World News: The White House steps up pressure on Egypt leaders

The White House warned Egypt's leaders to expect unrelenting protests unless they start to show real reforms and a transition to a freer society, dismissing governmental concessions so far as not having met even the minimum threshold of what people want.

Obama administration officials were also increasingly blunt in describing the limits of their leverage, reasserting that the US is not seeking to dictate events in Egypt - and that it cannot.

"We're not going to be able to force them to do anything," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said.

However, Mr Gibbs and other officials called on Egypt's leaders to end the harassment of activists, to broaden the make-up of their negotiations with opposition leaders, to lift a repressive emergency law, and to take up a series of other moves the Obama government has requested for days.

Barack Obama reinforced that message in a phone call yesterday to King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia in which the President emphasized the need for "immediate steps toward an orderly transition that is meaningful, lasting, legitimate and responsive," the White House said.

Lohan denies stealing necklace

Actress Lindsay Lohan pleaded not guilty to felony grand theft of a $2,500 necklace - the most serious charge yet against the troubled star.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Keith Schwartz told her: "You're no different than anyone else . . . don't push your luck."

Aussies face floods tax

Australia's prime minister introduced tax legislation to parliament today that would help pay for storm and flood damage, as debate raged about whether the government should instead cut foreign aid.

Prime minister Julia Gillard said the bill was at least $5.6 billion.

Berlusconi slams 'plot'

ITALIAN premier Silvio Berlusconi has defiantly accused prosecutors of trying to topple his government by seeking to put him on trial on charges he had sex with a 17-year-old girl and then tried to cover it up.

The sex scandal has splashed allegations of wild parties at Mr Berlusconi's villas across newspaper front pages for weeks and drawn the ire of the Catholic Church.

This is the first judicial action against the 74-year-old involving personal conduct.

Cuba nets fibre optic cable

Cuba has welcomed the arrival of an undersea fibre-optic cable linking it to Venezuela as a blow to the US economic embargo.

The cable will transform communications in Cuba, which has among the slowest internet speeds in the world. Teen suicide bomber kills 27 soldiers

Pakistan: A teen suicide bomber in a school uniform attacked soldiers during morning exercises at an army training camp in Mardan today, killing 27 troops and wounding 40 others, police said.

Japan: The foreign minister said today Russia has no legal right to occupy several disputed islands in the southern Kuril chain that have kept the countries at odds for decades, despite Moscow's increasingly assertive stance.