The original construction plans believed used for a major expansion of the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz in 1941 have been found in a Berlin flat, Germany's Bild newspaper reported yesterday.

The daily printed three architect's drawings on yellowing paper from the batch of 28 pages of blueprints it obtained. One has an 11.66 metre x 11.20 metre room marked 'Gaskammer' (gas chamber) that was part of a "delousing facility".

No one from the federal government's archives was immediately available for comment on the authenticity or importance of the documents.

The plans, published ahead of the 70th anniversary of the Kristallnacht' or the Nazi pogrom that was a harbinger of the Holocaust, also include a crematorium and a 'L. Keller' - an abbreviation for 'Leichenkeller' or corpse cellar.

A drawing of the building for Auschwitz's main gate was also found in the documents that Bild said were believed to have been discovered when a Berlin flat was cleaned out.

'Victor' and other skulls revered

Meet Captain Victor, the cigarette-stained skull of a former policeman that sits among bananas, candles, soda bottles and coca leaves on a folding table in Bolivia's highland capital.

Victor is a celebrity in La Paz, where students, policemen and even members of Congress visit him year round to ask favours and shower him with flowers, cookies and cigarettes.

"Look, he just finished that lollipop ...there's barely anything left. He's so fond of sweets!" said Victor's owner, Virginia Lara, a middle-aged street vendor who says she was given the skull 22 years ago by a stranger.

All the stranger told her was Victor's name and that he had been a police officer, asking her to "always give him candles and flowers ...and never let him go."

Victor is what is known as a Natita, which means 'small skull' or 'flat nose' in the Aymara indigenous language. Thousands of Bolivians revere the Natitas and believe they protect them from evil and help them attain goals.

Iran criticises Obama's remarks

Iran's head of parliament yesterday criticised US President-elect Barack Obama for saying its development of a nuclear weapon would be "unacceptable" and repeated the Islamic state's call for fundamental policy change.

"Obama must know that the change he talks about is a fundamental change and not changing of colours or tactics," Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani said in comments on state radio.

Larijani, echoing Iran's official line, called on Obama to carry out his campaign slogans of US foreign policy change, including change to US dealings with Iran.

"Repeating objections to Iran's nuclear programme will be taking a step in the wrong direction."

At least five killed after India blast

At least five people were killed after an accidental blast at a city in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh when scrap collectors were sifting through a rubbish dump, police said yesterday. The blast could have been caused by an unexploded military shell in the city of Meerut. There is a large military base there.

"It is clearly an accident. Terrorism has been ruled out," said Brij Lal, deputy police chief of the state.

Somali pirates hijack ship

Somali pirates have hijacked a ship with 13 crew members on board in the Gulf of Aden, the ship's Danish operator said yesterday.

Most of the crew members are Russian and are unharmed, the Danish company Clipper Group said.

"Clipper is in close communication with the relevant authorities to ensure the safety of crew and to establish contact with the hijackers," the company said.

The ship, CEC Future, is a general cargo vessel built in 1994 in Denmark and is now sailing under a Bahamian flag.

System would block 'British Obama'

The way Britain's political parties are organised, particularly the Labour Party, means a Barack Obama would never have been elected in Britain, the head of the country's equality watchdog says.

Trevor Phillips, head of the Equality and Human Rights Commission and one of Britain's most prominent black campaigners, told The Times newspaper he believed Britain was less racially divided than the United States.

"Here, the problem is not the electorate, the problem is the machine," he said in an interview published yesterday.

"The parties and the unions and the think-tanks are all very happy to sign up to the general idea of advancing the cause of minorities but in practice they would like somebody else to do the business. It's institutional racism."

Rice visits former Palestinian bastion

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice yesterday visited a West Bank city that was once a bastion of Palestinian militants but is now held up by Washington as a model for self-government.

Making what may be her last official visit to the Palestinian territories, Rice toured a hospital renovated with US funds and met security chiefs in Jenin where Palestinian forces deployed in May to try to impose the rule of law.

Jenin was the scene of an Israeli offensive on militants in 2002, when dozens of Palestinians and Israeli troops were killed. Israel continues to stage periodic raids despite the Palestinian deployments this year.

"Even under difficult circumstances, even with a difficult past, this is a place of hope, this is a place of inspiration, and ultimately it is a place from which the Palestinian state will spring forth," Rice said.