World Highlights

• Indian and Pakistani troops exchanged small arms fire after an attempt by anti-India militants to cross their heavily guarded border in the disputed territory of Kashmir, an Indian army spokesman said. "The (firing) has been going on for quite some time now between the two sides after an infiltration bid was foiled," Lieutenant Colonel G.D. Goswami said.

• The United States has extended the tours of duty of 3,200 troops in Afghanistan and plans more than $8 billion in aid for the country in a drive to halt a Taliban resurgence, officials said. The troops from the 3rd Brigade, 10th Mountain Division, were due to complete a year-long deployment next month, defence officials said. But their tour has been extended by up to 120 days, the Defence Department said in a statement.

• Georgian special services have foiled an attempt by a Russian citizen to sell weapons-grade uranium for $1 million to agents he thought were radical Islamists, a senior Interior Ministry official. The official said Oleg Khintsagov, a resident of Russia's North Ossetia region, was arrested on February 1, last year, and a closed court soon after convicted him to eight-and-half years in prison.

• Gunmen abducted three Chinese workers at a Nigerian oilfield, bringing to 32 the number of foreigners being held by armed groups in Africa's top oil producer. Seven other Chinese staff of the China National Petroleum Company (CNPC) were missing after the dawn raid in the southern state of Bayelsa, and one attacker was killed in an exchange of fire, authorities said.

• Attackers killed one Ethiopian soldier and wounded another in the southern Somali port of Kismayu, in the latest assault on the interim government's ally in a war to oust rival Islamists. The shootout happened in the main market in Kismayu, the last city the Islamists held before joint Ethiopian-Somali government forces ran them into the nearby bush of Somalia's southern tip over the New Year.

• Five people have been charged with involvement in the killing of Turkish-Armenian editor Hrant Dink, Turkish media reported. Police blew up a suspicious package outside parliament which carried a note from the ultranationalist Turkish Revenge Brigade (TIT) calling for two key suspects, including the suspected assassin, to be released.

• An Israeli parliamentary panel approved a request by President Moshe Katsav to take a leave of absence after prosecutors prepared criminal charges against him for alleged rape and other sexual misconduct. The Knesset House Committee voted by 13-11 to declare Katsav "temporarily incapacitated" for three months, a face-saving measure for the presidency while Attorney General Menachem Mazuz decides whether to order what would be an unprecedented felony trial for an Israeli head of state.