World highlights

¤ Israel denied a German newspaper report yesterday that two of its air force planes had fired twice as they flew over a German navy vessel patrolling the Lebanon coast.Germany's Defence Ministry said an incident had occurred,without giving details."There was no such incident," an Israeli military spokesman said.

¤ President Vladimir Putin told Russians he would retain political influence after he steps down in 2008, but stopped short of defining what role he might take on. Mr Putin, in a live TV phone-in, stuck by his commitment not to tinker with the constitution and stay on for a third successive term from 2008 "even though I like the work".

¤ Iran will start feeding uranium gas into a second network of centrifuges in days, an Iranian news agency said, expanding a programme which Western powers fear is intended to make atomic bombs. The interconnected centrifuges can enrich uranium for making fuel for power plants or for nuclear bombs. Iran says it wants only to make electricity but has failed to convince world powers who are holding out the threat of UN sanctions.

¤ East Timor's airport in the capital Dili was closed after violent clashes nearby between groups of youths in which at least two people were killed, officials and residents said. The closure since late on Tuesday of the main air hub highlights the fragile security situation in the fledging nation, despite the presence of an Australian-led peacekeeping force.

¤ Thousands of university students rioted in eastern China this week, officials and students said, as the police chief called for greater efforts to tame rising unrest. Students from Jiangxi province's Clothing Vocational College marched through campus after state media reported that school authorities had deceived new students about their eventual qualifications and issued fake diplomas.

¤ French President Jacques Chirac led an elite business contingent to China, hoping to seize a greater share of the world's fourth largest economy on a state visit overshadowed by the Korean arms crisis. Arriving on possibly the last major foreign trip of his mandate, Mr Chirac welcomed China's increasing activism on the world stage, especially in nuclear diplomacy towards North Korea and Iran and in an expanded peacekeeping presence in Lebanon.