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• The Sewol carried 476 people, most of them students from a single high school near Seoul, when it sank off South Korea's southern coast on April 16. Only 174 survived, including 22 of the 29 crew members. The sinking left more than 260 people dead, with about 40 others still missing.
• On Tuesday, one civilian diver died at a hospital after becoming unconscious, government task force spokesman Ko Myung-seok said in a statement. He is the first fatality among divers mobilized following the ferry's sinking, according to the coast guard.
• The 53-year-old diver was pulled to the surface by fellow divers after losing communication about five minutes after he began underwater searches, Ko said. It was his first search attempt, Ko added.
• Despite his death, divers are continuing their searches Tuesday with the authorities believing most of the remaining missing people are in 64 of the ship's 111 areas. Ko said divers have searched all those 64 areas at least once and plan to revisit them again to look for more victims.
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• DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) -- Just as Leen Arbid entered the front gate of the Damascus Opera House, a potent symbol of the Assad family's decades-long authoritarian rule over Syria, she heard a deafening bang. And then, everything went black.
• The drama student was going to her classes that bright Sunday morning when a mortar shell fired from rebel positions on the outskirts of the Syrian capital struck the pavement inside the complex yard, next to an entrance door used by performers.
• "Suddenly at 8:15, a mortar hit five meters (yards) from me," the petite 24-year-old with chestnut eyes said. "I was injured and fell to the ground unconscious, bleeding. I didn't feel any pain."
• Flying shrapnel from the shell pierced into her right leg. Five other of her classmates were also wounded, and two others died in the explosion, which shattered windows on the building and broke glass on a board that advertised a Chopin piano concert that was to be held that day, April 6.
• Mortar attacks have become daily occurrence in the Syrian capital of some two million, often killing more people than this attack. But the strike last month against the opera house resonated much more loudly through the Damascus community. It was a direct hit against the Assad family's cherished creation.
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