• The US plans to slash by more than a third an $86 million budget request to bolster Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's security forces because of concern over how funds would be spent. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told a congressional committee she would submit a new plan soon, cutting out funds she feared could have reached the wrong hands.

• A militant loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction was killed and seven people were wounded yesterday in the first deadly clash between Fatah and Hamas since a unity government was formed. Fatah said Hamas's so-called Executive Force fired a rocket-propelled grenade at the northern Gaza home of a senior al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades commander, killing one of the group's members. Seven people, including at least four gunmen and a bystander, were wounded, but the al-Aqsa commander was unhurt.

• French President Jacques Chirac lent his support to Nicolas Sarkozy's presidential bid yesterday, setting aside longstanding hostility between the pair to strengthen the right's campaign. Presdent Chirac steps down after 12 years in office following the second round of the election in May but he had kept silent over whether he would back his ambitious former protege.

• Somali insurgents dragged soldiers' bodies through the streets of Mogadishu before burning them amid heavy fighting that killed at least 13 people and injured scores. The corpses of five soldiers - either from the Somali government army or their Ethiopian allies - were desecrated during some of the worst clashes in the lawless capital since the interim government took over in December.