World in brief

'Over 500 rapes in Congo since July'

Congo: UN assistant secretary-general for peacekeeping Atul Khare told the security council on Tuesday that insurgents in eastern Congo have committed over 500 rapes since late July - many within 20 miles of a UN base.

Mr Khare accepted partial responsibility for not protecting citizens in the Luvungi area and announced that peacekeepers will now undertake more night patrols and perform more random checks on communities.

Rape as a weapon of war has become increasingly commonplace in eastern Congo.

Soldier who shot activist released

Israel: Authorities have released the soldier who shot British solidarity activist Thomas Hurndall in Gaza in April 2003.

Mr Hurndall, who had been taking photos of an International Solidarity Movement protest in Rafah, died the following year after a nine-month coma.

Sergeant Taysir Hayb, who was found guilty of manslaughter in 2005, served just six years of the eight-year sentence he received because a Southern Command military tribunal ruled that he had been sufficiently rehabilitated.

Two weeks of fighting kills 230

Somalia: Fighting between guerillas and Ugandan and Burundian soldiers propping up the weak UN-backed government has killed more than 230 people in the past two weeks, UN officials have reported.

The continuous fighting started on August 23 after the militant al-Shabab group announced a "massive" war against the 6,000 African Union peacekeepers.

The UN says some 230 people have been killed, 400 wounded and at least 23,000 displaced since fighting began.

Gaza militants fire mortar shell

Occupied Territories: Palestinian militants have fired a mortar round from the Gaza Strip after Tel Aviv tightened its blockade of the enclave and imposed one on the West Bank prior to celebrations for Jewish New Year.

The Israeli military said that the mortar narrowly missed a kindergarten in a kibbutz in southern Israel and did not cause casualties or damage.

It was the third such incident of rocket fire since direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority got under way last week.