<B> LONDON. George Best shirt from six-goal game goes on sale. </B>The Manchester United shirt worn by George Best when he scored six goals against Northampton Town in 1970 will go on auction next month and is expected to fetch 20-30,000 pounds ($38-57,000). The red-and-white shirt is part of a soccer memorabilia sale at auction house Christie’s on September 13. Best’s performance during the match is widely considered as one of his finest. Roy Fairfax, the Northampton player who was marking the Northern Irish player, said afterwards: “The closest I got to him was when we shook hands after the game.” Also on sale is the Brazil shirt worn by Rivelino at the 1970 World Cup final in which his team beat Italy 4-1. According to Christie’s, Rivelino fainted at the final whistle and had to be carried from the field. The shirt is estimated at 25-35,000 pounds, well short of the world record price for a football shirt at auction of 158,000 pounds paid in 2002 for Pele’s shirt from the same match. Christie’s is also offering the 1970 F.A. Cup winners medal awarded to Chelsea captain Ron Harris, and the shirt worn by World Cup winning captain Bobby Moore in his last English league match in 1977

<B>TEHRAN. Iran says to stand by atomic work.</B> Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said yesterday Iran could not abandon its nuclear programme when the United States developed new atomic bombs every year, the semi-official Mehr news agency reported. US officials accuse Iran of pursuing atomic weapons under cover of a civilian nuclear programme. Iran says it is not developing bombs but is seeking nuclear technology for power generation. “How can the Iranian nation give up its obvious right to peaceful nuclear technology, when America and some other countries test new atomic bombs each year?” Ahmadinejad asked in a speech to a rally in the northwestern city of Namin. Iran has set an August 22 deadline to respond to a demand by six world powers that Tehran give up uranium enrichment in return for economic and other incentives. Iran has so far shown no signs it will accept. Tehran has vowed to expand its atomic fuel activities despite a UN Security Council resolution demanding it halt nuclear work by August 31 or face the threat of sanctions.

<B>SYDNEY. Threat against plane at Sydney Airport.</B> Passengers were evacuated from Pacific Blue flight after it landed in Sydney from Fiji yesterday because a threat had been made against the aircraft, Sydney Airport officials said. “The plane has been parked away from the terminal. Passengers and crew have been evacuated,” Sydney Airport spokesman Peter Vickary said. He said police were investigating the incident but no further details, including the nature of the threat, were available.

<B>DHAKA. Bangladesh police kill 11 militants in shootout. </B>Bangladeshi police shot dead 11 militants in an exchange of fire in the country’s northern Pabna district yesterday, police said. Police intercepted about 100 militants holding a meeting at a hideout, a police official said. The police opened fire and killed 11 members of the group. Another 50 were detained, the official said. About 50 people, including policemen, were injured in the gunfight. No further details were immediately available. The militants belonged to a group active in northern Bangladesh who say they seek to help the poor. Officials said the militants were not connected to banned Islamist groups believed to be responsible for a spate of bomb attacks last year. On August 17, 2005, Islamist militants exploded some 500 small bombs across the country almost simultaneously, killing two people and wounding many others. No one claimed responsibility for the blasts, but copies of a leaflet found at most of the bomb sites carried a call by a banned Islamic group, Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen, for Islamic rule in Bangladesh, a mainly Muslim democracy.

<B>BERLIN. Germany’s Schroeder adopts second Russian child. </B>Former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and his wife Doris have adopted a baby boy from Russia two years after adopting a 3-year-old Russian girl, an official from Schroeder’s office said yesterday. Germany’s Bild newspaper said the boy was not yet one year old and, like the Schroeder’s adopted daughter Viktoria, came from St. Petersburg. Schroeder, 62, lives in Hanover with his two adopted children and 15-year-old Klara, his wife Doris Schroeder-Kopf’s daughter from a previous relationship. Doris, 43, a former Bild reporter, is Schroeder’s fourth wife. St. Petersburg is the home town of Russian President Vladimir Putin, with whom Schroeder developed a close friendship while chancellor. The Kremlin leader supported his adoption of Viktoria in 2004. Schroeder may have had trouble adopting a child in Germany where adoption rules favour younger parents. Since leaving office last November, Schroeder has come under criticism at home and abroad for taking on a lucrative job as head of a Russian-led gas pipeline project that he helped start with Putin while in office.