¤ Iraqi leaders have failed to meet their own deadline for naming new interior and defence ministers, officials said, in an early setback for the government's declared drive to rein in widespread violence. Rival religious and ethnic groups also bickered about the powers of the Sunni Arab speaker of parliament, eight days after the self-styled government of national unity took office.

¤ Israeli jets attacked Syrian-backed Palestinian and Lebanese guerrillas in Lebanon, sparking gun battles on the volatile border hours after rockets fired into northern Israel wounded an Israeli soldier. One Palestinian militant and a Hizbollah fighter were killed and two Lebanese civilians and another Israeli soldier were wounded in one of the worst bouts of violence since Israel ended a 22-year occupation of south Lebanon six years ago.

¤ A senior Republican senator vowed to hold hearings on US Marines' role in the killings of up to two dozen Iraqi civilians last November as a leading Democratic war critic alleged a military cover-up. The US military is investigating the November 19 incident in the town of Haditha, a case some American media are comparing to the 1968 My Lai massacre in Vietnam when US soldiers slaughtered up to 500 villagers.

¤ Six local tourists and a guide were killed by a suspected Tamil Tiger landmine while tracking wild elephants in northwest Sri Lanka, officials said. A separate group of Sri Lankan tourists in Wilpattu National Park in northwest Sri Lanka heard a large explosion in the park on Saturday and discovered the car in a ditch and the bodies of the seven people strewn across the road, Wildlife Department Director General Dayananda Kariyawasam said.