AMSTERDAM. Milosevic not poisoned. Poisoning did not kill former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, but he did self-medicate and expert opinion is divided over whether surgery could have prevented his death, the U.N. tribunal said. ?Nothing has been found to support allegations reported in some sections of the media that Slobodan Milosevic had been murdered, in particular by poisoning,? said an internal report by the tribunal into Milosevic?s death in his cell in March.

DARFUR. Rebels reject peace as deadline looms. Talks intensified yesterday to convince two Darfur rebel factions, Abdel Wahed Mohammed al-Nur and Justice and Equality Movement, to sign a peace deal to end a three-year-old conflict in Sudan?s violent west where tens of thousands have been killed. However, both said they would not sign unless radical changes or additions were made.

GAZA. Rocket strikes near Israel minister?s house. Palestinian militants firing rockets from the Gaza Strip came close yesterday to hitting the home of Israeli Defence Minister Amir Peretz. The attack was launched a day after Israeli commandos, mounting the first ground raid in the Gaza Strip since Israel?s pullout last year, killed three members of an Islamic Jihad rocket squad and a policeman who came to their aid.

INDONESIA. Boy tests positive locally for bird flu. A 15-year-old Indonesian boy has tested positive for the H5N1 bird flu, a senior health ministry official said yesterday, citing results of a local laboratory. These results are not considered definitive and samples are on their way to a World Health Organisation-accredited laboratory in Hong Kong for confirmation.

PAKISTAN. Court sentences Sunni militant to death. A Pakistani anti-firing court has sentenced an Islamist militant to death for an attack on a gathering of Shi?ite Muslims seven years ago that killed 16 people. The convict, Qari Omar Hayat, belonged to the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, one of the most feared militant groups blamed for most attacks on minority Shi?ite Muslims in Pakistan.

PRAGUE. Czech President warns PM has unprecedented power. Czech President Vaclav Klaus said yesterday that leftist Prime Minister Jiri Paroubek had taken unprecedented power over the country, and this should be seen as a ?warning sign? as voters head to an election on the weekend. ?This is an unprecedented phenomenon in the post-November (1989) era in this country. To a great extent, I consider it to be a warning sign. Today there is one-man rule,? Klaus said.

CHINA. ?Pyramids? in danger of collapsing. Tombs almost 1,000 years old in western China known as the ?pyramids of the east? are in danger of collapse due to natural erosion and man-made damage. The Western Xia Tombs, in the poor, remote region of Ningxia, house the remains of kings of an empire that once stretched to the borders of Tibet and developed its own complex written script based, like Chinese, on pictographs.

IRAN. Two more nuclear plants to be built. Iran plans to build two 1,000 megawatt nuclear reactors will solicit bids within the next two months, a senior official told Reuters. The tender will be open to domestic and international firms. The decision to build two more nuclear plants comes amid mounting Western pressure on the Islamic state to suspend its uranium enrichment work. ?We want to build two nuclear power plants through an international tender,? said Mohammad Saeedi, deputy head of Iran?s Atomic Energy Organisation. He did not say where the reactors would be located.

JAPAN. Mona Lisa ?speaks? thanks to scientist. The Mona Lisa?s smile may always remain a mystery, but it is now possible to hear what her voice would have sounded like, thanks to a Japanese acoustics expert. The chart of any individual?s voice, known as a voice print, is unique to a person and Suzuki says he believes he has achieved 90 percent accuracy in recreating the quality of the enigmatic woman?s speaking tone. ?I am the Mona Lisa. My true identity is shrouded in mystery,? the portrait proclaims on a Web site at http://promotion.msn.co.jp/davinci/voice.Htm