World Highlights

¤ Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas scrambled yesterday to heal a split in his ruling Fatah party, while the militant group Hamas outstripped his faction in the latest round of municipal elections in the West Bank. Young Fatah dissidents said they were forming a new party, dealing Mr Abbas a blow less than six weeks before a parliamentary election where Hamas, whose power has increased since the start of an uprising in 2000, will challenge Fatah for the first time.

¤ Bosnia's special war crimes court has charged 11 people over the killing of about 8,000 Muslim men and boys in 1995 in the town of Srebrenica, its spokesman said yesterday. Edita Pejovic confirmed the 11 had been arrested this year in connection with Srebrenica, but added: "I cannot give you their names or details of the indictments until the court has confirmed them."

¤ Greek urban transport came to a standstill and state utilities employees stayed away yesterday as workers protested against a labour law seen as a precursor to drastic public sector reforms. A day after a nationwide strike, bus, train and metro employees remained away for another 24 hours, bringing Athens traffic to a near halt.

¤ China's Ministry of Health yesterday confirmed another human case of bird flu, the sixth in the country, the official Xinhua news agency reported. Meanwhile, Romania confirmed cases of deadly avian flu in birds in five more villages in and around the Danube delta and warned migratory flocks could carry the virus south to neighbouring Bulgaria.

¤ A fire at the largest hospital in the northeastern Chinese city of Liaoyuan killed 33 people yesterday, the official Xinhua news agency reported. Xinhua quoted a provincial government official as saying rescuers found 19 bodies at the scene and 14 other people died after they were transferred to other hospitals for treatment.

¤ French police have seized large quantities of military weapons and explosives as part of a probe into an Islamic militant group said to have indirect links to al Qaeda's leader in Iraq, officials said yesterday. Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy told reporters the arsenal was discovered on Wednesday in a lock-up attached to a block of flats in the Clichy-sous-Bois suburb north of Paris. Judicial sources said the haul included assault rifles, dynamite and TNT.

¤ EU leaders were set to condemn Iran's President for denying the Holocaust and warn Tehran the opportunity for a diplomatic solution to its nuclear programme cannot stay open forever, diplomats said yesterday. A summit statement drafted by EU Foreign Ministers said of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's statement that the Nazi mass extermination of Jews was a myth: "These comments are wholly unacceptable and have no place in civilised political debate."

¤ Former German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder faced fresh criticism from opposition politicians and a leading EU official yesterday over his new job heading a Russian-led gas pipeline. In a special parliamentary debate, opposition members from across the spectrum joined criticism from commentators and even members of Mr Schroeder's own party of the move, announced last week only days after he left office.