World highlights

• French President Nicolas Sarkozy's centre-right party crushed the Socialists in the first round of parliamentary elections but still faces major reform hurdles, despite the likely weakness of the opposition. Mr Sarkozy plans a wide series of changes to tax, labour and pension laws aimed at restoring momentum to the French economy and he won overwhelming endorsement when his UMP party routed the Socialists at the weekend.

• Floods and mudslides have killed nearly 100 people in Bangladesh, mostly in the port city of Chittagong where dozens of hillside homes were buried after monsoon rains, officials and rescuers said. At least 84 people died in the city, including entire families, where hillside homes were swept away and many other houses collapsed in the worst such disaster in decades.

• Iran's nuclear behaviour poses a serious concern it might gain the ability to build atom bombs, the UN atomic watchdog agency said as Tehran and the EU resumed talks but dampened expectations of a breakthrough. Underlining tensions, Tehran cancelled a meeting set between its deputy nuclear negotiator and two top International Atomic Energy Agency officials as he was loath to discuss substance on IAEA questions about Iranian activity, diplomats said.

• Four Lebanese soldiers and two relief workers were killed in fierce fighting between the Lebanese army and al Qaeda-inspired militants at a Palestinian refugee camp. A Palestinian cleric trying to mediate an end to the fighting between the army and the Fatah al-Islam group was also wounded at the Nahr al-Bared camp in northern Lebanon.