World Highlights

O Growing international pressure on Afghanistan to respect the religious freedom of a Christian convert was met in Afghanistan yesterday by a clamour of calls for the man to be executed for denying Islam.

O European Union leaders backed the idea of a common energy policy for the bloc even as rows over cross-border utility takeover bids raged in the background.

O Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, whose peacemaking policies were rejected by Hamas after it won elections, said he proposed secret peace talks with Israel and believed a deal could still be reached within a year.

O Interim Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert called Hamas Prime Minister-designate Ismail Haniyeh an "enemy" and said he hoped one day to put the group's leader-in-exile, Khaled Meshaal, on trial.

O Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said Thailand faced a "nightmare" if campaigners trying to oust him with mass street protests refused to respect the outcome of an April 2 snap election.

O Turkey's government will continue to exercise discipline over its budget, deputy Prime Minister Abdullatif Sener said, responding to criticism from its major lender the IMF.

O A Lebanese television station belonging to the anti-Israeli Hizbollah guerillas shrugged off a US freeze on its assets and said it could still beam its programmes to US homes.

O UN envoy Terje Roed-Larsen urged the Lebanese government to sit down with Syrian officials and demarcate their common border to clear up a dispute over a volatile frontier strip occupied by Israel.

O Israeli police have recommended indicting Russian-born billionaire Arkady Gaydamak on money laundering charges, prompting the tycoon to accuse them of hounding him unfairly.

O Heavy fighting between rival Somali militia linked to Islamic courts and a new "anti-terror" alliance has killed about 70 people in the capital Mogadishu this week, hospital sources and residents said.