¤ An Arab assailant stabbed to death a European tourist in Jerusalem's Old City yesterday, Israeli police said.

The spokesman declined to disclose the man's nationality, saying only that he was a European and that police believed he was likely the victim of a "terrorist attack".

¤ Jordan said yesterday a fight between a passenger and a flight attendant on a Qatar Airways flight that flew from Jordan led to a hijack scare that forced the plane to return to the airport.

¤ A suicide bomber killed at least 35 people and wounded more than 120 near one of Shi'ite Islam's holiest sites, the Imam Ali shrine in the southern Iraqi city of Najaf. An Iraqi Sunni group said it had carried out the attack.

¤ Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels said more than 50 civilians had been killed and 200 wounded in their territory in the island's east during a major army offensive to capture a disputed water supply.

¤ A "super typhoon", the strongest to hit China in half a century, slammed into the coast killing at least two people, injuring more than 80 and forcing hundreds of thousands from their homes.