BBC News with Fiona MacDonald.
The British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond says an agreement on Iran's nuclear program is possible, but an atomic bomb has to be put out of Tehran's reach.
Foreign Ministers from six major powers and Iran arrived in Switzerland for talks ahead of Tuesday's deadline for a framework agreement. Mr. Hammond
expressed hope as he arrived in Lausanne, where negotiations are being held.
“We are here because we believe a deal can be done. But it has to be a deal which puts the bomb beyond Iran's reach. There can't be any compromise about
that. So if we're going to get this done here, Iran is going to take a deep breath and make some tough decisions”
Earlier, Iran's Lead Negotiator Abbas Araqchi said that a deal was possible, but the talks were at a difficult stage. He said there were still issues to be
resolved.
Exit polls in the French local elections suggest heavy losses for the governing Socialist Party, while the central-right UMP Party of the former President
Nicolas Sarkozy has made major gains. The Socialists are projected to lose control of about half the councils they previously held. The Prime Minister Manuel
Valls acknowledged the setback, and said the government would continue its efforts to improve the economy. The far-right National Front made only limited
progress, but Mr. Valls said the popularity of Marine Le Pen's party needed to be addressed.
“The very high, far too high results obtained by the far-right, remain more than ever a challenge for all those who believe in republican values. This is a
sign of a lasting upheaval of our political landscape, and we'll all need to draw lessons from it.”
Nigeria's Election Commission says it intends to announce the winner of the presidential vote by the end of today. The race is between the current President,
Goodluck Jonathan, and the former military ruler, Muhammadu Buhari. Polling in some places had to be extended into Sunday because of technical problems. Will
Ross reports from the capital, Abuja.
“Nigerians had to show extraordinary levels of patience when they were made to queue all day to choose their next president. Voting in some areas was then
postponed to a second day, and now there is another longer-than-expected wait. The Head of the Electoral Commission has said he will look into complaints
from the opposition that armed militias disrupted the election in parts of Rivers State. This has been the most expensive election ever held anywhere in
Africa. And so far, it has gone relatively smoothly, but the most dangerous period is still ahead when we finally get the official results and the reaction
of the two rival candidates.”
Campaigning has formally begun for Britain's general election, one of the most unpredictable contests for decades. Parliament was dissolved shortly after
midnight, ending five years of coalition government between David Cameron's Conservatives and the smaller Liberal Democrat Party.
World News from the BBC.
Saudi Arabian officials say a pause in military operations by the Saudi-led coalition carrying out airstrikes against Houthi rebels in Yemen has allowed the
evacuation of hundreds of Pakistani citizens. The Saudi said their operations on the Red Sea port of Hodeida were suspended for two hours on Sunday to enable
a safe passage of the evacuees. More than 500 Pakistanis were flown home to Karachi.
The authorities in Brazil say they've shot dead eleven people, seven alleged bank robbers and four suspected drug dealers. Officials said the suspect bank
robbers fired at police when they were approached on Sunday in Currais Novos, a town in northeastern Brazil. Police then fired back. In a separate incident,
the police killed four drug dealers, following a clash between rival gangs in a slum in Rio de Janeiro.
A new study in Britain says many parents fail to recognize when their children are overweight until they hit extreme levels of obesity. Researchers found
that parents were more likely to underestimate their child's weight if they were black or south Asian from a deprived background or if the child was a boy.
Dominic Hughes reports.
“One third of pupils in their final year of primary school in England are overweight or obese. But it seems many parents fail to recognize when weight
becomes a problem. In a study involving nearly 3,000 children, researchers found that 31% of parents underestimated where their child's body mass index, a
measure of height and weight set on government scales of obesity. And nearly 400 children, who according to their BMI, were very overweight, just four
parents recognized their children had a problem.”
A tsunami warning has been issued for parts of the Pacific Ocean following a large earthquake off the coast of Papua New Guinea. The 7.7 magnitude quake
struck just off the island of New Britain. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre said waves up to three meters high were possible within 1,000 kilometers of the
earthquake zone.