World Highlights

¤ Congo held its first national democratic poll in 40 years yesterday but intimidation and violence at voting stations marred the poll on a post-war Constitution meant to end decades of dictatorship, war and chaos. Voters queued from early in the morning for a ballot many regard as crucial to their future - even though most have never seen the text.

¤ Bolivians went to the polls yesterday in a presidential election that may hand power to their first Indian president - a coca-leaf farm leader who calls his leftist movement "a nightmare for the US". Evo Morales, an admirer of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, is expected to receive the most votes - 34 per cent, according to recent opinion polls.

¤ The ruling party's candidate in Tanzania's presidential election, Foreign Minister Jakaya Kikwete, has won with an overwhelming 80.2 per cent of the total vote, final poll figures showed yesterday. Mr Kikwete, 55, has promised to continue the free-market policies of outgoing President Benjamin Mkapa, who is stepping down after two terms in which he has consolidated the east African nation's reputation for stability.

¤ Australian police seized petrol bombs, knives and iron bars around Sydney beaches yesterday, along with mobile phones used to spread racist messages, in a huge security operation to prevent fresh inter-communal violence. Police put an extra 500 police on the beaches of Australia's biggest city, taking the total cordon to about 2,000.

¤ Forty-two homeless people were trampled to death yesterday and 37 were injured in a stampede during the distribution of flood relief supplies at a shelter in southern India, officials and witnesses said. The early morning incident occurred in Chennai, formerly known as Madras, as thousands of people lined up for the relief supplies.

¤ Jordan's state security court yesterday handed al-Qaeda leader in Iraq Abu Musab al-Zarqawi his third death sentence in absentia for planning a failed suicide attack at the border post with Iraq.