Other stories in brief...
Nato strikes kill 165 Taliban in two battles
KABUL - Air and artillery strikes left more than 165 Taliban fighters dead in two battles in southern Afghanistan, Nato coalition forces said yesterday.
More than 100 insurgents were killed near Musa Qala, a town in Helmand province which British troops abandoned as part of a controversial peace deal last spring. "The Taliban seem to be making a stand to protect their perceived safe haven," said a US military spokesman, Maj Chris Belcher.
A further 65 fighters died in neighbouring Uruzgan, where mostly Dutch troops are stationed. One coalition fighter was killed, a spokesman said.
The casualty figures could not be independently verified, but their lopsided nature highlights how western forces are struggling to translate military victory into peace, against a backdrop of growing instability. - (Guardian service)
Eight Palestinians killed in Gaza
GAZA - Israel killed eight Palestinians and injured 21 in military operations in the Gaza Strip yesterday and threatened a major ground sweep of the Hamas-run territory to stem cross- border rocket fire.
Five members of the Army of Islam militant group died in an Israeli air strike on their car in Gaza City. Separately, Palestinian witnesses said Israeli shelling killed a gunman and two bystanders in the northern town of Beit Hanoun.
The fighting - among the bloodiest since Hamas Islamists seized control of Gaza in June - came hours after militants said they had launched more than 12 rockets at the southern Israeli town of Sderot. - (Reuters)
60 die in Vietnam bridge collapse
HANOI - A section of a Japanese-funded bridge under construction in southern Vietnam collapsed yesterday, killing up to 60 workers and injuring about 100 in the country's worst such disaster.
A contractor with a Chinese company working on the bridge, being built in Can Tho city, said 60 people were killed. Vietnam TV reported 55 dead, 97 injured, including 17 with critical head injuries. - (Reuters)