Afghanistan Hopes for an end to decades of conflict in Afghanistan dimmed when 14 candidates in the historic presidential election rejected the vote and called for a new poll, a demand rejected by interim president Hamid Karzai. Australia The conservative government of Australian Prime Minister John Howard won a fourth straight term in office as Australia's booming economy overshadowed criticism of his staunch support for the US-led war in Iraq. Iraq Confusion surrounded the fate of Tareq Aziz, the former Iraqi deputy prime minister under Saddam Hussein, with the US military denying television reports that he had died in custody. Iraq Britain launched a hunt for the body of a British hostage murdered by a ruthless militant group in Iraq and US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Washington might need to send in more troops before the planned January elections. Mideast Five Palestinians including a Hamas militant were killed by Israeli troops in the Gaza Strip, taking the death toll from a huge Israeli offensive in the area to more than 100. US The US presidential rivals hit the campaign trail running, fervently courting voters in battleground states after their hard-fought second debate left the race for the White House tighter than ever. Nigeria Tension mounted ahead of a planned general strike in Nigeria, Africa's biggest oil exporter, as secret police arrested the country's top labour leader and a well-known opposition politician.