World Briefs

¤ A car bomb exploded in central Baghdad as the Iraqi higher education minister's convoy passed yesterday but he escaped injury, Interior Ministry sources said. Two of Sami al-Mudhafer's bodyguards were wounded and a civilian bystander was killed in the attack, the sources said. The Mujahideen Council, set up by Iraq's al Qaeda and other militant groups, claimed responsibility for the attack which it said targeted the motorcade of the higher education minister.

¤ Israeli soldiers killed two Palestinian gunmen in a clash near a Gaza Strip border crossing yesterday, witnesses and medics said. The army confirmed that troops fired on a group of gunmen near the Karni border crossing, saying they were suspected of trying to plant a bomb at a buffer zone where there are Israeli patrols.

¤ Nepalis trickled into schools, temples and ancient courtyards yesterday for local elections seen by many as the first real test of King Gyanendra's rule since he seized power a year ago. With the seven main political parties and Maoist rebels opposing polls they see as a sham, there was moderate violence - including an anti-election protester killed by the army - small protests and a low turnout.

¤ Ukranian Prime Minister Yuri Yekhanurov said yesterday Ukraine was willing to scrap or renegotiate a gas deal with Russia that ended a New Year pricing dispute and restored supplies to the rest of Europe. Mr Yekhanurov was addressing a Cabinet meeting a day after Russian President Vladimir Putin suggested parts of the deal were questionable and involved dubious corporate structures.

¤ Two fugitive gunmen hijacked a bus yesterday in northern Albania, killing a policeman and a passenger and wounding several others before being arrested by police, media and police reports said. The two men were travelling as passengers in the bus when it came to a police roadblock, a routine procedure in some crime-ridden parts of the country.

¤ British police and prosecutors responded to criticism yesterday that they should have taken action sooner against Muslim cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri, jailed the day before for inciting the murder of non-believers. Hamza, 47, was convicted on Tuesday of 11 counts including soliciting murder, stirring up racial hatred and possessing a training manual "of use to terrorists".