51.   A senior Kuwaiti defence ministry official said earlier the Iraqi forces massed near the border had not moved an inch.

52.   A soldier and a Maoist rebel have been killed in separate clashes in Nepal, defence ministry officials said Monday.

53.   Afghan defence ministry official Mira Jan said government troops had helped capture two strategic heights in the Shahi Kot valley.

54.   Advancing Sri Lankan government forces Tuesday captured a strategic road junction inside Tamil Tiger guerrilla-held territory in the north of the country, defence officials here said.

55.   Afghan government forces late Tuesday repulsed a massive ground and heavy weapons attack on the besieged capital Kabul by the Taliban militia, defence officials said.

56.   Afghan government troops Wednesday lost more ground southeast of Kabul to the Islamic Taliban militia, defence officials said.

57.   After two decades of war and ethnic battles, the interim Afghan administration is mulling ways of disarming a nation awash with firearms, a defence official said Tuesday.

58.   An Afghan defence ministry official said the suspected terrorist mastermind was holed up in the mountains along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border where the aerial bombing goes on periodically.

59.   An ammunition stockpile nearby was also set ablaze in the firing, a defence ministry official told the state-run Associated Press of Pakistan.

60.   An Israeli defence ministry official said the talks could resume Thursday or Friday.