Iraq Ten people were killed in a string of suicide car bombings in Baghdad targeting the Australian embassy and Iraqi security forces as deadly violence escalated with elections just 11 days away. US An Iraqi-American businessman pleaded guilty to acting and conspiring to act as an unregistered agent of the Iraqi government in relation to the UN oil-for-food program, Attorney General John Ashcroft announced. Iraq China was scrambling to secure the release of eight nationals taken hostage and threatened with execution in Iraq as family members anxiously waited for news. US US Secretary of State nominee Condoleezza Rice pledges to place new emphasis on US diplomacy in combatting global terrorism and acknowledges that US forces are facing "big tactical challenges" in taming Iraq. Mideast New Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas pressed ahead with truce talks with Hamas leaders even after the Islamist group claimed a Gaza suicide bombing that left six Israelis killed or wounded. Mideast A member of the Israeli internal security services was killed in a suicide attack by Palestinian Islamist group Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Israeli military sources said. Asia Indonesia's tsunami death toll is likely to soar to 150,000 as the collection of bodies from the rubble in Aceh carries on for another month, a senior government disaster team official said. Vietnam A 35-year-old woman has died of bird flu in Vietnam, becoming the communist nation's fifth fatality from the disease since late December, a doctor said. Asia United Nations officials said the world body would try to bring coordination to build a tsunami early warning system amid a rush of competing proposals following the Indian Ocean tragedy. US California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger on Tuesday denied clemency to a convicted murderer, clearing the way for the first execution in the state in three years.