Nice, France - When European Union and Russian leaders meet in the French resort of Nice on Friday, the following points are expected to draw their attention:

FINANCIAL CRISIS: The EU-Russia summit comes less than 24 hours before the leaders of the world's most powerful nations meet in Washington to discuss a response to the global financial crisis.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy, the host of Friday's meeting,

Tehran - Iran has condemned Thursday's kidnapping of an Iranian diplomat in north-western Pakistan, ISNA news agency reported.

"This has been a terrorist act which we harshly condemn," Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hassan Ghashgavi said.

Gunmen ambushed a car carrying commercial attache Hashmat Atharzadeh and seized the diplomat who was travelling to the Iranian consulate in Peshawar, the capital of the troubled North West Frontier Province.

Police in Pakistan said the kidnappers intercepted the vehicle in the upscale Hayatabad neighbourhood and shot dead a police guard.

Vienna - Incest suspect Josef Fritzl is not only charged for raping and imprisoning his daughter for 24 years, but is also indicted for murder, as a boy he fathered with his daughter died after birth, Austrian news agency APA reported Thursday.

The prosecutors at the court in Sankt Poelten said Fritzl, 73, had killed the infant born in the dungeon beneath his house in 1996, as he "neglected to call the necessary help by third parties, although he was aware of the life-threatening situation of the infant."

Fritzl, who has admitted most of the alleged crimes, now faces imprisonment for life.