A roundup of today's other world stories in brief:
Furious Brown denies Labour loans claims
LONDON- Gordon Brown last night launched a furious attack on attempts to link him to the cash-for-honours affair as "unfounded allegations and smears".
The chancellor hit out amid claims that he proposed giving peerages to two close political allies who have given money to the Labour Party.
It has been suggested that honours for high-profile Labour donor Sir Ronald Cohen and Wilf Stevenson, director of think tank the Smith Institute, which has close links with the Treasury, were eventually blocked by Downing Street because they were considered "unsuitable".
But a spokesman for the chancellor last night repeated his denial of having "any knowledge" of loans to the Labour Party before their existence became public, and insisted he had always considered it "inappropriate" to be involved in fundraising.
- (PA)
Prodi wins crucial vote on budget
ROME- Italian prime minister Romano Prodi won a crucial confidence vote in parliament yesterday over an unpopular budget which he describes as a bitter medicine that Italy has to swallow to get its finances in order.
Mr Prodi's centre-left coalition, which has a majority of just one seat in the Senate, won the vote by 162 against 157 thanks to the support of unelected life senators. The vote clears the way for the budget to be passed by parliament before the end of the year, after the lower house gives its final stamp of approval.
- (Reuters)
WW2 property complaint lodged
STRASBOURG- A group of German post-war refugees have lodged a complaint against Poland with the European Court of Human Rights for violation of property rights and discrimination, the court said yesterday.
The case could add to tensions between Germany and Poland over the fate of some 12 million ethnic Germans who were displaced or forcibly evicted from Poland and the former Czechoslovakia after the second World War ended in 1945.
- (Reuters)
Inquiry sought over Nazi theory
PARIS- Jacques Chirac has requested the investigation of a French researcher who participated in a conference in Iran questioning the Holocaust, the French president's office said yesterday.
The two-day conference, which provoked a wave of international criticism, questioned whether the Nazis used gas chambers to kill six million Jews during the second World War.
- (Reuters)
Bosnian jailed for war crimes
SARAJEVO- Bosnia's war crimes court sentenced Bosnian Serb Dragan Damjanovic to 20 years in prison yesterday for crimes including murder, torture and rape committed against Muslims during the country's 1992-95 war.
Damjanovic (45) was found guilty on six out of seven counts of the indictment, the court said in a statement. He is the ninth person convicted by the war crimes court.
- (Reuters)
Protests over law on worship
MOSCOW- Church leaders in Russia have protested to the government over a law requiring them to supply the names of their worshippers and the contents of weekly sermons.
- (Reuters)
Stowaway mice panic passengers
DUBAI- The screams were louder than the engines when more than 100 passengers on board a Saudi aircraft fought off an invasion by 80 mice. The Al-Hayatnewspaper reported yesterday that the mice escaped from a bag on the internal flight and fell on the heads of passengers.
- (Reuters)