Officials in Indonesia on Monday revised down the death toll from a strong earthquake in Java to nearly 5 800 as new aid supplies helped survivors move forward on the long road to recovery. The United Nations said distribution of food, medicines and water had greatly improved in devastated areas of central Java island.
The inquiry into the February 3 sinking of the ferry al-Salam 98, which went down with the loss of more than 1 000 lives, opened on Monday in the Red Sea port of Safaga, a legal source said. The hearing began in the absence of the main accused, Mamduh Ismail.
Sri Lanka believe the stage is set for legendary offspinner Muttiah Muralitharan to skittle out England at Trent Bridge and salvage a draw from the series. In what could be the 34-year-old’s final Test in England, Sri Lanka left the hosts needing to beat their previous Trent Bridge record successful fourth-innings victory chase of 284-6.
Somali Islamists on Monday declared victory over a United States-backed warlord alliance and prepared to take over Mogadishu after four months of bloody fighting. Having captured nearly all of Mogadishu on the weekend, the Islamists were formalising their seizure in a surrender and handover meeting with remnants of the alliance.
Equatorial Guinea President Teodoro Obiang Nguema on Monday pardoned a suspected mercenary who was among a group of South Africans convicted over an alleged coup plot in 2004, the ministry of foreign affairs said. Marius Boonzaaier, who is critically ill, will be allowed to return to South Africa later on Monday or on Tuesday after he was granted the pardon on humanitarian grounds.
Skeletons, many wearing clothes and blindfolded, jut out from the desert sands in south-western Iraq where forensics experts have unearthed at least two mass graves of victims from the brutal suppression of a 1991 Shi’ite uprising. The chief investigative judge in Saddam Hussein’s trial said they have documented evidence of more than 100 000 victims of the crackdown against Shi’ites.
Maria Sharapova chalked up her fourth-round exit at the French Open to one thing: a lack of matches. The 2004 Wimbledon champion hadn’t played in a tournament since April 1 because of an injured right ankle, and she wasted a 5-1 lead in the final set on Sunday against Dinara Safina before losing 7-5, 2-6, 7-5.
Roger Federer insists that Mario Ancic won’t catch him out again like he did when the Croatian sent him tumbling to an embarrassing Wimbledon defeat in 2002. The two meet in the French Open quarterfinals on Tuesday with the Swiss world number one still needled by that first round centre court defeat at the All England Club.
To prevent students from cheating during school exams, Taiwan on Monday banned the use of invisible-ink pens. ”We will bar students from using invisible-ink pens during exams because many students are cheating with these pens,” Lee Yu-Chuan, from the Education Ministry’s Department of Higher Education, told a news conference.
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It was D-day for England’s World Cup squad on Monday as they prepared to set off for Germany on a mission that they hope will end with skipper David Beckham raising high the trophy in Berlin on July 9. Sven-Goran Eriksson’s men will have one final training session on home soil before they fly to their base camp in the Black Forest resort of Baden-Baden.