World highlights

¤ In a major victory for Merck & Co Inc., a jury yesterday decided the drugmaker provided adequate warning to doctors about health risks associated with its withdrawn painkiller Vioxx and did not commit consumer fraud in marketing the drug. The nine-member jury in state court also found that Merck did not misrepresent, suppress or conceal information about increased risks of heart attack and stroke from the pain and arthritis medicine, sending Merck shares up.

¤ Israeli soldiers shot and critically wounded a 13-year-old Palestinian carrying a toy weapon in the occupied West Bank yesterday and the Israeli army said soldiers had mistaken him for a gunman. The shooting, during an Israeli raid to detain suspected Palestinian militants, came amid the worst surge of violence since a truce was agreed nine months ago.

¤ Three people were shot dead in the Ethiopian capital yesterday, doctors said, in a third straight day of political unrest that has killed at least 42 and stirred fears for the giant African country's stability. The violence has prompted Britain to warn its citizens against non-essential travel to Ethiopia and both the EU and African Union urged government and opposition in the country, the Horn of Africa's dominant power, to show restraint.

¤ Al Qaeda in Iraq said yesterday it shot down a US helicopter in Ramadi on Wednesday, killing the two Marine crewmen, and the US military said it was investigating reports it was brought down by a missile. Al Qaeda said yesterday it had put on trial two Moroccan embassy employees it was holding and sentenced them to death because of their country's support for the US-backed Baghdad government. In Rabat, Morocco's Foreign Ministry denounced the statement, posted on the internet, as "barbarous" and "contrary to Islam's precepts and the fundamental values of humanity".

¤ A suspected al Qaeda militant has been killed and another captured during a shoot-out with Pakistani security men in the southwestern city of Quetta, a government minister said yesterday. Al Jazeera television said it had received a statement that two people had been arrested, identifying one as Mustafa Setmariam, a Syrian with a $5 million US reward on his head.