Afghanistan Afghanistan's first ever national election was in crisis as opposition candidates demanded fresh polls, charging widespread fraud, after eager voters turned out in force for a peaceful vote hoping for an end to decades of conflict. Iraq A key step toward peace in Iraq was taken when the militia of Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr agreed to lay down their arms in the capital, as US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said more troops may be needed to ensure safe elections in January. Iraq Saddam Hussein's former deputy prime minister Tareq Aziz is alive, the US military in Iraq said, denying a swirl of television reports that he had died in custody. Australia Prime Minister John Howard swept his conservative government to an unexpectedly big reelection win as Australia's booming economy drowned out criticism of his staunch support for the US-led war in Iraq. 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. Iraq-Britain Two minutes' silence was held in the home city of Kenneth Bigley as the British engineer's family struggled to come to terms with his brutal murder by Islamic extremists in Iraq. France Jacques Derrida, one of France's best-known philosophers and the founder of the deconstructionist school, has died of cancer at the age of 74.