• US helicopters attacked gunmen holed up inside high-rise buildings in Baghdad in what the US military said was an operation to regain control of a major street cutting through the heart of the city.

Thirty insurgents were killed and 35 detained during day-long gunbattles in the area, Iraq's Defence Ministry said. The US military said one US soldier had been killed in central Baghdad but would not confirm whether it was during the clashes.

• A US Senate committee rejected President George W. Bush's plan to add troops in Iraq, sending the measure to the full Senate for a vote expected next week.

On a bipartisan vote of 12-9, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee approved a resolution expressing clear disapproval of Mr Bush's Iraq policy, a day after he asked Congress to give it more time to work. The vote is non-binding, but supporters hope it will convince the President to reconsider.

• Israel President Moshe Katsav announced in an emotional speech that he would take a leave of absence and fight what he called venomous allegations of rape and sexual assault against female employees.

But minutes after Mr Katsav vowed not to quit unless formally indicted, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, himself under investigation over alleged corruption, said in a separate address the President must go.