Simon Furness

Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg announces a $ 50m (£30m) election year push for stricter gun laws across the US.
BBC News – US & Canada

A forensics expert contradicts police ballistics testimony by telling the trial of Oscar Pistorius that his girlfriend was shot in quick succession.
BBC News – Africa

UK’s inflation rate, as measured by the consumer prices index, fell to 1.6% in March, the Office for National Statistics says.
BBC News – Business

Iran complains to the United Nations over the decision by the US to refuse a visa for its newly appointed permanent representative.
BBC News – Middle East

Residents of the Chilean city of Valparaiso return to areas burned by a fast-moving forest fire which engulfed parts of the historic port.
BBC News – Latin America & Caribbean

Tension is high in eastern Ukraine as the authorities in Kiev announce the start of an “anti-terrorist operation” against pro-Russian separatists there.
BBC News – Europe

Church and civic bells have rung 96 times across Merseyside to mark the 25th anniversary of the Hillsborough disaster as memorial services take place in Liverpool and Sheffield.
BBC News – UK

Memorial ceremonies are due to be held in the US city of Boston to mark the anniversary of the deadly bombing at last year’s marathon.
BBC News – US & Canada

Scores of girls are abducted in an attack on a girls’ school in Borno state in north-eastern Nigeria, parents say.
BBC News – Africa

Wages are set to rise by more than inflation for the first time in almost six years as the UK economy enters a “long period of low inflation”, EY says.
BBC News – Business

Syria’s President Assad claims his government has gained the upper hand in the civil war which has raged for more than three years.
BBC News – Middle East

A large and moving forest fire kills at least 12 people in Chile’s port city of Valparaiso and forces more than 10,000 people to evacuate.
BBC News – Latin America & Caribbean

Russia urges Kiev to avoid force in eastern Ukraine, as the UN discusses the crisis hours before a Ukrainian deadline to pro-Russian militants.
BBC News – Europe

UK drug company GlaxoSmithKline is facing a criminal investigation in Poland for allegedly bribing doctors, BBC Panorama discovers.
BBC News – UK

At least three people are shot dead at a Jewish community campus and a retirement home in Kansas City in the US Midwest.
BBC News – US & Canada

A senator from north-east Nigeria tells the BBC that 135 civilians have been killed by gunmen there since Wednesday.
BBC News – Africa

The US urges other nations to contribute more to the economic rescue of Ukraine, as Russian President Vladimir Putin moves to assure the EU it will not cut gas supplies.
BBC News – Business

Iran insists it will not replace its new envoy to the UN after the US refuses a visa to the diplomat over alleged links to the 1979 hostage crisis.
BBC News – Middle East

A huge police operation to evict hundreds of families from abandoned buildings in Rio de Janeiro has ended with violent clashes and some injuries.
BBC News – Latin America & Caribbean

An exchange of fire breaks out in the eastern Ukraine town of Kramatorsk, says the country’s interior minister, amid continuing pro-Russia protests.
BBC News – Europe