Israeli strikes killed 41 people across Lebanon on Monday, including 10 civilians hit on a southern bridge, on the sixth day of a bombardment that has wreaked the heaviest destruction in Lebanon for over 20 years. Rescuers also pulled nine bodies from the wreckage of a building in the southern city of Tyre that was bombed on Sunday.
The British government moved on Monday to ban for the first time two Islamist militant groups based in Britain under new laws prohibiting the glorification of terrorism, officials said. Home Secretary John Reid named the outlawed groups as al-Ghurabaa and the Saved Sect, Home Office officials said.
Space shuttle Discovery made a smooth landing in Florida on Monday, completing a 13-day mission considered critical for the United States space programme’s recovery from the 2003 Columbia disaster. The orbiter landed on schedule under overcast skies at the Kennedy Space Centre at 1.14pm GMT.
Torrential rains have killed at least 170 people across south China since the weekend, flooding cities, sweeping away houses and cutting off utilities as well as rail and road links, state media reported on Monday. The rains were triggered by tropical storm Bilis, which killed dozens in the Philippines and Taiwan before hitting China on Friday.
Marine salvors were attempting to remove the remaining 20 tons of heavy fuel oil from the stranded Safmarine Agulhas after a crack on the portside of the vessel started leaking diesel oil on Monday afternoon. Environmental affairs representative Nazeera Hargey said officials were unsure about the quantity of oil leaking from the crack but were dealing with the matter.
Several dozen submissions on Johannesburg International airport’s name change to OR Tambo International airport have been received, the ministry of arts and culture said on Monday. A ministry spokesperson said the submissions have been a "mixed bag", with some for and some against the name change.
Southern Sudanese leader Salva Kiir expressed optimism on Monday that peace talks his government is mediating between Uganda and the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebels will succeed despite a rocky start. At the same time, he warned that failure will likely lead to fighting between the LRA and his forces in autonomous south Sudan.
A total of 218 people were arrested over the weekend for crimes such as attempted rape, illegal possession of firearms, house breaking and possession of stolen goods, North Rand police said on Monday. Superintendent Sophie Mayisela said the suspects were arrested during Operation Iron Fist in several parts of Johannesburg.
British prosecutors said on Monday that they had ”insufficient evidence” to charge police officers with any crime for shooting to death a Brazilian man they mistook for a suicide bomber last year. However, the Crown Prosecution Service said London’s Metropolitan Police will be prosecuted as a whole under health and safety laws for the killing of Jean Charles de Menezes.
A rocket fired from Lebanon smashed into a three-storey residential building in the northern Israeli city of Haifa on Monday, wounding at least two people, but it appeared no one was trapped under debris, medics said. The rocket tore the front off the building, crushing cars underneath.