twins conjoined at birth prepare to start school

Twins who were born conjoined and given just a 20% chance of survival are preparing to start school.

Rosie and Ruby Formosa were joined at the abdomen and shared part of their intestine before they had an emergency operation to separate them in 2012.
Their mother, Angela Formosa, said the four-year-olds, from Bexleyheath in south-east London, were "very excited" to be starting school.
"Four years ago it wasn't in my mind that this would ever happen," she said.
"When I was pregnant I didn't think I'd ever see their first day at school so it is really amazing and all thanks to Gosh [Great Ormond Street Hospital] really."

'Headstrong and determined'

Mrs Formosa said it was "heartbreaking" for her and their father Daniel Formosa when they discovered the girls had the rare medical condition, which occurs in one in every 200,000 live births.
The girls were born at University College Hospital in London by caesarean section in 2012 when Mrs Formosa was 34 weeks pregnant.


Within a couple of hours of being born, they were taken to London's Great Ormond Street Hospital for emergency surgery because of an intestinal blockage.
Mrs Formosa, 35, said it felt like "a million years" ago since she was waiting for the girls to come out of their surgery.
"The time has just flown by, I can't believe how fast it has gone," she said.
"They are very excited [about starting school]; their big sister is in school so they can't wait. They've met their teacher a few times and they love their teacher. They're looking forward to painting, anything messy, they love reading.
"They are very similar, they are very bubbly little girls, they are very headstrong and very determined, which I knew they were from when they were in my belly because of the way they kept growing and surviving."


Professor Paolo De Coppi, consultant paediatric surgeon at Gosh, said: "We're thrilled that Rosie and Ruby are starting school this September.
"It's always a joy to witness patients' progress and to hear that they are reaching new milestones - this makes the job we do all the more rewarding."

Italy earthquake: Museums to donate Sunday revenue to quake relief

Sunday's proceeds from public museums across Italy will be dedicated to rebuilding work after the earthquake that killed 291 people on Wednesday.

Many churches and other medieval buildings were destroyed when the 6.2 magnitude quake struck Amatrice and other parts of the central region.
Amatrice's mayor said he wanted to restore his town to its former glory.
The country's prime minister and president both attended a funeral for 35 victims on Saturday.
Lingering after the service at a sports hall in the town of Ascoli Piceno, Prime Minister Matteo Renzi talked to some of the mourners.
"We will decide all together how to get going again," he told one young person. "But don't give up, that is crucial."
Bishop Giovanni D'Ercole told the congregation that people had to be brave enough to rebuild their lives, and their towns.

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France burkini highest court suspends ban

France's highest administrative court has suspended a ban on full-body "burkini" swimsuits that was imposed in a town on the Mediterranean coast.

The ban in Villeneuve-Loubet "seriously and clearly illegally breached fundamental freedoms", it found, including freedom of belief.
The ruling could set a precedent for up to 30 other towns that imposed bans on their beaches, chiefly on the Riviera.
The court will make a final decision on the legality of the bans later.
Correspondents in France say the court's decision means that all the bans on burkinis are likely now to be overturned but one mayor in Corsica has already vowed to keep the ban in place on his town beach.
A human rights group, the Human Rights League (LDH), and an anti-Islamophobia association (CCIF), brought the ban in Villeneuve-Loubet to the court's attention.
Patrice Spinosi, a lawyer for the LDH, said outside court that people who had been fined could claim their money back.

'Public humiliation'

Amnesty International welcomed the court's decision. The human rights group's Europe director, John Dalhuisen, said it had "drawn a line in the sand".
He said: "French authorities must now drop the pretence that these measures do anything to protect the rights of women.
"These bans do nothing to increase public safety but do a lot to promote public humiliation."
The burkini bans have ignited fierce debate in France and worldwide.
Opinions polls suggested most French people backed the bans, which town mayors said were protecting public order and secularism.
Muslims said they were being targeted unfairly.
The "burkini bans" actually make no mention of the burkini.
The rules simply say beachwear must be respectful of good public manners and the principle of secularism.
The controversy intensified after pictures and video of police appearing to enforce the ban by making a woman take off an item of clothing prompted widespread anger.
The court said local authorities did not have the power to restrict individual liberties in this way without "proven risk" to public order.

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Italy earthquake: Death toll reaches 247 amid rescue efforts

Rescuers said they had pulled five bodies from the ruins of the Hotel Roma in Amatrice. As many as 70 tourists were staying at the hotel when the quake struck. Many are feared to be in the rubble, though several were pulled out and given medical care.
Many of those affected were Italians on holiday in the region. Some were in Amatrice for a festival to celebrate a famous local speciality - amatriciana bacon and tomato sauce.
Late on Wednesday there were cheers in the village of Pescara del Tronto when a young girl was pulled alive from the rubble after being trapped for 17 hours. Almost all the houses there had collapsed, the mayor said.
The quake struck small towns and villages in the mountainous area where the regions of Umbria, Lazio and Le Marche meet.


Among the victims was an 18-month-old toddler, Marisol Piermarini, whose mother Martina Turco survived the deadly 2009 earthquake in L'Aquila and moved away from there after the experience, Italian news agency Ansa reported.
Ms Turco was being treated in hospital after being pulled from the rubble in the village of Arquata del Tronto, Ansa said.

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Earthquake leaves at least 37 dead in central Italy

The main street through the town has been devastated and emergency workers are trying to reach six people in a collapsed building.
The BBC's James Reynolds, who is in Amatrice, said that sniffer dogs were being sent into buildings to search for more survivors and local authorities were trying to assess the number of people missing.

In Accumoli, a short distance to the north of Amatrice, six people were feared dead.
"There is a family of four under a collapsed house and sadly there are two small children among them," said Mayor Stefano Petrucci.
A local photographer spoke of 15 rescuers digging with their bare hands trying reach the family.
"They can hear the screams of the mum and one of the children," he said.
Rescuers were also trying to dig out a 58-year-old man who was trapped in his home and several more were missing. The town is popular with holidaymakers and most of the 2,500 people left displaced by the earthquake were said to be visitors.

Seismologist Andrea Tertulliani said there were sure to be further, numerous shocks that would probably diminish in intensity.
"But it can't be ruled out that there could be another shock on the same scale as the main one," he said.

Italy's Civil Protection agency described the earthquake as "severe".
"It was so strong. It seemed the bed was walking across the room by itself with us on it," Lina Mercantini of Ceselli, Umbria, told Reuters.
Rescue teams are being sent to the worst-hit areas, the prime minister's office said.