● IRAQ. Car bomb kills at least 4 in central Baghdad. A car bomb exploded near a police patrol in central Baghdad yeserday, killing at least four civilians, destroying cars and devastating a nearby building, witnesses said. A Reuters reporter saw four charred bodies in burnt-out cars at the scene. There was no word on the overall toll. “A car bomb hit a police patrol, wounding several policemen,” a police officer at the scene said. “There must also be civilian casualties because it is a busy area.” The explosion brought down the roof and walls of a nearby building, and passersby and rescue workers searched the ruins for survivors.

● IRAN. EU takes tough stand on nuclear freeze. Iran has told France, Britain and Germany it wants more than promises of future benefits if it suspends its controversial uranium enrichment programme, but the Europeans have refused, Western diplomats said yesterday.The European Union’s “big three” states reached a tentative deal with Iran in Paris last weekend under which Iran would halt an enrichment programme, which could be used to make nuclear weapons, in exchange for political and economic incentives. “Iran wants something up front if it’s going to suspend enrichment, not just promises. But the Europeans have refused,” a diplomat said. The Europeans have promised Iran a light-water nuclear reactor, which would be more difficult to use for weapons activity than heavy-water reactors.

● UN. Philippines to send peacekeepers to Haiti. The Philippines will send up to 150 soldiers to Haiti next week to help United Nations’ peacekeeping forces stem political unrest and a wave of killings ahead of elections, an army spokesman said yesterday. Lieutenant-Colonel Pascual, a spokesman for the military, said the Philippine troops would join nearly 4,000 peacekeepers in Haiti, now run by an interim government charged with organising elections. The Philippine contingent was organised after President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo approved a request from the United Nations’ Security Council to beef up the Brazilian-led peacekeeping mission.

● INDIA. Left groups to push Singh for oil price cut. India’s communists, who lend crucial support to the ruling coalition, said they would press the government to roll back increases in gas and diesel prices at a meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh yesterday. “The government cannot stick to the hikes (in fuel prices) as they are,” senior Communist Party of India leader D. Raja told Reuters ahead of a meeting between the communists and leaders of the ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA) including Singh. Though analysts say the communists are unlikely to withdraw support to the government, their opposition to the fuel price increases and a host of economic reforms will force Singh to move cautiously on issues like foreign direct investment and energy prices in the future.

● Ivory Coast. Security Council delays sanction vote. The UN Security Council put off until Monday a vote on imposing an arms embargo and other sanctions on Ivory Coast, where anti-French riots have inflamed a dispute between France and its former colony. Council members on Wednesday agreed to the delay to let South African President Thabo Mbeki seek a peaceful resolution of the crisis in Ivory Coast, US Ambassador John Danforth, the council president for November, told reporters. France, the former colonial power in Ivory Coast, has pressed for sanctions after accusing the government of killing nine French peacekeepers and an American civilian during a bombing raid on the rebel-held city of Bouake. Anti-French riots in the wake of the incidents have forced hundreds of French citizens to flee.