Iraq US forces pounded the insurgent-held city of Fallujah killing seven people, while a US marine and four soldiers were wounded in separate bomb blasts near the flashpoint city, the northern city of Mosul and a slum district of Baghdad. Iraq The extremist Army of Ansar al-Sunna group, which is linked to Al-Qaeda, posted a video on its website showing an Iraqi man being beheaded after "confessing" he was a contractor working with US forces. Indonesia President Megawati Sukarnoputri appealed for the release of two Indonesian women held by hostage takers in Iraq who have demanded the release of a militant preacher. France French President Jacques Chirac condemned a private initiative to secure the release of two French hostages in Iraq as "interference" and said he hoped it would not thwart the delicate process. Mideast The Palestinian cabinet declared a state of emergency in the Palestinian territories after Israeli troops killed another seven Palestinians and another died of his wounds, while Hamas said it could stop firing homemade rockets at Israel if Israeli forces ended attacks in the northern Gaza Strip. US US President George W. Bush sharpened his attacks on the Iraq strategy of his election challenger John Kerry when the two men courted voters in key states, two days after the Democrat's strong showing in their first debate. Nigeria The leader of rebels in Nigeria's oil-rich Niger Delta, where unrest sent world crude prices soaring this week, said his group had no quarrel with multinationals operating in the region. Nigeria Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo will lead four other west African heads of state in launching a regional polio eradication drive in the northern Nigerian city of Kano, health officials said. India At least 27 people were killed and 93 wounded, many critically, in four powerful bomb blasts in revolt-racked northeast India, police said. Pakistan Thousands of Shiite youths rioted in eastern Pakistan as mourning relatives buried the dead from a suspected suicide bombing which killed at least 30 people at a mosque in Sialkot. Afghanistan Twenty-five suspected militants were arrested in a pre-dawn swoop and a cache of explosives was seized in Kabul just a week ahead of Afghanistan's historic presidential election, officials and intelligence sources said. Netherlands More than 150,000 people demonstrated in Amsterdam against the Dutch government's austerity and reform measures, police said.