While You Were Sleeping: 5 stories you might have missed, April 28 edition

Nepal earthquake: People line up to cremate their dead as officials scramble to deliver aid

People waited in long lines to cremate the bodies of those killed in the devastating earthquake, CNN reported, as Nepalese officials scrambled to get aid from the main airport to people left homeless and hungry.

Thousands more tired of waiting and fled the capital Kathmandu for the surrounding plains.

By Monday afternoon, the death toll from Saturday's 7.9 magnitude earthquake had climbed to more than 4,100, and reports trickling in from remote areas suggested it would rise significantly.

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Nepal earthquake: Google, Facebook join Red Cross to find thousands of missing

German development worker Caroline Siebald and her boyfriend Charles Gertler, an American glaciologist, were on a rafting trip in Nepal when the earthquake struck and initially panicked about how to let their families know they were safe.

After about 30 attempts, Gertler, 25, managed to get a phone call through to his mother in Massachusetts in the United States, and she registered them as safe on Facebook's "Safety Check".

Within minutes, their friends and families saw the news.

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UN report: Israel responsible for Gaza shelter attacks

A United Nations inquiry on Monday blamed the Israeli military for seven attacks on UN schools in Gaza that were used as shelters during the 2014 war.

"I deplore the fact that at least 44 Palestinians were killed as a result of Israeli actions and at least 227 injured at United Nations premises being used as emergency shelters," Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in a letter to the Security Council.

"It is a matter of the utmost gravity that those who looked to them for protection and who sought and were granted shelter there had their hopes and trust denied," he added as he presented a summary of the report.

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China wine growers beat France into second place

China overtook France last year as the world's second largest wine grower by area under cultivation as it continued to plant vast fields of mostly imported grape vines to meet growing demand.

The world's second largest economy, which since 2013 consumes more red wine than any other country, has more than doubled the land devoted to vines since the start of the century to 799,000 hectares, the International Vine and Wine organisation OIV said on Monday.

It now accounts for 10.6 per cent of the world's wine area against 10.5 per cent for France and 13.5 per cent for world No.1 grower, Spain.

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Actress Salma Hayek launches her animated version of The Prophet in ancestral Lebanon

Hollywood star Salma Hayek, in her ancestral homeland Lebanon for the first time, launched the global premiere of her animated adaptation of Kahlil Gibran's celebrated novel The Prophet on Monday.

The Mexican actress and director described the movie version of the Lebanese author's spiritually-uplifting book as a "love letter to my heritage". She said the adaptation, which features an all-star cast, was a "personal film" because her Lebanese grandfather loved The Prophet.

"Through this book, I got to know my grandfather. Through this book, I had my grandfather teaching me about life," said the star, who has been in Lebanon since Friday.

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