Rome  - Italian lawmakers rejected a bid Wednesday to triple the amount of time illegal immigrants can be detained in holding centres, in a rare defeat for Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's ruling coalition.

In a narrow vote, opposition deputies - joined by some members of Berlusconi's own conservative coalition - voted against extending the period from two months to six months.

Cairo  - A public prosecutor in Cairo on Wednesday accused Hezbollah of plotting attacks in Egypt, the Interior Ministry said.

Egypt's domestic intelligence agency, State Security Investigations, supplied the prosecutor with information indicating that leaders of Hezbollah, the Lebanese Islamist group, sent members to Egypt to gather recruits for its organisation, a source in Egypt's Interior Ministry told the German Press Agency dpa on Wednesday, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Bangkok - Thai police have arrested three men who they claim were plotting to assassinate an advisor to King Bhumibol Adulyadej at a time of rising political tension in the country, a news report said Wednesday.

The suspects allegedly told investigators that some military officers wanted to create turmoil ahead of Wednesday's mass rally by supporters loyal to fugitive former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, the Nation reported.

Dhaka  - Bangladesh may request the International Criminal Court to put on trial Pakistani forces for alleged war crimes, a top official said Tuesday.

"We will take the matter to the International Criminal Court and seek the trial of the members of the Pakistani occupation forces who committed crimes against humanity during our liberation war," State Minister for Liberation War Affairs, AB Tajul Islam, told German Press Agency dpa.

Washington/Lima  - The international rights organization Human Rights Watch called Tuesday's conviction of former Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori on human rights abuses a "major advance for human rights accountability."

The court in the Peruvian capital of Lima found that prosecutors had proven their case that Fujimori had ordered the killings of 25 people in two massacres at La Cantuta and Barrios Altos and two kidnappings in 1991 and 1992.

Berlin  - Germany's President Horst Koehler signed a controversial bill into law Tuesday enabling the state to seize control of troubled mortgage lender Hypo Real Estate (HRE).

The measure, described as a last resort to stabilize the German financial market, marks the first time in modern-day Germany that bank shareholders face possible expropriation.

The approval followed adoption by both chambers of the German federal parliament and comes after the government took an 8.7-per- cent stake in the shaky lender as a first step to gaining full control.