WORLD

Pro-Ouattara Forces Continue Fight to Seize Presidential Palace in Ivory Coast

The forces supporting Alassane Ouattara, the man recognized as the president of Ivory Coast, are still engaged in bitter fight to seize control of the presidential residence where the country's incumbent leader Laurent Gbagbo is refusing to surrender. Pro-Gbagbo forces are refusing to give up and have managed to hold off pro-Ouattara fighters late Thursday. French Defense Minister Gerard Longuet said that the compound, where Gbagbo is holding out in a bunker, is defended by 200 troops.

130 Libyan Refugees Missing As Their Boat Sinks Off Italian Island of Lampedusa

As many as 130 refugees have been missing after their boat broke up in the turbulent seas off the coast of the Italian island of Lampedusa.

Japan Plugs Nuclear Plant Leak

In a significant development, workers at Japan's crippled atomic power plant today managed to plug a hole spewing highly radioactive water into the ocean. Though this is a good news, the problems are still far from over as the plant operator Tokyo Electric Power said that they are worried about a build-up of hydrogen gas at a different reactor as it could cause another explosion at the site. TEPCO officials added that they are planning to inject nitrogen gas into the reactor container to avert a possible explosion. "We are considering injecting nitrogen into the container of the reactor number 1 because hydrogen gas has possibly accumulated in the container," a TEPCO official said.

Bangladesh Supreme Court Rejects Dr. Yunus' Appeal Against Sacking

In a major blow for Bangladesh’s Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, the Supreme Court of the country today upheld a High Court order confirming the central bank's decision to remove Yunus as Managing Director of the Grameen Bank. The appeal was turned down by a seven-member full bench of the Appellate Division headed by Chief Justice A.B.M. Khairul Haque. On March 8, the High Court had upheld the central bank order that said Grameen Bank did not take approval before reappointing Dr. Yunus as MD in 2000, violating one of the statutes of the partly state-owned Grameen Bank.

In Libya: Gaddafi Forces Recapture Brega

Forces loyal to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi recaptured Brega after forcing the rebels to retreat from the oil-rich city. It is learnt that the rebels are now heading east toward Ajdabiya after retreating from Brega. The rebels started retreating after coming under rocket and artillery fire from the Gaddafi forces. Al Jazeera reported the Gaddafi forces had pushed the opposition forces back 20-30km east of Brega towards Ajdabiya.

Libyan Rebels Ready to Export First Oil Shipment

The first oil export from the rebel-held region in eastern Libya for almost three weeks, is to begin later.

In Ivory Coast: Ouattara Forces Surround Gbagbo’s Palace; UN, France Launch Joint Attack

The fighters loyal to Alassane Ouattara, the man recognized as the president of Ivory Coast, today surrounded the presidential palace of incumbent leader Laurent Gbagbo, and are hoping of capturing the embattled leader. Patrick Achi, a spokesman for Ouattara, said that the fighters were 80% sure that Gbagbo was still in the residence. "We do not see why he shall not surrender," Achi said Monday. He added that it is likely that the new government would urge the International Court of Justice to hold a trail against Gbagbo. The situation in parts of the Ivory Coast got worse in recent weeks as the fight between the two sides took the shape of a violent civil war. The trouble started in November when Gbagbo refused to accept defeat after the election to make way for Ouattara, who has been recognized as the country's president by the UN, the EU and the US.

In Ivory Coast: UN Threatens To Launch Air Strikes On Gbagbo Forces

Upping its ante against besieged Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo, the UN today threatened to launch air attacks on forces loyal to Gbagbo. The UN issued the warning after 11 peacekeepers were shot in the troubled West African nation in recent days. The UN chief's representative said that pro-Gbagbo forces launched "mindless" attacks on the UN base in Abidjan.

Bodies Seen in Wreckage of 2009 Air France Crash: French Government

The French government said on Monday that bodies of some passengers were seen in parts of the wreckage of an Air France plane found in the Atlantic at the weekend. The aircraft crashed off Brazil in 2009 and rescuers will soon start pulling up the wreckage from the ocean floor. Salvage workers are optimistic that the discovery of the wreckage will help in the recovery of plane's black box flight recorders, which will help them find out the reason behind mysterious crash that took 228 lives. The Airbus A330 crashed en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris.

At Least 15 Yemen Protesters Shot Dead By Police During Anti-government Protest

Yemeni security forces have shot dead at least 15 people during an anti-government demonstration in the south of the capital Sanaa.

Japan To Drain Contaminated Water Into Ocean

Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), the firm which manages the operations at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in Japan, has said that it will release almost 11,500 tons of water contaminated with low levels of radiation into the Pacific Ocean. TEPCO said that it will help the workers to contain the increasing amounts of dangerous runoff, which could now swamp the generators powering the cooling systems at two of the six reactors. TEPCO is worried that the increasing level of runoff could affect the progress made by the officials in resolving the world’s worst nuclear crisis after the Chernobyl incident.

41 Dead In Pakistan Sufi Shrine Suicide Attack

At least 41 people died and many got injured when a suicide bomber targeted a shrine in Pakistan, said police. The attack took place near the Sakhi Sarwar shrine in Punjab, as Sufi Muslim devotees, who are a minority Muslim group, gathered for an annual three-day festival. Sufis follow mystical beliefs and the hardliners consider them as heretical. Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack. A Taliban fighter Ehsanullah Ehsan said that the attack was in revenge for a government offensive against militants in north-west part of the country. The blasts hit near a shrine to Sufi saint Sakhi Sarwar in Dera Ghazi Khan district.