Iraq At least 15 people died and more than 80 were wounded when a car bomb exploded on a busy Baghdad road, hospital sources and police said, as insurgents maintained a relentless and bloody onslaught. Europe-rights-Turkey Turkey pledged to respect a European court ruling condemning the 1999 trial of jailed Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan, in a move that may fan national resentment at home but could help the government keep its EU membership bid on track. US-UN-Iraq-oil-France-Britain A controversial British MP and a French ex-cabinet minister angrily denied charges in a US Senate report that they took huge kickbacks from Saddam Hussein's regime under the UN oil-for-food programme. NKorea Fears of an impending crisis in the nuclear standoff with North Korea grew after Pyongyang said it had unloaded 8,000 spent fuel rods from its nuclear reactor and planned to reprocess them to make nuclear bombs. Iran Europe warned Iran of "consequences" if it broke its pledge to suspend nuclear fuel cycle activities, with Britain serving notice it would back hauling Tehran before the UN Security Council for possible sanctions. Mideast The Palestinian Authority mooted a possible delay to this summer's legislative polls that Islamist group Hamas immediately rejected, aiming as it is to carve out a major role in the new parliament. US-UN-Bolton WASHINGTON A prominent Republican senator expressed unexpectedly harsh criticism of John Bolton, the embattled White House pick for UN ambassador, ahead of a pivotal Senate committee vote on the controversial nomination. US The biggest anti-US protests since the fall of the Taliban spread across Afghanistan, as unrest sparked by alleged abuse of the Koran at the US jail in Guantanamo Bay left three more people dead. Iran Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair said he would back UN Security Council action against Iran if the country breaks a pledge over its nuclear programme as the Islamic republic looked set to defy the European Union by resuming sensitive nuclear activities. China-Taiwan President Hu Jintao said China and Taiwan were at a crucial moment in their history and called for talks with the island's independence-leaning leader, but only if he accepted the one-China principle.