Israeli warplanes launched fresh airstrikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs and Lebanon’s southern and eastern regions today, killing at least eight people. The stepped-up bombardment came a day after cross-border guerrilla rockets killed 15 Israelis.

Newsweek magazine has apologised to readers for errors in a story alleging US interrogators at Guantanamo Bay desecrated the Quran. The accusations, which the magazine vowed to re-examine, spawned protests in Afghanistan that left 15 dead and scores injured.

Thousands of American and Iraqi soldiers launched a major assault on militiamen loyal to a radical Shiite cleric in the holy Iraqi city of Najaf today.