today news by j.iqbal

Coalition kills eight Taliban in Afghanistan

   KABUL: Soldiers from the US-led coalition killed eight Taliban in a firefight in eastern Afghanistan, a US military statement said Thursday.

The eight militants attacked coalition troops on Wednesday in the Asadabad district of Kunar province, the statement said.

"The coalition responded to the attack with small arms, machinegun fire and grenades," it added. No coalition casualties were reported, the statement said.   Alliot-Marie says France ready to command UN peace force in Lebanon   Updated at 0645 PST   PARIS: France is willing to lead a new UN force in Lebanon at least until February, so long as it is given a clear mandate and sufficient powers, Defence Minister Michele Alliot-Marie says.

Alliot-Marie told a French television she hoped a large number of European and Muslim countries would take part in the beefed-up UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), but said the United Nations still needed to define the operation.

"We already have the command (of UNIFIL) and we are ready to continue to do this until next February including for the enlarged UNIFIL," she added.
  Space shuttle Atlantis 'ready to go' on August 27  WASHINGTON: NASA declared Wednesday the Atlantis shuttle ready to launch on August 27 on the first mission aimed at completing construction of the International Space Station since the 2003 Columbia disaster.

"We have set the launch date again for the 27th (of August)," Bill Gerstenmaier, the NASA associate administrator for space operations, said in a televised news conference from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. "We are ready to go for that."

NASA officials voted unanimously to go ahead with the launch after a two-day flight readiness review, Gerstenmaier said. The shuttle has an August 27-September 13 launch window.