<B>PARIS. France campaign trail paved with condoms. </B>Vacationers visiting France’s beaches are getting some unusual promotional goodies – such as condoms stamped with the logo of the ruling conservative political party. With presidential elections coming up in the spring, French politicians are testing new waters in a country that usually emphasizes rhetoric – speeches and pamphlets – over image-building buzz. Members of the conservative Union for a Popular Movement have been touring beaches and vacation spots across France with truckloads of party merchandise to shore up support for Nicolas Sarkozy, Interior minister and party leader.Before the tour ends on September 1, the party, known by its French initials UMP, will have visited some 40 beaches and tourist destinations along France’s picturesque coastline. Among the most popular items are condoms emblazoned with the party’s logo and flip-flops that leave a UMP footprint behind when worn over wet sand, the party said.

<B>GREEN ZONE</B>.Anfal survivor testifies in Saddam trial. A Kurdish woman described huddling with her children in a cave as warplanes bombarded her village with chemical weapons in testimony at the genocide trial of Saddam Hussein. Survivors once again took the stand in the trial, in which Saddam and six co-defendants are charged for their roles in the 1987-88 Anfal campaign, a military sweep against the Kurds of northern Iraq in which tens of thousands of people were killed. Saddam is still waiting a verdict in the first case against him – the nine-month-long trial over the killings of 148 Shiites in a 1980s crackdown on the town of Dujail. In that case, as well, he and seven other co-defendants could face the death penalty.The verdict is due on October 16.

<B>TEHRAN. Diplomats pore over Iran nuclear offer. </B>Iran’s apparent reluctance to suspend uranium enrichment in its counterproposal to a Western nuclear incentives package sets the stage for a showdown at the UN Security Council next week – with no certainty the US will win a promise of tough sanctions from its partners. Diplomats from Europe, the US, Russia and China were poring over the details of Iran’s offer yesterday, a day after Tehran presented it, and withheld any detailed public comment. But initial comments from Russia and China made clear the United States is likely to face difficulty getting at least those two nations to agree to any tough sanctions against Iran.

<B> CANBERRA. Kangaroos put on the pill to curb population. </B>Kangaroos around Australia’s national capital will soon be fed a contraceptive pill by authorities trying to control their booming population. The move has been welcomed by Canberra animal rights advocates, who said feeding contraceptives to kangaroos was better than culling the animals. Australia has an estimated 57 million wild kangaroos, or nearly three times the human population, which damage crops and property and compete with livestock for food and water. Despite being featured on the nation’s coat of arms, Australia culls millions of kangaroos each year. But the number of sturdy marsupials keeps increasing. The problem is prominent around Canberra, where five years of drought have seen more kangaroos move into the suburban fringes looking for feed and becoming traffic hazardsfor commuters. Kangaroos are the biggest animal risk to motorists in Australia, accounting for 70 percent of animal-related car accidents in 2004.

<B>UKRAINE.Russia plane crash wreckage being probed .</B> Investigators yesterday combed through the wreckage of a Russian passenger jet that crashed into a Ukrainian field during a severe thunderstorm, killing all 170 people aboard.The flight recorders of the Pulkovo Airlines’ Tu-154 have not been found. The recorders could help explain the cause of the third fatal crash this year of a Russian passenger airliner. Emergency officials said that preliminary information suggested bad weather caused Tuesday’s crash near the city of Donetsk, about 400 miles east of the Ukrainian capital, Kiev.The plan was flying to St. Petersburg from the Russian Black Sea resort of Anapa – a holidaydestination popular with families.