The banks of Rome's River Tiber held yesterday after days of heavy rain triggered fears the historic centre of the Italian capital might be flooded.

The high point of the river passed the centre near the Vatican and Castel Sant' Angelo after midnight.

While the river was exceptionally high, covering all but the tops of trees, it did not breach a large stone embankment that snakes through the centre.

Fair weather returned yesterday, giving residents and shopkeepers a chance to clean up, but more rain, albeit much lighter than that in the past few days, was expected today.

Rome's mayor had declared a state of emergency last Thursday after severe storms flooded underpasses, disrupted trains and flights and killed one person.

Gordon Brown slams Taliban use of child suicide bomber

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown yesterday condemned the Taliban for using a child suicide bomber in an attack which killed three British troops.

British forces took heavy casualties in Helmand on Friday, when four troops were killed, one by a roadside bomb and three by a young suicide bomber.

"It is a terrible commentary on the Taliban that they should use a 13-year old child as a suicide bomber to kill some of our British troops," an emotional Brown told scores of British soldiers gathered around him at their Camp Bastion base.

"We have been through difficult times as a result of a change of tactics by the Taliban," Brown said, referring to increased Taliban violence that has raised concern in Europe.

Red Cross to help probe Nepal civil war's missing people

The Red Cross said yesterday it would help Nepal enhance its forensic skills to examine human remains in a probe into hundreds missing during a civil war which ended two years ago.

Human rights groups accuse both government troops and the Maoist rebels of abuses such as killings, kidnappings and torture during the decade-long conflict which caused more than 13,000 deaths.

The Maoist-led coalition is yet to set up a panel to conduct the probe, even though this was agreed to as part of a 2006 peace deal.

"Under international humanitarian law, the authorities bear primary responsibility for determining what happened to people who went missing in connection with armed conflict," said Mary Werntz, head of The International Committee of the Red Cross in Nepal.

Zimbabwe eyes fresh polls if no unity government

Zimbabwe might be forced to hold early elections if a constitutional bill creating a power-sharing government fails in parliament, state media reported yesterday.

President Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF lost its parliamentary majority for the first time since independence in 1980 to the opposition MDC, whose leader Morgan Tsvangirai beat the veteran leader in a March presidential poll but fell short of the necessary votes to avoid a run-off. Mugabe won the second round after Tsvangirai pulled out, citing violence, but the vote was widely condemned. The 84-year-old leader is under Western pressure to step down following a cholera outbreak that has killed hundreds.

A power-sharing pact signed by Mugabe and Tsvangirai on September 15 has so far failed to materialise due to a dispute over key ministries and constitutional changes.

Italian rescued just short of rowing the Pacific solo

An Italian adventurer, rescued near exhaustion after 10 months rowing the Pacific solo, said yesterday he did not feel like a loser and never felt alone during his voyage due to thousands of e-mails from fans.

Alex Bellini, 30, set off from Lima, Peru in February and finally called off his trip last Friday, just 65 nautical miles from Australia's east coast. During that time he did not set foot on land once.

"I did not fail," he said, saying he had merely "asked for a tow" for the last few kilometres.

Bellini said it had been "quite a hard decision but it was a wise decision" to call for help, with predictions of poor weather for the next two days at a point where he was nearly exhausted.

The Italian, who has already rowed the Atlantic, the Mediterranean and walked across Alaska twice pulling a sled, said he was proud of the epic 18,000-kilometre non-stop journey.