World Highlights

¤ A rebel leader from Sudan's Darfur region has rebuffed the latest proposals from African Union (AU) mediators for him to join a peace deal despite intense pressure by diplomats desperate to gain wider support for the accord.

¤ Heavily-armed gangsters attacked police posts in Brazil's Sao Paulo state for a second night in the worst wave of crime-related violence in the country's industrial and business heartland in memory.

¤ Israeli troops killed seven Palestinians in two separate raids, medics said, in the worst day of violence in weeks in the occupied West Bank.

¤ Haitian President Rene Preval took office, giving the poorest nation in the Americas its first democratically elected leader since Jean-Bertrand Aristide was ousted more than two years ago.

¤ US Air Force General Michael Hayden's chances of winning Senate confirmation to head the CIA depend on how he explains his involvement in eavesdropping and data collection programs, two key senators said.

¤ The White House said it was considering sending National Guard troops to the US-Mexico border only in a supportive role as a stopgap measure, but the idea got a mixed reception on Capitol Hill.

¤ Comorans voted in the final round of a presidential race dominated by concerns over extreme poverty, and corruption.