World Highlights

O Defying international pressure, militant Islamic group Hamas said yesterday it would never recognise Israel but might be willing to negotiate terms for a temporary truce with the Jewish state. Khaled Meshaal, the top leader of Hamas which won last week's Palestinian parliamentary election by a landslide, made the offer to Israel ahead of negotiations between Hamas and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas over the shape of the next government.

O Israeli aircraft and artillery pounded suspected Hizbollah positions in south Lebanon yesterday after guerillas attacked an Israeli military post in the border Shebaa Farms area, wounding one soldier. Hizbollah said the attack with rockets and mortar bombs on the Rwaisat al-Alam position was in retaliation to the killing of a Lebanese shepherd by Israeli soldiers deployed at the post. Israel confirmed the strikes and held the Lebanese government responsible for the Hizbollah attack.

O Twenty-three suspected al Qaeda members broke out of a prison in the Yemeni capital Sanaa yesterday, a state-run website said. The September 26 site ( www.26sep.net ) quoted unnamed sources as saying the group escaped from a central prison run by the state security forces.

O The US expelled a senior Venezuelan diplomat yesterday in swift retaliation for Caracas sending home an American military attache, escalating a crisis with a major US oil supplier. The US expelled Jeny Figueredo, describing her as the ambassador's chief-of-staff, after Caracas did the same to a US Embassy naval official the day before accusing him of espionage.

O Taliban insurgents launched four attacks in the southern Afghan province of Helmand yesterday and three policemen and 20 Taliban were killed, the province's deputy governor said. About 200 insurgents were involved in the fighting.

O Police said yesterday they had arrested at least 22 foreigners accused of involvement in a ring that smuggled people into Italy and often held them prisoner. The police said the smugglers - from Sudan, Morocco, Eritrea and Bulgaria - were also accused of kidnapping and extortion in connection with bringing thousands of North Africans to Italy.