A second United States robot rover crashed through the atmosphere of Mars early on Sunday at 19 200kph and bounced to a standstill in a region called the Meridiani Planum. The arrival makes Mars a relatively crowded place. There are already three satellites in orbit around the Red Planet and the Opportunity was the third landing on Mars since Christmas Day.

The Algerian authorities have erased the first evidence to appear of the graves of the hundreds, if not thousands, of people believed to have been kidnapped and killed by army-backed anti-Islamist militias in the 1990s, according to human rights campaigners.

With the words ”United States Navy” emblazoned on its side, a plane touched down in Tripoli on Sunday carrying six US congressmen on a goodwill mission: the first such visit since Colonel Moammar Gadaffi came to power in 1969. ”We are extremely excited about the direction your leader has taken in recent months,” said on the visitors.

Indonesia on Sunday admitted that millions of birds in dozens of districts across the sprawling archipelago have been dying of the avian flu virus and other illnesses for the past five months. Officials in the world’s fourth most populous nation insisted that no human cases of bird flu had been reported.