World Highlights

¤ Chances of a peace agreement for Sudan's Darfur region looked slim yesterday despite a 48-hour extension to negotiations, observers said, citing rebel inflexibility. Mediators from the African Union (AU) agreed in the early hours after a deadline expired to give the government of Sudan and two rebel groups until midnight tonight to agree on a proposed peace plan, the result of two years of talks. The government has said it will accept the 85-page draft agreement, but the rebels say they will not sign unless a number of demands are met.

¤ The US military said yesterday it had every confidence in the new Iraqi army it is training, after hundreds of Sunni Arab recruits joined a protest at a graduation parade that bordered on mutiny. Three years to the day since President George W. Bush declared the US "mission accomplished" in the brief campaign to invade and overthrow Saddam Hussein, Washington still has 133,000 troops in Iraq, suffering daily casualties.

¤ Home Secretary Charles Clarke yesterday rejected calls for his resignation over the bungled release of 1,000 foreign prisoners from British jails, insisting he was the right man to sort out the problem. Opposition politicians called for Mr Clarke to go after the Times newspaper reported yesterday he had waited three weeks before telling Prime Minister Tony Blair about the prisoner bungle.

¤ Canadian troops killed up to 20 Taliban insurgents who were preparing to ambush a military convoy in southern Afghanistan, a Canadian military spokesman said yesterday. The weekend clash took place in the southern province of Helmand, where yesterday British forces took took over security responsibilities from US forces.

¤ Iranian forces battling Kurdish rebels shelled parts of northern Iraq's region of Kurdistan yesterday, the regional interior minister said, the second attack in 10 days. Othman Mahmoud said Iranian troops shelled at least 10 villages in several border areas in northeastern Iraq.