World Highlights

¤ At least 17 insurgents and one US Marine have been killed in a major offensive continuing near Iraq's border with Syria, the US military said as violence flared elsewhere in Iraq.

The campaign to secure western Iraq against Sunni Arab insurgents and foreign fighters before a December 15 election went into a third day; a suicide car bomber killed six policemen and three civilians in Baghdad's southern Dora district.

¤ Prime Minister Tony Blair was "seduced by the glamour of US power" in the build-up to the Iraq war and repeatedly failed to influence US policy, a former top British diplomat said in published comments.

Christopher Meyer, a former British ambassador in Washington who was heavily involved in the pre-war planning, said Mr Blair was reluctant to negotiate conditions with President George W. Bush over Britain's support for war.

¤ Indian Foreign Minister Natwar Singh resigned his post, becoming the first political casualty of an independent report into irregularities in the United Nations' oil-for-food programme for Iraq.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will take over his duties, a spokesman for the Prime Minister said. Natwar Singh will remain in the Cabinet pending the outcome of inquiries, spokesman Sanjaya Baru said.

¤ Pakistan and India opened a crossing on their disputed border yesterday to help earthquake survivors but the historic move was quickly beset by trouble when Pakistani villagers were turned back by their own police firing teargas.

Pakistani police also fired into the air as the protesters tried to approach the heavily militarised Line of Control, the de facto border separating Pakistani and Indian Kashmir.

¤ Chile arrested Peru's disgraced ex-President Alberto Fujimori after he arrived in Santiago by surprise from Japan, and Peru said it would request his extradition to try him on human rights and corruption charges.

Mr Fujimori, who had been living in Japan as a fugitive since 2000, was arrested at the Marriott Hotel in Santiago. In a statement when he arrived on Sunday he said he had come to Chile on his way back to Peru to run for president next year.

¤ The United States said its relations with oil producing ally Azerbaijan may cool after a parliamentary election that Western monitors said fell short of democratic standards.

The opposition announced plans for street protests after Sunday's vote in the ex-Soviet country handed victory to the ruling party backing President Ilham Aliyev, though analysts ruled out any Ukraine-style revolution.

¤ Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's brother-in-law is among six Syrian officers UN investigators want to interview in Lebanon over the killing of ex-premier Rafik al-Hariri, a Lebanese political source said.

The source said Major General Assef Shawkat, head of military intelligence who is married to Mr Assad's sister Bushra, was on a list of six names sent to Damascus by chief UN investigator Detlev Mehlis requesting that they be questioned at the inquiry's headquarters east of Beirut.

¤ The Iraqi politician most associated with the discredited pre-war intelligence that has the Bush presidency in turmoil visits Washington this week as he manoeuvres for advantage before Iraq's December 15 elections.

Ahmad Chalabi, Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister, is a former US golden boy who for years was on the Pentagon payroll.