• China slammed Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian's intensified talk of independence, saying anyone who sought a split from China would be a "criminal in history." Mr Chen said on Sunday the self-ruled island should pursue independence and change its official title, the "Republic of China"- moves that worry its key ally, the US, which seeks to maintain the status quo between the two sides.

• More details have emerged of a "cash-for-honours" scandal that has dogged Tony Blair's last months as British prime minister when the BBC named two of his staff allegedly involved in an email exchange about it. The British Broadcasting Corporation said the aides were connected to a story it has been banned by a court injunction from reporting about a police inquiry into a potential criminal cover-up at Mr Blair's office. Detectives have been investigating whether political parties nominated people for state honours in return for loans but are now also probing whether any Blair official sought to conceal evidence from police.

• An al Qaeda wing claimed responsibility for two attacks in Algeria at the weekend that killed seven policemen and four gas pipeline workers. "Our (fighters) conducted an attack on the municipal guard in Tizi Ouzou and killed a number of infidels," Al Qaeda Organisation in the Islamic Maghreb said in a statement posted on a militant website yesterday. The ambush took place on Sunday in Tizi Ouzou province, some 100 km east of the capital Algiers.