WORLD: Leaders agree to Russia & Ukraine ceasefire

A deal to end the fighting Eastern Ukraine has been agreed at a summit in Belarus.

The leaders of Russia, Ukraine, Germany and France announced that a ceasefire would begin on 15 February.

The deal, announced after 17 hours of talks, also involves a withdrawal of heavy weapons from the front line. The leaders said Ukraine's pro-Russian rebels had signed it.

Thousands of people have been killed in the fighting in eastern Ukraine.

French President Francois Hollande said he and German Chancellor Angela Merkel would ask their European Union partners to support the agreement at a summit later in the day.

The deal includes:

• Ceasefire to begin on 15 Feb
• Heavy weapons to be pulled out
• All prisoners to be released
• Mr Poroshenko said Ukraine would establish control of international border by the end of the year

HEALTH : New Ebola cases rise again

GENEVA - The number of new cases of Ebola has risen in all of West Africa's worst-hit countries for the second week in a row, the World Health Organization (WHO) says.

This is the second weekly increase in confirmed cases in 2015, ending a series of encouraging declines.

The WHO said on Wednesday that Sierra Leone had registered 76 of the 144 new cases, Guinea 65 and Liberia three.

More than 9,000 people have died from Ebola since December 2013.

The WHO said that the increase highlights the "considerable challenges" that must still be overcome to end the outbreak.

"Despite improvements in case finding and management, burial practices, and community engagement, the decline in case incidence has stalled," the UN health agency said in a statement.

In another development, US President Barack Obama has said he will withdraw nearly all US troops helping to combat the disease in Liberia.

Only 100 of the 2,800 troops would remain in West Africa at the end of April, according to the Associated Press news agency,

Mr Obama said on Wednesday that the withdrawal marked a transition in the fight against the disease in Liberia but did not mean that the mission was over.

"Our focus now is getting to zero," he said.