Two convoys evacuating civilians and rebel fighters have left the last rebel enclave in the Syrian city of Aleppo under a deal designed to end years of fighting. About a thousand people were in the first convoy, which included several hundred children as well as a number of wounded. It arrived without incident in opposition-held territory outside the city under the supervision of the Syrian Red Cross, Syrian Red Crescent and the International Red Cross. The Syrian President Bashar Assad has hailed what he called the “liberation of Aleppo” as a historic moment. He praised the courage of the Syrian army in its battle against the rebels.
Egyptian investigators say traces of explosives have been found on the remains of victims from a plane travelling from Paris to Cairo that crashed into the sea last May. The cause of the crash remains unclear. There’s been no official response from the French authorities, but a source has said there are doubts over the traces of explosives.
Diplomats say European Union leaders have agreed to extend economic sanctions on Russia for another six months. The measures had been imposed in response to Moscow’s annexation of Crimea and other actions in Ukraine.
The White House has said the FBI is investigating a cyber attack on the internet company Yahoo, which could have resulted in the theft of data from more than a billion accounts. It’s the second security breach revealed by the company this year.
The media giant 21st Century Fox, controlled by the Murdoch family, has reached an agreement to take over the pay TV broadcaster Sky in a deal worth nearly fifteen billion dollars.
A scientific team has flown instruments back and forth across the South Pole, penetrating layers of ice to complete a map of the bedrock. They discovered new valleys and mountains and confirmed the existence of a huge subterranean basin, stretching for more than a thousand kilometers.
