World in Brief

*ANTI-TERROR ACTION – Australian Prime Minister John Howard sought to reassure the country’s Muslim minority that they were not being targeted after the arrest of 17 alleged militants on terrorism charges.

“This is not an anti-Muslim action,” Howard told Channel Seven television. “This is action being taken by the police because the law has been broken.”Howard called on members of the Islamic community, which numbers some 300 000 out of a population of 20 million, to support the fight against terrorism.* INSURGENTS NABBED – At least 180 suspected terrorists were arrested during a sweep against insurgents in the far western Iraqi town of Husayba, near the border with Syria, the US military said.* NUCLEAR WARNING – Iran’s top nuclear official warned an offer to resume stalled atomic talks with Europe was his final attempt to salvage negotiations, insisting Tehran would never renounce its demand to enrich uranium * FIGHTING BIRD FLU – Swiss drug maker Roche has agreed in principle to let Vietnam manufacture Tamiflu, the frontline medicine against a feared global flu pandemic, a health ministry official in Hanoi said.* CONFESSED TO BOMBING – A Kashmiri militant has confessed in detention to planting one of three bombs that exploded in New Delhi killing 62 people last month ahead of a Hindu festival, an Indian army spokesman said.* DEMANDING POLL RE-RUN – The opposition in Azerbaijan warned President Ilham Aliyev to re-run controversial elections or face regime change as the West ratched up pressure on the oil-rich, ex-Soviet republic.* PROHIBITING TORTURE – The US Defence Department has issued a broad policy directive prohibiting physical or mental torture during military interrogations amid controversy over the treatment of detainees from Afghanistan and Iraq.* MISSION TO VENUS – The Venus Express probe, the first space mission in over 10 years to Earth’s closest neighbour, was launched aboard a Soyez-Fregat rocket from Baikonur cosmodrome, an AFP journalist witnessed.- Nampa-AFP”This is action being taken by the police because the law has been broken.”Howard called on members of the Islamic community, which numbers some 300 000 out of a population of 20 million, to support the fight against terrorism.* INSURGENTS NABBED – At least 180 suspected terrorists were arrested during a sweep against insurgents in the far western Iraqi town of Husayba, near the border with Syria, the US military said.* NUCLEAR WARNING – Iran’s top nuclear official warned an offer to resume stalled atomic talks with Europe was his final attempt to salvage negotiations, insisting Tehran would never renounce its demand to enrich uranium * FIGHTING BIRD FLU – Swiss drug maker Roche has agreed in principle to let Vietnam manufacture Tamiflu, the frontline medicine against a feared global flu pandemic, a health ministry official in Hanoi said.* CONFESSED TO BOMBING – A Kashmiri militant has confessed in detention to planting one of three bombs that exploded in New Delhi killing 62 people last month ahead of a Hindu festival, an Indian army spokesman said.* DEMANDING POLL RE-RUN – The opposition in Azerbaijan warned President Ilham Aliyev to re-run controversial elections or face regime change as the West ratched up pressure on the oil-rich, ex-Soviet republic.* PROHIBITING TORTURE – The US Defence Department has issued a broad policy directive prohibiting physical or mental torture during military interrogations amid controversy over the treatment of detainees from Afghanistan and Iraq.* MISSION TO VENUS – The Venus Express probe, the first space mission in over 10 years to Earth’s closest neighbour, was launched aboard a Soyez-Fregat rocket from Baikonur cosmodrome, an AFP journalist witnessed.- Nampa-AFP