WASHINGTON, Oct. 11 (UPI) -- U.S. President George Bush says he's "confident" the Group of Seven nations will be able to act together to defuse the global economic crisis.

Appearing outside the White House Saturday flanked by the leaders of six other nations, Bush encouraged the world's advanced economies to "not wall themselves off" and work hand-in-hand to craft a coordinated response to the accelerating meltdown of global stock and credit markets.

"I'm confident that the world's major economies can overcome the challenges we face," Bush said. "There have been moments of crisis in the past when powerful nations turned their energies against each other, or sought to wall themselves off from the world.

"This time is different."

U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson told The New York Times Friday's meetings were positive because the U.S., Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Canada and Japan have committed themselves to five principles, ranging from preventing the failure of important banks to protecting the bank deposits of savers.

But a hoped-for coordinated G7 strategy of injecting government capital directly into key banks in return for ownership stakes failed to gain a consensus observers said, mainly because of opposition from Germany.

Nine Afghan militants killed in clashes

KABUL, Afghanistan, Oct. 11 (UPI) -- Nine Taliban and al-Qaida militants were killed in Afghanistan in two separate operations by U.S.-led coalition forces, officials said Saturday.

Among those killed in the Friday raids were two commanders who were believed to have led militant activities against Afghan government and coalition forces, coalition officials told CNN.

There were no reported coalition casualties in the clashes. The al-Qaida and Taliban commanders were "known weapons and foreign fighter facilitators," officials said.

One of the operations targeted terrorist networks in Ghazni province south of the capital, Kabul, while the other happened in the southern province of Kandahar when a patrol came under small-arms and rocket-propelled grenade fire, CNN reported.

Turkey pounds Kurdish positions in Iraq

ANKARA, Turkey, Oct. 11 (UPI) -- Turkish warplanes continued to strike separatist Kurdish rebel targets inside northern Iraq Saturday, military officials said.

Fighter jets bombed 31 targets in the Hakurk region and "successfully completed the operation safely returned to their bases," the sixth time in seven days Turkey has attacked positions held by the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, officials told CNN.

The airstrikes have come in response to last week's attack by PKK rebels inside Turkey that killed at least 15 Turkish soldiers. The PKK, labeled by both Turkey and Iraq as a terrorist organization, is continuing to operate in the Qandil Mountains in northern Iraq bordering Turkey and Iran, officials say.

N. Korea: Kim Jong Il makes troop visit

SEOUL, Oct. 11 (UPI) -- Reclusive North Korea leader Kim Jong Il has made an appearance to inspect frontline army units, the country's state-run media said.

Kim, whose health has been the subject of intense speculation, has been conspicuous by his absence at important occasions since mid-August. But photos broadcast repeatedly by the North's Korean Central TV purported to show Kim, 66, mingling with troops in an artillery unit, Yonhap, the South Korean news agency, reported Saturday.

South Korean intelligence officials say Kim is recovering from a stroke after undergoing brain surgery, while Pyongyang has vehemently denied the assertions.

North Korean television showed a series of 10 still photographs that appeared to show Kim talking with soldiers, clapping and observing a firing drill in his familiar dark sunglasses and olive green jumper. No video or film of Kim Jong Il has been released since Aug. 15.

Yonhap said North Korea's radio stations -- Radio Pyongyang and the Korean Central Broadcasting Station -- have been repeatedly airing the report.

China may allow farmers to buy land rights

BEIJING, Oct. 11 (UPI) -- Chinese Communist officials are considering allowing peasants to buy and sell land rights for the first time since the country's 1949 revolution, analysts say.

Government officials this weekend were reviewing proposals for a rural land reform policy that, if adopted, would mark a significant shift away from what has been a hallmark of Communist Party rule -- the collective ownership of farmland, The New York Times reported Saturday.

The policy changes could be announced after the session ends Sunday, scholars and government advisers told the newspaper.

China watchers told the Times the new policy would allow the country's 800 million peasant farmers to buy and sell land-use contracts to other farmers or to agricultural companies, a shift that could lead to more efficient land use and allow much larger farms to develop.

"If all the speculations are true, if senior leadership is going to lift all the restrictions out the door, I'd say this is a great positive," Keliang Zhu, a lawyer with the U.S. land reform group Rural Development Institute, told the newspaper. "It'll free up the dead capital and allow all this wealth to materialize."

Muslim student attacked at college

ELMHURST, Ill., Oct. 11 (UPI) -- Police say a Muslim student at Elmhurst College, in Illinois, was attacked in a restroom after finding anti-Islamic slurs scrawled in her locker.

The 19-year-old suffered a concussion when a masked man reportedly hit her on the head with a handgun Thursday night after she entered a restroom in the private college's Schaible Science Center, the Chicago Sun-Times reported Saturday.

"Kill the Muslims" was scrawled on a mirror in the restroom, the newspaper said.

The student earlier Thursday had spoken at a rally called to denounce anti-Islamic slurs and a swastika drawn in her locker Oct. 2, said Elmhurst police, who are treating the incidents as hate crimes.

The student, and two other Muslim students, had been verbally harassed Sept. 18 during a campus protest against the Guantanamo Bay detention center in Cuba, the Sun Times reported.

The campus west of Chicago was locked down for more than a hour Thursday night as police searched the area. Hundreds of students since have offered support to the estimated 30 Muslim students at the 3,300-student school, the Sun-Times reported.