World Highlights

¤ Islamic Jihad's most senior commander in the Gaza Strip, Abu al-Waleed al-Dahdouh, was killed yesterday by an explosion that tore through his car, the Palestinian militant group said, blaming the Israeli army, which denied involvement. In the occupied West Bank, Palestinian gunmen shot dead an Israeli at a petrol station outside a Jewish settlement south of the city of Nablus and wounded an Israeli motorist in a separate attack near the city of Qalqilya, the army said.

¤ Pakistani helicopter gunships and ground forces killed around 45 mostly foreign fighters in an attack on a militant hideout near the Afghan border yesterday, the military said in a statement. The assault on Danda Saidgai, a village about 15 kilometres north of Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan tribal region, began soon after daybreak.

¤ Six of nine foreign oil workers being held by Nigerian militants in the country's southern delta were released by their captors yesterday, the local state governor said. The six - one American, two Egyptians, two Thais and a Filipino - were freed, leaving two US nationals and one Briton still being held hostage by the militants.

¤ Jordanian intelligence foiled an al Qaeda plot to mount a suicide attack against a key civilian target using four kilogrammes of explosives, state television said yesterday. "The intelligence department have foiled a terrorist plot of a group belonging to the al Qaeda network, of Iraqi, Libyan and Saudi nationals, to execute by a suicide bombing an operation targeting a critical civilian installation," state television said.

¤ Prime Minister Bajram Kosumi resigned yesterday following criticism of his stewardship as the province seeks independence from Serbia in UN-led negotiations. Citing the need to preserve a coalition majority and the cooperation of Kosovo's Western backers, Mr Kosumi told reporters: "I find the correct and ethical action is to resign from the post of Prime Minister."

¤ Police hunting an armed gang who stole £53 million in Britain's biggest robbery questioned six people yesterday and continued to search an isolated farm near to the security depot where the cash was stolen. Kent Police refused to comment on media reports that a substantial amount of money had been found buried on the farm, although police sources have said two of the people in custody are understood to be connected with the property.

¤ Twenty-nine people, including 18 Maoist rebels and 11 soldiers and police, were killed in a clash in western Nepal, the defence ministry said yesterday. The incident occurred on Tuesday in a remote area of Arghakhanchi district, 350 kilometres west of the capital Kathmandu, a ministry statement said.

¤ A bloody prison siege in Afghanistan ended yesterday after all 1,300 prisoners involved in a riot that broke out at the weekend moved to a new block under police control, the government said.