Baghdad  - Iraq's parliament on Monday completed the first reading of the final draft of the country's security pact with the United States, as opponents continued to denounce it.

As lawmakers were considering the deal, one policeman was killed and more than 30 people were injured in attacks across Iraq.

The 275-member house is set to review the pact over the coming days and vote on the deal by November 24, deputy speaker Khalid al- Attiyah said in a press conference.

Paris  - An appeals court in the northern French city of Douai on Monday reversed an earlier court decision annulling a marriage on the ground that the bride had lied about her non-virginity.

"A lie is no basis for the annulment of a marriage if it does not concern the fundamental character (of one of the partners)," the court wrote in its judgment.

The attorney for the husband said that the ruling "threatens individual liberties."

The couple, both Moroccan-born Muslims, married in 2006. The husband, a 30-year-old engineer who, asked for the annulment after his bride was unable to produce a bloody bedsheet on the wedding night.

Marrakesh/Madrid  - Environmental organizations Monday warned that the Mediterranean stocks of bluefin tuna are on the brink of collapse, calling for a fishing stop to allow the species to recuperate.

Demand for tuna had led to illegal and above-quota fishing, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) warned as 46 countries and other contracting parties to the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) met in the Moroccan city of Marrakesh.

Scientists recommend an annual fishing limit of 15,000 tons for East Atlantic bluefin tuna, but the captures amounted to 61,000 tons in 2007, the organization Oceana said, calling for permanent tuna reserves in key spawning areas.

Abu Dhabi  - A group of nations dubbed the "Friends of Pakistan" agreed, in principle, Monday to throw a financial lifeline to Pakistan.

Specific sums to be committed were not named Monday. There will be another meeting of the group in January followed by a ministerial- level meeting in February that should set the specific amounts of assistance to be expected.

Aizaz Ahmed Chaudhry, assistant foreign minister for South Asia Affairs, said the group plans to finance projects geared toward policing and security.

Srinagar, Nov 17 : High voting turnout was recorded in Leh and Kargil region in Ladakh division on Monday in the first phase of Jammu and Kashmir Assembly polls.

Despite severe cold people in large numbers were seen at the various polling stations waiting to cast their vote.

Notwithstanding the freezing cold and the fear of the separatists, the trickle of voters at polling stations across the 10 constituencies in the Jammu, Ladakh and Kashmir the crowds were increasing as the day progressed.

Jammu, Nov. 17 : Braving freezing temperatures and ignoring separatists'' boycott call, voters came out in large numbers with an average 55 per cent turnout recorded in the first phase of the Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir held amid unprecedented security on Monday.