Fierce fighting killed eight American soldiers and wounded at least seven more on Saturday as reports indicated that the long-awaited United States assault on the insurgent-held city of Fallujah had begun. US warplanes and artillery pounded targets in the city amid prolonged clashes with insurgents.

Chained by the neck to a concrete outhouse in a suburban yard in Douala, Cameroon’s commercial capital, for 12 years, it was not much of a life. But given the alternative, Julie was lucky. Slamming her hands on the ground, the family pet was evidently in distress, but at least she had survived — unlike most great apes in Central Africa.

Palestinian officials and senior political figures met on Saturday to thrash out an ”action plan” as doctors conducted blood tests to see if Yasser Arafat is terminally ill. Despite a show of unity, all the major contenders for the succession to Arafat, who has never designated an heir, are jockeying for position.

A constitutional crisis at the heart of Europe was narrowly averted on Saturday after Rocco Buttiglione, the Italian nominee whose anti-gay views had blocked his appointment to the European Commission, finally withdrew his candidacy. In a parting shot, Buttiglione said he had been misquoted and portrayed himself as a scapegoat.

United States President George Bush moved on Saturday to seize the political advantage after Osama bin Laden’s extraordinary intervention in the US presidential election on Friday night. The campaign descended into a final bout of acrimony on Saturday as Bush and John Kerry’s sides attacked each other.

On the island of Flores in the Malay Archipelago, scientists have found remains of a race of 1m-high humans who hunted pony-sized elephants and rats as big as dogs, and battled dragons with saliva laced with deadly bacteria. When it comes to the fantastic, you can never beat science. Now the hunt is on for living relatives of Flores’s little folk.

At a special general meeting of the South African Football Association (Safa), held on Saturday in Johannesburg, Danny Jordaan’s reappointment as CEO was confirmed and the national executive committee also received an update of the preparations for the 2010 World Cup to be held in South Africa.