Iraq At least 23 people were killed and 42 wounded, including the local chief of a special Iraqi security force, in three car bombs and clashes between rebels and Iraqi forces and US troops in Samarra, north of Baghdad, doctors and police said. Mideast Pro-Palestinians kept vigil outside a hospital here after doctors tending Yasser Arafat said his condition had not changed but refused to respond to unconfirmed reports that the 75-year-old leader was brain dead and on life support. Mideast Prime minister Ahmed Qorei was to hold talks here with leaders of the main Palestinian armed factions in a bid to prevent any outbreak of violence in the event of Yasser Arafat dying. Iraq US war planes struck suspected rebel targets in Iraq's flashpoint cities of Fallujah and Ramadi over 24 hours, the military said, as the threat of all-out action loomed. Iraq An Internet site has published a statement attributed to the group of Iraq's most-wanted man Abu Musab al-Zarqawi claiming a suicide bombing that killed three members of Britain's Black Watch regiment. Afghanistan The fate of three UN officials abducted in Afghanistan continued to hang in the balance after their kidnappers set a fifth deadline for their execution. Thailand Thailand's premier has cancelled his trip to the APEC summit in Chile this month amid continuing violence after 87 Muslim protestors died in the country's strife-hit south, officials said. Iran Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing said in Tehran that Beijing opposed US efforts to refer Iran to the United Nations Security Council over its nuclear programme. India Seven people were killed in Indian Kashmir Saturday, including two in a rebel attack on a paramilitary camp, as fresh violence erupted ahead of the arrival of India's home minister, officials said.