Lebanon More than 800,000 people surged into central Beirut to demand an end to Syria's near-three decade military domination of Lebanon, hurling a dramatic and potent challenge to the pro-Syrian Lebanese government. Mideast UN chief Kofi Annan assured Mahmud Abbas that the world would work to create a Palestinian state, one day before the Palestinian leader was to hold crunch ceasefire talks in Cairo. China China's parliament passed a law giving its military the legal basis to attack Taiwan if it moves towards independence, drawing an angry retort from Taipei which said it was an authorization for war. Vatican A frail Pope John Paul II is back at the Vatican, but his future public appearances may largely be via video-links, and doctors predict the days of pilgrims being able to see the pope "live" may be coming to an end. EU The EU issued an ultimatum to Croatia, warning that Zagreb could only begin membership talks this week if it transfers fugitive war crimes suspect Ante Gotovina to the UN court by Thursday. Kosovo Former Kosovo prime minister Ramush Haradinaj pleaded not guilty before the UN war crimes court to charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity and will ask for bail. OPEC Saudi Arabia's Oil Minister Ali al-Nuaimi said the OPEC kingpin will seek to raise the cartel's production ceiling by 500,000 barrels per day at this week's meeting, held amid soaring prices, and will pump more crude later this year. Iraq Talks on forming Iraq's government were at an impasse over Kurdish demands on the ethnically-divided city of Kirkuk and their peshmerga fighters, as violent attacks killed at least eight people. Philippines A bloody revolt at a maximum security prison in the Philippines that has claimed six lives dragged on after the al-Qaeda-linked militants leading the rising reneged on their word to surrender their weapons, negotiators said. North Ireland Leaders of the Irish Republican Army's political wing head to Saint Patrick's Day events in the United States this week battered by a furor over IRA crime, shut out of talks in Washington and compelled to abandon an annual fundraising drive among Irish-Americans. US Condoleezza Rice's first trip to Asia as the US secretary of state this week will be dominated by the impasse on North Korea's nuclear program and relations with the continent's growing powerhouse, China.