World Highlights

¤ Israel's prime minister ordered the army to expand an offensive against the ruling Palestinian movement Hamas after its armed wing fired a missile from Gaza into a major Israeli city for the first time.

Political sources said Ehud Olmert was also considering establishing a buffer zone in northern Gaza to halt the cross-border rocket fire.

¤ Iran postponed crucial nuclear talks with the EU in apparent anger at an exiled opposition leader's visit to the European Parliament, but the meeting will go ahead today.

EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana voiced surprise and impatience after a phone call with the chief Iranian nuclear negotiator.

¤ Blasts hit two buses taking Afghan government workers to their ministries in Kabul killing one person and wounding more than 40 in the second day of attacks in the capital.

Violence by Taliban insurgents has surged in Afghanistan this year to its worst level since the militants were ousted in 2001 but most of the bloodshed has been in the south and east.

¤ Mexico's left-wing presidential candidate wants every single vote recounted and is threatening to call street protests as he fights an election result giving a razor-thin victory to his conservative rival.

Senior aides to Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, a combative former mayor of Mexico City, said they want a recount of Sunday's tight election to include every vote cast, not just the ballot returns reported by polling stations.

¤ Japan will ban visits by a North Korean ferry for six months as part of a package of initial sanctions responding to Pyongyang's missile tests.

The Mangyongbong-92, long suspected to have been involved in carrying parts for North Korea's missile programme, arrived off the port of Niigata yesterday for its seventh visit this year.