The Security Council was formally to recommend its candidate to replace outgoing Secretary General Kofi Annan to the General Assembly on October 9. The 192-member body has never rejected a council nominee for UN chief. The nominee was almost certain to be Ban after a decisive straw poll Monday in which he won crucial backing from the Security Council’s five veto-wielding members.

<B>EUROPEAN SUMMIT. France’s Sarkozy to call for ban on immigrant amnesties. </B>France’s Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy is to call Friday for a Europe-wide ban on mass amnesties for illegal immigrants, at an eight-country round table on immigration in Madrid.

As part of a European immigration “pact”, Sarkozy is to call for “the prohibition in future of any mass regularisation measures”, according to an advance copy of his remarks obtained by AFP.The French presidential hopeful – who has championed a tough line on crime and immigration – is to argue for the delivery of residency papers to be “strictly limited to humanitarian situations, on a case by case basis”. Ministers from Spain, France, Portugal, Italy, Greece, Malta, Cyprus and Slovenia are expected along with EU officials in Madrid to discuss ways to stem the flow of illegal migrants through the European Union’s maritime borders.The French minister, who last week signed a deal on “managed migration” with Senegal, has accused Spain of encouraging illegal migration by granting an amnesty to 600,000 illegals last year.

<B>AUSTRALIA. Call to open up Aboriginal areas. </B>The Australian government has called for an end to the tightly-controlled permit system under which Aborigines can stop people entering outback lands. Under present law, visitors need a permit to access traditional lands. The government says the 30-year-old system has closed off communities and restricted the ability of individuals to interact with the wider community. Australia’s 460,000 Aborigines own or control about 20 % of the country’s total land area. It is illegal in Australia to enter Aboriginal land without a formal permit, a law which came into effect 30 years ago to protect indigenous communities from the worst aspects of modern life - crime and exploitation. But the Australian government believes the system is anachronistic and ineffective.

<B>UNITED KINGDOM. New DNA test to solve more cases. </B>Tens of thousands of unsolved crimes could be cracked with a new forensic technique, it has been claimed.

The Forensic Science Service (FSS) is piloting a computer-based analysis system which can interpret previously unintelligible DNA samples. It claims the technique is a world first which will boost its crime detection rates by more than 15%. The method is being tested by the West Yorkshire, South Yorkshire, Northumbria and Humberside police forces.

It allows scientists to pinpoint DNA samples when more than one individual has touched a surface, where only small amounts of DNA have been left behind or only poor quality material was found.

<B> TEHRAN. Iran opens nuke plant to foreign tourists.</B> Iran’s hard-line president has ordered nuclear facilities opened to foreign tourists to prove that the nation’s disputed atomic program is peaceful, state-run television reported yesterday.

“After an order by the president ... foreign tourists can visit Iran’s nuclear facilities,” the head of Iran’s tourism division, Esfandiar Rahim Mashai, was quoted as saying. Mashai said President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad issued the order to show that Iran’s nuclear program it aims to generate fuel, not weapons.

The report did not clarify the definition of a foreign tourist. The announcement came a day after Iran’s parliament voted to debate a bill that would require the government to fingerprint all U.S. citizens visiting Iran.The draft law would require all American citizens to be fingerprinted when they enter Iran. The measure was in retaliation for the fingerprinting of Iranian travelers visiting the United States – a procedure implemented in 2002 for Iranians and citizens of several other countries.