World highlights

• Gunmen from rival Palestinian factions killed one person and wounded four others in the Gaza Strip and occupied West Bank as Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas appealed for an end to the internal fighting. A top aide to President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah said Mr Abbas was seriously considering the possibility of forming an emergency government, an administration of technocrats or calling early elections to end the crisis with Hamas.

• Uniformed gunmen driving official-looking trucks snatched 14 people from computer stores in central Baghdad, in the latest kidnap to fuel fears of sectarian militias infiltrating Iraq's security forces. A day after gunmen forced 26 workers into a chilled meat van and drove them away from a food processing factory in the city, police said seven government-style four-wheel drive vehicles carrying men in camouflage converged on a row of computer sales and repair shops close to Baghdad's Technology University.

• Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva faces a month of high-stakes campaigning against an inspired challenger who will try to hammer on corruption scandals to unseat the former metalworker in a run-off vote. Lula, Brazil's first working-class president, failed to get over 50 per cent of the votes needed to clinch outright victory in Sunday's presidential election, setting up a showdown with opposition challenger Geraldo Alckmin on October 29.

• Iran will not suspend uranium enrichment, as demanded by the West, but is still holding talks about its nuclear programme, the Iranian government spokesman said. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said as she flew to the Middle East that foreign ministers of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany might meet this week to discuss Iran. But she said there was no sign Iran would halt its atomic work.