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BBC news 2014-07-31

BBC News with Jerry Smit.

The UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has condemned Israel shelling of a UN school in Gaza where thousands of Palestinians were taking shelters as outrageous. Mr. Ban said nothing was more shameful than attacking sleeping children. Fifteen people were killed in the attack and many more wounded. From the UN, Nick Bryant reports.

Ban Ki-moon called the attack reprehensible, outrageous and unjustifiable, and demanded accountability and justice. More than 3,000 homeless people had took refuge at the school, and its precise location had been communicated to the Israeli military 17 times as recently as just a few hours before the attack. It's the second time in a week that a UN school housing refugees has been hit. The White House has also condemned the shelling and said it was extremely concerned that Palestinians who'd been called upon by the Israeli military to evacuate their homes were not safe in UN-designated shelters.

Gaza's Health Ministry says more than 100 Palestinians have been killed in a day of intense bombardment, 17 died in an Israeli strike near a market crowded with people after Israel declared a 4-hour humanitarian ceasefire. The Israeli military said the area was not included in the limited truce.

Liberia has announced emergency measures to combat the spread of the deadly Ebola virus. All schools have been closed, non-essential government workers have been placed on 30-day compulsory leaves, and some communities have been placed in quarantine. More from Thomas Fessy.

The government is trying to cut people's movement inside the country, hoping that infected people can be identified and treated. Security forces have been ordered to enforce these new measures. Meanwhile people have reportedly protested the construction of a new isolation unit forcing health workers to treat up to 20 patients at their homes. It is unclear how the government will manage to enforce its plan in a context of ongoing suspicion and fear.

The G7 Group of industrialized nations has threatened more sanction against Russia if it doesn't reverse what they termed as its adverse actions in Ukraine. Earlier Russia said the United States and the European Union would suffer consequences for imposing the latest sanctions, which it said was destructive and short-sighted. Here's Janet Barrie.

The statement from the G7 leaders comes a day after Washington and the European Union announced increased sanctions on Moscow. It had expressed its concern about Russian actions which it says have undermined Ukraine's sovereignty and independence. The G7 leaders are demanding too a full-transparent investigation into the fate of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, saying Moscow should use its influence with pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine to help international investigators and monitors work in safety. Janet Barrie.

World News from the BBC.

A female suicide bomber has killed at least three people on a university campus in the northern Nigeria city of Kano. It's the latest in a wave of bombings in Kano that has been blamed on the Islamist group Boko Haram.

Argentine officials and lawyers representing a group of hedge funds had resumed negotiations in a race against time to avoid a second Argentine default in 13 years. The hedge funds are demanding full repayment on 1.3 billion dollars worth of bonds they bought at discount after the country last defaulted in 2001. From Buenos Aires, Katy Watson reports.

Time is running out, but the fact that both sides are still locked in talks has been taken as a positive sign by both Argentineans and financial markets. Argentina has always made clear it would not pay what President Cristina Elisabet Fernández de Kirchner calls vouchers, funds she says that took advantage of Argentina's vows to make a big profit. The country said that if it was to repay these funds, then other bond-holders who agreed to cut during restructuring may also demand full repayment, something Argentina could not afford.

One of the most powerful men in Argentine Football, Julio Grondona, has died in Buenos Aires. He was eighty-two. Mr. Grondona was president of Argentina's Football Association for 35 years. He was well known for his bitter rows with Argentina's tempestuous football star Diego Maradona.

A deep-sea octopus has been observed keeping a record-breaking vigil of nearly 4.5 years over her eggs, the longest brooding time known for any animal. The devoted eight-legged mother was first seen by ecologists in 2007 deep down in the Monterey Canyon off California. A month later she laid her eggs there and began her long watch. The researchers say the uNPRecedented behavior was an adaptation to the cold water at that depth, giving her babies plenty of time to develop.

BBC News.