Mideast Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said he had no regrets about his plan to pull settlers out of the Gaza Strip from next week as the radical Palestinian group Hamas ruled out disarming after the withdrawal. Britain Tens of thousands of air travellers faced another day of chaos after British Airways cancelled all its flights in and out of London's main Heathrow airport because of a wildcat strike. US NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) blasted off into space atop an Atlas V rocket, bound for a 25-month mission to survey the Red Planet. Britain Britain banned radical cleric Omar Bakri Mohammed from ever returning to its shores as pitched legal battles loomed over a bid to deport 10 other foreign Islamists in the wake of the London bombings. Malaysia Anger over Indonesia's inability to douse forest fires which have smothered parts of Malaysia with a dangerous haze mounted as the crisis worsened in the capital Kuala Lumpur. Iraq A US Apache helicopter crashed near the northern Iraqi oil centre of Kirkuk, wounding two people, as the ousted Sunni Arab elite expressed shock and fear after the Shiite majority pushed for autonomy like that of the Kurds. Russia Ceremonies took place across Russia marking the fifth anniversary of the sinking of the nuclear submarine Kursk with the loss of all 118 aboard, a traumatising accident that shattered the nation's trust in its leaders. Germany Former German junior defense minister Ludwig-Holger Pfahls was jailed for two years and three months on bribery and tax evasion charges stemming from an arms deal with Saudi Arabia. South Africa South African gold miners trickled back to work, ending the biggest strike to hit the world's top producer in 18 years as the industry counted the losses from the crippling five-day protest. North Korea South Korea scrambled to downplay an apparent policy rift with the United States over North Korea after a senior minister endorsed Pyongyang's right to maintain a civilian nuclear program. North Korea- Stalinist North Korea announced a rare amnesty for prisoners as it faces mounting pressure to improve its human rights environment amid a stand-off over its nuclear weapons drive. Pakistan Pakistani police have detained the son-in-law of disgraced nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan in connection with an assault on two British diplomats.