"Two incidents of suspicious videotaping of a European mass transit system in the last 120 days provide indications of continued terrorist interest in mass transit systems as targets, and potentially useful insight into terrorist surveillance techniques," DHS said.

The contents of the 17 minute tape that appeared suspicious included the recording of station signs from inside a moving train, shooting footage of the rail car and station platform ceilings and recording trash can and stairwell locations. This footage seems to mesh with known techniques and elements of prior casing reports of planned and executed terrorist plots including the London bombing and plots against the New York City subway system.

The Department of Homeland Security stresses that there is no specific or credible threat information at this time to suggest an an attack on U.S. rail systems, a spokesman said.

Passengers, alarmed by movement in the large bag left on a seat on Tuesday evening, warned the driver, a witness said.

"The driver stopped the tram and started walking up and down, trying to find out why the bag was left in the middle of the carriage," the witness told Reuters. The transportation company in the northern city of Milan confirmed the report.

"People started moving away from the bag and some old ladies started murmuring about a possible bomb attack," the witness added.

But just as the driver prepared to raise the alarm by calling transport headquarters, the owner of the bag -- a homeless man sitting on the other side of the coach -- stood up and opened the bag, revealing the puppies.

"They were just puppies, but these days you never know," the driver said.

Italy has been on alert for possible attacks since the March 11, 2004 bombings in Madrid and the attacks on London's transportation network last July.

"The manoeuvres are being held in stages and they will culminate on May 19 in a theatre of 10 to 15 square kilometres (about four to six square miles)," Indian army spokesman Colonel S.K. Sakuja told AFP in New Delhi.

The mock battles, codenamed Sangha Shakti (Joint Power), involve more than 40,000 soldiers from India's 2nd Strike Corps which accounts for almost 50 percent of the million-plus army's cross-border strike capability, Sakuja said.

He said the three-week exercises were being conducted near Pakistan's borders in northern Punjab state's Jullandhar district.

Military commanders said India had alerted Islamabad in advance about the exercises as part of a bilateral military accord.

The spokesman said a "mixed compliment" of transport and strike aircraft of the Indian Air Force were backing Sangha Shakti, one of the biggest wargames in recent years on Pakistan's militerised borders.

On Wednesday, the 2nd Strike Corps, backed by troops from the army's 14th Rapid Division, practiced dry runs with T-90 Russian battle tanks in Punjab's deserts with temperatures reaching 42 Celsius (107 Fahrenheit).

"This will put to test our 2004 war doctrine to dismember a not-so-friendly nation effectively and at the shortest possible time but since my statement is not politically-friendly I would not like to be identified," a commander told AFP.

The comments were an obvious reference to Pakistan which went to war with India in 1947, 1965 and 1971.

The neighbors conducted tit-for-tat nuclear weapons tests in 1998 and four years later came dangerously close to a fourth war when India blamed Pakistan for an armed attack on its parliament by Muslim gunmen.

The wargames coincided with an agreement Wednesday between India and Pakistan to launch a truck service as well as a second passenger bus route this summer linking the parts of disputed Kashmir held by each country.

Two new water-related bills to be debated in parliament next week will provide a new regulatory framework, with the federal and state governments to share responsibility for the sector.

Lim was responding to concerns from civil society groups who said that once water supply and services are provided on a commercial basis, foreigners could be drawn into the sector and lead to rising prices.

"The rationale for introducing the bills is to ensure quality and reliability where water supplies are concerned," Lim told The Star newspaper, after a spate of complaints over tainted and muddy water.

"We want to ensure the industry is regulated and that consumers enjoy better services," he added.

But the Coalition Against Water Privatisation (CAWP), one of the key groups lobbying against the legislation, said on Wednesday Lim's comments meant little, given Malaysia's international trade obligations.

"In the real politics of negotiations, trading off the competitive advantage of one country for another is a key feature. So Lim's nice statements don't carry any weight," CAWP's coordinator Charles Santiago told AFP.

Malaysia has obligations under the WTO General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) to liberalise a number of service sectors, and Santiago said this could put Malaysia under pressure to open up water services.

"Commitments have to be made at the WTO," he said. "The EU has already requested the opening up of water services under WTO GATS negotiations."

The CAWP is expected to meet with Malaysian parliamentarians Thursday to discuss amendments to the legislation.

The Peruvian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on April 29 that the Peruvian government decided to withdraw its ambassador from Venezuela "with immediate effect due to its persistent and flagrant interference in Peru's domestic affairs."

Peru on Tuesday accused Venezuela of meddling in Peru's election campaign. Venezuela's permanent representative to the Organization of American States, Jorge Valera, rejected Peru's accusations.

"We're so pleased at the strength of the relationship between France and the United States," he said, stressing that Paris and Washington shared a common position on Iran, Syria and the conflict in Sudan's Darfur region.

Burns was US ambassador to NATO at the start of the Iraq war, when Washington had vowed to scale back its contacts with Paris to "punish" it for its opposition to the conflict.

He referred to "the disaffection, and misunderstandings and disagreements between France and the United States" as firmly rooted in the past.

The US official was in Paris to take part in talks between Security Council members on Tehran's nuclear programme, which the West fears could be hiding a drive for the atom bomb.

"No one can suppress the truth forever, but some people never stop trying. It is the journalists who pay the price," Davis said in a statement.

He noted that more than two thirds of the council's 46 member states "maintain criminal sanctions for defamation," and he called on those nations to abolish criminal provisions and heavy damages in civil cases against journalists.

He also said that last year more than 150 journalists around the world died while carrying out their profession, more than half of them murdered.

In the council's member states journalists "are no longer tortured or killed, but that does not mean that they are always free to do their work," Davis said.

He added that the European Convention on Human Rights is often ignored by governments that interfere with the freedom of expression.

"Some journalists may be silenced through intimidation, others may be bought into compliance, but the end result remains the same because democracy cannot properly function without media which is genuinely free of governmental interference and control," Davis said.

"Progress in the protection of journalists is the only credible way to mark the World Press Freedom Day" on Wednesday.