World highlights

• French conservatives looked set to sweep parliamentary elections yesterday and hand President Nicolas Sarkozy the strong mandate he had sought for the wide-ranging reforms he says are needed to revive the economy. Mr Sarkozy's ruling Union for a Popular Majority (UMP) and its allies would take 360-470 seats in the 557-seat National Assembly, according to estimates released by pollsters after first round polls closed yesterday.

• A suicide truck bomb killed 14 policemen and wounded 42 at a police station north of Baghdad yesterday in the latest assault by insurgents on Iraq's security forces, police said. They said the bomb largely destroyed the station in the village of Albu-Ajeel in Salahaddin province. Many police were initially trapped under rubble, including one officer who called for help on his mobile phone.

• Fighting between the Lebanese army and al Qaeda-inspired militants in north Lebanon entered its fourth week yesterday and five soldiers died from wounds sustained in heavy battles the previous day. The army has now lost 57 soldiers in its conflict with the Fatah al-Islam group, a military source said. At least 42 militants and 31 civilians have also been killed in Lebanon's worst internal violence since the 1975-1990 civil war.

• Rival Palestinian factions battled in the Gaza Strip yesterday, raising the weekend toll to four dead and 44 wounded in the fiercest internal fighting since a ceasefire was declared nearly a month ago. Hours after Palestinian militants from Gaza infiltrated into Israel at a key border crossing using an armoured vehicle marked "TV", Israeli aircraft bombed a Gaza building used by Islamic Jihad, wounding two people, local residents said.