laura westbrook, bbc news. >>> sarah rainsford is in our moscow studio.'s a lot of relief, it seems, from the eu side of the fence. i guess for economic reasons, there is from where you are, too. >> yes. the energy minister has said that russia is quite pleased with this deal. of course, making the point this has ononly ever been about money for russia. that's the line coming from russia and has been the line all along, that ukraine owed russia huge amounts of money for its gas, that it needed to pay that and it needed in the future to pay in advance for gas that it was going to receive from russia in order for those supplies to be switched back on. so what russia is now saying is that as soon as the first trench of that debt arrives in the accounts of gazprom, then the gas will start flowing again within a couple of days. they're saying 48 hours. so the immediate crisis averted, but russia showing the great power it has, the great control it has over gas supplies. not just ukraine, but many countries if europe as well. >> is the kremlin making any link b

laura westbrook, bbc news. >> a little earlier, i asked a man from the trekkers association of nepalany people have been rescued so far. >> just now, we've got nine of them rescued, to the airport. we have information that a group is waiting in three different places. 24 people waiting, 16 in italy. and we hope to bring them to the airport. if they are in critical conditions, we have asked th them -- first find out the whereabouts of the people there. >> so that's an update on the rescue operation there for you. >>> seven police officers in hong kong who were seen on film beating a democracy protester have been suspended. the incident has caused widespread outrage. there were more scuffles overnight, but officers using pepper spray. earlier, hong kong's leader c.y. leung said they are ready to start conversations with protesters. >> yes, we are ready. we're prepared to start a dialogue and maintain a dialogue. and this is why over the last few days, and including this morning, through third parties, we expressed the wish to the students that we'll start the dialogue to discuss univer

laura westbrooking bbc news. >> our moscow correspondent sarah rainsford spoke to me earlier. she said the latest energy deal is, of course, still surrounded by the ongoing political tensions between russia and ukraine. >> the way russia is presenting it. this was only ever about economics. it's making the case since the beginning of this latest gas crisis between russia and ukraine, and therefore implicating europe. it always said this is about ukraine paying a market price for its gas and paying that money reliably, pointing out that ukraine has failed to pay for the gas and that's why it was cut off back in the summer. now what we've heard is the energy minister after those extremely long very complex talks in brussels, the energy minister saying we're not overjoyed by this, but we're quite pleased because this is what we expected, this is what we wanted. we wanted ukraine to pay. but of course, behind all of this, there is this disaster relationship between moscow and kiev and the suspicion that russia is using gas in its control of supply of gas to ukraine, and that's wha

the bbc's laura westbrook reports. >> reporter: morning and hope of finding survivors here is fading. it's feared it's now too late for those trapped under the med. the landslide struck a district that is one of the poorest areas in sri lanka, known for its tea plantations and the landslide engulfed nearly an entire village. they live in small shacks like these, which simply crumpled under the weight of the mud. children were in school. that saved their lives. but many are now suddenly organs. the sri lankan president was quickly to reassure the public. he tweeted, on instructions of the president, military and army's heavy machinery have been deployed to speed up search and rescue operations. those heavy machines are trying to clear as much as ten meters of mud. but operations had to be suspended overnight due to more rain. sri lanka's disaster management center said they had issued warnings, but many people here simply had nowhere else to go. with more rain expected in the next few days, authorities say more mudslides could be on the way. laura westbrook, bbc news. >>> a british aid

laura westbrook, bbc news. >> we can now speak to ben airs.orking with remote himalayan communities. thanks very much indeed for joining us. i just wonder first of all, what hope do you think there is for the 70-odd trekkers who we still haven't found? >> well, thanks for having me on. i still think there's quite a bit of hope. the nepali government is putting all its resources available into the rescue efforts. there's something like seven commercial helicopters and two government helicopters involved in the rescue efforts. and already 117 trekkers have been brought down to safety. the weather has just turned bad up there, from what i understand. but i think there's hope that over the course of the next few days, those who did survive the avalanche will be brought home safely. >> right. and let's hope that is the case, obviously. i do wonder how this happened in a sense. because we all have forecasts. we can read forecasts. we can follow them. was there a level of irresponsibility in them being able to take this on? >> it's a difficult questi

laura westbrook, bbc news. >> the organization fighting ebola on the ground in west africa. recent pledges of help and deployments to the region have not had any impact on the epidemic. nsf says it's ridiculous their volunteers were still bearing the brunt of the care. international development correspondent mark doyle, who is in acra, ghana, gave me more reaction to ban ki-moon's appeal for more funds to fight the virus. >> i'm afraid that this is typical of the way that the international community responds to these kind of crises. the world of finance and international aid is a very cynical world, and what usually happens is that as kofi annan indicated, until there's some western angle to the story, or someone in america is affected by the famine or someone catches ebola in spain, that's when the world really wakes up, and then you have pledging conferences, and what usually happens at these pledging conferences is there are big speeches and everyone says i'll give this, i'll give that, and then you realize after a few days that actually they've been double counting money

laura westbrook, bbc news. >> that's one take on that train.ls will take a very different view. more, of course, on our website. we are going to leave you with these pictures. absolutely extraordinary. the idea of gate crashing a pool party, you might not think of this. but have a look, because a group of american base jumpers in kuala lumpur decided they were going to arrive at a nearby pool party in style. they launched themselves off the 330-meter-haiku cue tower, landing, as you can see, with a splash in a nearby skyscraper rooftop in true james bond style, met with cheers from fellow swimmers. amazing pictures. we're back soon. kind of service plan can you get? well right now if you select the 15 gig plan we'll double your data and make it 30 gigs for the same price. well that- great! you'll take it. in head * are you inside my mind right now? nope where was... albuquerque who was the porcupine what is my fave- hollandaise sauce no way... the new iphone is here and now you get 30 gigs of data to share starting at $160 dollars a month. and

laura westbrook, bbc news. >>> in other news today, the underwater search for the missing malaysia airlinesmh370 has started again in the southern indian ocean, seven months after it disappeared. a ship equipped with specialized sonar technology has arrived in a remote stretch of ocean where the plane is thought to have ended its flight. 239 people were onboard the plane from kuala lumpur. >>> typhoon phanfone brought heavy rain to japan before moving on to the capital tokyo. at least one person has died and three others are missing. thousands of households have lost power and japan's two largest airlines have suspended many flights. >>> the world's longest reigning monarch has had surgery to remove his gallbladder. doctors say the 86-year-old's procedure went well. thais hold the king in great affection. he has stepped in repeatedly over the years to unify the country. >>> it's been two decades since the end of white minority rule in south africa. but the end of apartheid and the emergence of a rainbow nation hasn't gone down well with everyone. some africanas feel they've been given a raw