SENEGAL: Senegal has said 1,034 people were on board a ferry that capsized in stormy seas off the Gambian coast, some 238 more than initially thought.
A statement issued by the prime minister's office said only 64 people had been rescued so far. Authorities had earlier said 104 survivors from one of Africa's worst sea boat disasters had been found.
Battered by wind and rain, the Joola capsized on Thursday night. The boat was designed to carry 550 people. Senegalese and Gambian officials say nearly 400 bodies have been recovered so far. - (Reuters)
Moroccon coalition set to return
MOROCCO: Legislative elections in Morocco have given a boost to democratic progress despite gains shown by the moderate Islamist party, according to unofficial results.
Unofficial results so far showed Prime Minister Mr Abderrahmane Youssoufi's Socialist Union of Popular Forces (USFP) to be leading its coalition partner, the nationalist Istiqlal party.
The USFP has 44 seats to Istiqlal's 40. Seven parties that had backed Mr Youssoufi in the previous parliament have 79 seats, which would give the coalition a total of 163, or a majority of one. - (AFP)
Officials cleared of Egyptian disaster
EGYPT: Eleven Egyptian railway officials were acquitted of negligence charges yesterday in the country's worst rail disaster that killed 361 people earlier this year when a crowded train caught fire.
The verdict, delivered by a criminal court in central Cairo, was met with a deafening roar of joy from a courtroom packed with media, as well as friends and relatives of the men - minor officials of Egypt's state railway authority. - (Reuters)
Indian police kill five militants
INDIA: Indian police said they had killed five suspected Islamic militants in a shoot-out after raiding their hideout in the southern city of Bangalore yesterday and linked their leader to pro-Pakistan Kashmiri separatists. - (Reuters)
Five convicted of rape in Iran hanged
IRAN: Five men convicted of abducting, raping and robbing women were taken to the Tehran neighbourhoods they had terrorised and hanged in public.
The five, all in their early 20s, were arrested in December 2001. Officials have not said how many women were attacked. - (PA)
Saudi bomb kills car driver
SAUDI ARABIA: One person was killed in the Saudi capital yesterday when an explosion destroyed a car belonging to a German national. - (AFP)