• Estrada released on bail

  A philippine court ordered the arrest of disgraced former president, Mr Joseph Estrada, yesterday after he surrendered himself to custody. p
  

• West Africa's child slave trade is illegal but common

  No one knows how many children die as they are shipped to the cocoa plantations of West Africa. p
  

• UK workers have `lucky escape' from major refinery explosion

  Workers at an oil refinery in Lincolnshire, had a "lucky escape" after a blast ripped through the plant creating sparking a huge blaze, fire fighters said last night. p
  

• US to talk tough at China meeting

  The United States signaled a tough stance going into a meeting with China on their dispute over the spy plane that was forced to land in Hainan Island, insisting that surveillance flights would be resumed. p
  

• Slave ship docks in Benin after two weeks at sea

  The boat thought to be carrying scores of child slaves and to have been roaming the west African coast for more than two weeks arrived early this morning in Benin's port of Cotonou. p
  

• UN warns of increasing food shortage in N Korea

  The United Nations warned yesterday that food shortages in North Korea will worsen this year due to a poor harvest and a disastrous winter. p
  

• Bosnian Serbs protest over arrest of war crimes suspect by Sfor troops

  About 1,000 Bosnian Serbs protested yesterday against the arrest of an army commander accused of involvement in a massacre of Muslim men, and the Bosnian Serb president called the arrest "shameful". p
  

• 67 people poisoned in Vietnam

  Hanoi - Another spate of poisonings in Vietnam's restive central highlands put 67 people, most of them schoolchildren, in hospital late last week, an official said. p
  

• Curfew raised in Cincinnati

  Cincinnati - The curfew on Cincinnati since last Thursday was lifted last night, Mayor Charles Luken said. The decision followed Cincinnati's quietest night since race riots erupted a week ago after the fatal shooting of an unarmed black man by a white police officer. p
  

• Marches against war, far right

  Stuttgart - Thousands of Germans marched against NATO, neo-Nazism and war over the Easter holiday weekend. p
  

• 5p bet wins £136,223

  London - A pensioner who placed a 5p multiple bet on six horses has won £136,223.72 after five of them won, a spokesman for Jack Brown bookmaker said yesterday. The pensioner, who has not come forward yet to claim his prize, placed a stake of £6.30 on a wager called 5p each way lucky 63 at Jack Browns in Pontycymmer, South Wales, on Saturday. p
  

• Prescott in US for talks on climate

  London - The British Deputy Prime Minister, Mr John Prescott, flew to the US yesterday in an attempt to restart stalled climate change talks following President Bush's decision to abandon the Kyoto Protocol. p
  

• Extra police on duty due to riots

  Bradford - Extra police officers were on duty in Bradford last night after more than a hundred youths rioted through city centre streets, torching cars and throwing petrol bombs. p
  

• Violence leaves at least nine dead

  Banda Aceh - Violence in Indonesia's Aceh province has left at least nine people dead since Sunday, police and activists said. p
  

• Turkey detains 16 immigrants

  Ankara - Security forces in north-west Turkey have detained 116 people suspected of planning to enter Italy illegally and four Turks accused of smuggling them. p
  

• Over 100 die on roads over Easter

  Johannesburg - The Easter holiday death toll on South Africa's roads passed 100 yesterday with a top local motorcycle racer among the dead, officials said. p
  

• 11 villagers killed by Chad nomads

  Bangui - Nomads from neighboring Chad killed 11 villagers including a baby in the north of the Central African Republic (CAR) in attacks last week, according to a state radio report yesterday. The assailants torched 65 homes and shot arrows at those who attempted to flee, the report said. p
  

• Woman run over by thieves dies

  London - A woman who chased a pair of handbag thieves died in hospital yesterday after slipping under the wheels of their getaway car as she clung to the bonnet. The woman, whose handbag was snatched at London's Euston station, died in an operating theatre as surgeons tried to treat her injuries, an official at the Royal London Hospital said. p
  

• Ten killed in India violence

  Srinagar - Ten people, including four guerrillas, have been killed in separatist violence in India's troubled state of Jammu and Kashmir, police said yesterday. p
  

• Rocket grenade hits police office

  Tehran - A rocket-propelled grenade hit a police building in the Iranian capital Tehran but there were no casualties, the official news agency IRNA has reported. p
  

• Widespread support within Israel for Lebanon strikes

  Arab leaders berated Israel yesterday for unleashing its warplanes on a Syrian radar station in Lebanon in the early hours of the morning. But inside Israel there was a rare near-consensus on the political front as politicians on the left and the right backed Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's decision to order the strike. p
  

• US calls for restraint from all sides as Mid-East tensions rise

  The United States yesterday called on all sides in the Middle East to exercise restraint after Israel bombed a Syrian radar station in Lebanon, its first attack on a Syrian position in Lebanon since 1996. p
  

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