Kyrgyzstan Kyrgyz President Askar Akayev refused to resign or annul the results of a disputed parliamentary election but ruled out the use of force to quell a week of mounting opposition protests. US-NKorea The White House warned that diplomatic efforts to defuse the crisis over North Korea's nuclear programs cannot "drag on forever" and urged Pyongyang to return to negotiations. Lebanon Two people were killed and three injured, Lebanese television said, in a blast which devastated a shopping centre north of Beirut, in what was suspected to be the second attack since last month's killing of ex premier Rafiq Hariri sent the country into political turmoil. Iran-EU EU-Iran nuclear talks resume with Tehran sticking to a full-scale nuclear program despite European demands for it to abandon fuel activities to prove it is not secretly developing atomic weapons. EU European Union leaders vowed to re-energise the 25-nation bloc's flagging economy by pushing ahead with much-needed reforms, as they opened their traditional spring economic summit. Iraq Iraq's Shiite and Kurdish leaders allocated ministries for the first elected post-Saddam Hussein government, while police announced the arrest of 30 men implicated in dozens of murders, beheadings and rapes. Mideast Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon secured support for a vote on the 2005 budget ahead of a showdown on the bill next week, as Palestinian forces took control of a second West Bank city. UN-Sudan Deadlocked Security Council diplomats were to meet to discuss three UN resolutions on Sudan proposed by the United States, with pressure mounting to stop the bloodshed in Darfur. Pakistan Pakistani legislators were trying to end a stand-off between troops and tribal insurgents in the southwest following clashes that killed dozens of people and sparked a siege of security forces. Bangladesh Troops joined a massive relief operation in northern Bangladesh where a tornado cut a swathe through 15 villages at the weekend, as the death toll rose to 47. US The mother of Terri Schiavo made a fervent plea to Florida senators to keep her daughter alive, amid a tortuous court battle to have the brain-damaged woman's feeding tube reinserted.