Iraq Rebel Iraqi cleric Moqtada Sadr's militia prepared to disarm in the Baghdad Shiite slum of Sadr City, while US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld visited the country and at least 17 people were killed in a suicide car bomb in Baghdad. Afghanistan Observers gave their approval to Afghanistan's first-ever presidential election, deeming it "fairly democratic" and rejecting opposition calls for a new vote on the grounds of fraud. Australia Prime Minister John Howard looked set to become Australia's most powerful leader for a generation after a crushing election victory effectively handed him control of both houses of parliament and enabled him to pursue a stalled conservative agenda. Lithuania Lithuanians voted in their first national parliamentary elections since joining the European Union, with a controversial Russian-born millionaire's party set to triumph. Cambodia Cambodia's veteran King Sihanouk maintained his decision to retire, while the prime minister said the prospects of coaxing him to change his mind were fading and his 51-year-old son was likely to be his successor. North Korea North Korea accused the United States of triggering a regional arms race by deploying navy destroyers equipped with Aegis missile tracking systems in the sea off the communist state. Serbia-Bosnia The former security chief for the Bosnian Serb army, who has been charged with genocide over his alleged role in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, has been transferred to the United Nations war crimes tribunal, a court spokesman said. Mideast Egypt detained several Bedouins suspected of selling explosives to the perpetrators of triple bombings which killed 34 people in Red Sea resorts, as rescue workers wound down their recovery effort. Somalia Somali lawmakers voted for a new president for their anarchic Horn of African state in an election held in Nairobi, but a first ballot failed to give any candidate the two-thirds majority required for outright victory, forcing the holding of a second round.