The New Nation - Internet Edition

AP, Kabul

A bomb atack Friday against a convoy of French troops killed one soldier and injured many Afghans near the blast, while heavy fighting in southern Afghanistan killed about 75 Taliban fighters and six civilians, officials said.

The atack in western Kabul blew the windows out of a civilian bus and set at least one vehicle on fire. At least six civilians were in serious condition, and many others had lesser injuries, said Zormai Rasa, the local police chief.

NATO's International Security Assistance Force confirmed that one French soldier was killed in the blast, but a spokesman said he had no other information.

Heavy fighting in the south, meanwhile, killed around 75 Taliban militants during the last 48 hours, the U.S.-led coalition said. Six civilians were also killed after Taliban fighters sought shelter in their homes, which were then targeted by airstrikes, an Afghan official said.

Airstrikes were called in against "anti-coalition militants" in the Garmsir district of Helmand province early Friday, killing about 40 fighters, the coalition said. Soldiers found more than 20 rocket-propelled grenades, ammunition and land mines in the militants' compound, the coalition said.

The six civilians, including women and children, died in a separate batle in Helmand province's Gereshk region on Wednesday after Taliban fighters fled fighting with NATO forces and sought shelter in the civilian homes, said Gereshk district chief Abdul Manaf Khan.

NATO's International Security Assistance Force said there were "a number" of civilian casualties caused by the fighting. ISAF said Taliban fighters atacked its forces from a housing compound and that an airstrike targeted the compound. ISAF said it had been unaware that civilians were in the area.

In another newly reported batle, more than three dozen Taliban fighters were reported killed Wednesday in Uruzgan province, the coalition said.

The fighting began when Afghan and coalition troops spoted a dozen insurgents planting roadside bombs in Uruzgan province, sparking a 14-hour batle that included airstrikes against Taliban fighters taking cover in village homes.

Afghan officials meanwhile said that six civilians had been killed earlier in the week in an airstrike by NATO-led forces carrying out a major operation against the Islamic extremist fighters.

AFP, Rome

UN atomic chief Mohamed ElBaradei said Thursday that Iran does not currently pose an immediate threat as international tension over Tehran's nuclear programme continued to rise.

"Iran does not constitute a certain and immediate threat for the international community," ElBaradei said in an interview with Italian RAI television.

The IAEA director called for international leaders to "give peace a chance," underlining that no hidden radioactive substances or underground production sites had yet been found.

However, he admited: "Iran has not yet completely revealed all the aspects of its nuclear programme."

Once again, ElBaradei called for dialogue, underling that a calendar was in place for inspections concerning the nature of Iran's atomic programme.

"If we do not obtain satisfying results in two or three months, only then will we be able to draw negative consequences," said ElBaradei, in Italy for a general conference of the UN watchdog International Atomic Energy Agency.

Western powers are to meet in Washington on Friday to discuss a new UN Security Council sanctions resolution in the nuclear standoff and the US administration is frustrated at the lack of progress being made.

The United States and France want tougher sanctions against Iran, which has denied western allegations that it is covertly developing a nuclear weapon.

AFP, Vienna

Arab states on Thursday pushed through a resolution at the UN atomic agency clearly aimed at Israel, calling for a Middle East free of nuclear weapons.

The UN watchdog International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) adopted an Egyptian-sponsored resolution on a nuclear weapons-free-zone in the Middle East with Israel and the US voting against and EU states except Ireland abstaining.

The lack of consensus weakened the impact of the measure, at a general conference of the 144-nation IAEA.

The resolution was backed by 53 votes, with two against and 47 abstentions.

The IAEA has a tradition of adopting resolutions by consensus but the Middle East issue has become highly politicized, even though Israel backs a nuclear weapons-free-zone (NWFZ) within the framework of a Middle East peace setlement

Some Western and non-aligned diplomats said the problem this year was that Iran was agitating behind the scenes for a showdown over Israel, in order to distract from its own nuclear programme.

One Western diplomat said the large abstention vote, which included Australia, Canada, Georgia, Ghana and Zambia, "shows that the world is hanging together on these maters."

But the Iranian speaker blasted the vote as puting into question the views of "some members that full-scope safeguards" need be complemented by wider inspection measures, as Israel, which has not signed the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) seemed to be exempt from this.

AFP, Gaza City

Three Palestinians were killed Thursday during an incursion by Israeli forces into the Gaza Strip, including a 16-year- old boy run over by a bulldozer, witnesses and medics said.

Mahmud Kayed's body was ripped to shreds after the military bulldozer bore down on Palestinian youths throwing rocks at Israeli soldiers near the Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza.

"There was an exchange of fire between our forces and armed men and one of them was hit," said an Israeli military spokeswoman, adding an investigation had been opened into reports the youth had been run over by a bulldozer.

Mohammed Abu Shajar, 22, was wounded by Israeli fire and later died of his injuries, while the body of another 22-year-old man, Yunes Abu Hajila, was later found in the refugee camp, medics said.

AFP, Washington

US President George W. Bush said Thursday that he hoped Iran would bow to mounting global pressure over its atomic program but warned he was "not going to tolerate" a nuclear-armed Tehran. In a wide-ranging press conference, Bush refused to comment on an Israeli raid inside Syria and declined to confirm reports that North Korea gave nuclear know-how to Damascus, while sternly warning Pyongyang against any such efforts. The president, in his first public comment on the Blackwater shooting in Iraq, said he was "saddened" because "evidently some innocent lives were lost" and that he would discuss the issue with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York next week. Bush also signaled he would raise sluggish Iraqi progress towards national reconciliation, saying "I'm not going to give them a pass," while admiting that key political and security goals will not be met as quickly as hoped.

Reuters, Islamabad

Several hundred Pakistan opposition activists gathered outside the Supreme Court on Friday to denounce President Pervez Musharraf's bid to win another term in an October 6 election. About 500 activists, most from an alliance of religious parties, chanted "Go Musharraf go" outside the Supreme Court and carried a coffin symbolizing what they hope will be the death of military rule. Army chief Musharraf will seek re-election despite legal challenges to his bid for power in the Supreme Court and slumping popularity. The opposition has vowed to boycot Musharraf's election by an electoral college made up of members of the two houses of parliament and four provincial assemblies, just before they are to be dissolved for a general election due by mid-January. "If the Election Commissioner accepts Musharraf's nomination papers, all opposition parties will resign from the National Assembly and provincial assemblies," Hafiz Hussain Ahmed, a leader of the Islamist alliance, told the crowd.

Reuters, Manila

About 1,000 soldiers were brought to the Philippine capital on Friday amid reports of a plot to destabilize the government of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo due to a brewing political scandal, the military chief said. General Hermogenes Esperon said six junior officers were under inquiry for allegedly recruiting troops to help a group of ex-soldiers seize political power. "We needed these extra troops just in case," Esperon told reporters. "As we have said, there are atempts, we want to be on the safe side. We want to have the forces available here with us." The Philippine military has been instrumental in the overthrow of two presidents since 1986 and Arroyo, who was propelled to power after an army-backed uprising in 2001, survived a coup atempt in 2003. The military has said allegations of kickbacks in a state deal with a Chinese telecommunications company have encouraged anti-Arroyo groups to stir up trouble among troops.

AFP, Jena

In a scene reminiscent of the US civil rights movement of the 1950s, thousands marched through this small Louisiana town Thursday protesting what they say is widespread inequality and racism in the US criminal justice system. "It's amazing," civil rights leader Reverend Al Sharpton told CNN as he marched with the crowd. "You see the beginning of a movement that will deal with the criminal justice system in this country." Wearing black clothing as a sign of mourning, protestors bused in from across the country chanted "No Justice! No Peace!" and swarmed the grounds of the town's high school, many bending to touch the stump of a tree cut down after it sparked months of racial tensions. Five decades after US schools were officially desegregated, that tree was known as the "white tree" because only white students at Jena High School sat in its shade.

AFP, Shannon

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice urged Israelis and Palestinians on Thursday to hold serious talks on creating a Palestinian state, insisting a looming peace summit be meaningful. "The international meeting has to be serious. It has to be substantive," Rice told a news conference with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas on a visit overshadowed by Israel declaring that the Gaza Strip was a "hostile entity." "The issue here is to move the process forward, to a document that will help lay a foundation so there can be serious negotiations on the establishment of a Palestinian state as soon as possible," Rice added. She spent two hours locked in talks with Abbas and his prime minister Salam Fayyad in Ramallah, before a second meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to prepare for the US-sponsored conference expected in November.