WORLD IN BRIEF

Scores Killed in Battles In Volatile Afghan South

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KANDAHAR, Afghanistan -- Afghan and NATO troops used rockets, planes and artillery in battles with Taliban insurgents this weekend in Afghanistan's volatile south, leaving 71 militants and five Afghan security forces dead in one of the bloodiest clashes since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion. A British soldier was killed in Helmand province.

The fierce fighting began late Saturday after Taliban fighters attacked a police convoy in Kandahar province's Panjwai district, the district government chief said.

Guerrillas also ambushed a police patrol in the western province of Farah, sparking a gun battle that left one officer and two attackers dead, a regional governor said.

Taliban holdouts and allies have stepped up attacks in a bid to undermine the U.S.-backed government of President Hamid Karzai.

Also, health workers fanned out across Afghanistan in a polio vaccination campaign to immunize more than 7 million children under age 5.

the middle east

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· GAZA CITY -- A New Zealand envoy and the brother of an American reporter made separate televised pleas urging militants to release two Fox News journalists kidnapped last week in the Gaza Strip.

· TEHRAN -- Iran test-fired 10 surface-to-surface short-range missiles, a day after it launched a series of large-scale military exercises, state-run television reported. Also, Iran said it would offer a "multifaceted response" Tuesday to a Western package of incentives aimed at persuading it to rein in its nuclear program, but insisted it would not suspend uranium enrichment.

africa

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· NAIROBI -- Islamic militia officials controlling much of southern Somalia said Ethiopian troops arrived to bolster Somalia's weak, U.N.-backed transitional government.

· ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia -- Ethiopia has saved thousands marooned by floods that have killed nearly 900 people, but tens of thousands are homeless, and officials said major dams are close to rupturing.

europe

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· MADRID -- Boatloads of African migrants landed on the Canary Islands, taking the total in three days to more than 1,000, officials said.

· ROUBAIX, France -- A fire in an apartment building that housed immigrants in northern France killed five and injured 10, officials said.

asia and the pacific

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· JAKARTA, Indonesia -- A woman has died of bird flu in an Indonesian village where authorities were investigating a possible cluster of human cases of the H5N1 virus.

Separately, executions of three Islamic militants convicted for the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people will not take place Tuesday as planned because the men will appeal their sentences, an official said.

· KATHMANDU, Nepal -- The government withdrew Saturday's increases in gasoline, diesel and cooking fuel prices after protests.

· SEOUL -- South Korea said it will provide $230 million in disaster relief to flood-ravaged North Korea, despite Seoul's earlier decision to halt aid to Pyongyang after July 5 missile launches. On Monday, South Korean and U.S. troops started military drills that are likely to increase regional tensions, already high following reports the North is preparing for a nuclear test.

· WELLINGTON, New Zealand -- A university employee, Tuheitia Paki, 51, took his place on the throne of New Zealand's Maori monarch, hours before his mother, Queen Te Arikinui Dame Te Atairangikaahu, was buried. Thousands crammed into the ceremony after days of mourning in which tens of thousands paid respects to the queen.

--From News Services