World highlights

• An Indonesian girl has died of bird flu and Vietnam yesterday reported its first suspected human infection since late 2005, in a string of cases across Asia when the H5N1 virus is usually less active. In Pakistan, thousands of chickens were culled at three poultry farms on the outskirts of Islamabad, while Bangladesh struggled to control the virus in birds after outbreaks on dozens of farms.

• The Bush administration will seek a capable manager for the World Bank who can heal rifts that opened under Paul Wolfowitz's tenure but will also pursue an anti-corruption agenda, analysts and people close to the White House said. President George W. Bush made clear in an interview with Reuters this week he wants an American to replace Mr Wolfowitz, who resigned amid an uproar over the hefty pay raise he authorised for his companion.

• US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said the United States and China agreed it was necessary for China to rebalance its economy to encourage more domestic spending and less reliance on exports. "While we have much more work to do, we have tangible results for our efforts thus far," Mr Paulson said in closing remarks after two days of talks on economic issues between top-level officials from the two countries.

• Pope Benedict, under fire in Latin America for saying the Catholic Church had purified Indians, acknowledged that "unjustifiable crimes" were committed during the colonisation of the Americas. But he stopped short of apologising as demanded by some leaders, including Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez.

• French President Nicolas Sarkozy yesterday said that breaking the EU's deadlock over institutional reform was a more urgent priority than challenging Turkey's membership ambitions. A week after taking office, Mr Sarkozy met EU Commission President José Manuel Barroso to discuss his vision of a "simplified treaty" to replace the EU Constitution, rejected in a 2005 referendum.