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- France
said only political factions linked to Iraq's
interim government may participate in next month's
talks in Egypt on Iraq's future. Hours earlier,
Foreign Minister Michel Barnier said France wanted
to include Iraqi political groups not linked to the
government at the Nov. 22-23 talks - but then he
reversed himself.
- A roadside bomb killed one American soldier and
wounded five others in western Baghdad.
- An Estonian soldier was killed during an ambush
while patrolling outside the Iraqi capital, an
Estonian lawmaker said. Five other Estonians were
wounded. The soldier was the second to die this year
from Estonia, which has 45 soldiers in Iraq.
- Police said a city council leader was gunned down
during a drive-by shooting in Mahmoudiya, about 25
miles south of Baghdad. Dhari Ali was killed outside
his home, police said.
- Insurgents launched two near-simultaneous bomb
attacks on a government compound and a military
convoy in the northern city of Mosul, U.S. and Iraqi
officials said. Three people inside the compound
were killed and another one was injured in the
morning blast, provincial government spokesman Hazem
Jalawi said. An Iraqi general was slightly injured
in the convoy attack. A joint Iraqi-U.S. operation
netted two people with links to known terrorists,
the military said.
- Rebels and U.S. forces battled in the central town
of Ramadi, and hospital officials reported three
Iraqis were killed. Insurgents bombed one American
security patrol and ambushed a separate convoy with
small arms, rocket-propelled grenades and an
improvised explosive, the U.S. military said. No
Americans were injured.
- About 150 Iraqis rallied Monday in front of the
Baghdad offices of CARE International to demand the
release of aid worker Margaret Hassan, its Iraqi
director who was abducted Oct. 20. Hassan, 59, who
holds British, Irish and Iraqi citizenship, is
married to an Iraqi and has spent nearly half her
life in humanitarian work in this country. No group
has acknowledged holding her but a videotape
broadcast last week by Al-Jazeera showed a terrified
Hassan begging for her life and pleading with
British Prime Minister Tony Blair to remove British
soldiers from Iraq.
- The Lebanese Embassy in Baghdad is working with
various Iraqi bodies to secure the release of a
7-year-old Lebanese boy for whom kidnappers have
demanded $150,000, Foreign Ministry officials said
on condition of anonymity. Mohammed Hamad was
kidnapped Saturday while walking home from school in
the Diyala province east of the Iraqi capital of
Baghdad. His father, a Lebanese citizen, has lived
in Iraq for 30 years.
- Donor countries and top Iraqi officials agreed to
coordinate efforts to save the dried-up marshlands
of southern Iraq, reputed to be the biblical Garden
of Eden, the Italian Environment Ministry said.
By The Associated Press
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