World Highlights

¤ Israeli forces killed four Palestinian gunmen and four civilians, pressing on with an offensive in an Islamic militant stronghold in Gaza City, medics and witnesses said.

The latest casualties in the Shijaia neighbourhood raised to 14 the number of Palestinians killed over the past 24 hours in Israeli attacks on militants in the Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank.

¤ International ceasefire monitors blamed Sri Lankan troops for the killing of 17 aid workers during fighting with Tamil tiger rebels earlier in the month.

The victims were working on tsunami relief projects for international aid group Action Contre La Faim in the northeastern town of Mutur, the scene of several days of fighting between troops and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

¤ A Sudanese national working for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), who was abducted in Sudan's Darfur region by an armed group two weeks ago, is dead, the humanitarian agency said.

The Swiss-based agency said that it had not yet recovered the body of the 31-year-old man, who was not named, nor had it any details of how he was killed.

¤ Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez pledged solidarity with Syria in its struggle against Israel and the United States and predicted the demise of US "imperialism".

Chavez, a harsh critic of US foreign policy, also said he would seek a front-row seat if President George W. Bush accepted an invitation from Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to a televised debate, adding he would be cheering on the Iranian president.

¤ The main opposition candidate in Brazil's presidential race should be more aggressive in denouncing the corruption allegations surrounding President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva or run the risk of getting trounced in the election, the country's former president said.

Fernando Henrique Cardoso, who governed Brazil from 1995 through 2002, said on Tuesday evening that the only way his party's candidate, Geraldo Alckmin, could force a runoff vote was by taking aim at Lula.

¤ Riot police fired teargas and beat a journalist in central Khartoum as opposition party supporters gathered to demonstrate against a recent rise in petrol and sugar prices, witnesses said.

Thousands of people had been expected at the protest organised by a group of opposition parties. But riot police prevented opposition leaders and others from joining the rally, which the authorities had banned, witnesses said.

¤ A dispute over land between two ethnic groups in Chad's remote desert north has killed nine people and injured around 50 more, the central African country's government said.

The clash between members of the Kamadja and Anakaza ethnic groups happened in the Saharan town of Faya on Sunday. At least 20 of the injured had to be taken to hospital in the capital N'Djamena, more than 750 km away.