¤ Taliban fighters killed a German peacekeeper and three Afghans in two suicide car bomb attacks while British soldiers opened fire to repel a threat to their camp in the Afghan capital yesterday, officials and witnesses said. The blasts came close to an hour apart on the same stretch of road east of Kabul. On each occasion the attackers rammed a car into a vehicle belonging to the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF). "Both of the incidents were suicide acts," General Mahboub Amiri, chief of the capital's rapid reaction police force, said.

¤ Uzbekistan's highest court found 15 men guilty yesterday of an Islamist terrorist plot in the town of Andizhan, after what a human rights campaigner called a show trial to cover up the massacre of civilians. The court sentenced the men to between 14 and 20 years in prison for their role in the unrest in May in which witnesses say hundreds died.

¤ A lawyer representing two of Saddam Hussein's co-defendants has fled Iraq and is seeking asylum in Qatar following an attempt on his life, according to a letter he has written to the leader of the Gulf state. Thamer Hamoud al-Khuzaie, who represents Taha Yassin Ramadan and Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti, both of whom are being tried along with Saddam for crimes against humanity, said in the letter that his life was under constant threat.

¤ Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin yesterday dismissed an opposition demand that he call an election earlier than he wants to, thereby paving the way for his minority Liberal government to be defeated next week and for voters to go to the polls in early January. The leaders of the three opposition parties - who say Mr Martin should quit because of a government corruption scandal - said on Sunday they would present a motion to Parliament this week demanding that he calls an election for February.

¤ Hundreds of supporters of Liberian football star George Weah protested at the US embassy in Monrovia yesterday to denounce a presidential run-off he says was rigged to favour his Harvard-trained economist rival. Chanting "No justice, No peace", the demonstrators were kept back by UN peacekeepers and local police backed by two armoured cars. They handed in a petition to US diplomats, but did not attempt to break through the security cordon.