Athens - A 20-year-old British woman was detained by Greek police on Monday on suspicion of strangling her newborn child in a hotel room on the holiday island of Crete, reports said.

Reports said the incident occurred in the woman's hotel room at the northern coastal resort town of Malia. Hotel staff had reportedly rushed the woman to a hospital to receive treatment for heavy bleeding after giving birth to the baby in her room.

British Embassy officials in Athens said the woman, who has not been named, will be charged over the death of her baby but first must appear before a public prosecutor.

Berlin - Germany thanked Turkey on Monday for its help, a day after three German mountaineers were freed at the end of nearly two weeks in the hands of Kurdish rebels.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Jens Ploetner said Turkish officials had played a major role in resolving the crisis, with the interaction between the two nations' officials "characterized by high trust."

The three men were expected in Germany late Monday afternoon after spending the night in a Turkish government guest-house at Agri. Militants in the Kurdish rebel group PKK kidnapped them July 8. They were freed on Sunday.

Mogadishu - Clashes between Islamic rebels and government soldiers in the north of the Somali capital Mogadishu left a number of people dead including five children between the ages of 6 and 13, it was reported Monday.

The children, pupils at a Koran school, were reported by witnesses to have been trying to flee as rebels attacked an Ethiopian military base on Sunday evening.

In another incident, two youths were killed when a grenade exploded on a football field where the teenagers were playing.

Egypt  - Swordfights and scuffles erupted in cities in northern Egypt after motorists queuing up to buy subsidized, scarce gasoline lost their tempers, a local newspaper reported Monday.

In several such incidents in the coastal city of Alexandria, scuffles broke out in petrol stations among motorists fighting to be served first, culminating in a swordfight in case, the independent daily al-Masri al-Youm said.

Long queues outside petrol stations in Egypt's second largest city reached up to one kilometre in the city centre.

Other cities in the Nile Delta north of Cairo, saw similar quarrels, according to the newspaper.

Chennai, July 21 : Seven Tsunami affected fishermen will soon be visiting Vietnam for a 20-day sojourn to learn modern techniques of catching fish and trawler operations under a government project.

These farmers will be going to Vietnam under Tsunami Relief Committee’s project sponsored by Rotary Club.

Led by a former official of the Fisheries Department, these fishermen will attend a 20-day training programme and learn about the techniques and practices employed by fishermen in Vietnam.

Vietnam fishermen net an annual catch worth 6 billion dollars in the seafood sector''s turnover. Half of this sum is earned in terms of foreign exchange, propping up Vietnam''s aqua-driven economy.

Geneva - Representatives of World Trade Organization (WTO) member countries began a key meeting in Geneva Monday in an attempt to revive the stalled Doha Round of talks on liberalizing world trade that began seven years ago. 

The talks are centred on resolving an impasse over barriers to trade in industrial and agricultural goods on world markets by the end of the week. 

One aim is to open markets for agricultural goods from the world's poorest countries.