Paris - The highly respected French weekly L'Express on Monday protested the Moroccan government's ban of its latest issue on the grounds that it insulted the Islamic religion.

L'Express assistant editor-in-chief Christian Makarian said he "could not understand" last Friday's decision by the Moroccan information minister to prohibit shipment of the magazine into the country.

The issue in question, dated October 30, shows images of Jesus Christ and Mohammad on the cover, accompanied by the headline "The Jesus-Mohammad Shock."

Kabul - A group of unknown gunmen abducted a French aid worker Monday in the Afghan capital, Kabul, and shot dead an Afghan driver who tried to rescue him, police said.

The Frenchman was kidnapped as he was walking to his office with a colleague, said Zemarai Bashary, an Interior Ministry spokesman.

The two men were on foot in the Kart-e-Parwan neighbourhood when three gunmen snatched the Frenchman and took him to an unknown location by car, said a senior police official who requested anonymity.

"An Afghan driver for the intelligence service who tried to stop the abduction was killed by the kidnappers," the official said.

He said that as the Afghan driver scuffled with the abductors, the other aid worker escaped.

Washington, Nov 3 : Spanish star Enrique Iglesias has laughed off ‘infidelity’ claims made by his alleged lovers, insisting that they are ‘hilarious’.

The ‘Hero’ singer says that he is baffled by the infidelity claims made by his alleged lovers- because he has never met the girls he is supposed to have slept with.

"I think it''s great that I''ve slept with girls I''ve not even met. One was a Kylie Minogue body double. Apparently we were watching telly in my hotel room,” Contactmusic quoted him as saying.

London, Nov 3 : In a new study, scientists have uncovered a new pathway in which disease-causing bacteria dodge the host’s immune system to survive and grow in the cells that were to destroy them.

Led by Peter Murray, Ph. D., at St. Jude Children''s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn., and Thomas Wynn, Ph. D., the discovery may pave the way for new treatments and vaccines for tuberculosis (TB) and some other chronic bacterial and parasitic infections.

London  - Health officials in Britain were Monday examining the death of a drum-maker who inhaled anthrax spores while handling imported animal skin.

Spanish-born Fernando Gomez, 35, died in hospital late Sunday after being taken ill a week ago.

His flat and workshop in Hackney, east London, have been sealed off by the Health Protection Agency (HPA) for examination.

Stockholm - The Swedish government and banks unveiled plans Monday to cooperate in freezing payments to criminal organizations engaged in child pornography.

"If we can prevent the payments, we strike directly at the criminal activities of the gangs," Financial Markets Minister Mats Odell and Fredrik Sauter, chief executive of online bank Skandiabanken, said in a joint op-ed article in the daily Dagens Nyheter.

The sale of child porn is believed to be extremely lucrative, but it is hard to trace payments.