Israelis retaliate for depot strike

Gaza City Palestinians said that five people, including two Hamas militants and a boy of 12, were killed in an Israeli assault on Gaza, itself prompted by the attack this week on the Nahal Oz fuel depot in which two Israelis died. Ehud Olmert, the Israeli Prime Minister, vowed to keep hitting Hamas to halt its operations against Israel. (AP)

Jail for death lorry survivors

Ranong Fifty survivors of a people-smuggling tragedy in which 54 Burmese immigrants suffocated in an airtight container lorry were sentenced to three days in prison after being convicted by a Thai court of illegal entry. (AFP)

Women's rights plan opposed

Dhaka Dozens of Muslims were injured in clashes with Bangladeshi police in a protest at new official guidelines that they say breach Islamic law by helping women to equal property rights and better access to jobs and education. (AP)

Organ theft inquiry

Pristina The New York-based Human Rights Watch has urged Kosovo to investigate claims in a book by Carla Del Ponte, the former UN war crimes prosecutor, that ethnic Albanian guerrillas killed dozens of Serbs and sold their organs in 1999. (AP)

Nuclear admission

Tehran Iran now operates 492 new centrifuges at the Natanz uranium-enrichment plant, an official report said, confirming that Tehran is expanding its atomic programme in defiance of UN calls to freeze it amid fears that it is building a bomb. (AFP)

Spruced up at 8,000

Stockholm A cluster of spruces found in Dalarna county, western Sweden, is 8,000 years old and may be the world's oldest living trees, scientists said. They survived by pushing out another trunk as soon as the old one died. (Reuters)

Stem-cell rule eased

Berlin The lower house of the German Parliament voted to allow researchers to import stem cells created before May 1, 2007, rather than only use cells existing before 2002, when Germany banned stem-cell production. (Reuters)

Election fraud

Bangkok The Thai election commission ruled that members of two minor parties in the six-party coalition Government were guilty of vote fraud in the December general election. The ruling could lead to the parties being disbanded. (Reuters)

Zapatero wins at last

Madrid José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero won a second term as Spanish Prime Minister in a second-round ballot in the Lower House of parliament prompted by the March 9 general election, which his Socialist Party won, though without a majority. (AP)

Latin lovers lose their reputation

Rome The myth of the Latin lover will be dealt a blow at the Congress of Sexology in Rome where a study will reveal that four out of ten Italian couples no longer have regular sex “largely because of a decline in the male sex drive”.

A real mistake

Melville A Long Island man caught driving on a suspended licence attempted to post bail but ended up in prison also facing a felony charge of possessing a forged instrument after he offered the police a counterfeit $50 (£25) note. (AP)

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