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William Hague and Angelina Jolie visit Kigali Memorial to honour victims of Rwanda’s 1994 genocide

26 Mar 13 – UK Foreign Secretary William Hague and UNHCR Special Envoy Angelina Jolie this morning visited the Kigali Genocide Memorial in Rwanda’s capital to honour the memory of all those murdered in Rwanda’s 1994 genocide.

The Memorial was established in 2004 by the UK-based Aegis Trust for genocide prevention, working in partnership with survivors and the Rwandan authorities. Today it plays a key role in peace-building education, bringing together children of survivors and perpetrators to help strengthen community stability and resilience against the potential for violence in the future. The British Government is looking to support that work, which was profiled in the Guardian last week. Aegis also provides essential support to survivors of the genocide in greatest need; orphans, widows and gang-rape victims among them.

In just a 100 days, from April to July 1994, a million Rwandans were murdered simply because they were identified as ethnically Tutsi. UN peacekeepers were in Rwanda at the start of the genocide, but instead of being reinforced and mandated to stop the killing, much of the force was withdrawn. It has come to be regarded as one of the international community’s worst failures in modern times to protect people at risk of mass atrocities.

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Boris Berezovsky died by hanging, police say

A post-mortem examination has found Russian tycoon Boris Berezovsky’s death was “consistent with hanging”, police have said.

Mr Berezovsky, 67, was found dead by an employee on Saturday on a bathroom floor at his home in Berkshire.

The examination found nothing to indicate a violent struggle. More tests are to be carried out on the body.

Thames Valley Police said investigations at the property would continue for several days.

They had earlier said there was no evidence so far that a “third party” was involved.

Mr Berezovsky’s body was removed from the property in Mill Lane, Ascot overnight on Sunday.

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Bristow Group to take over UK search and rescue from RAF

A private company will take over the UK’s helicopter search and rescue operations, the Department for Transport has announced.

The Bristow Group has won a 10-year contract to run the service from 2015.

The £1.6bn deal ends 70 years of search and rescue from the RAF and Royal Navy.

Bristow will replace ageing RAF and Royal Navy Sea King helicopters with modern Sikorsky S-92s and AgustaWestland 189s.

Under the new contract, 22 helicopters will operate from 10 locations around the UK.

Ten S-92s will be based, two per site, at Stornoway and Sumburgh, and at new bases at Newquay, Caernarfon and Humberside airports.

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Yahoo spends millions on UK teen Nick D’Aloisio’s Summly app

An app created by a UK teenager has been acquired by web giant Yahoo in a deal the BBC understands to be worth “dozens of millions” of pounds.

Seventeen-year-old Nick D’Aloisio’s Summly app summarises news stories from popular media companies.

Neither company would disclose the terms of the deal publicly.

The app itself will now close, but its features will be used in mobile products at Yahoo, where Mr D’Aloisio has been given a job.

He will be joined by several of Summly’s “top staff” in new roles at Yahoo in the next few weeks.

The app launched when Mr D’Aloisio was aged just 15, and soon attracted more than £1m of investment. He is now likely to be one of the world’s youngest self-made multi-millionaires.

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DR Congo Bosco Ntaganda appears before ICC

Congolese war crimes suspect Bosco Ntaganda has appeared before the International Criminal Court at The Hague for the first time, following his surprise surrender last week.

Gen Ntaganda, a key figure in the conflict in eastern DR Congo, denies war crimes and crimes against humanity.

He said he pleaded not guilty, before the judge interrupted him and said he should not enter a plea at this stage.

He faces 10 counts, including rape, murder and using child soldiers.

Gen Ntaganda handed himself in at the US embassy in the Rwandan capital, Kigali, on 17 March and was flown to the Netherlands, where the war crimes court is based.

He has fought for a number of rebel groups as well as the Congolese army.

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