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BBC news 2015-04-21

BBC News with Jerry Smit.

The European Union has outlined a ten-point plan to tackle the migration crisis in the Mediterranean in response to the latest tragedy at sea that has seen hundreds of people die. Search and rescue efforts will be strengthened, and there'll be a systematic campaign to destroy boats used by people smugglers. There will also be measures to staunch the flow of migrants and streamline the return of some who make it to Europe. Malta's Foreign Minister, George Vella, said stopping the smugglers was key to saving lives.“We are not going to stop migration, because migration is a phenomenon which will carry on and on and on. But we have to stop those people who are actually aiding and making this a flood and they are the human traffickers who are making mountains of money out of the visits of these people.”

In a statement released ahead of the 100th anniversary of the mass killing of Armenians in, what was then, the Ottoman Empire, the Turkish Prime Minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, has said a ceremony will be held in Istanbul in memory of the victims. But Mr. Davutoglu stopped short of calling the killings a genocide. Historians say more than a million Armenians died at the hands of Ottoman forces. Sanjay Dasgupta reports.“It is not the collective memory of victimhood that is in dispute. It is the vocabulary of pain. In his latest statement, the Turkish Prime Minister has explicitly referred to the suffering of the children and the grandchildren of Ottoman Armenians, who lost their lives in 1915. But he does not accept that it was a genocide, saying instead that it is morally problematic to reduce everything to a single word. So despite his conciliatory tone, he's unlikely to convince the descendants of the victims, because the Armenians, like many others around the world, have always considered the mass killings a genocide.”

A correspondent for the Washington Post newspaper in Iran, Jason Rezaian, has been charged with espionage. The newspaper and the U.S. State Department has described the charge as absurd. Mr. Rezaian's brother, Ali, told the BBC more about the charges faced by Jason.“They're saying that he's looking at internal and external policies. Whatever that means, not that he has any access to any confidential information. Because he didn't. They've never claimed that he had access to secret or confidential information, so that he is collaborating with hostile powers. You know, I think the main thing is to make sure that the Iranians have known that he was not working for the U.S. government. He was a journalist. So in the end, let the Iranians known that we have a concern over it if we do.”

The United States has sent an aircraft carrier to join other warships in the waters off Yemen in response to the conflict there. The U.S. Navy said the aim was to ensure the vital shipping lanes in the region remained open and safe. A Pentagon spokesman denied reports that the ships were on a mission to intercept possible Iranian arm shipments to Houthis rebels. The U.S. has backed Saudi Arabia in its air campaign against the Shiite rebels. World news from the BBC.

The United States has strongly criticised Greece over a newly-approved legislation, which would allow a seriously-disabled convicted terrorist to leave prison to serve out the remainder of his sentence at home on humanitarian grounds. The U.S. Ambassador to Greece, David Pearce, said letting Savvas Xiros out of jail when he had the blood of American diplomats on his hands will be viewed as a profoundly unfriendly act.

The death has been announced of the former Chief Rabbi of Rome, Elio Toaff, who played a pivotal role in reconciling Christians and Jews after centuries of mutual distrust. David Willey reports from Rome.“In 1986, Rabbi Toaff invited the late Pope John Paul to visit Rome's synagogue on a historic step towards reconciliation. In the synagogue, Pope John Paul used the phrase our beloved elder brothers to describe Rome's Jewish community. Many Italian Jews were deported and murdered by the Nazis during the German occupation of Italy during World War II. Rabbi Toaff was captured and sentenced to death and forced to dig his own grave. But he managed to escape. And he later became a nationally-loved figure.”

A fraudster in Britain has been given an extra jail sentence after he escaped by setting up a fake prison service website and emailing instructions for his release. Neil Moore was being held on charges of engineering a multi-million-dollar fraud when he set up the website and email account using a mobile phone that had been smuggled into jail. The judge described the escape as ingenious and one that potentially damaged the prison system.

The New York Times' coverage of the outbreak of Ebola in West Africa has won 2 of this year's Pulitzer prizes, the most prestigious awards in U.S. journalism. The paper won the International Reporting Award for what the judges described as courageous work on the frontline in telling vivid human stories about Ebola. BBC News.