Ukraine Ukraine's civil servants went back to work for the first time in weeks as the opposition lifted its blockade of government buildings and a political crisis eased following a compromise with the ruling regime. NATO NATO and Russia issued a joint call for free and fair elections in Ukraine, in what NATO's chief hailed as "a major breakthrough" in defusing tension between the West and Moscow. Iraq Iraq's majority Shiite Muslims unveiled a broad alliance ahead of next month's key elections that is backed by their highest religious leader but which excludes radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. NATO NATO pressed its allies to put aside their splits over the Iraq war and focus on beefing up missions in Afghanistan and Iraq, but there were few immediate signs of progress. US The United States said it was not trying to oust Secretary General Kofi Annan, giving the UN chief a crucial vote of confidence amid calls for Annan's resignation by some US politicians. Canada Canada's Supreme Court ruled that government plans to allow same-sex marriage were constitutional, in a landmark ruling in the long battle for equal rights for gays and lesbians. Mideast Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was almost certainly assured of a green light in a vote from his Likud party to invite the main opposition Labour faction to join a new coalition government, public television reported. Philippines Philippine rescuers were frantically digging for more survivors after four people, including a toddler, were pulled alive from a building crushed by a landslide 11 days ago. Japan Japan extended its troop deployment to Iraq for another year despite public unease about the mission, which ended the country's post-World War II taboo against using its military in an overseas war zone. taly A panel of three judges began deliberating a verdict in Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's long-running corruption trial, with a decision not expected before Friday at the earliest, the court said. EU Visiting Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that his country's membership talks with the EU should start in the first half of 2005.