• Farmers still facing seizure threat

  Zimbabwe's white farmers are holding their breath following last weekend's elections to see what form threatened government-sponsored land seizures will take. p
  

• Bitter feelings linger on in Miami as Elian starts the trip home to Cuba with his father

  For seven months the fate of young Elian Gonzalez gripped the attention of the American public as a prolonged legal battle wound its way through the courts. p
  

• Havana quietly rejoicing over boy's return

  The news leaked first by word of mouth, then rippled out quickly across Havana yesterday, as Cubans quietly rejoiced over the return of Elian Gonzalez, who was given the green light by US authorities to return home to Cuba yesterday. p
  

• Ireland tails most of Europe to take 18th place

  Ireland ranks 18th among 174 countries surveyed by the UN for its annual Human Development Report. p
  

• Social and economic progress linked with struggle for civil and political liberties, Human Development Report stresses

  Human rights are essential to human development, according to the latest Human Development Report from the United Nations. p
  

• 120 bodies found in Bosnia

  Sarajevo - A forensic team has uncovered 120 bodies in eastern Bosnia, believed to be Muslim civilians killed by Serb forces during the Bosnian war, an official said yesterday. p
  

• Seven are held in Dover deaths case

  Amsterdam - Dutch authorities said yesterday they were holding seven suspects and had found the Rotterdam warehouse linked to the suffocation deaths of 58 illegal Chinese immigrants last week. p
  

• Loss of 110,000 troops denied

  Addis Ababa - Ethiopia yesterday denied a claim made by Eritrea that 110,000 Ethiopian troops had been killed or wounded in fighting between the neighbouring countries between May 12th and June 18th. p
  

• Robbers kill 15 in bus attack

  Lagos - Armed robbers killed 15 people in a new attack on a night bus in south-east Nigeria, in the latest in a string of incidents. p
  

• EU funds used to finance brothel

  Almeira - A couple near this southern Spanish town have been arrested by police for financing the construction of a brothel with EU subsidies, police said yesterday. p
  

• Boy convicted of male rape

  Manchester - A boy was sentenced to three-years in youth custody yesterday after being found guilty of committing a male rape when he was aged 12. The child, who cannot be named for legal reasons and is now 14, is thought to be the youngest person in Britain to be convicted of male rape. p
  

• Right-wing dowager dies

  London - Dowager Lady Jane Birdwood who has been described as probably the most right-wing person in England has died at the age of 87. The veteran anti-immigration campaigner, died at a nursing home in Hounslow, west London, this morning at about 5 a.m. p
  

• Police detain man wanted for questioning over Australian hostel deaths

  Australian police yesterday shot and detained itinerant fruit-picker Mr Robert Long, wanted for questioning over a hostel fire which killed 15 backpackers, most of them foreign tourists. p
  

• Governors snub Putin over regional plans

  Russia's upper house of parliament defied President Vladimir Putin's plans for a radical shake-up of the country's constitutional order yesterday, voting overwhelmingly to veto his campaign to restrain Russia's 89 unruly regions. p
  

• Call for research into dangers posed by mobile phones

  The World Health Organisation (WHO) yesterday called for more research into the health impact of using mobile telephones, amid fears that the devices can adversely affect the brain. p
  

• Complaints body warns press on prince's privacy

  Editors must not treat Prince William as "fair game" after he leaves school this week, even though public interest in his life is certain to increase, the chairman of the Press Complaints Commission in Britain, Lord Wakeham, said yesterday. p
  

• EU plan to end freeze on Austria backfires

  An initiative aimed at ending the diplomatic freeze between Austria and its 14 EU partners looks set to backfire amid Austrian outrage at the prospect of being monitored by the European Court of Human Rights. p
  

• Military in Fiji to draw up list of ministers

  Fiji's military said yesterday it would set up an interim civilian government after indigenous rebels defied an ultimatum to lay down their weapons and free 27 hostages or be excluded from a future administration. p
  

• Six more held over immigrant deaths

  Zwolle, Netherlands - Six new arrests have been made in the Netherlands in connection with the 58 Chinese found dead in a lorry at Dover, England. Altogether, 10 people are now being held either in Britain or the Netherlands in connection with the deaths. p
  

• Mass burial ordered in strike

  Lagos - Authorities in Lagos ordered a mass burial of 600 accumulated bodies in hospital mortuaries and promised to pay a minimum wage as they sought an end to a crippling public sector strike yesterday. p
  

• Ireland refuses whaling plea

  Dublin - Ireland has turned down a request from Australia to support a new whale sanctuary in the south Pacific when the International Whaling Commission (IWC) meets in Adelaide next week, writes Lorna Siggins. p
  

• Ice from plane crashes on house

  London - A block of ice thought to have fallen from an aircraft left a 3 ft hole in the roof of a family's home, according to police in Essex. The 1 ft square block ended up in the loft of the house in River Way, Loughton. p
  

• Albright unable to win support for July peace summit

  The chances of an early July Middle East peace summit in the United States faded yesterday as the US Secretary of State, Ms Madeleine Albright, on a lightning trip to the region, failed to win Palestinian support for such a make-or-break meeting between Israel's increasingly embattled Prime Minister, Mr Ehud Barak, and the Palestinian leader, Mr Yasser Arafat. p
  

• Two UN officials are shot dead by Baghdad gunman

  A man believed to be protesting against sanctions on Iraq opened fire at the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation's mission in Baghdad killing two people and wounding as many as seven others. p
  

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