World News: Tension grows amid Iranian president's visit to Lebanon

Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is due in Lebanon for a visit seen as a boost for Tehran's Shia ally Hezbollah, an enemy of Israel.

Burma's Suu Kyi refuses to vote

11 guilty over Van Gogh theft

France set for more strikes

Sewer worker's pipe ordeal

The two-day visit will include a tour along Lebanon's tense border with Israel.

The region was devastated during the 2006 war between Hezbollah and Israel and rebuilt partly with Iranian money.

During his visit, Mr Ahmadinejad will meet President Michel Suleiman and Prime Minister Saad Hariri.

He will also attend a rally in the capital Beirut organised by Hezbollah.

It is the Iranian leader's first visit to Lebanon since he took office in 2005. The highway that runs from the airport to the capital Beirut has been decorated with Iranian flags and posters.

However, correspondents say that although the Iranian leader will be welcome in Hezbollah's strongholds, some members of Lebanon's pro-Western parliamentary majority see it as a provocation.

As the visit approached, Hezbollah's rivals in government issued a statement saying Mr Ahmadinejad was seeking to transform Lebanon into "an Iranian base on the Mediterranean".

A DEVOTEE of the Chinese Bank Neow Shrine festival, where followers pierce their bodies to purify themselves, takes part in a procession through Phuket.

Burma's detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi will refuse to vote in the first general election in 20 years.

Her lawyer, Nyan Win, said that although her name was on a voters' list, she would not take part in a poll organised by the military.

An Egyptian court has found 11 culture ministry staff guilty of negligence after the theft of a Van Gogh painting from a Cairo museum.

They include deputy culture minister Mohsen Shalan and the museum's director. They have been sentenced to three years but each given bail.

French commuters faced a second day of chaos today as unions pressed on with an open-ended strike against the government's plan to raise the retirement age by two years.

A day earlier, about 1.23 million people marched in protests, according to police figures - the largest turnout in four nationwide demonstrations over the last five weeks. Unions put the figure at 3.5 million.

The government has refused to back down.

A sewer worker who became unhooked from his safety line was swept through a 27-inch pipe for over a mile before his cries for help were heard and he was rescued.

Daniel Collins, of Missouri, was in a critical condition today.

Hungary: Emergency crews have almost completed a dam to contain further spillage from the reservoir that leaked toxic sludge earlier this month, officials say.

United States: A federal judge ordered the US military to stop enforcing its ban on openly gay troops immediately, bringing the 17-year policy closer than it has ever been to being abolished. Justice Department lawyers have 60 days to appeal.