World Highlights

¤ US President George W. Bush pressured Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas yesterday to crack down on "armed gangs" to advance a peace process he said may not create a Palestinian state for years. Speaking at a joint Rose Garden news conference after talks with Mr Abbas, Mr Bush said the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and parts of the West Bank had created new opportunities and responsibilities for the Palestinians.

¤ Arab League chief Amr Moussa, who has said Iraq is on the verge of civil war, held talks with Iraqi leaders yesterday on a tough mission to promote national reconciliation in a country ravaged by violence. On his first post-war visit to Iraq, the former Egyptian diplomat met Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari and was also expected to hold talks with President Jalal Talabani and leading Shi'ite cleric Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.

¤ Saadoun Janabi, a lawyer for a former Iraqi judge who is standing trial along with Saddam Hussein, was kidnapped yesterday, a senior legal source involved in the trial and police said. Meanwhile, kidnappers released an Irish journalist abducted while on assignment in Baghdad. Rory Carroll, 33, who has been in Iraq since January, had been interviewing a family about the start of Saddam's trial before being abducted.

¤ Britain's government reacted angrily yesterday after a tribunal granted bail to four North African terrorism suspects facing deportation under a policy introduced after London bombings in July. The special immigration tribunal denied bail to another five men, including Jordanian cleric Abu Qatada, who British authorities say was a leading inspiration for al Qaeda in Europe. Another suspect's bail case was adjourned.

¤ Young pretender David Cameron overwhelmingly won a poll of party colleagues to lead Britain's opposition Conservatives yesterday and is now a hot favourite to become the next man to tackle Tony Blair's government. Mr Cameron, 39 and with only four years of frontline political experience, was supported by 90 of the party's 198 members of Parliament, officials said.

¤ Italy's lower house of Parliament approved yesterday far-reaching plans to rewrite the Constitution that Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi says will strengthen the creaking system of government. The issue has inflamed passions in Italy for months and the insults flew furiously yesterday, with Mr Berlusconi accusing opposition leader Romano Prodi of using language more fitting to a civil war than political debate.

¤ Inmates at a prison hospital in ex-Soviet Kyrgyzstan killed a parliamentarian and two other people after taking him and his entourage hostage yesterday, the Justice Ministry said. The deputy, Tynychbek Akmatbayev, had been visiting the tuberculosis hospital attached to Prison No. 31, about 25 kilometres northwest of the capital Bishkek, when the violence erupted.

¤ A Greek intercity train to Athens derailed yesterday, catching fire and injuring 18 people, including an eight-month-old baby, officials said. An initial investigation said the train with 140 passengers aboard had been going too fast when it jumped the rails near the northern city of Thessaloniki, the government said.