World Highlights

¤ Ariel Sharon, still comatose after a massive stroke, will undergo surgery to close a hole doctors made in his head in previous operations, hospital officials said yesterday. The 78-year-old, still officially Prime Minister for the time being, was hospitalised in January after a brain haemorrhage and has since been in what doctors called a "critical but stable condition".

¤ Former Liberian President Charles Taylor pleaded not guilty to war crimes in Sierra Leone yesterday and challenged the legality of the international court set to try him. Making his first appearance since his arrest before the UN-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone, Mr Taylor listened stony-faced as the list of 11 counts of war crimes, crimes against humanity and other charges was read out.

¤ Israeli soldiers killed a Palestinian militant in the West Bank yesterday during an exchange of fire that ensued after they tried to arrest him, the army and Palestinian witnesses said.

¤ Hundreds of Kurds clashed with police in southeast Turkey yesterday and in Istanbul three people were killed as they fled a bus set ablaze by protesters, bringing the death toll in violence over the past week to 15.

¤ Two people drowned and 30 were missing after a launch carrying would-be illegal immigrants from Mauritania to Spain's Canary Islands disappeared off the West African coast, emergency services said yesterday.

¤ Australia and China signed a nuclear safeguards deal yesterday that set the stage for huge uranium exports to Beijing for its power industry, but Canberra said the trade was unlikely to start for some years.

¤ Iran test fired a new torpedo in the Strait of Hormuz off its south coast, the world's main nexus for shipping oil, state television reported yesterday.

¤ Five people were killed in a landmine blast and two pro-Taliban militants died in a clash with security forces in Pakistan's restive tribal region yesterday, officials said.

¤ Bahrain said yesterday it had ended an operation to rescue survivors and recover bodies from a cruise boat that capsized off its coast last week and said 58 foreigners were killed in the accident. An Interior Ministry official said that authorities would soon carry out inspections of all dhows.