New York - United Nations officials on Monday rejected charges of incompetence by UN peacekeepers deployed at some northern and eastern provinces of the Democratic Republic of Congo where fighting has created fresh humanitarian crisis.

Some media reports in Europe and The New York Times criticized the 17,000-strong UN Mission in Congo, known as MONUC, of being powerless in the face of intensified attacks by armed rebels against government troops.

Paris - If the informal straw poll at Harry's New York Bar in Paris is a reliable indicator, as it has been most of the time, Barack Obama will be the next president of the United States.

On Monday, one day before polling at Harry's Bar closes, the Democratic candidate had a lead of 248 to 154 votes, or 61.6 to 38.4 per cent, over his opponent, Republican John McCain.

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, who were working with a nongovernmental organization in the country, were walking to their office 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.

Paris - French Prime Minister Francois Fillon has threatened to nationalize any French bank receiving emergency government aid that does not extend loans to businesses, the online edition of the daily Le Figaro reported on Monday.

Interviewed for a television program to be broadcast late Monday, Fillon said, "If we feel that the banks are not doing the necessary work ... we will take back the credits we have given them."

Without this government aid, Fillon said, the banks will find themselves in difficulty.

"The next question is if we will then take over the bank's capital, possibly to change their leadership, to oversee their strategy," he said.

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.