IN BRIEF

* TERROR – Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari said Iraqis were fighting terror on behalf of humanity as another spate of violence left at least 25 dead while Shi’ites mourned the killing of a senior cleric.

* RESIGNED – US Republicans and Democrats geared up for a major political battle over a successor to Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, who has announced her retirement. * VOTE – The United Nations predicts that nothing will mar Monday’s key parliamentary elections in Burundi but the shadow of the country’s last active rebel group still hangs over the polls.* BOMBED – US warplanes bombed militants in eastern Afghanistan, the US military said, as the search continued for a special forces team that disappeared five days ago during a rescue attempt in which a US helicopter was shot down.* ATTACK – A bomb attack against a train in the mainly Kurdish region of eastern Turkey killed six people, swiftly followed by a second attack on another train bringing help, officials and news reports said.* TRIAL – The trial of three Egyptian men suspected of involvement in October’s deadly anti-Israeli bombings in Sinai opened with the defendants pleading not guilty and charging that confessions had been extracted under torture.* CLAIM – An Islamic group claimed responsibility in a statement on a separatist Chechen website for the bomb blast that killed 10 special forces in Russia’s Dagestan republic, and threatened to launch attacks in Moscow.- Nampa-AFP* VOTE – The United Nations predicts that nothing will mar Monday’s key parliamentary elections in Burundi but the shadow of the country’s last active rebel group still hangs over the polls.* BOMBED – US warplanes bombed militants in eastern Afghanistan, the US military said, as the search continued for a special forces team that disappeared five days ago during a rescue attempt in which a US helicopter was shot down.* ATTACK – A bomb attack against a train in the mainly Kurdish region of eastern Turkey killed six people, swiftly followed by a second attack on another train bringing help, officials and news reports said.* TRIAL – The trial of three Egyptian men suspected of involvement in October’s deadly anti-Israeli bombings in Sinai opened with the defendants pleading not guilty and charging that confessions had been extracted under torture.* CLAIM – An Islamic group claimed responsibility in a statement on a separatist Chechen website for the bomb blast that killed 10 special forces in Russia’s Dagestan republic, and threatened to launch attacks in Moscow. – Nampa-AFP