World highlights

¤ British police have arrested a man from northern England over alleged comments he made to a Sunday newspaper about the July 7 bombings in London, the capital's police force said yesterday. The 27-year-old man from West Yorkshire was arrested late on Saturday on suspicion of the commission, preparation or instigation of terrorism, a police spokesman said, without giving details.

¤ At least four people were wounded yesterday in clashes between Palestinian militants and Lebanese gunmen just outside Lebanon's largest Palestinian refugee camp, witnesses said. They said several cars were set ablaze in the skirmishes between Jund al-Sham, one of several Palestinian Islamist groups in the southern Ain el-Hilweh camp, and the Lebanese Popular Nasserist Group.

¤ Record-breaking Tropical Storm Alpha struck the Caribbean island of Hispaniola yesterday, threatening Haiti and the Dominican Republic with deadly flash floods and mudslides. Alpha formed in the Caribbean Sea on Saturday as the 22nd tropical storm or hurricane of the Atlantic season, breaking the record for most storms set in 1933. The centre of the storm went ashore near the town of Barahona on the southwest coast of the Dominican Republic early yesterday. Forecasters said the storm could drop as much as 38 cm of rain over Hispaniola, the island shared by Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

¤ Italian carabinieri military police yesterday arrested a major Sicilian Mafia boss who had been on the run for five years, police said. They said Umberto Di Fazio, 42, considered to be the leader of the Cosa Nostra's notorious Santapaola clan, was captured near Enna, a mountaintop town in the centre of the island. Mr Di Fazio, whose "family" dominated Catania, the main city on Sicily's east coast, was wanted for extortion and murder and international warrants had been issued for his arrest.