SRI LANKA

A series of gun battles between troops and rebel fighters across Sri Lanka's volatile northern region killed eight rebels, the military said.

The deaths came amid an increase in violence in recent weeks along the front lines between rebel territory and government-controlled areas.

The military has blamed the fighting on the Tamil Tiger rebels, saying they were trying to push back after being driven out of eastern Sri Lanka this year. The rebels say the government is exaggerating the new violence.

THE MIDDLE EAST

Hamas fighter killed in strike

An Israeli missile strike killed a Hamas militant in the northern Gaza Strip today, Hamas and residents said.

Hamas said a member of its armed wing was killed and three others were wounded in the Israeli attack in Beit Hanoun.

An Israeli army spokesman in Tel Aviv said the strike was aimed at a group of Gaza militants that had launched a rocket at southern Israel.

AFGHANISTAN

Taliban chief seeks help to oust Karzai

Fugitive Taliban leader Mullah Omar called on Afghanistan's neighbors to help his militants oust President Hamid Karzai and force foreign troops out of the country.

In southern Afghanistan a police vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb, leaving four officers dead and six wounded, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization said.

Omar's message -- the authenticity of which couldn't be immediately confirmed -- said "neighbors should help Afghans drive Western forces from Afghanistan as they helped them during the Soviet Union's invasion."

HAITI

20 killed in floods after heavy rains

Waters from a rain-swollen river that flooded the town of Cabaret killed at least 20 people and damaged dozens of homes, government officials said.

Witnesses said the Bretelle River burst its banks, sending water 5 feet deep surging through the dirt streets of the town of 70,000.

The floodwaters overturned trucks, flattened banana trees and knocked down shacks of corrugated metal. "I wasn't able to save anything. I just closed the house and the water came through," said Jude Beauvais, 32, a schoolteacher.

THE NETHERLANDS

Hallucinogenic mushrooms barred

The Dutch government banned the sale of hallucinogenic mushrooms, tightening drug policies after the suicide of an intoxicated teenager.

The ban was the latest backlash against the freewheeling policies of the past.

Psilocybin, the main active chemical in the mushrooms, has been illegal under international law since 1971. But fresh mushrooms were sold legally here on the theory that it was impossible to determine how much psilocybin a given mushroom has.

RUSSIA

3 astronauts reach space station

A Soyuz craft carrying the international space station's first female commander, American Peggy Whitson, veteran Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko and Malaysia's first space traveler, Sheik Muszaphar Shukor, docked at the orbital outpost after a two-day trip from Russia's launch facility in Kazakhstan.

From Times Wire Reports