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Flooding toll reaches 29 as waters recede

By TIMES WIRES
Published February 6, 2007

INDONESIA

The death toll in flooding in the capital of Indonesia, Jakarta, climbed to 29 Monday, officials said. About 340,000 people have been forced from their homes.

Authorities estimated between 40 percent and 70 percent of the city, which covers an area of more than 255 square miles, had been submerged. Skies cleared Monday and floodwaters receded in some parts of the city of 12-million.

Residents of some districts were able to begin cleaning out their homes, witnesses and media reports said.

SOMALIA

Leaders open meeting aimed at reconciliation

Somalia's government began a weeklong meeting Monday in Mogadishu with elders, traditional chiefs and representatives of aid groups as part of efforts to try to reconcile Somalis after 16 years of conflict.

Ismail Moalim Musse, chairman of the government-appointed national reconciliation commission, said the participants were to discuss efforts to restore security and programs on peace.

ISRAEL

Army says bombs found near border

The Israeli army on Monday said it had uncovered four bombs on the Israeli side of the border with Lebanon and accused Hezbollah guerrillas of planting the explosives in recent days.

If confirmed, it would mark a violation of a U.N.-brokered cease-fire by Hezbollah and indicate a failure by international peacekeepers to prevent new attacks on Israel. Hezbollah and U.N. officials said they were looking into the report.

Elsewhere

MIDDLE EAST: Press freedom is losing ground in the Middle East as governments retreat from liberalization started early in the Bush administration's push for democracy, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Monday.

AFGHANISTAN: Lawmakers in the upper house on Monday denounced a nonbinding resolution passed by the lower house of Parliament calling for amnesty for warlords and other Afghans accused of war crimes.

[Last modified February 6, 2007, 01:04:48]