Iran UN Secretary General Kofi Annan backed a resolution by the UN nuclear watchdog agency calling on Iran to halt nuclear fuel work, a demand Tehran has dismissed as absurd. Iraq A leading Iraqi Shiite politician has demanded autonomy for provinces where the majority community predominates, while US President George W. Bush assured that the constitution will be ready by August 15. Mideast At least 200,000 opponents of next week's Gaza Strip pullout staged a giant rally, while US President George W. Bush hailed the withdrawal from the Palestinian territory as "good for Israel". Britain Ten foreigners were detained and face deportation from Britain on national security grounds, as part of a crackdown on hardline Islamists in the wake of last month's bombings in London. NKorea Stalinist North Korea announces 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. US-Africa-Niger The number of people in sub-Saharan Africa facing serious hunger has soared from 88 million in 1970 to more than 200 million in 1999-2001, an international policy group said. US NASA said it is unlikely to meet a September 22 target for its next space shuttle flight as engineers try to figure out why foam fell off Discovery 30 months after a similar problem doomed Columbia.