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By Mark Dummett BBC, Kinshasa

A deadly flu epidemic has struck more than a million people and killed more than 100 in Kinshasa, according to the Democratic Republic of Congo's health ministry.

The flu, which was first reported in the Central African Republic in September, has now been registered in four Congolese provinces, where authorities say it has killed at least 2,000 people.

The head of the epidemiology department at the Democratic Republic of Congo's ministry of health says that more than a million people in Kinshasa, a city of six million, are suffering from the flu.

Symptoms include fever, headaches, painful limbs and a sore throat.

Dr Kebela Ilunga said more than 100 people are believed to have died in the city.

Woeful condition

It has been confirmed this week that it is the same flu strain that was first reported in September in the northern Bosobolo health zone, and before then on the other side of the Oubangiu river in the Central African Republic.

The flu has now spread to Kinshasa

Refugees, rebel soldiers and traders are believed to have brought the virus into DR Congo, where Health Minister Dr Mashako Mamba said, it has killed more than 2,000 people.

The vast majority were infants and old people living in isolated and impoverished jungle communities in the northern Equatuer Province, under the control of the rebel Movement for the Liberation of Congo.

The war has meant clinics and hospitals there are in a woeful condition, lacking both doctors and medicines.

The health ministry says the epidemic has now reached not only Kinshasa but also the neighbouring provinces of Bandundu and Bas Congo.

Medecins Sans Frontieres, which is supporting efforts in the capital to treat sufferers, says flu has also been reported this week in neighbouring Congo-Brazzaville.

The health ministry says this is the same strain which killed more than 700 people in Madagascar last year, but believes that the worst is now over.

Lawyers defending Zimbabwe's opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai on treason charges have accused the key prosecution witness of being a serial fraudster.

They say that Canada-based political consultant Ari Ben-Menashe video-taped a meeting with Mr Tsvangirai as part of a government plot to stifle the opposition.

Ari Ben-Menashe: A former Israeli intelligence officer

Mr Tsvangirai and two colleagues from the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) pleaded not guilty to treason charges when the trial began on Monday.

Mr Ben-Menashe, a former Israeli intelligence officer, says the three contracted him to assassinate President Robert Mugabe before last year's elections.

Mr Mugabe won but international observers said the poll was marred by violence and fraud and Mr Tsvangirai is contesting the result in court.

Coincidence

South African anti-apartheid lawyer George Bizos said prosecutors would not give him any information on Mr Ben-Menashe's work for the government, though the consultant testified that he had been paid about $1m for his lobbying work.

Prosecutors said Mr Ben Menashe's services to the government were unrelated to the treason charges, Mr Bizos told Judge Paddington Garwe.

MORGAN TSVANGIRAI

Previous treason charges dropped Former union leader Appealing against 2002 election results

Click here for a full profile

"There is a similarity between the fraud we say was committed against the MDC and its office bearers and a number of other frauds that have been committed by the witness and his companies by interfering with high profile political matters, getting money and then turning the tables against the people to whom the fraudulent representations were made," Mr Bizos said.

The lawyer submitted documents of a London arbitration court ruling that one of Mr Ben-Menashe's companies had failed to deliver $7million-worth of promised corn to Zambia.

Mr Ben-Menashe said that deal was altered by former Zambian President Frederick Chiluba and was still being contested by lawyers.

'Not elimination'

The court has also been watching the grainy video, which Mr Ben-Menashe recorded as evidence against Mr Tsvangirai.

During one of the audible sections of the tape, Mr Tsvangirai said:

"The discussion was never about the elimination of Mugabe, it was about the election, and the post-election outcome."

MUGABE AND JUDGES

Mugabe has lost several important cases White judges forced to resign Replaced by government sympathisers

Zimbabwe's judges remain defiant

Mr Ben-Menashe said on Tuesday that the MDC had signed a $500,000 contract with his firm and promised $10m to the head of the air force, Air Marshal Perence Shiri, to stage a coup after Mr Mugabe's assassination.

Mr Tsvangirai had said sources in the British Government would provide the money, according to Mr Ben-Menashe.

"He also asked us to enlist the United States Government to assist the MDC in carrying out his plot," he said on Thursday.

If found guilty, Mr Tsvangirai, Welshman Ncube and Renson Gasela could face the death penalty.

Mr Tsvangirai was the main challenger to Mr Mugabe during last March's presidential elections.

Previous treason charges against Mr Tsvangirai were dropped when they were ruled unconstitutional.

The trial comes as the European Union is considering whether to renew sanctions on Zimbabwe's leader, which are due to run out on 18 February.

By Emma Simpson BBC New York correspondent

US Attorney General John Ashcroft has ordered federal prosecutors in New York and Connecticut to seek the death penalty in more criminal cases, reports say.

The death penalty is the law of the land, provided for as the ultimate punishment for heinous crimes, and the Attorney General is committed to the fair implementation of justice The US Justice Department

According to the New York Times newspaper, Mr Ashcroft has rejected the advice of prosecutors in a dozen cases, asking them to seek the death penalty instead.

By law, prosecutors only make recommendations on whether the death penalty should be sought in a federal case, and Mr Ashcroft has final approval.

Critics say Mr Ashcroft is trying to bring capital punishment to areas of America which are traditionally less inclined to return a verdict for the death penalty.

'Law of the land'

There are currently 12 cases - 10 in New York and two in Connecticut - where US attorneys have either advised against the death penalty, or not pursued it.

The New York Times said that they have now been overruled by Mr Ashcroft.

The US Justice Department said that the death penalty was the law of the land, and that the review process was designed to ensure consistency and fairness across the country.

But here in New York City, no federal jury has returned a verdict for the death penalty since the laws were revised a decade ago.

Defence lawyers have criticised Mr Ashcroft's approach, arguing that the best way to eliminate disparities was not to increase the use of capital punishment, but to reduce it.

At least 10 people, including two foreign tourists, are reported to have been killed by heavily armed gunmen who attacked a bus in Laos.

The attack happened near the town of Vang Vieng, a well-known beauty spot about 170 kilometres (110 miles) north of the capital Vientiane.

We believe that it was an act of terrorism Liporn Sonthani, Vang Vieng official

As many as 20 gunmen sprayed the bus with bullets, killing at least eight Laotian passengers.

Two foreigners - believed to be French tourists or aid workers - were also killed as they cycled past the bus at the time of the attack.

It is still unclear who was behind the shooting, but a government spokesperson said an investigation had been launched.

'Act of terrorism'

The bus was travelling from the town of Kasi to Vientiane, and had slowed down to pass a small village when the attack occurred.

New Zealand journalist Hannah Belcher told the BBC's East Asia Today that two of the bandits boarded the bus and demanded the passengers hand over their jewellery and money, before randomly shooting people.

Ms Belcher, who is currently based in Vang Vieng, said that unconfirmed police reports blame Hmong bandits for the attack.

Ethnic minority Hmong forces have been fighting the government ever since the current regime came to power in 1975.

"We believe that it was an act of terrorism," local official Liporn Sonthani told the Associated Press.

The army has closed off the roads around Vang Vieng, and the authorities are also blocking access to telephones and the internet.

Tourists in the area are being encouraged to stay in urban centres, and not travel to the surrounding villages.

Past violence

Several years ago, the area around Vang Vieng was considered dangerous because of the risk of attacks by Hmong anti-government rebels.

But the attacks have lessened in recent years, encouraging an increasing flow of foreign visitors, says the BBC south-east Asia correspondent Jonathan Head.

Renewed fears over security could drive many tourists away, our correspondent says.

"Tourists are frightened of what has happened, because obviously the bandits are on still on the loose," Ms Belcher told the BBC.

Tourism has become a vital source of income for Laos, one of the poorest countries in Asia.

Thailand has said it will partially reopen its border with Cambodia on Saturday, more than a week after it was closed in response to anti-Thai riots in the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh.

Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra had said he would allow border checkpoints to open on Thursday for trade purposes only.

But hundreds of Cambodians who hoped to cross into Thailand on Thursday were turned back, and Thai officials said more time was needed.

"The Cambodian nationals will be allowed to cross to buy food and other basic needs from Saturday onward," the prime minister's spokesman said.

Thailand says it is responding to humanitarian concerns because many Cambodians are dependent on crossing into Thailand for their food and other essentials.

Thais will not be allowed to cross into Cambodia for "security reasons".

Correspondents say Thailand is keen not to be seen to be rushing to restore normal relations, as a way to stress its displeasure at the rioting, which left the Thai embassy in Pnomh Penh and many Thai-owned businesses in ruins.

The violence was sparked by rumours that a leading Thai actress had claimed the Angkor Wat temple - which is a Cambodian national symbol - really belonged to Thailand.

Apology

Thailand initially suspended all economic co-operation and business dealings with Cambodia in response to the 29 January riots.

But a two day visit by the visibly penitent Cambodian foreign minister appears to have done a lot to mend the rift, says the BBC's correspondent in Bangkok, Jonathan Head.

CAMBODIAN-THAI TENSIONS

Thais overran Khmer empire in 15th century Angkor Wat briefly held by Thai army at end of WW2 Border disputes continue Cambodians wary of Thailand's more powerful army Also resent Thai companies exploiting Cambodian natural resources

Cambodia has already expressed its "most profound regret" at the violence, and Prime Minister Hun Sen has promised to pay compensation - which is thought to amount to 2bn baht ($46.7m) for the damage to Thai businesses alone.

As a result of these moves, relations between the two countries are slowly improving.

Normal flight schedules between Phnom Penh and Bangkok are expected to resume by the end of this week.

However, the Thai Government says it could take several more weeks for relations to be fully restored.

Even when the first Thai diplomats move back to Phnom Penh, they will have no embassy to work in.

More than 50 people have already been arrested in connection with the violence in Phnom Penh, including two journalists who have been charged with inciting rioting by spreading false information.

Many of the others have been charged with looting.

The United States has shrugged off a threat from North Korea that any decision to send more troops to the region might prompt it to make a pre-emptive attack.

"Obviously the United States is prepared [with] robust plans for any contingencies," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said in a briefing on Thursday.

"But this type of talk and the type of actions North Korea has engaged in - or says it is engaging in - only hurt North Korea."

US officials announced this week that Washington was considering strengthening its military forces in the Pacific Ocean.

KIM JONG-IL

Known as the 'dear leader' Film buff who eats lobsters with chopsticks Reputation as ruthless manipulator

Click here for full profile

North Korea responded with a warning that that any US attack on its nuclear facilities at Yongbyon would trigger "full scale war".

Mr Fleischer downplayed the tough words from Pyongyang, saying the US had "heard much talk from North Korea before".

The US said reinforcements would help signal that a possible war with Iraq was not distracting the US from its nuclear stand-off with the North.

The North said on Wednesday that it had reactivated the nuclear site and its operations were now going ahead "on a normal footing".

Pyongyang says it will use the facilities to produce electricity "at the present stage".

However, the US and nuclear experts say the Yongbyon reactor, which has been mothballed since 1994, is too small to generate meaningful amounts of electricity.

They are concerned that North Korea's real purpose is to resume production of weapons-grade plutonium.

Growing alarm

The threat to strike first against US troops in the region came from North Korea's foreign ministry deputy director, Ri Pyong-gap.

CRISIS CHRONOLOGY

16 Oct: US announces that N Korea has acknowledged secret nuclear programme 14 Nov: Oil shipments to N Korea halted 22 Dec: N Korea removes monitoring devices at Yongbyon nuclear plant 31 Dec: UN nuclear inspectors forced to leave North Korea 10 Jan: N Korea pulls out of anti-nuclear treaty 4 Feb: US says it might reinforce troops in Pacific 5 Feb: N Korea says nuclear facilities reactivated

Timeline of tensions

Speaking to the BBC's Mike Thompson in Pyongyang, Mr Ri said his government was becoming increasingly alarmed at signs that Washington planned to send more aircraft carriers, bombers and troops to the region.

He said such actions would mean that the US was either planning to invade the North or launch attacks against it.

In response, he insisted, Pyongyang would not just sit and wait, and might decide to strike first if necessary.

The country currently has a standing army of more than one million soldiers. The US has about 37,000 troops based in South Korea.

Our correspondent says tensions on the streets of Pyongyang are tangible. Air raid drills and blackouts are becoming twice-daily rituals and huge posters calling for courage in the fight ahead cover billboards and walls.

North Korean denial

The North Koreans are believed to possess one or two nuclear weapons already, as well as enough spent fuel rods to make four to six more.

However, analysts say that reactivating Yongbyon reactor gives North Korea the capacity to mass produce plutonium for nuclear weapons, raising fears of a nuclear arms race in east Asia.

Tension has been building in the region ever since claims by Washington that the communist regime in Pyongyang had admitted resuming the development of nuclear weapons in violation of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty.

North Korea denies the allegations, which it says are being used to justify an imminent American invasion.

Analysts say the North may be trying to force the US to negotiate a non-aggression pact, or strengthen its nuclear arsenal while the US is preoccupied with Iraq.

The United Nations' nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), whose inspectors were expelled from the plant in December, is due to hold an emergency meeting next week on the nuclear crisis.

---

NORTH KOREA NUCLEAR PROGRAMME

Yongbyon: Five megawatt experimental nuclear power reactor and a partially completed plutonium extraction facility. Activities at site frozen under 1994 Agreed Framework Taechon: 200-MWt nuclear power reactor - construction halted under Agreed Framework Pyongyang: Laboratory-scale "hot cells" that may have been used to extract small quantities of plutonium Kumho: Two 1,000-MWt light water reactors being built under Agreed Framework

Latin America's two largest airlines, Varig and Tam of Brazil, have announced plans to merge.

The combined company would have 218 planes, annual revenues of just under $4bn, and control about 70% of all air travel in Brazil.

However details of how the merger will proceed are scarce. There is no business plan yet, and the two firms have not even agreed on the structure of the combined company.

Both airlines are carrying a heavy debt burden, and some analysts have warned that Varig could be close to bankruptcy.

Last week Varig suffered the humiliation of having one of its most modern aircraft, a Boeing 777, seized on a Paris airport, because it had failed to keep up with its lease payments.

A merger, maybe

Daniell Mandelli, the president of Tam, said the two firms were most likely to merge, although an alternative could be the creation of a holding company that would own both airlines.

The details are to be worked out during the next six months.

Technically, the deal violates Brazilian antitrust law, which puts a limit of 50% market share on any merger.

However, these rules have been waived in previous instances, for example when brewing giants Antarctica Paulista and Brahma merged to control 80% of the beer market.

Observers suspect that the airline deal was probably helped along by the new government of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, which should help to smooth any regulatory obstacles.

Dragged down by debt

Brazil's airline industry is struggling to cope with the same problems as most other carriers around the world.

The global economic slowdown, especially a slump of passenger numbers to the United States, and high fuel prices have hit profits hard.

Varig is finding it hard to cope with a debt burden of 2.7bn reals ($767m), and has also been hit by an accounting scandal after government officials discovered wrong bookings worth $370m.

Varig, which was founded in the 1920s, has 116 planes flying to 107 Brazilian cities, and to 24 foreign destinations.

The company is owned by the non-profit Rubem Berta Foundation, which represents Varig employees.

Tam is the upstart rival, but in terms of revenues has managed to overtake the flag carrier Varig. The airline has 102 planes that fly to 41 Brazilian destinations and three foreign cities.

Last year Tam returned 21 leased planes, but executives of both firms have promised that the merger will not result in any further plane reductions.

Wall Street analysts will have to state that the opinions given in their research are their own under new rules passed by the US stock market watchdog, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

The move follows allegations that, during the 1990s tech stock boom, some analysts gave unreasonably favourable reports on companies to help their employer win investment banking business.

"Simply put, we want analysts to say what they mean, and mean what they say, and to sign their name to that," said SEC commissioner Cynthia Glassman.

Last December, the main banks and brokerages on Wall Street paid more than $1.4bn in order to settle stock-tipping allegations with US regulators.

Informing investors

Under Regulation Analyst Certification, or Reg AC, share analysts will have to certify that the research they publish is truly their own personal view.

They will also have to vouch that they received no payment that could influence their buy or sell recommendations on shares and bonds.

"It's... important that investors be fully informed of compensation arrangements and other conflicts that could influence an analyst's recommendations or views," said the outgoing SEC chairman Harvey Pitt.

Mr Pitt resigned from the SEC in November but is staying on until his nominated successor William Donaldson is cleared by Senate.

SEC commissioner Harvey Goldschmid said: "The modifications we have made... are sensible" within an analyst system that "is badly broken."

But some people said the new regulations would make little change.

"I'm not sure what it adds to the mix," said Saul Cohen, a partner at the law firm of Proskauer Rose.

"But if it makes some people more comfortable, fine."

Venezuela has pegged its currency at a rate 17% stronger than what it last traded at to protect its foreign cash reserves.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez made the move as substantially reduced, two-month-old strike by opposition groups continues to drag on the economy.

"It's a positive measure we are taking to defend our economic sovereignty," he said.

The government fixed the exchange rate at 1,598 bolivars to the US dollar.

The Venezuelan currency last traded at 1,853 to the dollar when the government halted trade on 22 January.

Mr Chavez said foreign debt payments and the import of basic foods and medicines would be a priority.

Economic defence

The country's foreign reserves are in a strong position after Mr Chavez's fourth year in office.

Despite falling $1.23bn since the strike began on 2 December, Venezuela still has $11.26bn, enough for 10 months of imports.

"We are willing to do anything to defend our reserves and economic stability from speculative attacks and capital flight," said Mr Chavez.

Currency traders have sold off the bolivar this year, sending it tumbling 24% against the dollar until the government suspended trading.

Mr Chavez said oil production, which accounts a third of the economy and half of government revenues, has hit almost 2 million barrels per day, up from 150,000 in December.

Before the strike, the world's fifth largest oil exporter was producing 3.2 million barrels per day.

Sacked workers from state-oil firm Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) claim production is only 1.25 million.

Currency rules

Under the new currency rules, foreign companies have to register with the government before they can repatriate profits overseas, Mr Chavez said.

He also said access to the international currency markets would be restricted for the strikers.

"Not one dollar more to the coup mongers," he said.

The Central Bank and a new regulator will control foreign exchange operations.

Business groups and labour unions joined together to oust the democratically elected Mr Chavez by disrupting the economy, especially the oil sector.

But faced with bankruptcy, many businesses returned to work, breaking with the labour groups, many of whose members have been sacked during the dispute.

German police are questioning three men on suspicion of planning terrorist attacks in Germany.

The searches carried out today serve the goal of finding further evidence about the existence, structure and objectives of the association and its integration in an international network of violent Islamic fundamentalists Prosecutors' statement

The suspects are all leading members of Islamic centres in Minden and Muenster.

German prosecutors say they are believed to have considered attacks in Germany at the end of 2001 and the beginning of 2002, including one "on an American installation in the Frankfurt metropolitan area".

One of the men is also suspected of supporting an al-Qaeda cell in Hamburg, which is believed to have provided three of the suicide pilots who took part in the 11 September attacks.

Six premises are being searched, including the Islamic Centre in Muenster and the Islamic community building in Minden.

"The searches carried out today serve the goal of finding further evidence about the existence, structure and objectives of the association and its integration in an international network of violent Islamic fundamentalists," the prosecutors said in a statement.

Two of the men are suspected of forming a group "in order to commit attacks on the basis of an aggressive, militant Islamic fundamentalism".

Motassadek faces a possible 15-year sentence

The third is suspected of supporting the group.

The arrests come as the trial in Germany of Mounir al-Motassadek, also linked to the Hamburg cell, enters its final phase.

Mr Motassadek is charged with being a member of a terrorist organisation and being an accessory to the deaths of more than 3,000 people.

In closing arguments in Hamburg on Wednesday, prosecutors called for a maximum 15-year sentence.

Five Algerian men are also on trial in Germany suspected of belonging to the al-Qaeda network.

Four of them are charged with planning to bomb a Christmas market in Strasbourg in 2000.

The Likud party of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has absorbed a small centre-right party just days before Israel's president is to ask Mr Sharon to form a new government.

Likud merged with the immigrants' rights party Yisrael B'Aliyah, bringing the combined bloc's strength to 40 seats in the 120-seat Knesset, or parliament.

Yisrael B'Aliyah's leader, former Soviet dissident Natan Sharansky, has been promised a cabinet post in charge of Jerusalem and diaspora Jewry.

The president has not changed Mr Mitzna's mind

Mr Sharon was re-elected last week in a landslide victory by Israeli standards, but will still find it hard work to build a governing coalition.

He has said he would prefer a national unity government with the centre-left Labour party, but dovish Labour leader Amram Mitzna has said his party will not serve under hawkish Mr Sharon.

Mr Sharon has said he would prefer not to lead a narrow right-wing and religious coalition, though he could probably build a workable majority with little difficulty.

The makeup of the next Israeli Government could prove critical in determining policy towards the Palestinians.

President's intervention

Israeli President Moshe Katsav met Mr Mitzna on Thursday to urge him to join a unity government, but Mr Mitzna refused.

Mr Sharon will have six weeks to form a government once Mr Katsav formally invites him to do so on Sunday.

Mr Sharansky is admitting that the days for parties of Russian immigrants are over Leslie Susser, Jerusalem Report

Mr Mitzna favours unconditionally resuming peace talks with the Palestinians and advocates dismantling Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Mr Sharon's party has been in coalition talks with the aggressively secular centre-right Shinui Party, which finished third in the election.

However, Shinui is reluctant to sit in government with two ultra-Orthodox Jewish parties that together account for 16 seats.

Changing times

Yisrael B'Aliyah's merger with Likud is a sign that immigrant parties have outlived their usefulness, Jerusalem Report diplomatic correspondent Leslie Susser told BBC News Online.

The party captured only two seats in last week's elections, down from four in the outgoing Knesset.

"Mr Sharansky is admitting that the days for parties of Russian immigrants are over," he said.

He said the merger with Likud was something of a formality, since Mr Sharansky's party would almost certainly have been in government anyway.

About one million Russian immigrants came to Israel in the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union, helping swell Israel's population to about 6.6 million.

In a night of fresh violence four Palestinians and two Israelis have been killed in two separate incidents in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Two Palestinian gunmen were shot dead after mounting an attack on an Israeli army post in a Jewish area near the West Bank town of Nablus, in which two Israelis were killed.

In a second incident, an Israeli helicopter opened fire with machine guns at the edge of Gaza City, killing two Palestinian medical workers, according to Palestinian sources.

The continuing violence in the occupied territories forms a backdrop to political negotiations in Israel as Prime Minister Ariel Sharon tries to form a new coalition government after he and his hardline allies won a clear majority in recent elections.

The results, along with the possibility of a war on Iraq, have alarmed Palestinians, says the BBC's Jerusalem correspondent Barbara Plett.

They are afraid Mr Sharon could use the war as a pretext to invade Gaza and destroy the rest of the Palestinian authority.

Army post attack

In the Nablus incident, two Israeli soldiers, including an officer, were shot dead by Palestinian militants in an ambush near Mount Gerizim on the southern outskirts of the West Bank town, Israeli security sources said.

The two Palestinians were killed in exchanges of fire with the Israeli army during the attack, the Israeli sources said.

Two militias - the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade, affiliated to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement, and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) - said they carried out the attack together.

In the Gaza incident, the director of a local hospital was quoted by the Reuters news agency as saying that the two Palestinian men killed, both in their 20s, were shot as they worked in a nearby home for the elderly.

The incident occurred just across from the Israeli village of Nahal Oz, which correspondents say is frequently the target of attacks by Palestinian militants.

Israeli military sources said that during an operation in Gaza, helicopters had used gunfire on open spaces to discourage attack, but they were unaware that anyone had been shot.

By Nikolai Gorshkov BBC correspondent in Moscow

The President of Pakistan Pervez Musharraf has wrapped up his visit to Moscow, the first by a Pakistani leader in 33 years.

He hailed it as the start of a new chapter in the Russian-Pakistani relations.

Russia is well-placed to play a key role in the resolution of disputes and improving relations between India and Pakistan President Musharraf

President Musharraf told the press in Moscow that Russia and Pakistan have decided to re-start their relationship with a clean slate and leave everything negative behind.

The two countries' relations have been strained ever since the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan, when Pakistan became a base for the Mujahideen resistance.

But even before that, Russia's friendship with India - Pakistan's arch-rival - was viewed with suspicion in Islamabad.

Weak link

Recently, Moscow has been worried that Islamic rebels in Pakistan might have joined hands with the Chechen rebels.

Pakistan was seen as the weakest link in the international coalition against terror, a concern now shared by Washington.

The 1971 war caused a rift with Moscow

At a news conference in Moscow on Thursday President Musharraf was asked to comment on the US Secretary of State Colin Powell's allegations that Iraq had been using its embassy in Pakistan for contacts with al-Qaeda.

"We don't have any information or intelligence on this," President Musharraf said. "We need to analyse whatever information (Powell) has."

The Pakistani leader said he had assured President Putin that Islamabad would not, "allow its territory to be used by anyone for any kind of terrorist activity inside or outside Pakistan."

He added that he viewed the Chechen war as Russia's internal matter.

Best wishes

The Russian President chose to use diplomatic language to press home the need for Pakistan to do more in the fight against extremism.

"We wish President Musharraf success in fulfilling all the obligations that his country undertook in the anti-terror coalition," President Putin said.

The driving force behind Pakistan's rapprochement with Russia appears to be the need to resolve the bitter dispute with India over the Kashmir region.

Putin: Wishes Pakistan success

"Russia, with its long relations with India and now improving relations with Pakistan is most well-placed to play a key role in the resolution of disputes and improving relations between India and Pakistan," President Musharraf said.

"...obviously, the focal point is Kashmir but we did not get involved in the methodology of its resolution," he added.

The Russian leader takes the credit for defusing a crisis over Kashmir last year when India and Pakistan deployed a million troops along their border in tense stand-off.

Historic links

Moscow has a history of mediating between the two; with variable success.

In 1966, after a bloody war over Kashmir, the then Soviet Prime Minister Alexei Kosygin facilitated the meeting of the Indian and Pakistani leaders in Tashkent in Central Asia.

They agreed to solve the conflict peacefully.

But in the 1970s, the animosity between the two took the upper hand and the Soviet Union sided with India.

Now, with a fresh start in the Russian-Pakistani relations President Putin maintains that this new partnerships should not jeopardise Russia's relations with its established friend, India.

As President Musharraf arrived in Moscow on Tuesday, President Putin made a phone call to the Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee to reassure him that India's strategic partnership with Moscow would not suffer as a result.

But in line with its new pragmatic foreign policy Russia is looking to diversify its regional contacts and widen business opportunities.

This is especially the case as the World's only superpower is too busy with Iraq to pay attention to anything else.

Shops in the town of Godhra in India's Gujarat state have closed in protest at the arrest of a Muslim in connection with a deadly train attack.

Maulana Hussain Umarji, a cleric, is suspected of planning the alleged arson attack, which took place in Godhra last February.

When people in Godhra town came to know about the arrest on Thursday morning there was tension Rakesh Asthana Railway police

Muslims were accused of starting the fire, in which 58 Hindu pilgrims died.

The deaths sparked India's worst communal riots in a decade, in which at least 1,000 people, mostly Muslims, were killed across Gujarat.

Inspector Rakesh Asthana of India's railway police said the cleric had been arrested late on Wednesday night.

"When people in Godhra town came to know about the arrest on Thursday morning there was tension here but the situation is under control now," he said.

Some Hindus in Godhra also closed down their shops on Thursday, fearing violence.

Hindu fears

Police said Mr Umarji was arrested after another accused, Zabir Behra, told a magistrate in Godhra the cleric had met a group of Muslims the night before the train blaze.

Dozens of people died in the attack last year

Mr Behra claimed he was present at the meeting, which he said was held to plot the 27 February attack.

He said that the cleric promised to pay the men for carrying out the attack and told them to swear on the Koran.

Mr Behra also said fuel was stored in a hotel owned by Razzak Kurkur, one of the main accused in the arson attack.

Maulana Umarji met Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and opposition Congress party leader Sonia Gandhi during their visits to Gujarat last year and complained of police harassment of Muslims.

Police have not yet formally charged Mr Umarji, who is due to be produced in court by Friday.

The hackers' worm targeted net chat users

Two people suspected of creating a malicious web program have been arrested in a combined operation by the FBI and the UK's National Hi-Tech Crime Unit.

The raids in Darlington and Durham in the UK resulted in the seizure of two men accused of being members of a hacker group that calls itself THr34t-Krew.

The group is thought to be behind the creation of the TK web worm that used internet chat channels to attack other computers.

The National Hi-Tech Crime Unit says the worm infected more than 18,000 computers.

Damage claim

The men arrested in the raids were a 19-year-old electrician in Darlington and a 21-year-old man in Durham.

The homes of the pair have been searched and computers taken away for examination.

Hacking and virus writing are serious crimes. They are costing UK firms millions of pounds in lost business and downtime Mick Deats, NHTCU

The worm created by the THr34t-Krew infected machines by exploiting a vulnerability in Microsoft's IIS server software.

The strangled spelling of the group's name is typical of so-called 'l33t' (elite) speak which swaps capital letters and numbers for other characters.

It was designed to provide a backdoor into any computer that had it installed.

Once a machine was infected it reported in regularly to the #tkworld chat channels on IRC.

IRC is used by many people as a way to chat and swap files online. IRC servers host chat channels typically dedicated to a particular group or topic. Conversations are carried on by typing text.

IRC is also used by many malicious computer vandals as an easy way to manage the army of computers that their creations infect.

The computers that THr34t-Krew controlled via IRC could be used to scan for other vulnerable machines or to launch any one of several types of attack by proxy.

In the net

The National Hi-Tech Crime Unit says that the TK worm caused up to £5.5m of disruption.

However, Graham Cluley, spokesman for anti-virus firm Sophos, said the worm was not well-known among computer security firms.

One of the few people to encounter the TK worm and the THr34t-Krew is consultant Seth Fogie who wrote of his encounter with the worm and the group on the Inform IT website.

Detective Superintendent, Mick Deats, deputy head of the NHTCU, said: "Hack