• Iraqi and US forces said they killed 50 people in central Baghdad as American jets and helicopters prowled overhead and Iraq's government welcomed word from Washington that more US troops are on their way. The casualty estimate from the Iraqi Defence Ministry for the day's battle around Haifa Street took the death toll in the neighbourhood, long a bastion of Sunni insurgents, to more than 130 since Saturday, most of them described as "terrorists".

• Basque separatist group ETA said it stood by a permanent ceasefire declared in March despite claiming responsibility for a car bomb that killed two people at Madrid airport on New Year weekend. The group blamed the government for the breakdown in the peace process and said it did not mean to kill anyone in the blast that destroyed a five storey car park at Madrid's Terminal 4 on December 30 - its first fatal attack since May 2003.

• Russia threatened to cut oil output, exerting pressure on Belarus to climb down in a trade dispute that has halted its main crude export pipeline and drawn Europe's condemnation. European leaders deplored the escalation of a tit-for-tat trade row between Russia and Belarus, the erstwhile ally across whose territory the Druzhba ('Friendship') pipeline pumps a third of Russia's five million barrels per day exports.

• Oil plunged more than $2 a barrel to its lowest level in a year-and-a-half as mild winter weather in top consumer the United States pushed prices through a crucial technical support level. Oil is down nearly 12 per cent since the start of the year.

• The United States criticised Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's planned nationalisation of utilities and telecommunications companies and said any US firms affected by it must be compensated. "We've seen (Mr) Chavez's statement. We've also seen the results of nationalisation in other places, and in general these types of actions do not produce economic benefits as expected," said Gordon Johndroe, spokesman for the White House National Security Council.