World highlights

¤ Israel accused Syria yesterday of continuing to smuggle weapons to Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon in violation of a United Nations-backed ceasefire and said it might take military action if the shipments didn't stop. "We view this with great severity," Israeli Defence Minister Amir Peretz told a parliamentary panel.

¤ Car bombs killed at least 30 people in Iraq yesterday, including two near simultaneous blasts in a mixed area in Baghdad shortly before Muslims gathered at sunset to break their fasting during the holy month of Ramadan. The fresh violence came as US President George W. Bush assured Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki that Washington had not set any deadline for the Iraqi government to get control of sectarian violence threatening to plunge Iraq into civil war.

¤ Israeli President Moshe Katsav, under pressure to resign after police recommended he be charged with rape, stayed away from a parliamentary ceremony yesterday after legislators threatened to snub him. The allegations have cast a shadow on the presidency, a public office Israelis cherish as being above their usual rough-and-tumble politics.

¤ UN war crimes prosecutor Carla Del Ponte said yesterday she saw no real political will from Serbia to catch Ratko Mladic or other major suspects, seen by the European Union as vital to closer ties with Belgrade. "It's almost a smokescreen they are describing us and showing us, it's no real political will and investigative will to locate and arrest Mladic," Del Ponte told reporters after briefing EU ministers and officials in Luxembourg.