Hello, I’m Nick Kelly with the BBC news.
Stock markets have surged in the Far East amid signs that a deal to prevent Greece defaulting on its debt may be close at hand. The Greek government has outlined further austerity measures to appease its creditors. The German Chancellor Angela Merkel speaking after an emergency summit in Brussels said this constituted progress but work was needed to steady the proposals. Chris Moris is in Brussels.
"Greece has to make a big debt repayment to the IMF in a week's time, on the same day that its current EU bailout expires. So time is short. And as he left the summit, the Greek Prime Minister Alexi Tsipras said the ball is now in the court of the European leaders. But after bruising five months negotiations, there's still plenty of skepticism about Greece around the Euro Zone. Earlier, finance ministers prompted by Germany's Wolfgang Schebler argued about whether capital control should be introduced as significant amounts of money continue to be withdrawn from Greek banks."
The BBC has learned the police in London have arrested Rwanda's intelligent chief who is wanted for alleged war crimes. General Karenzi Karake, who also held the post in the mid-90s, is accused of ordering the massacres after the Rwandan genocide. Here's Mark Ervin.
"The general was arrested on Saturday at Heathrow Airport. The Foreign Office has confirmed to the BBC that the police were acting on a European arrest warrant issued in Spain. An investigative judge is looking into a variety of alleged defences following the Rwandan genocide in the early 1990s. Charges against the general go back as far as 2008 when a Spanish judge first issued a warrant for his arrest."
Military officials in Washington say an air strike has killed a militant connected to an attack on a US diplomatic compound in Libya three years ago. Four Americans, including the US ambassadors, Christopher Stevens, were killed in the Benghazi attack. Babara Plett Usher reports from Washington.
"The Pentagon said the militant, Ali Ani al-Harzi, was a person of interest in the attack against US personnel in Benghazi, Libya three years ago. It called him 'an organizational intermediary who operate closely with the extremists linked to the so-called Islamic State throughout North Africa and Middle East'. And it said his death degrades the IS's ability to integraded African Jihadis into its Mid-East fight. The US's deeply concerned about the spread of the Islamic State affiliates, especially in Libya. But so far it has restricted its military campaign to the group's heartland in Syria and Iraq."
Kurdish forces in Northern Syria say they've advanced deep into Islamic State territory, capturing a military base in Raqqa Province. The compound, which IS seized last year, is just 50 kilometers north of the militants' de facto capital Raqqa city. The Kurdish forces were backed up by US air strikes and other Syrian rebel groups.
World news from the BBC.
All flights in NewZealand have been grounded while the aviation authorities repair a fault with a national radar system. No aircraft has been allowed to take off at any of the country's airports. The authorities say they have traced the fault and flights should resume shortly.
Official ceremonies and private pilgrimages are taking place on the Japanese island Okinawa to mark 70 years since the end of the Second World War's last great land battle. Winfield reports from Tokyo.
"It was the last battle of the Pacific War and so bloody that its claims to have led directly to the US decision to the drop the atom bomb on Hiroshima. Whether that is true, there was no denying the horror. Japanese soldiers were ordered to fight to the last bullet, Okinawan civilians to commit suicide rather than surrender. At the end of it all in June 23rd, 100,000 Japanese soldiers died, another hundred thousand civilians."
Today Okinawa hosts 45,000 US troops and what is in often uneasy relationship with local residents.
A combined operation in the Southwestern coco plantations of Ivory Coast has led to the liberation of 48 children and the arrest of 22 traffickers. The international police organization, INTERPOL, said the children aged from five to 16 came from Burkina Faso, Guinea, Mali as well as from Northern Ivory Coast. It said some of the children worked in the field as virtual slaves in extreme conditions without pay or schooling.
And Australia doctors say they have identified a neurological condition linked to wearing tight jeans after a woman was partially paralysed by hers. The unnamed fashion victim lost the feeling in her lower legs collapsed and was put on a drip for four days after she spent hours squating on haunches helping her relative move house. Her skinny jeans had to be cut off her swollen limbs.