BBC News with David Austin.

Israeli officials have confirmed that they are prepared to extend the 72-hour ceasefire that was brokered by Egypt after a month of fighting in Gaza but there has been no official word from the militant Palestinian group Hamas. From Jerusalem here's Wyre Davies.

The reported extension of the three-day ceasefire was confirmed to the BBC by senior Israeli officials but other unconfirmed reports from the region said Hamas had not yet agreed to continue the calm into the weekend. Israel has been stunned by widespread international criticism of its month-long bombing campaign in Gaza in which more than 1,800 Palestinians were killed. According to UN agencies 1,300 were civilians and of those more than 400 were children. But this evening in his first public comments since the start of the ceasefire Benjamin Netanyahu blamed Hamas for every one of the civilian casualties. The Israeli Prime Minister accused the Palestinian militant group of deliberately firing rockets from within built-up civilian areas. Mr. Netanyahu repeated his assertion that Israel never deliberately targets civilians and said the attacks were often aborted to avoid collateral damage.

The Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree banning or restricting imports of food and agricultural products from the countries that have imposed sanctions on Russian because of its actions in Ukraine. Steve Rosenberg reports from Moscow.

According to the Kremlin decree Russia will restrict imports of food and agricultural products from those countries which have imposed sanctions on Moscow. President Putin has ordered his government to draw up a list to products. It's unclear how quickly this will be done. Imports will have to be limited or completely banned. The restrictions are due to last for one year. According to the decree they are in Russia's national interest.

The Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte has suspended the search in Ukraine for remains from the downed Malaysian airliner MH17 saying it was too dangerous because of continuing fighting between Ukrainian forces and pro-Russian rebels near the crash site. David Stern reports.

A statement by the head of the recovery mission in Ukraine said their work will resume as soon as conditions around the crash site became more stable. He said shooting could be heard regularly nearby. And on Wednesday small-caliber guns were fired close to the search team. Western and Ukrainian officials believe pro-Russian separatists shot down Flight MH17 last month possibly mistaking it for a Ukrainian military aircraft. The rebels deny responsibility.

The Nigerian Health Minister says Ebola is a national emergency for Africa's most populous country. Two people have died in Nigeria and a further five cases have been confirmed. The World Health Organization says it will explore the use of an experimental treatment for the disease.

World News from the BBC.

Reports from Iraq say that more than 40 people have been killed in car bomb attacks in the capital Baghdad. The explosions hit markets in Shiite areas. Sebastian Usher reports.

The attacks were timed to hit shopping areas in the evening as people were returning from work. This strategy has been used in the hundreds of car bombings that have struck Baghdad and elsewhere in Iraq in the past year and a half. The city is becoming the more tense in recent weeks since Sunni Jihadists threatened to attack it after seizing large areas in the north of the country. Despite these new fears there actually been a decrease in the car bombings.

Airdrops have been made to thousands of members of the Yazidi minority in northwestern Iraq who have taken refuge in the mountains from the threat of Sunni Jihadists. The airdrops reportedly by the Iraqi government have been of ammunition as well as food and water. But an aid worker in contact with the Yazidis says no one she's spoken to has yet seen a food airdrops. Access to the Yazidis is closed off for now as the Islamic State militants controlled the roads to the mountain. The Yazidis are neither Arabs nor Muslims; they worship a foreign angel which has let them being portrayed as devil-worshippers.

Scientists in Europe have expressed delightedly seeing the first images taken by an unmanned probe of a comet 550 million kilometers from earth. Boulders the size of houses and jets of dust have been captured in the photos, which they hope will help reveal more about the origins of comets, stars and planets.

The foundation which runs Wikipedia has refused a photographer's repeated requests to remove his most famous picture from the website because, it says, the copyright belongs to a monkey. The British photographer David Slater says he owes the self-portrait taken by a crested black macaque who snatched his camera in Indonesia in 2011; but the Wikipedia foundation argues that because the monkey pressed the shatter no royalties are due.

Those are the latest stories from BBC News.