● AFRICA DAILY. Africa needs $760m to fight bird flu

Africa needs $760 million to fight bird flu over the next three years, about three times as much as donors pencilled into their $1.9 billion pledge made in January, the African Union and aid organizations said Wednesday.

The pledge made at a donors conference in Beijing did not assume bird flu would break out in Africa, according to a study by the AU, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) presented in Vienna.

● GAZA TIMES Economic plight of Palestinians worsening

The economic plight of Palestinians is deteriorating, with only 50 percent of men and one in nine women of working age in a job, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) said yesterday. Despite a slight improvement in the overall economy in 2005 after a sharp downturn the previous year, poverty and unemployment is getting worse in Gaza and the West Bank, the United Nations' agency said in a report. Four out of 10 Palestinians in the territories under Israeli military occupation or effective border control were living below the international poverty line of $2.10 a day, added the report.

● LE FIGARO Nicolas Sarkozy reste au gouvernement

Lors d’une conférence de presse de bilan, le ministre de l’Intérieur français annonce qu'il ne quittera pas ses fonctions d’ici à l’investiture UMP pour les présidentielles, en janvier 2007. Un dispositif contre les chiens dangereux, des peines planchers pour les mineurs récidivistes, Nicolas Sarkozy a annoncé une série de nouvelles mesures, en commentant, entre autres les chiffres de la délinquance.

● THE INDIAN EXPRESS The Mahajan tragedy

«I'm innocent». Rahul Mahajan said this three times, ensuring waiting mediapersons got to hear him at the Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital after his medical check-up on Thursday.

He added, «I've been framed. Maine kabhi drugs nahin liye ( I did not take any drugs). My medical condition is very bad». There may be few takers for Rahul's words given the scientific evidence against him. But the police are also on a sticky wicket– during the last 48 hours that he was in police custody, Rahul did not make any confessional statement admitting to the use of drugs.

● GERMANY TIMES Of Claudia, courtship & the Cup

Claudia Schiffer, wearing a sleeveless white top and jeans, her blonde hair falling loosely on her shoulders, Germany's most beautiful woman spoke to some officials and even felt around the red carpet which was used for most of yesterday's World footlball Cup opening ceremony. At 4.38 pm local time, she walked on to the park carrying the sport's most beautiful trophy. With her was the man for whom football is a beautiful game – Pelé. Invitations were sent to everyone available. Among them, a certain Diego Maradona. He and FIFA are not exactly friends but FIFA president Sepp Blatter had said at a press conference on Tuesday that Maradona would attend.

● THE NEW YORK TIMES It's just like Iraq, only different

Does this sound familiar? The Bush administration, after months of hinting that it is considering military options to rid a certain oil-producing Middle Eastern country whose name begins with «I» of its alleged weapons program, says that it's willing to try diplomacy.

Publicly, American officials say the offer shows the United States is keen to work with other countries diplomatically to resolve the crisis. But it soon starts to look as if the public diplomacy is just a way for American officials to say they have exhausted all options and tried to play nice. In reality, American officials had already begun planning for war... (quoting Helen Cooper, New York Times reporter).