World Highlights

¤ Vital helicopter flights carrying food, blankets and tents to untold numbers of survivors of the earthquake in northern Pakistan resumed as lashing rains which compounded their misery ended. But many are likely to die before help can reach them in the remnants of remote mountain villages cut off by landslides and buckled roads with winter approaching rapidly.

¤ Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi paid homage at a Tokyo shrine for war dead that is viewed by critics as a symbol of Japan's militaristic past, provoking swift and angry protests from China and South Korea. Japan's relations with its neighbours have already chilled because of Mr Koizumi's annual visits to the Yasukuni shrine, where war criminals are honoured along with 2.5 million war dead.

¤ Oil leapt by around $1 as another tropical storm gathered strength in the Caribbean and menaced US rigs and refineries already rocked by the most active hurricane season in decades. Tropical Storm Wilma, the 21st named storm this year, formed from a depression in the Caribbean and could move into the oil-rich Gulf of Mexico by the end of the week, the US National Hurricane Center said on its website.

¤ The US Supreme Court under new Chief Justice John Roberts cleared the way for a pregnant Missouri prisoner to obtain an abortion, despite objections from state officials. In a brief order without comment or recorded dissent, the high court rejected Missouri's request to put on hold a federal judge's order requiring that prison authorities transport the inmate to a St Louis clinic for an abortion.

¤ Clashes between Darfur rebels and Sudanese armed forces killed five civilians in the latest violence to tear at the frayed ceasefire in Sudan's western region, the African Union said. "African Union monitors in Kutum, North Darfur heard sustained heavy bombardment in the southeast of Kutum," AU spokesman Noureddine Mezni told Reuters.