LONDON – HarperCollins will rush out a book submitted by former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto just days before her December 27 assassination, it said on Monday.

BRUSSELS – NATO and the European Union welcomed on Monday the conduct of Georgia’s election in which incumbent President Mikhail Saakashvili claimed victory, but demanded that allegations of irregularities be cleared up fast.

PRISTINA, Serbia – Kosovo’s prime-minister designate Hashim Thaci sealed agreement on Monday on a governing coalition expected to lead the Albanian-majority province to independence from Serbia early this year.

BAIJI, Iraq – Firefighters have succeeded in bringing a blaze at Iraq’s largest oil refinery in Baiji under control, an engineer at the refinery said.

BAIJI, Iraq – Iraq’s largest oil refinery was continuing to operate on Monday despite a fire that destroyed its liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) unit, an engineer at the facility told Reuters.

JERUSALEM – Israeli and Palestinian negotiators struggled on Monday to get U.S.-sponsored peace talks, stalled by disputes over Jewish settlements, on course before a visit by President George W. Bush.

PESHAWAR, Pakistan – Al Qaeda-linked militants in northwest Pakistan have attacked two offices of a government-sponsored peace movement and killed eight people, the military said on Monday.

A U.S. soldier died after a roadside bomb exploded near his vehicle in Diyala Province on Saturday. Following are the latest figures for military deaths in Iraq and Iraqi civilians killed in attacks since the U.S.-led invasion in March, 2003:

Part 1   24 Shawwal 1428 (4 November 2007) I seek refuge in Allah from the accursed shaytan. In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful!

Georgians have begun voting in snap presidential elections seen as a test of the democratic credentials of Mikhail Saakashvili, the country’s pro-western president.