Illegal immigrants land in Sicily

Dozens of illegal immigrants reached tiny Sicilian islands Monday as Italian boats searched for many others reported missing after making risky crossings of the Mediterranean – the latest wave in a surge of African migration.

Twenty-eight migrants came ashore early Monday in Lampedusa, and 10 others were spotted later on the Mediterranean island, just 70 miles from the coast of Tunisia, the Palermo port captain’s office said by telephone.

Nine more migrants were seen on the island of Pantelleria, the Italian news agency ANSA reported.

Thousands of illegal immigrants have made their way since the start of this year to the waters off Lampedusa, where a detention center awaits those who are found. If the migrants have no job or family waiting for them in Italy, they are ordered to be deported.

QALYOUB, Egypt

Trains collide, killing at least 58

The driver of a commuter train ignored a stop signal and slammed into another train Monday, killing at least 58 people and injuring more than 140, authorities said.

The crash occurred about 7 a.m. at the edge of a cornfield outside the town of Qalyoub, 12 miles north of Cairo. The trains were carrying commuters from the towns of Mansoura and Benha.

The train from Mansoura was going at least 50 mph when it sped through a stop signal before a crossing, police officials said on condition of anonymity because they had not been authorized to give statements to the media. The signal still was blaring Monday afternoon.

The Mansoura train’s driver was killed, and its locomotive overturned when it struck the other train, police said.

Egypt has a history of serious train accidents, usually blamed on poorly maintained equipment. Many of those accidents have occurred in the Nile delta.

KINSHASA, Congo

Fighting still raging after balloting

Battles between forces loyal to President Joseph Kabila and those of his main campaign rival raged for a second day on Monday, and the United Nations sent scores of peacekeepers to evacuate foreign diplomats who were trapped inside the challenger’s besieged home when gunfire broke out.

The fighting in the Central African nation came after election officials announced Sunday that Kabila had failed to win an outright majority in Congo’s first balloting in more than four decades and would face former rebel leader Jean-Pierre Bemba in a second round in October.

U.N. spokesman Jean-Tobias Okala said 150 U.N. troops in 20 armored personnel carriers were to take the foreign envoys from Bemba’s home, where they were meeting the candidate when fighting erupted outside his compound. The head of the United Nations’ 17,500-troop peacekeeping mission, William Swing, was inside along with envoys from the United States, France, China and other countries.

All the foreign officials were safe, Okala said.