World Highlights

• Eight people were killed when troops from a powerful Somali Islamist movement clashed with fighters allied to the interim government a day after it rejected a peace initiative. The fighting near the semi-autonomous northern Puntland region is the second duel between the sides since last Monday, and the latest sign of tensions that could bring full-blown war.

• Bangladeshi authorities said they would use troops to help keep order after protesters demanding the removal of election commissioners paralysed much of the country with a violent transport blockade. A man was killed and 50 others were injured during the first day of the blockade, which cut off the capital, Dhaka, from the rest of the country, shut ports and paralysed the main cities, police and witnesses said.

• South Ossetia held a referendum intended to reaffirm independence from Georgia in a vote the West calls illegal but which Russia says should be respected. Nestled on the Russian border in the foothills of the Caucasus mountains, South Ossetia broke away after a 1991-92 war that killed hundreds and forced tens of thousands to flee.

• UN humanitarian chief Jan Egeland met the reclusive leader of Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army in a brief and stormy session that ended without agreement, witnesses said. Mr Egeland had hoped to secure humanitarian gestures from Joseph Kony as a way to promote talks on ending the 20-year-old insurgency in northern Uganda, in which tens of thousands of people have been killed and nearly two million displaced.

• The Bush administration is intent on overcoming Democratic opposition to UN Ambassador John Bolton, the White House said, but top Democrats said Congress would not confirm the outspoken envoy. 'I think if (Bolton) actually was able to get a vote in the full Senate, he would succeed... I'm still hopeful that we can get him through," White House Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten said on ABC's This Week with George Stephanopoulos.