World Highlights

¤ Iran will stand by its right to obtain nuclear technology and anyone spreading propaganda against its atomic programme will come to regret it, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said in a televised address yesterday to mark the start of the Iranian year. Meanwhile, senior foreign affairs officials from the five veto-holding UN Security Council powers and Germany met to try to break the impasse over Iran's nuclear ambitions.

¤ Israel poisoned hundreds of thousands of turkeys and chickens as it sought yesterday to contain an outbreak of the dangerous H5N1 strain of bird flu which has been spreading at an alarming rate and Egypt said a third suspected human bird flu case had been discovered and the woman afflicted by the virus was in hospital. Meanwhile, US researchers studying human cases said the virus in people had evolved into two separate strains, complicating efforts to develop a vaccine and prevent a pandemic.

¤ Britain raised its minimum wage by six per cent yesterday, pleasing trade unions but prompting complaints from business leaders that an increase way above inflation would lead to job cuts. The government said the adult minimum wage would increase to £5.35 an hour in October from £5.05 now, benefiting over 1.3 million employees.

¤ Libyans are expected to carry out more attacks on Italian interests in the North African country until Rome pays for damages caused during more than 30 years of colonial rule, Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi said. In an interview with an Italian TV station broadcast yesteray, Gaddafi said his government could not control anti-Italian actions like the riots outside the consulate.

¤ A plane carrying Botswana's President Festus Mogae, his wife and nine top officials made an emergency landing in Athens yesterday after a crack in the cockpit window appeared during a flight to Britain from Egypt. The Botswanan government plane, which was carrying 11 passengers and six crew, landed without incident at 1701 GMT and there were no injuries, Greek police said.

¤ Eleven Colombian Boy Scouts were killed during the weekend by a flash flood while bathing in hot springs in the mountainous central part of the country, police said yesterday. The 14-member hiking excursion near the town of Manizales in the coffee-growing province of Caldas was hit by the flood on Saturday afternoon. The washout was caused by heavy rains that continued to hamper efforts to recover the bodies yesterday.