World highlights
O Sudan's push to head the African Union gathered pace yesterday with no rival bid emerging despite concerns that a Sudanese presidency would hurt Africa's reputation and AU-sponsored peace efforts in Darfur. Sudan is hosting a summit of the 53-nation...
O Sudan's push to head the African Union gathered pace yesterday with no rival bid emerging despite concerns that a Sudanese presidency would hurt Africa's reputation and AU-sponsored peace efforts in Darfur. Sudan is hosting a summit of the 53-nation body next week, and by tradition the host takes over the chairmanship.
O Fighters loyal to a renegade ex-army officer have captured several villages in eastern Congo in a bloody advance towards a town where UN peacekeepers are based, officials said yesterday. They said fighters loyal to Laurent Nkunda seized villages near Rutshuru where 250 Indian UN peacekeepers are based.
O Police shot and wounded 16 people yesterday, three of them seriously, when a procession by tens of thousands of Orthodox Christians to mark a key religious day in Ethiopia turned violent, hospital sources and witnesses said. An eyewitness said police shot in the air as groups of people who were singing and chanting religious songs in the streets leading to St Michael's church refused an order by police to disperse.
O An appeals court stripped former dictator Augusto Pinochet of immunity yesterday so he can face charges in a human rights case involving Villa Grimaldi, the infamous prison where Chile's president-elect was tortured three decades ago. A court official said the judges on the Santiago Appeals Court voted 13 to five to strip Mr Pinochet of immunity. Defence lawyers are expected to appeal.
O Twenty African migrants, mainly Somalis, died of hunger and thirst while travelling on a smugglers' boat bound for Yemen where they sought a better life, the UN refugee agency said yesterday. Some survivors bore "bite marks from crazed fellow passengers", who grew more desperate by the hour, said spokesman William Spindler of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
O Kuwait's ailing new emir has asked Parliament to hold a session for him to take an oath to assume his responsibilities, a senior family member said yesterday. The statement was issued after a leading Kuwait newspaper yesterday called on emir Sheikh Saad al-Abdulla al-Sabah to step down amid speculation the 76-year-old ruler of the Gulf Arab oil producer could be replaced after less than a week in power.