London - Japanese carmaker Nissan Thursday announced major job cuts at a plant in north-east England which accounts for the bulk of British car exports.

Nissan said 1,200 jobs would go at its plant in Sunderland, near Newcastle, which employs around 5,000 workers and is one of the biggest employers in the region.

The Nissan plant is Britain's largest car exporter, selling 80 per cent of its cars abroad. It was opened to great fanfare during the rule of Conservative ex-prime minister Margaret Thatcher in 1986.

Gaza - A driver bringing humanitarian supplies from the northern crossing point of the Gaza Strip into the territory was killed when the aid convoy was fired upon, a spokesman for the United Nations said.

Adnan Abu Hasna, from the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said the convoy came under Israeli fire near the Erez Crossing, killing one driver and injuring another.

The convoy had UN flags and the drivers were wearing UNRWA vests, Abu Hasna said, noting that details were still sketchy and that the agency was gathering more information.

Kathmandu- Private Nepalese television stations Thursday announced several hours of cuts to regular broadcasts, citing growing power outages.

Television Broadcasters' Nepal, an umbrella body of five private stations, said they would no longer be able to keep up round-the- clock broadcasts due to power outages.

The government-owned Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) earlier Thursday announced 12 hours of power cuts across the country, saying it was unable to meet demand.

Oslo- A record number of exploration oil wells were drilled 2008 on the Norwegian continental shelf in the wake of record high oil prices, the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate said Thursday.

Oil production from the Norwegian continental shelf is continuing to decline but 2008 oil production was almost 4 per cent higher than the agency's previous forecast.

The production increase equalled 70,000 barrels per day.

In 2008, 242.2 million standard cubic metres of oil equivalents were produced, down roughly 12 per cent compared to the record year 2004 but slightly more than in 2007.

Buenos Aires - French motorcyclist Pascal Terry who died during the Darar Rally could have been saved if he had been discovered earlier, Argentinian authorities have said.

French media voiced criticism Thursday after it emerged that a mix-up and a communications breakdown had delayed the search for the rider.

The 49-year-old Yamaha rider had gone missing during the second stage between Santa Rosa and Puerto Madryn in the province of Chubut on Sunday.

His body was found in the early hours of Wednesday about 15 metres from his bike around 300 metres from the stage route.

Damascus  - An Egyptian proposal to halt fighting in the Gaza Strip would serve Israel rather than help Hamas, a statement by the Islamist Palestinian movement said Thursday.

"This initiative seeks limiting the Palestinian resistance while freeing the Israeli occupation and helping it achieve some of the goals it failed to achieve by its military attack," Hamas said.

"We also refuse to deploy international forces in the strip or international supervisors," the statement added.