World Highlights

O Gunmen abducted eight foreign workers in a night-time raid on an oil rig off the coast of Nigeria, raising new security fears after a series of militant attacks that cut output from Africa's top oil producer.

O The Israeli military said one of its patrols killed two Egyptian border policemen in self-defence after the Egyptians stormed across the frontier firing at them. Egyptian security sources cast doubt on the Israeli account, saying the policemen were shot after wandering across the unfenced desert border by accident.

O Somalia faces a humanitarian disaster unless militias end fighting that has already claimed hundreds of lives and displaced thousands of people, a United Nations official warned.

O Czechs voted in a close general election fought between ruling Social Democrats who took the nation into the EU and promise a stronger welfare state, and right-wingers vowing to stop corruption and slash taxes.

O Russian President Vladimir Putin removed his hawkish chief prosecutor Vladimir Ustinov, in what analysts said was a tactical victory for moderates over hardliners in a Kremlin power struggle.

O Mauritanian security services have rounded up dozens of suspected members and supporters of an al Qaeda-linked Islamic rebel group who were plotting attacks, security sources said.