<B>SEOUL. China concerned over N. Korea missile test. </B> China concerned over N. Korea missile test – China issued its strongest statement of concern yet yesterday over a possible North Korean long-range missile launch, while Pyongyang warned of possible clashes in the skies as it accused US spy planes of repeated illegal intrusions. Beijing is the North’s last major ally and key benefactor, and Washington has urged China to press the North to back down on its potential missile test.

<B>IRAQ. Saddam goes on a hunger strike. </B>Saddam Hussein and his seven co-defendants went on a hunger strike to protest the shooting death of an attorney on the ousted Iraqi leader’s defense team, their chief lawyer said – the third such killing in the 8-month-old trial. Yesterday the US military announced that four Marines were killed during operations in insurgent-ridden Anbar province, three of them in a roadside bombing. At least 2,511 members of the US military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. The figure includes seven military civilians.

CAIRO. Al-Qaida second-in-command issues video. </B>Al-Qaida’s No. 2 leader issued a new videotape yesterday calling on Afghans to rise up against US-led forces in the wake of rioting last month in Kabul. The video by Ayman al-Zawahri – which would be his sixth this year – was posted on an Islamic Web site known as a clearing house for al-Qaida and other militants’ statements. “I am calling upon the Muslims in Kabul in particular and in all Afghanistan in general and for the sake of God to stand up in an honest stand in the face of the infidel forces that are invading Muslim lands,” said al-Zawahri, wearing a white turban and sitting in front of a black backdrop with an automatic rifle next to him. He also calls on “the young men of Islam, in the universities and schools of Kabul, to carry out their duties in defense of their religion, honor, land and country.”