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BBC news 2016-03-28

Hello, this is David Austin with the BBC news.

Belgian police have arrested six people in Brussels as a major investigation continues into Tuesday's suicide attacks. The US Secretary of State John Kerry is due to travel to Brussels today to discuss security and express his condolences amid reports that the two brothers involved in the bombings were on a US terrorism watch list before the attacks. From Brussels, here is Anna Holligan. “The arrest in the Skarbeck district followed house to house searches. Residents said they heard explosions during the raids, but the cause was unclear. The FBI has refused to confirm whether Ibrahim El Bakraoui who carried out the attack at Zaventema airport and his brother Khalid responsible for the metro bombing were known to US authorities saying disclosure would impair the government's ability to investigate and counteract terrorism. John Kerry's visit comes at a time of consternation with many questioning Europe's competence on counter-terrorism.”

French police have spent the nights searching a block of flats in Paris following the arrest of a man accused of planning a terror attack in France. The interior minister said a plot that was at an advanced stage had been foiled by the arrest of the suspect in the suburb of Argenteuil. Hugh Schofield is in Paris. “Police sealed off the block of Argenteuil late in the evening and they have been searching it overnight. This morning, media reports say they found a small quantity of explosives. The man whose arrest led them to the place has not been named. This morning, it's been reported the man is known to the authorities having been convicted in his absence in another European country for helping recruit volunteers for so called Islamic state in Syria.”

The trial is due to begin in Turkey today of two senior journalists from one of the country's oldest newspapers Cumhuriyet. Can Dundar the paper’s editor-in-chief and its Ankara bureau chief Erdem Gul are accused of spying after publishing reports claiming that the Turkish government try to smuggle weapons to rebels in Syria. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan personally filed a criminal complaint against them. The two men denied the charges.

Trading has begun for the first time at the Yangon Stock Exchange in Myanmar.Shares from just one company a conglomerate called FMI are available though only to Burmese investors. Jenna Fischer has this report. “The first share traded for 31,000 kyat. That's about 25 US dollars. Just one stock, but forthat you get a tiny stake in a sprawling conglomerate that includes an airline,property, a bank, even hot air balloons. Whether the Yangon stock exchange becomes a sleepy vanity project or a vibrant source of capital remains to be seen. Very few Burmese companies meet the standards of transparency and expertise required to list. Most of the largest businesses here are run by well-connected individuals, many of whom are still subject to sanctions.”  Jenna Fischer. World news from the BBC.

The Afghan army says Taliban militants have shot dead a senior army officer in the city of Kandahar. Brigadier general Khan Agha was walking with his son after visiting a mosque when they were attacked by gunmen. Both were wounded and General Agha died later from his injuries. The two assailants were shot dead by his bodyguards. The Taliban have said they carried out the attack.

Police in Malaysia say they've arrested 15 suspected members of the militant group Islamic state. They say the suspects were trying to obtain chemicals to make bombs and were planning to launch attacks.

The American Secretary of State John Kerry says Russia and the US have set a target date in August for the warring parties in Syria to draw up a new draft constitution. After talks with President Putin in Moscow, Mr. Kerry said they had agreed to press the Syrian government and rebels to speed up talks on the political transition. However, he did not say whether Mr. Putin had admitted the President Assad should step down as part of that transition. “Russia will have to speak for itself as to what it's going to choose to do in order to help Mr. Assad make the right decisions. But we agree today on what we announced that we would accelerate the effort and try to move the political process forward.” From Kerry.

Microsoft has pulled from the internet artificial intelligence software that was designed to respond to social media comments by chatting like a teenage girl. The program's chat bot character Tay was grounded when she began to make racist, sexist and other offensive remarks. The software was designed to learn from conversations with real people.

The Rolling Stones have arrived in Cuba for a landmark free concert that expected to attract half a million people later on Friday. The concert which comes three days after a historic visit to Cuba by President Obama is being seen as another sign of real change on the island. And those are the latest stories from BBC news.