ALGIERS (Reuters) – Publicity, ransom money and damage to lucrative Maghreb tourism are the possible prizes for al-Qaeda’s north Africa wing from the kidnapping of two Austrian adventure holidaymakers.

(Reuters) – A Canadian soldier was found dead in Afghanistan on Tuesday but enemy action has been ruled out, officials said. He was the 80th member of Canada’s military mission to die since 2002. More than 200 foreign troops were killed in Afghanistan in 2007.

TULKARM, West Bank (Reuters) – Israeli troops killed an Islamic Jihad militant in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday, residents said, in an incident that could complicate Egyptian-mediated efforts to broker a Gaza ceasefire.

WARSAW (Reuters) – NATO has not yet decided whether to allow the former Soviet republics of Ukraine and Georgia to join the military alliance, its Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer was quoted on Wednesday as saying.

TEHRAN (FNA)- Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei met with visiting Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono here on Tuesday.

TEHRAN (FNA)- A large number of Iranians from different walks of life met with the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei, here on Wednesday to stress their fervent desire to take part in the upcoming parliamentary elections.

TEHRAN (FNA)- Firefighting squads in Iran’s western province of Lorestan have striven hard in recent days to extinguish sporadic fires which have most probably been started by imprudent picnic-goers who began summer camping even before the winter ends.

TEHRAN (FNA)- Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei on Tuesday said that “unity and cooperation will develop the Islamic world into a major global power”.

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iran will sign a final agreement to export gas via pipeline to Pakistan in April, an official from the National Iranian Gas Company said.

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iranian Transportation Minister Mohammad Rahmati and the visiting president of the Turkish Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges (TOBB) and the Foreign Economic Relations Board (DEIK) explored avenues for consolidation of mutual trade ties in a meeting here on Tuesday.