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BBC news 2016-04-18

This is the BBC news. Hello, I'm Jonathan Izard.

Members of the lower house of Congress in Brazil are voting on whether to approve impeachment proceedings against President Dilma Rousseff. With nearly half of votes cast, her opponents are leading by a wide margin. The opposition must win 2/3 of the votes in the lower house in order to trigger a formal trial in the Brazilian senate. Our America's editor Leonardo Rocha is following the debate. “Brazilians have stopped to watch the vote on television and on big screens outside the congress building any cities across the country. It's been a tense session with accusations of corruption and dishonesty from side to side. President Dilma Rousseff has been formally accused of tampering with the account to hide a growing deficit, but most politicians in congress seemed to be judging her by the performance of her government. Her popularity has dropped sharply amid a series of economic crisis and a corruption scandal.”

Rescue workers and troops are continuing to search for survivors of Ecuador's most powerful earthquake for decades. The Vice President Jorge Glas says 246 people are now known to have died in Saturday's tremor and more than 2500 were injured.Katy Watson reports. “The death toll is at least expected to rise as rescue efforts get under way. 10,000 troops and 5,000 police officers have been deployed to affected areas. The quake happened early on Saturday evening. It wasn't until daybreak on Sunday though that the devastation became clear.Collapsed bridges, flattened apartment blocks and people trapped inside.”

The major gathering of oil exporting nations has failed to secure an agreement on freezing production levels to drive up prices. The talks appeared to have run into difficulties over Iran's role in the market. Iran did not attend the negotiations. The energy minister of Qatar Mohammed Bin Saleh Al Sada said Iran's participation was paramount. “From now till June, meeting in Opec, all participating countries will consult among themselves and with others. And the pressure we will subject to is less as fundamentals are improving now, and oil is heading the right direction.”

A referendum in Italian offshore oil and gas drilling has failed because less than 50% of eligible voters took part. The vote was on whether to repeal a law allowing drilling to take place close to the coast. Environmentalists wanted the law to be scrapped arguing that it posed risks to coastal habitats and human health. But the government said repealing the law would lead to job losses. The government had urged voters not to take part.

The first Air France flight has landed in Tehran after a gap of 7.5 years following last July's agreement to curb Iran's nuclear program. The airline has suspended flights to Tehran in 2008 October as the UN and EU imposed sanctions.The French transport minister and a delegation of business leaders were on board the plane. World news from the BBC.

Amnesty International says more than 46,000 refugees and migrants, most of them women and children are trapped in appalling conditions in Greece following the closure of Macedonian border six weeks ago. In a new report, the human rights group highlights what it calls an avoidable refugee crisis that's been exacerbated by the failure of EU countries to act decisively.

The French President Francois Hollande who is visiting Egypt has said respecting human right is not a hindrance in the fight against terrorism, but an aid in combating it. He was speaking after talks with his Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah el-Sisi who's been criticized for human rights abuses.“Human rights are not a constraint. They are a way to fight against terrorism as long as security is guaranteed and determined action is asserted. Human rights are, at the same time, freedom of press, freedom of expression and it's also the fact of having a judiciary system which answers every question.” Mr. Sisi told a joint news conference that any groups attempting to undermine the state's power were terrorist organizations. He dismissed allegations of abuses under his own presidency as a plot by what he called an evil force.

The Syrian government has condemned remarks by the Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu about the strategically important Golan Heights territory. He said that whatever diplomatic efforts were made to end the war in Syria, the Heights would always remain in Israeli hands. Mr. Netanyahu made his comments while holding the first ever Israeli cabinet meeting in the disputed territory.Israel captured the Heights from Syria in 1967. It later annexed them. This’s not been recognized internationally.

The UN secretary-general Ban Ki-Moon says two more Gambian opposition supporters have died in detention following a peaceful protest on Thursday. The opposition had already accused the government of killing the politician Solo Sandeng. Mr. Ban said he had learnt Mr. Sandeng and two unnamed fellow opposition party members had died. BBC world service news.