<B>BAGHDAD. US military denies killing al Qaeda leader in Iraq. </B>The US military yesterday denied reports it had killed the leader of al Qaeda in Iraq Abu Ayyub al-Masri. “There was a raid where we thought he may have been among those killed. We are still doing DNA tests but we do not believe coalition forces have killed al-Masri,” US military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Barry Johnson told Reuters. Earlier, an Iraqi government source, who did not want to be named, said Masri and three of his aides were killed in the western Iraqi town of Haditha on Wednesday after US forces launched an airstrike and ground assault on a safe house. Masri’s predecessor, Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, was killed in a US airstrike in June.

<B> SAMAW. Gunmen kill three women, baby in southern Iraqi city.</B> Gunmen stormed a home in the southern Iraqi city of Samawa late on Wednesday, shooting dead three women and slitting the throat of a baby girl, neighbours and hospital officials said yesterday. Neighbours said the women were a mother and her daughter-in laws. The 18-month-old infant was the daughter of one of the in-laws. The women, all Shi’ites, the neighbours said, were killed in an overwhelmingly Shi’ite city. Violence there is almost non-existent, but revenge killings are fairly common in Iraq’s south.

<B>GAZA. Israeli army kills Palestinian at Gaza border. </B>Israeli soldiers shot dead a Palestinian in the Gaza Strip yesterday near the border with Israel, said ambulance workers who retrieved his body. An Israeli army spokesman in Tel Aviv said troops shot an armed Palestinian who had approached the Israeli-built border fence south of the Kissufim crossing point and tried to plant explosives. The man’s identity was not immediately known.

<B>COLOMBO. Air raids, bombs despite Sri Lanka peace talk vows. </B>Sri Lanka’s Air Force bombed Tamil Tiger bases for a third day yesterday, and suspected rebels clashed with government soldiers, after the foes agreed to crunch talks aimed at halting renewed civil war. Residents in the far northern army-held Jaffna peninsula heard volleys of artillery shells before dawn, but said the intensity was far lower than in recent weeks — the worst fighting since a 2002 ceasefire that now lies in tatters. The military said the Air Force pounded suspected bases of the rebels’ naval Sea Tiger wing in the eastern district of Batticaloa, and also raided rebel targets in the north. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the government have agreed to meet for talks on October 28-30 after a six-month impasse. The government committed to the talks on Wednesday night, and says they will take place in Geneva. The Tigers wanted to go Oslo and have not yet said whether they agree to go to Geneva. The rebels have threatened to withdraw from the truce completely if attacks by the military continue, while the government says it reserves the right to retaliate if the Tigers attack security forces

<B>WARSAW. Russia still opposes Iran sanctions Poland. </B>Russia’s foreign minister said yesterday that Moscow remains opposed to sanctions against Iran in the dispute over Tehran’s nuclear programImposing sanctions would be “extreme” and unconstructive, Sergey Lavrov said in Warsaw.Foreign ministers from six major powers including Russia are expected to meet, possibly Friday in London, to discuss the crisis with Iran after a key European negotiator conceded that “endless hours” of talks had made little progress and suggested the dispute could wind up at the United Nations soon.In a sign of Russian impatience with Iran, Lavrov expressed concern that Tehran had failed to respond positively to a package of incentives offered by the six powers to persuade Tehran to freeze its uranium enrichment program.Britain, France, Germany, the United States, China and Russia are hoping Tehran will agree to suspend uranium enrichment and return to negotiations.The US and Britain favor immediate punitive measures. Russia and China – both major commercial partners of Iran – are reluctant to agree to immediate punitive measures. France also has expressed reluctance.Oil-rich Iran says it needs enrichment to produce fuel for electricity-generating nuclear reactors. Enrichment can also create fissile material for atomic weapons, and the United States and other nations have accused Tehran of seeking to develop an atomic bomb – an allegation Iran has denied.