`UNAUTHORIZED': Liberal Member of Parliament Jackie Kelly's husband admitted to distributing fake flyers purporting to be issued by `The Islamic Australia Federation'
Australian Prime Minister John Howard was thrown on the defensive yesterday just two days ahead of a general election after senior members of his party were implicated in a dirty tricks campaign.

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One of Pakistan's most distinguished jurists and a dissident lawyer approached a police cordon on Wednesday in a residential quarter here to demonstrate that the government's claims it had lifted house arrest on a former justice were not true.

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Two US navy ships were due to arrive off Bangladesh to assist Dhaka's military-led relief effort to bring food and medicine to survivors of a killer cyclone, a statement said yesterday.

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ASEAN and EU leaders endorsed a five-year plan to enhance security and trade ties yesterday and urged Myanmar's military junta to speed up democratic reforms and release Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.

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China said yesterday it would allow the USS Kitty Hawk aircraft carrier into Hong Kong for a long-planned Thanksgiving visit, after US officials complained that permission had been mysteriously withheld.

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THREAT OF SANCTIONS: Iran's continuing defiance of UN demands to stop uranium enrichment was expected to be the focus of the year-end meeting
The 35-member board of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) was to hold its regular year-end meeting yesterday, with Iran's disputed nuclear drive and the threat of possible renewed UN sanctions topping the agenda.

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The head of a respected election observation institution dismissed on Wednesday a suggestion that abandoning plans to monitor upcoming Russian elections was politically motivated.

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A demand by Italy's former royal family for compensation from the Italian state for their 56 years of forced exile was met with deep scorn on Wednesday by anti-Fascist and Jewish groups.

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With an ebb in the violence in Iraq, the country's embassy in Damascus is starting to organize free trips for Iraqis who want to return home, an Iraqi diplomat said on Wednesday.

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HOSTAGES: The Venezuelan president spoke to a Colombian general in violation of a key request by Colombian leader Alvaro Uribe. The move may end hopes of a deal
Colombia's government said on Wednesday that it was canceling Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's mediation role with leftist rebels in a possible hostage swap, dealing a blow to efforts to free three kidnapped US contractors and a former presidential candidate.

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Tens of thousands of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's supporters filled the streets to back his proposed constitutional changes, while anti-government student leaders announced a bold plan to march on the presidential palace.

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A series of accusations raised by the US military against an Associated Press (AP) photographer detained for 19 months in Iraq are false or meaningless, according to an intensive AP investigation of the case.

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RESOLUTION: US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said that the US will allow room for other conflicts to be aired at Annapolis, including Syria and Israel over the Golan Heights
The US will try to close an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal before US President George W. Bush's term expires, giving the administration a little over a year to help the two sides craft a resolution to one of the world's longest and most intractable conflicts.

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The EU goes to next week's Middle East peace conference in the US ready to back up an agreement with financial aid, recognizing that without giving Palestinians hope for improved living standards, a political settlement will remain out of reach.

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TOO RESTRICTIVE: US courts have begun to show their discomfort with new laws imposing residency restrictions
The Georgia Supreme Court unanimously struck down a state law on Wednesday that limited where registered sex offenders could live, ruling that the statute was so restrictive it unconstitutionally deprived the offenders of their property rights.

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■ RUSSIA

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