World Highlights

¤ Four US soldiers were killed yesterday when their vehicle hit a suspected bomb in central Afghanistan, the US military said. A Taliban spokesman said the guerilla group's fighters were responsible for the attack in Uruzgan province, where Dutch Nato peacekeepers are due to be based later this year.

¤ Pakistani police fired tear gas and charged with batons yesterday to detain hundreds of students who staged a violent protest against cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad. Up to 6,000 students, shouting "Allahu Akbar" (God is Greatest) and Death to America, pelted offices and shops with stones during the protest in the northwestern city Peshawar.

¤ Britain's Parliament yesterday voted to introduce national identity cards, giving Prime Minister Tony Blair victory in the first of two major tests of his authority this week. The Bill passed by 310 votes to 279. The Bill was approved in October but was blocked in the upper house last month.

¤ Angry supporters of ex-President Rene Preval paralysed the Haitian capital with burning tires and roadblocks yesterday as Mr Preval fell further below the 50 per cent needed to win the presidency and allegations of election manipulation mounted. Witnesses told local radio UN peacekeepers fired into a crowd of protesters in the Tabarre area, just north of the capital, killing a young man who supported Preval and injuring several other people.

¤ The trial of Slobodan Milosevic entered its fifth and likely final year yesterday in proceedings that have been repeatedly delayed by the ill health of the former Yugoslavian president. Mr Milosevic's heart condition and high blood pressure have hampered his trial on charges of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes which started on February 12, 2002.

¤ Egyptian authorities have postponed local elections for two years in a move opposition Islamists said yesterday was designed to maintain the ruling party's monopoly over presidential nominations. The Muslim Brotherhood said the government was deliberately putting off the elections because independents who want to stand for President need to win local council seats to run under new laws.

¤ Thousands of German hospital staff, refuse collectors and other state employees stopped work yesterday as Germany's largest public sector strike for 14 years spread across most of the country. Eight states, all but one in western Germany, joined action in Baden-Wuerttemberg that began last week in protest at plans to increase the working week in most areas from 38.5 to 40 hours without a pay increase.