UN An independent enquiry said the head of the oil-for-food programme in Iraq, Benon Sevan, repeatedly asked for oil allocations from Baghdad and "seriously undermined" UN integrity. Vatican Medical tests show ailing Pope John Paul II is improving but he may have to remain in hospital until the middle of next week, the Vatican said, as Catholics around the world prayed for their flu-stricken 84-year-old leader. IraqSeven British soldiers will face court martial over the murder of an Iraqi civilian in southern Iraq a month after dictator Saddam Hussein's fall in 2003, Attorney General Peter Goldsmith said. Iraq Insurgent violence resurged with attacks and clashes that left at least 27 people dead after President George W. Bush said US troops would give Iraqi forces greater responsibility in countering rebels. US US President George W. Bush's attack on Iran as the world's primary sponsor of terror and his call for freedom for its people further enflamed tensions between Tehran and its arch-enemies in Washington. Georgia Zurab Zhvania, Georgia's widely respected prime minister seen as the driving force behind market-oriented economic reform in the restive Caucasus republic, died, apparently after breathing toxic fumes leaked by a faulty heater. Russia Chechen rebels called the first unilateral ceasefire of the five-year guerrilla war in Russia's war-torn republic but Chechnya's pro-Moscow leaders brushed the move off as a "bluff" while the Kremlin kept silent. Nepal Nepal's new government headed by King Gyanendra called on Maoist rebels to hold peace talks or risk "alternate steps," as the Himalayan nation entered its third day cut off from the outside world. Mideast Top Israeli ministers approved a pullback from five West Bank cities and the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners just days ahead of a landmark Middle East peace summit. Cambodia Cambodian opposition leader Sam Rainsy left the country and one of his deputies was arrested after parliament stripped them of immunity from prosecution in a vote that drew swift US condemnation, party officials said. Zimbabwe Zimbabwe's main opposition party reluctantly decided to contest the March 31 elections, saying it did not stand a fair chance to challenge President Robert Mugabe's party. India Fifty-three people were killed in central India when a train collided with a tractor pulling a trailer that was crammed with people returning from a wedding, police said. Mauritania Mauritania wrapped up its largest-ever trial, issuing guilty verdicts to 84 convicted putschists and acquitting more than 100 other defendants including a former president accused of bankrolling three plots to overthrow President Maaouiya Ould Taya. NIreland Britain and Ireland sought to calm fears of renewed violence in Northern Ireland, after the Irish Republican Army, the main Catholic paramilitary group, withdrew its offer to disarm. Iran The United States has complained to the European Union about centrifuge-related work by Iran that could be used to make nuclear weapons and may violate a uranium enrichment freeze Tehran agreed with the EU, diplomats said. Britain Former South African president Nelson Mandela demanded freedom for the millions of "slaves" of poverty worldwide on the eve of a meeting in London of the world's richest nations.