World Highlights

¤ Hamas and President Mahmoud Abbas voiced conflicting views yesterday on unity government policies central to resumption of international aid to the Palestinian Authority. The governing Hamas movement said in a statement its agreement to form a coalition with Abbas's Fatah faction should not be seen as a softening in the Islamic group's position towards Israel.

¤ The German government approved plans yesterday to send up to 2,400 naval and air force troops to Lebanon, underscoring Germany's increasingly prominent role in foreign peace-keeping missions. The German contingent will help enforce a truce between Israel and Hizbollah after a month-long war that killed nearly 1,200 people in Lebanon, mostly civilians, and 157 Israelis, mainly soldiers.

¤ Riot police quashed labour union protests across Zimbabwe yesterday, beating and arresting union leaders and dozens of other protesters in a show of force by President Robert Mugabe's government. Officers equipped with batons and teargas canisters swooped on central Harare, grabbing 15 protesters, including leaders of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), witnesses said.

¤ A popular television host known as China's Larry King said yesterday that Shanghai authorities pulled the plug on his talk show this year to prevent him from exposing a sensitive case of local official corruption. In his first interview with Western media since being forced off of the air in February, Taiwan-born finance professor Lang Hsien-ping said he kept silent after receiving threats of expulsion, imprisonment and even assassination.