World highlights

¤ Chad softened threats to halt oil production and stop sheltering Sudanese refugees yesterday following rebel attacks as the United States offered to mediate in a dispute with the World Bank. President Idriss Deby's government pushed back until the end of April a deadline - originally set for midday yesterday - for shutting off oil output by the landlocked central African state in a disagreement with the World Bank over frozen oil royalties.

¤ Nepali troops yesterday opened fire on anti-monarchy protesters in an eastern town and killed one man, witnesses and officials said, as international pressure increased on King Gyanendra to restore multi-party democracy.

¤ Fifteen people including 11 civilians have been killed in clashes between militia fighters in southern Sudan since Saturday, straining a deal that ended the country's north-south civil war, officials said yesterday.

¤ Roadside mines planted by suspected Tamil Tiger rebels killed four Sri Lankan soldiers and wounded 12 yesterday as the government offered a new deal in the hope of saving peace talks.

¤ A senior politician in Indian Kashmir was wounded and two of his guards killed yesterday in an attack by suspected separatist militants, police said. They said two police guards were also wounded in the attack.

¤ Belarus's Parliament reappointed Sergei Sidorsky as Prime Minister yesterday in a sign that the ex-Soviet state has no intention of changing policies that sparked protests at home and in the West. Mr Sidorsky had to resign in line with the Constitution after President Alexander Lukashenko was re-elected for a third term last month in a vote branded as rigged by independent observers.