World Highlights

¤ The EU hopes a policy of supporting the democratic opposition in Belarus will eventually end President Alexander Lukashenko's rule. Erkki Tuomioja of Finland, which took over the six-monthly EU presidency on July 1, said the 25-member EU had concluded that a policy of trying to isolate Belarus had not worked. It decided ,therefore, on sanctions specifically targeted against Lukashenko and his key supporters, involving asset freezes and visa bans, while supporting student and non-governmental groups.

¤ Thousands of British railway workers are to strike later this month in a long-running pay dispute, their union said yesterday. Members of Britain's biggest rail union, the RMT, will walk out for 24 hours at noon on July 21 and again for two days from July 27, a spokesman said.

¤ Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki told Iraqis they had one last chance for peace as US Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld held talks with Iraqi leaders on the escalating sectarian violence in the country. Meanwhile in another incident, gunmen stormed a bus station north of Baghdad, pulled 24 people from a crowd and then killed most of them before dumping their bound and blindfolded bodies in a village nearby, officials said.

¤ World powers put Iran on a collision course with the United Nations, asking the Security Council to intervene after Tehran failed to respond to incentives aimed at defusing a standoff over its nuclear programme. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Iran was ready to talk about its nuclear programme with all parties in a "fair atmosphere" but would not retreat from what it sees as its national rights..

¤ Israel killed at least 23 Palestinians in Gaza, including nine members of one family, in an air strike that destroyed a house where the army said senior Hamas commanders were meeting, witnesses said.

¤ China and Russia introduced a UN Security Council resolution that would urge North Korea to suspend its nuclear programme but avoid mandatory weapons-related sanctions as sought by Japan.

¤ Somalia's newly dominant Islamists shot and killed a man after he protested the imposition of new taxes by the group that has rapidly consolidated its power in strategic areas of the country.

¤ Austria will hold a general election on October 1, the Austrian parliament's president said, after all parties agreed to bring forward the election day by eight weeks to avoid a lengthy campaign.