World highlights

¤ German conservatives and Social Democrats (SPD) held on to power in three state elections yesterday, preserving a regional balance crucial for the stability of Chancellor Angela Merkel's right-left coalition in Berlin. With the votes out of the way, however, pressure is expected to build on Ms Merkel to refocus on her domestic agenda and deliver promised reforms of the healthcare system and labour market.

¤ Two tribal militants and a paramilitary trooper were killed in a gunbattle in the troubled Pakistani province of Baluchistan, bordering Afghanistan, yesterday, officials said. Elsewhere in the province, two home-made bombs exploded outside the house of the provincial chief minister and militants blew up a natural gas pipeline, but there were no casualties in these incidents.

¤ Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra yesterday offered to form a unity government after April 2 elections with senior posts for opponents leading street protests to oust him. "I welcome everyone to form a government to mutually tackle the problems and take part in political reforms," Mr Thaksin told 30,000 supporters at a rally in Bangkok. "I want all the conflicts to end after April 2," he said.

¤ An explosion wounded three people in a car in Israel yesterday and police said they suspected the blast was caused by criminals rather than by Palestinian militants. Israel is on alert, two days ahead of a general election, for possible Palestinian attacks.

¤ A Kurdish writer was sentenced to one-and-a-half years in prison yesterday for defaming Kurdish leader Masoud Barzani, in a case that has raised questions about the freedom of the press in post-war Iraq. But the Kurdish representative to the US, Qubad Talabani, later said Kamal Karim, an Iraqi-born Kurd with Austrian citizenship, would be pardoned.

¤ The prosecutor of the UN-backed special court seeking to try former Liberian President Charles Taylor for war crimes in Sierra Leone yesterday asked Nigeria to arrest Mr Taylor to prevent his escape. The urgent request by prosecutor Desmond de Silva reflected concern that Mr Taylor, in exile in Nigeria since 2003, might try to abscond after the Nigerian government said on Saturday that Liberian authorities were free to take him into custody.