World highlights

• The strongest typhoon to hit China in half a century killed more than 100 people, dozens of whom had taken shelter in a house that collapsed, Xinhua news agency said. The toll appeared likely to rise.

• The Tamil Tigers said the Sri Lankan military had attacked their northern territory and bombed a training camp in the east, killing many rebels, as the battlefront of the worst fighting since a 2002 truce spread.

• The US embassy in India warned American citizens of possible attacks by al Qaeda in or around New Delhi and Mumbai in the run-up to the country's Independence Day celebrations next week.

• Mexican electoral officials, monitored by judges, painstakingly tallied votes from last month's presidential election in a partial recount that appeared unlikely to resolve a dispute over fraud claims. Conservative Felipe Calderon, who won the July 2 vote by a tiny margin, said the recount of votes from nine per cent of polling stations was proving he won the election fairly.

• The port city of Tyre could run out of food in two days, its mayor said, as humanitarian agencies sought ways to bring aid to an estimated 100,000 people trapped in south Lebanon.

• Caviar lovers may benefit from a five-nation deal entering into force from today meant to clean up the badly polluted Caspian Sea. The Caspian Convention - grouping Russia, Iran, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan - is the first legally binding document on any subject adopted by the five shoreline states with widely differing political systems.

• The bodies of two US servicemen have been discovered in the wreckage of their helicopter which crashed in Iraq's Anbar province, the US military said.

• Somalia's political standoff may erupt into a region-wide conflict involving al Qaeda unless its fragile government can bring Islamists into its ranks, a think-tank said. Foreign states, particularly Ethiopia and Eritrea, must stop supporting the rival factions or risk inflaming the situation, the International Crisis Group (ICG) said in a report.

• Forces allied to Somalia's interim government in the northern Puntland region are ready to repel any attack by Islamists, a regional police chief said. Fighters of the Islamic courts movement say they are advancing on Galkaayo, a town controlled by allies of the interim government, in "technicals" - trucks mounted with machine guns and rockets.

• The government of south Sudan failed to follow strict World Bank procurement procedures on two infrastructure contracts, highlighting its inexperience and the need for oversight, a senior bank official said.

The former rebels who run the south are desperate to rebuild a region lacking running water, electricity and tarmacked roads after more than 20 years of civil war.