Mideast The Israeli cabinet gave the final go-ahead for the evacuation of a first batch of Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip, while Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tendered his resignation over the issue. Britain Police brought their first substantial charges over last month's London terror attacks, as another suspect was deported to Britain from Zambia exactly a month after the first deadly blasts. Iran Iran insisted there was no going back from its decision to resume uranium conversion in defiance of the European Union, despite an upcoming meeting of the UN nuclear watchdog and warnings of an international crisis. Italy Rescue teams were scouring the waters off the Sicilian coast for three people still missing after a plane carrying Italian tourists to Tunisia crash-landed at sea on Saturday, claiming 13 lives. Mauritania The ruling military council set up after a coup in the northwest African state of Mauritania freed around 20 alleged Islamic extremists jailed by the ousted regime, including a leader with alleged links to a pro-Al-Qaeda group in neighbouring Algeria. Afghanistan Eight suspected Taliban militants were killed and three captured as Afghan and US-led troops raided their hideouts in southeastern Afghanistan, an official said. US Discovery is clear to land on Monday following an "astoundingly successful" mission, NASA said, as the space shuttle initiated its return journey after undocking from the orbiting space lab. Russia Seven exhausted Russian sailors returned to dry land after a dramatic operation by a British undersea robot freed their mini-submarine three days after it became trapped on the Pacific Ocean floor. SAfrica South Africa's leading mining union was set to hit the world's top gold producer with its largest strike in 18 years. Kenya In a somber, silent ceremony, US diplomats marked the seventh anniversary of the deadly Al-Qaeda-linked bombings of the United States embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. NKorea North Korean nuclear weapons talks were broken off for three weeks with no sight of progress over Pyongyang's insistence on having atomic reactors for energy, a demand the United States rejected. India-Pakistan India and Pakistan took key steps toward reducing the risk of an accidental nuclear war and boosting the peace process with agreements to set up a telephone hotline and notify each other before testing ballistic missiles.