World highlights

¤ Ten US soldiers were killed on Tuesday, the US military said, in one of the sharpest spikes of attacks on American forces battling soaring sectarian violence and a Sunni Arab insurgency. The bloodshed brings to at least 68 the number of US troops killed in October, an exceptionally high toll that is likely to bring renewed attention to the Iraq war in the run-up to US congressional elections in November.

¤ Iran's chief nuclear negotiator threatened retaliation - possibly by suspending international atomic inspections - if the United Nations imposed sanctions on Tehran over its nuclear programme.

¤ Longtime Bush family friend James Baker plans to give President George W. Bush recommendations that may provide a way out of Iraq, but whether he will take up the offer is far from certain.

¤ Fighting between Nato forces and Taliban guerrillas killed at least 20 civilians in southern Afghanistan, police and officials said, the highest number of combat-related deaths in weeks.

¤ Fifteen Tamil Tiger rebels were killed when they attacked a naval base in southern Sri Lanka, triggering brief looting of minority Tamil shops in the area and dealing a fresh blow to a battered peace process.

¤ Sudanese Janjaweed militia and Chadian rebels have attacked at least 10 villages in south-east Chad in the past fortnight, killing over 100 people and displacing more than 3,000, local and UN officials say.

¤ Prime Minister Tony Blair said there would be no shift in his strategy of keeping British troops in Iraq until homegrown forces were capable of ensuring security, despite mounting criticism.

¤ Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said he had raised concerns about Iran's nuclear programme in talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

¤ The nuclear programmes of Iran and North Korea pose the two greatest threats to world peace and could spark a nuclear arms race among their neighbours, Germany's foreign minister said.