<B>INDIA:</B> At least three states with large Muslim populations were put on alert yesterday after al-Qaida issued a video claiming to have expanded into India.

Al Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahri vowed that its militants would bring sharia law to the entire subcontinent and “wage jihad against its enemies.”

The new group “is the fruit of a blessed effort of more than two years to gather the mojahedin in the Indian subcontinent into a single entity,” he added.

<B>LIBYA:</B> Four months of fighting by militias in the country’s two biggest cities, Tripoli and Benghazi, has forced 250,000 people to flee, including 100,000 who have been internally displaced, the UN said yesterday.

The UN Support Mission in Libya and the UN Human Rights Office issued a report suggesting that 150,000 people, including migrant workers, have fled the country.

It adds that a “climate of fear” has made citizens reluctant to speak about militia abuses.

<B>EUROPEAN UNION:</B> EU spokesman Michael Mann announced yesterday that talks between Iran and six world powers on a nuclear deal will resume in New York on September 18.

He said that preparatory meetings will be held in Vienna next week.

The talks have stalled over disagreements about the purpose of Iran’s nuclear programme, which Tehran insists is for peaceful purposes only.

<B>SOUTH AFRICA:</B> Dalai Lama representative Nangsa Choedon revealed yesterday that the Tibetan separatist leader had once again been refused entry into South Africa.

She said that Department of International Relations and Co-operation officials had called her to say that his visa request had been denied.

He had been invited to attend next month’s annual world summit of Nobel peace laureates in Cape Town.