• Gunmen rampaged through a Sunni district of the northwestern Iraqi town of Tal Afar overnight, killing about 50 people in reprisal for bombings in a Shi'ite area, Iraqi officials said yesterday.

• Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah called yesterday for an end to the international blockade on the Palestinian government to help revive efforts to resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict at the heart of the region's problems.

• Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai was briefly detained by police at his party headquarters yesterday and 10 other activists were arrested.

• Ecuador's top lawmaker yesterday accepted a judge's ruling reinstating 57 opposition legislators who were dismissed this month for obstructing President Rafael Correa's plans to rewrite the constitution.

• Britain's government lost a parliamentary vote yesterday on building the country's first Las Vegas-style supercasino in Manchester.

• Thai coup leader General Sonthi Boonyaratglin has urged the government he installed to use emergency powers to prevent small anti-government rallies growing out of control, his spokesman said yesterday.

• Gunmen freed dozens of children and three teachers held hostage for over nine hours in a bus in the Philippine capital yesterday and then surrendered without violence.

• Indonesia announced three deaths from bird flu yesterday, taking its overall human toll from the virus to 69 fatalities, as its president called for international aid to help affected countries defeat the disease.

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