I Will Survive by Gloria Gaynor is bound to make it. So too, perhaps, will the more discordant tones of Yoko Ono’s club hit Walking on Thin Ice. But you can count on Barbra Streisand being there. Sony Music has announced the launch of a label dedicated to supporting gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered artists.

Is that a condom in your pocket or do you want a fine? That is the question police in a Colombian town may soon be asking all males over the age of 14 as part of a scheme to cut the rate of HIV infections. A councillor in the town has proposed that males be forced to carry condoms in the same way they have to carry identity cards.

The United Nations warned on Wednesday that the bird-flu crisis in Turkey could become an epidemic and that neighbouring countries are at risk. In its most pessimistic assessment so far, the UN’s food agency said the disease could spread unless more preventive measures are taken.

Residents of the most devastated areas of New Orleans reacted angrily on Wednesday to a blueprint for rebuilding the city that gives them four months to prove they can bring their neighbourhoods back to life or face the prospect of their homes being turned into parks or marshland.

Hamas has dropped its call for the destruction of Israel from its manifesto for the Palestinian parliamentary election in a fortnight, a move that brings the group closer to the mainstream Palestinian position of building a state within the boundaries of the occupied territories.

Heavy snowfall in Iran on Wednesday, compounding the thick blanket of pollution that habitually engulfs Tehran in the dead of winter, seemed emblematic of the confusion many Iranians now have over their government’s decision to resume nuclear research activities in the face of fierce criticism from the West.