MORE than 700 people were killed during a five-day uprising by a radical Islamic sect in northern Nigeria and the search for bodies is continuing, Red Cross and defence officials said yesterday.

THE leader of a radical Islamic sect blamed for violent clashes between his followers and government forces has been shot dead in police custody.

TROOPS struggled to crush an Islamic sect in northern Nigeria yesterday as the death toll from four days of clashes surged past 300 and thousands of people were forced from their homes.

A strong undersea earthquake rocked parts of Indonesia’s Sumatra island today, but there were no immediate reports of damage or casualties.

The Nigerian Defence Ministry has asked 40 top army officials to retire, a Nigerian defence spokesman said today, two months after the country swore in a new president.

A heroin dealer who was under heavy garda surveillance was caught dealing the dangerous drug in Cork city five times in a four-month period and today he was jailed for eleven years.

The United Nations’ top humanitarian official made a landmark visit to battle-scarred Mogadishu today, but the trip was disrupted by an explosion that killed three people and wounded one near the UN compound there.

Somalia’s government is holding up vital aid to tens of thousands of people as car bombs and street fighting brought the death toll to nearly 1,500 in less than a month, sending the country lurching towards catastrophe, it was warned.

Elders of the dominant clan in the Somali capital Mogadishu remain committed to a truce negotiated with Ethiopian military officials backing the government.

Somalia’s president agreed today to a national reconciliation conference in a bid to end 16 years of anarchy in the war-ravaged country, paving the way for the deployment of African peacekeepers.

A top UN envoy today flew to the Somali capital to discuss plans for an African peacekeeping force with President Abdullahi Yusuf as well as reconciliation among Somalis, a day after parliament voted out its speaker, who was closely associated with the recently ousted Islamic movement.

Somalia’s warlords have agreed to disarm their militia and join a new national army, a government official said today.

Clan gunmen fired a rocket-propelled grenade and briefly exchanged gunfire with government troops outside the presidential residence in Mogadishu today, leaving at least six dead and 10 wounded.

Helicopter gunships were today seen launching new attacks in Somalia, close to the scene of a US airstrike aimed at suspected al-Qaida terrorists.

The prime minister promised thousands of cheering Somalis peace and stability after he drove through battle-scarred Mogadishu in an armed convoy, a day after an Islamic movement’s fighters abandoned the capital ahead of his Ethiopian-backed troops.

Somalia’s president today said peace talks with the country’s Islamic movement are no longer an option because the group’s leaders have declared war on his government.

Heavy fighting erupted in northern Somalia today as Islamic forces clashed with militia backed by Ethiopian troops, an Islamic official said.

Somalia’s virtually powerless government and an Islamic militia that has seized control of much of southern Somalia have signed an agreement to eventually form a unified national army.

SOMALIA’S powerful Islamists yesterday said they would not attend peace talks with the interim government until Ethiopian troops left their soil.

Somalia’s transitional government will meet next week for peace talks with Islamic militant rivals who have seized control of much of the country, a presidential aide said today.

Hundreds of Ethiopian troops moved into a second Somali town yesterday to protect the country’s weak, UN-backed government, as talks aimed at easing tensions fell apart when the government did not turn up and Islamist militia delegates walked out.

A top official in Somalia’s Islamic militia said his forces will soon seize the base of the country’s weak interim government, a move that would give radical militants uncontested authority over much of the country.

The European Union yesterday committed €70m in aid to Somalia to help rebuild the drought-stricken and civil war-plagued nation.

Indonesia started pulling out the last of 24,000 troops from tsunami-ravaged Aceh province today, a key component of a peace accord to end a three-decade civil war with separatist rebels.

Gunmen threw grenades and a land mine exploded near the convoy of Somali Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi, killing three bodyguards and wounding five others, residents said.

Militias led by two MPs in Somalia’s parliament fought for control of a major southwestern trading centre today, killing at least 15 people.

AN undersea earthquake that hit near the Indonesian island of Sumatra yesterday sent people fleeing from their homes in panic, but the tremor was not strong enough to generate a tsunami, seismologists and meteorologists said.

Former Marks & Spencer designer Yasmin Yusuf was today unveiled as the new chief executive of high street fashion chain East.

Somalia appealed for international aid for victims of the deadly tsunami that slammed its shores, with an official saying today that at least 50,000 people urgently need food, water, shelter and medical help after losing their homes and livelihoods.

The number of Somalis killed by deadly tidal waves that battered the country’s shores has doubled to more than 200.

A gap in the airline passenger-check system permitted Yusuf Islam – former pop star Cat Stevens whom the US suspects of having terrorist ties – to board a transatlantic flight despite being on a no-fly list, a Bush administration official said today.

The designer brought in to add sparkle to women’s clothing at Marks & Spencer is to leave the retailer after three and a half years, it emerged today.

US aircraft destroyed a Baghdad office of a radical Shiite cleric, killing two people and injuring six, his followers said today.

The Islamic terrorist group Hamas has promised more attacks after seven people were killed, including five Americans, by a bomb that ripped apart a university cafeteria in Jerusalem yesterday.

Deadly street battles erupted in a southern Philippines town today as a self-styled ‘‘suicide squad’’ of Muslim extremists invaded a hospital and church, seizing patients, doctors and a priest.