MORE CAPTIVES: Seoul urged the release of 18 South Korean hostages, saying it is already scheduled to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan by the end of the year
A Taliban spokesman in Afghanistan said yesterday the insurgent group had killed a second German hostage in a day after the Afghan and German governments failed to contact them for negotiations. However, an Afghan foreign ministry spokesman denied the hostages had been killed.

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Pratibha Patil was elected India's new president yesterday, the first woman to hold the office.

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A mentally ill man wielding a wrench wounded 18 children and a teacher in a kindergarten in southern China before fleeing on a motorcycle and trying to stab himself to death, state media reported yesterday.

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Pakistan's top judge began his first full day back in office yesterday after a court rebuffed his suspension by Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf -- a verdict hailed by key ally Washington.

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PAY-UP TIME: Washington insists that Pyongyang rejoin the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty first before six-nation arms talks on providing it with power reactors can start
North Korea's nuclear envoy demanded yesterday that his country be given power-generating reactors as a reward for eventually dismantling its atomic programs, presenting a future hurdle at talks aimed at ridding Pyongyang of its ability to make bombs.

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Sri Lanka's military said yesterday it killed five suspected Tamil Tiger rebels who were trying to plant mines near a defense line in the country's north.

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FOREIGN AFFAIRS: An influential journal of international relations was accused of censorship by the Russian foreign minister, whose article criticized US foreign policy
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has pulled an article he submitted to Foreign Affairs magazine, the influential journal of international relations, saying the editors there changed his writing to the point of censorship, an accusation the magazine denies.

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A heat-wave sweeping central and southeastern Europe has killed at least 13 people this week, with soaring temperatures causing forest fires and damaging crops, officials said on Friday.

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The head of the British Army has warned that the country has "almost no capacity to react to the unexpected" because of deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan in a leaked memo reported yesterday.

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Parliament elected deputy governing party leader Bamir Topi as Albania's new president on Friday, after some opposition lawmakers broke their coalition's boycott and took part in the vote.

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Ethiopia freed 38 opposition members following international condemnation of the two-year case and the country's history of human rights abuses.

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CHANGE: The European Court of Human Rights issued at least 10 verdicts against Russia in cases concerning the Chechen wars. Now Russian courts will hear complaints
Russia wants to restrict the flow of appeals to the European Court of Human Rights, where a growing number of Chechens have been winning cases against the Russian government.

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WEEKLY ADDRESS: President George W. Bush also encouraged support for Pakistan and warned against giving al-Qaeda the opportunity to build a stronger foundation
US President George W. Bush said yesterday that the US must continue fighting in Iraq and support Pakistan's battle against al-Qaeda and other extremists entrenched along its rugged frontier.

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US Vice President Dick Cheney is assuming the powers of the presidency for the second time in five years while President George W. Bush undergoes a medical procedure.

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STRATEGIC PARTNERS: Talks between the nations were scheduled for two days, but stretched to four, indicating progress in reaching an agreement
India and the US said they have neared completion on a crucial agreement on a civil nuclear deal after four days of talks.

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Breaking three days of silence after the worst airline disaster in Brazilian history, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva went on television on Friday night to assure worried Brazilians that he had ordered immediate changes in the country's flawed civil aviation system.

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MILITARY JURY: Although Corporal Trent Thomas was convicted of kidnapping and conspiracy to murder, he will not go to jail for the 2006 death of an Iraqi civilian
A military jury that convicted a Marine of kidnapping and conspiracy to murder decided not to send him to prison for his role in killing an Iraqi civilian targeted after troops failed to abduct a suspected insurgent.

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The United Arab Emirates is planning to send troops to Afghanistan to fight alongside Canadians at Ottawa's behest to put a "Muslim face" on the NATO-led coalition, media reported on Friday.

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■ PAKISTAN
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