World Highlights

¤ US President George W. Bush was to announce plans yesterday to deploy thousands of National Guard troops along the US-Mexico border to support efforts to catch more illegal immigrants, as he tries to placate conservatives demanding a tougher policy.

¤ Washington banned all US arms sales to Venezuela yesterday, citing the major oil supplier's lack of help in the fight against terrorism, a State Department official said. The move comes after years of antagonism between leftist Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Washington on issues ranging from trade to oil prices that have dragged relations to their worst state in decades.

¤ Three Taliban commanders were among 11 insurgents killed in a battle near the southern Afghan town of Kandahar in which five policemen were also killed, Afghan authorities said yesterday. In separate incidents yesterday, a French soldier was killed in a blast while clearing mines in the capital, Kabul, and two Canadian soldiers were wounded by a roadside bomb in the southern province of Kandahar.

¤ More than 12,000 doctors across Germany went on strike yesterday in the biggest walkout in the sector since a dispute over pay flared two months ago. Germany's Marburger Bund association, which represents 22,000 German medical professionals, said 12,300 doctors did not report for work at university clinics and state psychiatric hospitals across Germany.

¤ The African Union gave two rebel factions a further two weeks yesterday to sign a peace deal for Sudan's Darfur region, threatening possible international sanctions if they did not endorse it. Only one of the three Darfur rebel factions signed a May 5 accord with Khartoum to end fighting that has killed tens of thousands of people, and officials fear the two holdouts could instigate violence to scuttle the deal.