At least 35 people, including 17 civilians and a Nato-led soldier, have been killed in Afghanistan today. The country’s interior ministry announced that 17 civilian road-workers were killed when Taliban rebels attacked them in the southern region of Zabul.

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia’s leading businessmen appealed to president-elect Dmitry Medvedev on Tuesday to respect their property rights and protect them from arbitrary state interference.

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Heading Russia’s biggest political party would be a logical step for Vladimir Putin when he steps down as president, the head of Russia’s most powerful business lobby said on Tuesday.

SOFIA (Reuters) – Profits from drugs trafficking through Bulgaria have been used to fund organizations like Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad, the parliamentary security commission said on Tuesday.

GAZA (Reuters) – Sleeping in their cars outside petrol stations, Palestinians are feeling the pinch of a fuel crisis in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, where black market gasoline sells for about $30 a gallon.

KABUL (Reuters) – Seventeen Afghan road workers were killed in an attack in the southern Afghan province of Zabul on Tuesday, the Interior Ministry said.

Foreign Ministry spokesman, Mohammad-Ali Hosseini, on Tuesday deplored civilian losses in Iraq, condemning US forces for indiscriminate bombardment of residential areas in Sadr City and Basra.

(Reuters) – Following are security developments in Iraq at 10:05 a.m. on Tuesday. * denotes new or updated items. * BAGHDAD – 10 people died and 61 were wounded in fighting in Sadr City, eastern Baghdad, on Tuesday, an Iraqi health official said.

The U.S. military said that four of its soldiers were killed on Monday in separate incidents in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad.Following are the latest figures for soldiers and civilians killed since the U.S.-led invasion in March, 2003:

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said in central Iran on Tuesday that present achievements of Iranian scientists in the field of peaceful nuclear technology would lead to major progress in domestic industries.