World Highlights

¤ Four defence witnesses in the trial of Saddam Hussein were arrested yesterday after the court ordered them held on suspicion of making false allegations against the prosecution, the ousted leader's attorney said. Khalil al-Dulaimi, who heads the defence team, said the witnesses were arrested after "their testimony destroyed the credibility of the court".

¤ Final results from Montenegro's referendum confirmed victory for the pro-independence bloc, voting officials said yesterday, effectively ending a union with Serbia dating back to 1918. Referendum commission head Frantisek Lipka told reporters that final results showed 55.5 per cent had voted for independence, surpassing the 55 per cent target majority set by the EU for recognition of the result.

¤ Indonesia began immunising quake survivors against measles yesterday and helicopters swept over disaster sites on Java island to look for isolated victims, but help was still too slow for many. Indonesian Health Minister Siti Fadillah Supari said the government was also evacuating patients from hospitals in the immediate area to more distant cities to relieve overcrowding. Saturday's 6.3 magnitude earthquake, centred just off the Indian Ocean coast near Yogyakarta, the main city in the region, killed 5,846 people and left 130,000 homeless.

¤ Palestinian militants firing rockets from the Gaza Strip came close yesterday to hitting the home of Israeli Defence Minister Amir Peretz. A house about 100 metres from Mr Peretz's residence in the town of Sderot was damaged by one of three rockets that Islamic Jihad militants said they fired into southern Israel.

¤ Talks intensified yesterday to convince two Darfur rebel factions to sign a peace deal by a midnight deadline to end a three-year-old conflict in Sudan's violent west where tens of thousands have been killed. A May 5 deal was signed by only one rebel faction leader, Minni Arcua Minnawi of the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA), and African Union mediators gave two other factions until yesterday to sign or face possible UN sanctions.

¤ Twenty-one AIDS activists were arrested yesterday after chaining themselves together and refusing to leave the Manhattan building housing the offices of John Bolton, US ambassador to the UN. The protesters unfurled a giant letter detailing their demands, including lower prices for AIDS drugs, and said they would not leave the lobby until Bolton accepted the letter. Police later removed the chanting protesters, carrying some who had gone limp, witnesses said.

¤ US troops fired in self-defence when a road accident in Kabul triggered a riot, the military said yesterday, as Afghan lawmakers demanded the prosecution of a soldier driving a runaway truck that killed at least five people.