• Iran said yesterday it needed time to review a suggestion by the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency for a 'timeout' under which Iranian nuclear work and UN sanctions would be suspended together. UN atomic watchdog chief Mohamed ElBaradei told a Davos forum that military action against Iran's nuclear sites, a step Washington has not ruled out, would be crazy and the two sides should stop flexing muscles and start direct dialogue.

• Gunmen attacked a Somali security boss and fired rocket-propelled grenades at police stations in the latest wave of guerilla-style ambushes on the government and its Ethiopian allies, residents said yesterday. Gunmen opened fire on Mogadishu Police Chief Ali Said's convoy yesterday afternoon, witnesses said. He survived, but one civilian was wounded in the ensuing shootout.

• Pakistani police were on high alert in Peshawar yesterday, as more than 2,OOO people gathered for funerals of a police chief and fellow officers among 15 victims of a suicide bomb attack in the northwestern city. About 30 people were wounded in the blast on Saturday evening, that went off shortly before Shi'ite Muslims, observing their holiest month of Moharram, were to begin a procession in the heart of North West Frontier Province's capital.

• Sri Lanka's government yesterday secured a long-elusive parliamentary majority after 25 opposition MPs defected to its ranks, some securing posts as ministers as President Mahinda Rajapakse shuffled his cabinet, officials said. The government now has 113 seats in the 225 seat parliament, a simple majority that will help it to pass legislation.

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