Mogadishu  - Somali armed men kidnapped six foreigners, including four aid workers and two airline pilots in near the town of Dusamareb in central Somali on Wednesday, residents said.

Mohamoud Dhaqane, a businessman in Dusamareb, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa the six were taken when armed gunmen stormed the airstrip as they were due to depart for Nairobi.

There was some confusion over which organization they worked for.

Brussels - Croatia should be able to finish all talks on joining the EU by the end of 2009, paving the way for it to enter the bloc as early as 2011, the EU's executive body said Wednesday.

"Croatia is expected to reach the final phase of accession negotiations by the end of 2009 if it has taken the necessary preparatory steps," the European Commission said in an annual report on the former Yugoslav republic's progress towards membership.

It is the first time that the EU's Brussels-based executive has set out a timetable for Croatia to become the EU's 28th member since the Adriatic state became a candidate for membership in 2004.

Wednesday Islamabad - As celebrations erupted in many parts of the world over the victory of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, people in Pakistan, a key US ally in the fight against terrorism, remained generally indifferent and even apprehensive.

"What difference does it make for us? His victory can be good for America, perhaps for many people around the world. But for us, he seems as bad as Bush," said Bilal Ahmad, 35, a shopkeeper in Islamabad's main commercial centre, known as the Blue Area.

Riga/Tallinn/Vilnius  - Senior politicians in the three small Baltic states added their voices to the chorus of congratulations for Barack Obama after his US election victory Wednesday.

There was unanimity in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania that the result offered a chance to deepen an already warm transatlantic relationship.

Estonian foreign minister Urmas Paet told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa: "We congratulate Obama and his team on this victory. Bilateral relations between Estonia and the US will be as active, good and deep as they have been so far."

Madrid  - Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero on Wednesday hailed the victory of US president-elect Barack Obama as opening the way for "more positive" bilateral relations.

Madrid would be a "friend and faithful ally" of Washington, said the Socialist premier, whose decision to recall Spanish troops from Iraq led to a cooling of relations with the administration of outgoing President George W Bush in 2004.

Baghdad - Three policemen were killed in separate attacks around Iraq on Wednesday, reports said.

In one incident, a policeman was killed and four others were wounded in an explosion near a police station in the southern province of Amarah, a security source told the Voices of Iraq (VOI) news agency.