Why does the global fund stop supporting any new programmes?

The global fund to fight Aids, tuberculosis and malaria has decided not to fund any new programmes as a result of cuts in its resources from donor nations. The fund says it will continue to support only essential services in existing programmes after a shortfall of hundreds of millions of dollars. A spokesman for the fund told the BBC the cuts put the progress in combating disease at risk and threatened the lives of people in the developing world.

A footbridge across a river has collapsed in northeastern India, throwing scores of people into the water below. At least 30 are feared dead, many of them women and children. Twenty-eight others were rescued after the bridge gave way in the state of Arunachal Pradesh. One report said villagers had crowded onto the bridge to catch a type of insect eaten locally.