Six In The Morning Monday February 2

2 February 2015 Last updated at 08:25

Ebola crisis: First large-scale vaccine trials to begin

The first large-scale trials of an experimental vaccine against Ebola are due to begin in Liberia. 

The potentially preventative medicine was taken under strict security to a secret location in the West African country.

Scientists aim to immunise 30,000 volunteers, including front-line health workers.

More than 8,500 people have died in the Ebola outbreak, the vast majority in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. 

The total number of reported cases is more than 21,000. In Liberia alone, more than 3,600 people have died from the disease.

Strauss-Kahn faces French pimping trial

Former International Monetary Fund chief accused of being part of prostitution ring

Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the former head of the International Monetary Fund tipped to become French president before a New York hotel maid accused him of sexual assault in 2011, goes on trial in France on Monday in a separate case of alleged pimping.

Mr Strauss-Kahn (65) who settled a US civil case with chambermaid Nafissatou Dialloafter criminal charges were dropped, faces as much as 10 years in jail and a fine of up to €1.5 million if convicted in the French trial.

Investigating magistrates who sent Mr Strauss-Kahn to trial with 13 others argue he knew he was dealing with prostitutes when taking part in sex parties in Paris, Lille and Washington from 2008 to 2011, a judicial source told Reuters.

South Sudan leaders reach partial deal

South Sudan's warring leaders have reached a new agreement aimed at ending the country's civil war. After watching ceasefire after ceasefire fail, regional leaders are warning of tougher sanctions this time around.

Following four days of tough negotiations, the east African bloc IGAD confirmed early Monday morning that progress had been made toward ending South Sudan's 13-month civil war.

IGAD's chief mediator, Seyoum Mesfin, said that the two leaders of the warring factions - South Sudanese President Salva Kiir (pictured right) and his former deputy-turned rebel leader Riek Machar (pictured left) - had signed a new ceasefire.

"Complete cessation of hostilities in South Sudan is expected as of [Monday morning]", Mesfin told reporters in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa.

Peter Greste case: how a temporary assignment became a 13-month ordeal

February 2, 2015 - 6:01AM

Ruth Pollard

Middle East Correspondent

No stranger to conflict zones, Peter Greste arrived in Cairo 13 months ago for what he thought was a simple assignment: filling in for a colleague over the Christmas break.

After 400 days in an Egyptian prison, he is finally a free man.

He'd left his home in Nairobi and his job as the Kenya-based correspondent for al-Jazeera English to cover the street protests and violent government crackdowns that had engulfed Egypt in the two years after the mass street protests that brought down former president Hosni Mubarak.

But soon after he arrived in Cairo he told his family he felt increasingly unsafe working on the volatile, unpredictable streets of the capital.

Kurdish fighters in Iraq struggle to hold gains against IS

 

By VIVIAN SALAMA1 hour ago

Only stray dogs and a dozen armed fighters walk the streets of Snuny, a ghost town at the base of Mount Sinjar where rapid military changes of fortune are written on the walls.

"Smoking is banned" has been scribbled in Arabic outside one cafe. A nearby building bears the warning: "Submit to the Islamic State, you infidels."

Those messages don't reflect the views of the new management. Today, flags representing various Kurdish political groups flap furiously in the wind over Snuny, claiming ownership of the town's barren streets.

After terrifying school massacre, Peshawar teachers pack guns

By Sophia Saifi, CNN

Updated 0430 GMT (1230 HKT) February 2, 2015

On the principal's desk at the Peshawar's Government High School for Boys sits a screen beaming surveillance video from around the campus. 

In one of the desk's drawers, within easy reach of Abdul Saeed's right hand, lies a fully loaded pistol.

A teacher for 15 years, Saeed argues that bringing a gun to school reassures his students, who are still terrified after a brazen attack on the Army Public School and Degree College in December, when Taliban militants stormed the building and massacred dozens of students during a six-hour siege.