BBC News with Jerry Smit.

The Israeli military has described the death of four Palestinian children by artillery fire while they were playing on the Gaza Strip as a tragic outcome. The four from the same family were killed in front of a hotel. From Tel Aviv, Quentin Sommerville.

Eyewitnesses say the beach was hit a number of times, even a survivor ran for cover. Israel says the intended target was Hamas militants. Separately its army has agreed to UN request to temporarily hold the attacks on Gaza on humanitarian grounds for five hours on Thursday. Many thousands of Palestinians were ** forced to flee their homes after Israel warned it will bomb the north of Gaza.

Despite the temporary Israeli ceasefire, the army has said that people should still not return to home.

Hamas says it will also abide by the five-hour cessation of hostilities that started 10 a.m. local time.

United States has imposed its most wide-ranging economic sanctions yet on Russia, targeting defence, financial and energy companies. The Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is in Brazil, says sanctions running counter to American interests and steering U.S.-Russian relations into a dead end. Here is Rajini Vaidyanathan.

President Obama described these latest sanctions as significant and says they are designed to gave the maximum impact on Russia. The list of targets includes the country's largest oil firm, Rosneft, a number of arms manufacturers and four Russian government officials.

The White House says it's taking the steps in response to Russia's continued attempts to destablize eastern Ukraine and its ongoing occupation of Crimea.

Officials in Afghanistan's Interior Ministry have told the BBC that the facility close to Kabul International Airport has come under attack, apparently by forces located on a nearby construction site. There are reports of gunfire and sporadic explosions and smoke rising from the area.

The officials say Afghan special forces have been deployed in the area and BBC staff have seen jets.

Seven Egyptian men have been sentenced to life in prison for sexual assaulting women during celebrations marking the inauguration of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. Two others received terms of 40 and 20 years respectively.

President Obama says the negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program could be extended beyond their deadline on Sunday. He told reporters that while Iran had met its commitments over the past six months, there were still gaps.

It's clear to me that we have made real progress in several areas and we have a credible way forward. But as we approach a deadline of July 20 under the interim bill, they are still some significant gaps between the international community and Iran, and we have more work to do. So over the next few days, we will continue consulting with Congress and our team will continue discussions with Iran and our partners, as we determine whether additional time is necessary to extend our negotiations.

World news from the BBC.

An American court has sentenced a British man to more than 12 years in prison after he admitted conspiracy and providing material support to the Taliban.

Babar Ahmad from south London set up Azan Publication, an English language jihadist website in the late 1990s. He spent 8 years fighting extradition from Britain to face the charges in America. Mr. Ahmad's lawyers say he could be released from prison early next year for good behaviour.

The President of Nigeria Goodluck Johnason has written a letter to Parliament, asking MPs to approve his borrowing an extra billion dollars to help security forces fight the Islamic extremist group Boko Haram.

The Nigerian government has already set aside six billion dollars for defence spending this year, a fifth of the country's entire budget.

The President of Honduras Juan Orlando has called on the United States to create an anti-drugs plan for central American countries as part of a strategy to deal with the grand problem of illegal child migration. More than 50,000 unaccompanied children have arrived on the U.S. border from Mexico over the past two years, escaping poverty and violence generated by drug trafficking cartels.

Speaking at a meeting of Central American leaders in Honduras, Mr. Orlando said the region doesn't have the resources to deal with the problem.

We all know that most of these children in the case of Honduras come exactly from the areas where there are greatest levels of violence, criminality and drug trafficking activities. We aware that poverty and the lack of development are prevelant in these areas.

The United Arab Emirates has announced plans to send an unmanned probe to Mars by 2021 and it set up a national space agency to oversee the mission. The UAE President described the project as the Islamic world entry into the area of space exploration. The UAE is keen to diversify its economy beyond oil.

BBC News.