World Highlights

¤ New images of abuse at Abu Ghraib prison prompted Iraq's president to condemn his close ally the United States, demanding harsh punishment for "savage crimes" as Iraqis seethed over more humiliation.

In unusually strong language, Jalal Talabani was critical of Washington as the new images were digested by Iraqis and other Arabs already enraged by insulting cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad which were published in European newspapers.

¤ The United States came under mounting international pressure to close its Guantanamo prison, with UN investigators saying detainees there faced treatment amounting to torture.

In a 40-page report, which had already been largely leaked, five United Nations special envoys said the United States was violating a host of human rights, including a ban on torture, arbitrary detention and the right to a fair trial.

¤ France accused Iran of pursuing a secret military nuclear programme, drawing a swift rebuke from Tehran ahead of talks next week on a Russian proposal for resolving the dispute.

French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said Iran's nuclear work, which Tehran says aims to generate electricity, could not possibly be designed for civilian uses alone.

¤ Haiti declared Rene Preval, a one-time ally of ousted leader Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the country's next president after reaching a deal on vote fraud claims that averted a feared outbreak of violence.

Mr Preval, a former president opposed by the same wealthy elite who helped drive Aristide from power two years ago but passionately supported by the Caribbean country's poor, claimed "massive fraud" in the February 7 election had deprived him of a first-round victory in one of the world's poorest countries.

¤ Dancers, synchronised swimmers and figure skaters helped North Korea celebrate leader Kim Jong-il's 64th birthday but elsewhere the day underscored questions about succession and an unresolved nuclear crisis.

Kim was conspicuously out of sight on a day North Korea calls the "most auspicious holiday of the nation", but that did not stop thousands of North Koreans from putting on their best clothes and dancing to military music in central Pyongyang.