President Joseph Kabila of Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) on Monday took the oath of office as head of a transitional government aimed at restoring peace and democracy in the vast central African country, riven by four years of war.

The trial of alleged financial fraudster Juergen Harksen went into the final stages on Monday in Hamburg with public prosecutors demanding a six-year jail term for the man who admitted tricking investors of millions of dollars in bogus investment schemes.

With an increasing number of HIV/Aids patients seeking health care from the already over-stretched public sector facilities, the HIV/Aids epidemic is undermining the quality of care in South Africa’s health system.

American ground forces closed in on the centre of the Shia holy city of Kerbala yesterday, sending tanks through the streets and directing artillery fire on to sniper positions. Smoke canisters screened infantry advances.

It was another tough day in front of the cameras for Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf. But if the Iraqi minister of information was feeling the strain now that the war has reached Baghdad, he certainly wasn’t showing it.

All signs pointed to an epic confrontation about to unfold: the constant low bass of American artillery in the darkness, the muffled shouts of Iraqi soldiers on night watch.

Tony Blair will today urge George Bush to internationalise the reconstruction of postwar Iraq, and is expecting a series of conferences to phase in a democratic Iraqi government.

American troops were last night preparing to mount the first significant assault on Baghdad in a final operation to take the city sector by sector.

Forces loyal to Saddam Hussein appeared last night to have lost control of much of Basra, after columns of British troops poured into Iraq’s second city, destroying its Ba’ath party headquarters.

US forces this morning mounted their most far-reaching move into Baghdad, going into the heart of the Iraqi capital.