Melbourne, Nov. 12 : They may have had all their plans chalked out for dealing with India’s master class batting line-up, the dusty pitches and had the experts to deal with all aspects of the game, but according to a Herald Sun report, the Australian cricket team simply came apart during the four Test series.

Brussels - Struggling carrier Alitalia will have to pay back a 300-million-euro (382-million-dollars) loan it received from the Italian government after it was judged Wednesday to constitute "illegal state aid" by the European Commission.

Damascus - Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari told his Syrian counterpart Wednesday that Iraq will not be a base for raids on Syria and will soon appoint an Iraqi envoy to Syria.

Zebari, who arrived in Damascus on Tuesday, met with Syrian foreign minister Walid al-Muallem. Zebari delivered a letter from Nuri al-Maliki to the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

The letter added that the Iraqi government had not been aware of the US raid the Syrian village of Abu Kamal.

Frankfurt - Germany is to send Rose Kabuye, 47, a Rwandan presidential aide, to France after judges approved the extradition request Wednesday, a Frankfurt prosecution office spokeswoman said.

Kabuye, a former guerrilla leader and mayor of the Rwandan capital Kigali, was arrested when she landed at Frankfurt airport on Sunday.

Rwanda expelled the German ambassador to Kigali in protest and recalled its own ambassador from Berlin.

Vienna - Wienerberger AG, one of the world's largest brickmakers, said Monday that a plan to shut down 27 of around 250 factories this year was under way, as the company's net income fell by 44 per cent to 133 million euros (169 million dollars) in the first three quarters.

With the construction sector declining in Western Europe and a sharp drop in housing starts in the United States, the Austrian company said it had already shut 16 of the 27 plants this summer in order to ensure liquidity and to protect its financial base.

Gaza - Israeli troops killed four Palestinians in a fire- fight in the southern Gaza Strip Wednesday, further battering an already shaky truce.

An Israeli military spokeswoman in Tel Aviv said the troops had spotted a group of armed men making their way to the border fence which separates the salient from Israel, and had opened fire.