World highlights

¤ Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels kidnapped and killed six farmers from the island's Sinhalese majority yesterday, police and the army said, raising fears of new communal clashes that could spark a return to civil war.

¤ Thousands of protesters defied a daytime curfew in the Nepali capital yesterday to chant slogans against the king, but the demonstrations seemed less intense and more peaceful than in recent days. Nevertheless, at least 23 people were injured in clashes between police and protesters in different parts of the city, some hit by rubber bullets, according to an official at a private hospital.

¤ Taliban guerillas have attacked a US-funded Afghan construction company, killing an Afghan guard and wounding two, the director of the company said yesterday. Police said three Taliban fighters and a government official were killed in two separate incidents on Sunday in different parts of Ghazni province to the southwest of the capital, Kabul.

¤ Nearly 150 people were injured in Bangladesh yesterday when police used batons and fired teargas shells to disperse activists during an opposition-sponsored strike, witnesses said. The strike shut most transport, offices, schools and business across the country. Sunday is a working day in Bangladesh.

¤ Thailand's election reruns for 40 parliamentary seats yesterday showed no sign of ending a constitutional crisis that has forced Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra to announce he will step down. The reruns were marred by militant attacks in the restive Muslim south and protests against the PM's ruling party.