BBC News with Marion Marshall

　　The Kenyan government says a French woman who was kidnapped overnight from a beach resort has now been taken to Somalia. They said her attackers escaped after a shootout when coast guard vessels and helicopters called up with the boat which was carrying her. Several abductors were injured in the exchange. The woman who is in her 60s and severely disabled was staying near the resort of Lame. France now warns tourists not to travel to the area. Kenya’s tourism minister Najib Balala told the BBC that the area was difficult to police.

　　"That border line is a long unmanned border and whatever we are going to do if we don't have the support of the international committee to address the Somali issue, then it is very challenging to manage to man the border in Somalia".

　　Syria's official news agency says three security personnel have been killed while trying to defuse a bomb near Damascus. And three civilians working with the police were killed by gunmen in Hama. Anti-government groups say two of their activists were also killed near Damascus. A BBC correspondent in the region says activists were questioning whether they would be able to break the stalemate with the government without using force.

　　Egyptian State Media say the ruling military council has decided to amend part of a disputed election law. Earlier this week, a coalition of political parties threatened to boycott the forthcoming elections unless the law was altered. Bethony Bell reports from Cairo.

　　Many political parties in Egypt including the powerful Muslim Brotherhood object to an article in the election law which they fear could allow supporters of the former president Hosni Mubarak to return to power. Now state media say the military council has agreed to amend that article. But no details have been given about the changes. The council which is under pressure to deliver a fast democratic reforms also said it would study the status of Egypt's emergency law.

　　Campaigning has begun in Tunisia for the first election since revolutions in January which inspired the Arab Spring, a wave of uprisings that swept north Africa and the middle east. Eighty-one political parties are vying for places on a national assembly that will draft a new constitution.

　　The Afghan government has asked the international community for more financial aid to tackle the severe drought in the country's northern and central provinces. Marianne Landzettel has more.

　　The government says after ten years of little or no rain, 14 provinces, a third of the country are experiencing severe draught conditions with the harvest in many areas failing. In some regions wells have dried out. The government says two million tonnes of grain mainly rice and wheat will have to be imported. Worst affected is the central Afghan province of Ghazni where the food orchards have withered and farmers are selling their cattle.

　　World news from the BBC.

　　The Nato-led international force in Afghanistan ISAF says it's arrested Haji Mali Khan, one of the highest-ranking members of the Haqqani network blamed for the recent attack on the American embassy in Kabul. ISAF has called his arrest a significant milestone. In a separate development, Pakistan's president Asif Ali Zardari has called for the United States to resume serious dialogue with his country.

　　The Sri Lanka's sports minister says he's sacked his department's entire medical team after a series of drug scandals. He says he's investigating allegations of the ministerial unit itself provided the banned substance (S.P) has the details.

　　The sports minister says he has received a number of complaints from sports associations and sports personnel. Among those who have admitted to taking banned substance was national cricketer Upul Tharanga . At least another 5 national sports personnel have been banned. The head of the medical team, Dr x has refused to comment. The minister says there's an urgent need to strengthen the sports medical unity with, as he put it, a good administrator and specialist to prevent such incidents in future.

　　Denmark has become the first country in the world to introduce a fat tax, a surcharge on food that are high in saturated fat which is seen as harmful to health. Butter, milk, cheese, pizza, meat, oil and process food will all be taxed if they contain more than 2.3% saturated fat. Here's fh .

　　In a country famous for its pastries the new fat tax is being introduced in a beat to slim down Denmark's population and cut heart desease. It's expected to raise about $220m. Consumers have been hoarding to beat the price rise and some producers complain that the tax is a bureaucratic nightmare while some scientists think that saturated fat may be the wrong target.

　　They say salt,sugar and refined carbohydrates are more detrimental to health.

　　BBC news.