Government troops in Ivory Coast have regained control of the city of Daloa, which had been seized by rebels on Sunday. On Monday, Ivory Coast government representatives said the uprising would end this week – either in peace or war – after rebel leaders called off peace talks.
On Monday, the power-sharing government of Northern Ireland was suspended indefinitely. This came after a crisis triggered by allegations that Sinn Fein, the political ally of the Irish Republican Army, ran a spy operation on behalf of the IRA. The spy scandal prompted leading Protestant politicians in Belfast to withdraw from the government. This is the fourth time the power-sharing government has been suspended since it was set up in 1998.
The leading candidate in Serbia’s presidential election plans to challenge a decision to invalidate his apparent victory. Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica held 67% of the vote in Sunday’s election against Deputy Prime Minister Miroljub Labus, but the election commission said the election would have to be repeated because of a law requiring a 50 percent voter turnout.
Five Japanese citizens abducted by North Korean agents nearly a quarter century ago visited their families back home in a tearful reunion. At a brief news conference, the five thanked everyone in Japan for worrying about them since their abductions, but they did not say anything about their experiences in North Korea.
Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands laid her husband Prince Claus von Amsberg to rest on Tuesday in the medieval Dutch town of Delft. Prince Claus died this month at the age of 76 from Parkinson’s disease and pneumonia. About 40,000 people lined the streets to bid farewell to a prince loved for his charm and respected for his long fight again disease and depression.
And finally, astronauts from the U.S. Space Shuttle Atlantis prepared to leave the International Space Station after wrapping up a construction project that added a new segment to the station. In three spacewalks since last Thursday, astronauts from the visiting shuttle completed installation of a 390 million dollar, 15 meter-long girder. The shuttle undocked from the space station Wednesday.