SRI LANKA: South Africa’s Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa arrived in Colombo yesterday in an apparent bid to broker resumption of talks between government and ethnic Tamil leaders.

He is scheduled to meet President Mahinda Rajapaksa and Tamil leaders on his two-day visit.

Mr Ramaphosa is expected to push political leaders to discuss power-sharing in the Tamil-majority Northern province.

FRANCE: National rail companies SNCF and RFF denied prosecution claims yesterday that poor track maintenance led to last year’s derailment that left seven people dead.

The firms said that, while they took responsibility for the crash, there was no systematic maintenance failure.

French newspapers reported yesterday that experts had found 200 anomalies along the suburban Bretigny-sur-Orge route, “a known danger zone.”

INDIA: Supreme Court Judge CK Prasad ruled yesterday that Islamic courts in the country have no legal authority, though individuals still may follow their rulings.

This means that Muslims may abide by a sharia court ruling if they wish, but individuals cannot be legally forced to recognise the decision.

The case dates to 2005 when a Muslim woman was raped by her father-in-law and a sharia court ordered her marriage annulled and told her to live with the rapist.

BULGARIA: Bulgaria and Russia have voiced hope that work on the Russia-led South Stream gas pipeline project, which was blocked by the European Union, can be resumed.

EU member Bulgaria suspended work on the pipeline last month after the European Commission said Sofia had not respected internal market rules on public contracts.

KUWAIT: Prominent opposition leader Musallam al-Barrack was released from jail yesterday following daily protests calling for him to be set free.

His lawyer said that Mr Barrack will face trial in September on charges of insulting the judiciary and accusing top judges of bribery. The former opposition MP was arrested last Wednesday after revealing documents alleging huge sums of illicit financial transfers were made to senior officials.

IRAQ: The next parliamentary session was postponed until mid-August yesterday, prolonging the country’s political impasse.

The legislature held its first session since April elections last week but failed to make headway on selecting a new prime minister, president and other leaders.

Yesterday’s session was called off as no progress in untangling the political situation had been made over the past week.

AFGHANISTAN: Five police officers and five children were killed yesterday in separate incidents as violence escalates over the upcoming election results.

A rocket fired by anti-government forces hit a home in Kunduz province, killing five children and wounding six other civilians.

The officers were killed in the western province of Herat when insurgents attacked a police vehicle, killing the police chief of the Sher Ahmad district and four other officers.

VATICAN: Pope Francis begged forgiveness yesterday from the victims of clergy sex abuse in his first meeting with survivors.

The Pope expressed sorrow in his homily at a private mass with six victims for the “sins and grave crimes” of clerical sex abuse against them.

“I beg your forgiveness too for the sins of omission on the part of church leaders who did not respond adequately,” he added.