Stockholm - The Swedish Academy that selects the Nobel literature laureate is reportedly split over how to respond to death threats against Italian best-selling author Roberto Saviano.

Saviano's book, Gomorra, has angered the mafia, or Camorra, in Naples, and he has been forced to live under police protection. A week ago he said in a newspaper interview that he was considering leaving Italy.

Beirut- Lebanon's Shiite movement Hezbollah denied on Thursday any links with a drug-ring captured in Colombia and said such reports are aimed at defaming the image of the movement.

"This is part of a Zionist campaign against the movement to defame its picture and they are based on pure lies," said Nawaf al Mussawi, Hezbollah's foreign affairs officer.

Mussawi met with the Colombian Ambassador to Lebanon, Georgina Mallat and handed her a condemnation letter, which stated that Hezbollah "does not participate in outlawed missions."

Baghdad- An apparent suicide bomb attack on the convoy of an Iraqi minister killed 11 and injured 22 Thursday, witnesses told the Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.
The attack on the convoy of Iraqi Labour Minister Mahmoud al-Radi occurred in the Tahrir Square area in Baghdad, al-Arabiya TV reported.

Al-Radi was not injured in the blast, his ministry said in a statement.

Separately, a blast in a market area injured 16 people in Iraq's Diyala province.

Vienna  - German airline Deutsche Lufthansa AG has submitted a valid bid for Austrian Airlines AG (AUA), the Austrian takeover commission confirmed Thursday, but it said it was still uncertain if there would be a deal.

"Against the background of AUA's economic development and an apparent wide gap between the negotiating positions, it is uncertain whether the transaction can be concluded," the commission said in a statement.

The Austrian government is in the process of selling its 42.75-per-cent stake in the country's ailing flag carrier, but Air France has dropped out of the bidding process.

Munich - The chief of the Munich-based BayernLB is to step down in the wake of the financial crisis that has engulfed the state lender, sources told the Deutsche Presse Agentur dpa.

The expected announcement that Michael Kemmer had decided to leave his post comes just one day after Bavarian Finance Minister Erwin Huber said he was resigning in the face of the financial problems confronting BayernLB.

A BayernLB spokesman declined to comment on the reports of Kemmer's possible departure from the Bavarian state-owned bank.

Washington - Former US Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan warned that a "significant rise" in unemployment was unavoidable as the United States works its way through a massive financial crisis that will not ease up for many months.

"We are in the midst of a once in a century credit tsunami," Greenspan said in prepared remarks before the Oversight Committee of the US House of Representatives.

The drop in housing prices, which precipitated the crisis and sparked a record number of home foreclosures, will not stabilize until "many months in the future," he said.