World highlights

O Using rings and other belongings, Sri Lankan officials tried yesterday to identify the corpses of 12 soldiers mutilated beyond recognition in a mine blast, the latest in a rash of attacks by suspected rebels amid fears of a return to civil war. Tuesday's attack in the island's far north was one of the deadliest incidents since a 2002 ceasefire and the second in less than a week. The toll rose to 12 after two wounded victims died.

O Iran said yesterday it would "seriously and enthusiastically" study a Russian proposal aimed at reducing international fears about its nuclear programme, the ISNA students news agency reported. The remarks by Javad Vaeedi, deputy head of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, were the most positive yet by a senior Tehran official about Moscow's offer to form a joint venture with Iran to enrich uranium in Russia.

O A former German government minister, his wife and three children were kidnapped in Yemen yesterday, local officials said, but one of their captors insisted they were all safe. Germany's Foreign Ministry said former junior foreign minister Juergen Chrobog and four family members were missing in Yemen, while a Yemeni official said the group were seized during a trip to the eastern Shabwa province from the port city of Aden.

O Turkey has reported an outbreak of avian influenza in chickens, less than a month after declaring its territory free of the virus, and said it had culled 359 birds as a precautionary measure. In a statement released late on Tuesday, the Agriculture Ministry said it had imposed quarantine in the affected area of Igdir, near Turkey's far eastern border with Armenia, after detecting a strain of the bird flu virus in dead chickens.