World Highlights

¤ Pakistan dramatically increased the official death toll from the earthquake that hit the north of the country last month to 73,276 and said it could rise further.

¤ Twenty-three people, including several women, were killed in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, hospital sources said, when police opened fire at stone-throwing youths in the worst anti-government protests in months.

¤ At least 23 people were killed and 46 were wounded when a car bomb exploded outside a Shi'ite Muslim mosque in the Iraqi town of Musayyib, the Interior Ministry said.

¤ China and the United States pledged $500 million to fight bird flu and prevent a feared influenza pandemic from spreading around the globe.

¤ Congo's army, backed by UN peacekeepers, killed 32 militiamen during a two-day operation to free four local election officials kidnapped in the lawless east, the United Nations said.

¤ Palestinian gunmen shot dead an Israeli soldier on a raid and Israel killed a militant in a separate incident in the occupied West Bank.

¤ Zanzibar's re-elected president urged his opponents to accept his narrow victory in disputed polls and blamed them for pockets of unrest across Tanzania's troubled tourist islands.

¤ Chinese scientists said they had gathered evidence that shows a giant object in the centre of our galaxy is a massive black hole.