World Highlights

O Mexican President Vicente Fox played tour guide to US President George W. Bush at ancient Mayan ruins before holding talks to urge him to push through long-sought US immigration reform.

Hosting a North American summit, Mr Fox planned to offer tighter border controls and incentives to lure some illegal immigrants home, a pledge meant to help Mr Bush convince a skeptical Congress to let more Mexicans work legally in the United States.

O Hamas vowed to keep fighting Israel as the militant group's government began work, ignoring Western isolation that has brought the Palestinian Authority to the brink of financial collapse.

The "Quartet" of Middle East mediators said the Hamas government had failed to commit itself to peace and warned the group that direct financial aid to the Palestinian Authority would inevitably be affected.

O A UN-backed court for Sierra Leone due to try ex-Liberian President Charles Taylor for war crimes said it had asked the Netherlands to host the trial in The Hague due to security concerns.

But an initial hearing, in which the feared ex-warlord will become the first former African ruler to appear before an international court, will go ahead in the Sierra Leonean capital today, the court's chief prosecutor said.

O A jury began considering the evidence against September 11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui after prosecutors said he should be executed because his lies led to nearly 3,000 deaths in the hijacked airliner attacks.

After hearing 10 days of testimony, the jury opened its first full day of deliberations on whether Moussaoui, who pleaded guilty last year to six counts of conspiracy in connection with the attacks, should be eligible for the death penalty.

O Leaders of a campaign to oust Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra cut short their protest at Bangkok's biggest shopping mall amid signs of a public wearying of weeks of street demonstrations.

The People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD), the ad hoc coalition bent on driving the telecoms billionaire from office, shifted to the nearby Election Commission after its Wednesday night rally drew 50,000 people to Siam Paragon mall.

O The Pentagon last month sent experts to study Libya's chemical weapons and determined it would cost $100 million to destroy them, but the United States still must decide whether or how much to help, a senior Pentagon official said.

James Tegnelia, director of the Pentagon's Defense Threat Reduction Agency, said a team from his agency arrived in Libya last month and spent about a month assessing the north African country's "tens of tons of mustard gas" and supplies of "precursor chemicals" that could be used in making weapons.