World highlights

¤ The Israeli military killed seven Palestinian militants and a civilian after pulling out of a battered town where it had mounted its biggest operation in the Gaza Strip in a year. "The Israelis leave one area and enter another," Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said. "We have spoken to the American administration and to the Europeans that such a situation cannot help restore security and stability."

¤ Nicaragua's former Marxist guerilla leader Daniel Ortega was set to cap a long climb back to power with an election victory that bolsters an anti-US bloc in Latin America. Mr Ortega had a clear lead as results trickled in from Sunday's presidential vote and victory was expected to be confirmed with a final batch of returns later in the day.

¤ A constitutional crisis in Kyrgyzstan briefly turned violent when riot police used tear gas to break up a street brawl between government supporters and opposition protesters. The ex-Soviet Central Asian state is locked in a high-stakes stand-off. Opposition lawmakers have adopted a new constitution slashing presidential powers, and President Kurmanbek Bakiyev has responded by threatening to dissolve parliament.

¤ Tajik election authorities handed President Imomali Rakhmonov a fresh seven-year mandate but the opposition condemned the poll as illegal and Western monitors denounced serious irregularities. Mr Rakhmonov, a former Soviet collective farm boss who has ruled Tajikistan since 1992, won 79.3 per cent of the vote, Central Election Commission head Mirzoali Boltuyev said.

¤ More than 100 people were killed in clashes between Arabs and non-Arabs in southeast Chad last week, the government said, and it accused Arab militia raiders from Sudan of stirring up ethnic violence. President Idriss Deby's administration said the violence inside Chad once again underlined the need for UN peacekeepers to be sent to Sudan's western Darfur region to stop the long-running conflict there from spilling over the border.

¤ Two oil workers taken hostage in Nigeria, one Briton and one American, were released in good health after five days in captivity, a state government spokesman said. The two men were working on a ship off the Nigerian coast for Norway's Petroleum Geo-Services when they were abducted by armed militants demanding cash and basic amenities for nearby communities.