World highlights
¤ Heavily armed insurgents battled US and Iraqi troops in the restive northern city of Mosul where at least four policemen, including a top officer, and four militants were reported killed. A suicide bomber drove a car packed with explosives into a...
¤ Heavily armed insurgents battled US and Iraqi troops in the restive northern city of Mosul where at least four policemen, including a top officer, and four militants were reported killed. A suicide bomber drove a car packed with explosives into a crowd of policemen watching a football match in Hadhar, 90 km south of Mosul, killing 10 people, including seven civilians. Twelve people were wounded.
¤ Washington imposed sanctions on two of Russia's leading arms firms over their links with Iran, a step Moscow said was a "clearly illegitimate" attempt to impose US laws on foreigners. Russia's Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the US State Department had slapped sanctions on state export agency Rosoboronexport and state-owned warplane maker Sukhoi, meaning they could no longer work with US firms.
¤ Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's lead widened over the main opposition candidate in the country's presidential race, keeping him on track to win a second term in the October 1 vote, a poll showed. The survey by polling firm Ibope, commissioned by Brazil's National Industry Confederation, showed Mr Lula with 44 per cent in the first round against 25 per cent for opposition candidate Geraldo Alckmin.
¤ Uganda's Lord Resistance Army declared a ceasefire and called on the government to lay down its arms ahead of peace talks due to resume in south Sudan next week. A spokesman contacted by satellite telephone at the rebels' camp in Democratic Republic of Congo said the cessation of hostilities was issued by the rebels' deputy commander Vincent Otti, on behalf of LRA leader Joseph Kony.
¤ Somalia's political crisis deepened further as another minister quit the interim government, intensifying pressure on Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi to resign. Reconstruction Minister Barre Shire Adan's departure brings to 40 the number of senior officials to desert the fragile administration, many of them citing Mr Gedi's reluctance to reach out to rival Islamists who control a large swathe of the nation.