Romania Centre-right opposition candidate Traian Basescu won Romania's closely-contested presidential election, according to official figures that gave him an unassailable lead over the outgoing prime minister Adrian Nastase. Iran Iran must respect the spirit as well as the letter of an agreed nuclear fuel cycle freeze, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said ahead of EU-Iran talks on confidence measures to show Tehran is not making atomic weapons. Iraq Seven people were killed in a Baghdad suicide bombing after a bloody weekend which saw nine US troops killed, signalling that coalition forces remain beset by a fierce insurgency on the first anniversary of toppled dictator Saddam Hussein's capture. Iraq US forces launched air strikes on Fallujah after eight US marines were killed in weekend clashes with Iraqi rebels in Al-Anbar province despite claims that the insurgency was being defeated. Ukraine Ukraine's election campaign heated up ahead of a December 26 rerun vote after opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko again accused the authorities of poisoning him with dioxin. Portugal Portuguese President Jorge Sampaio accepted the resignation of Prime Minister Pedro Santana Lopes and his centre-right cabinet ahead of snap elections, his office said in a statement. Spain Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero blamed Islamic radicals linked to Al-Qaeda for the March 11 attacks that killed 191 people in Madrid and called for a cross-party pact against international terrorism. Mideast PLO chairman Mahmud Abbas appeared to be guaranteed victory in the Palestinian presidential election after the withdrawal of his chief rival but an upsurge of violence underlined the scale of the challenge ahead. Mideast Israel accused the Palestinian security services of doing nothing to prevent attacks after five soldiers were killed in the deadliest assault since the death of Yasser Arafat more than a month ago. China Rescuers furiously pumped water from a shaft at a flooded mine in southwest China where 36 workers are missing and feared dead as the country reels from another disaster in the danger-plagued industry. NKorea North Korea's leadership said its control of the Stalinist regime remained as "firm as a rock" despite what it called an escalating US drive to overthrow it. Indonesia Muslim-dominated Indonesia ordered more security at potential flashpoints after renewed attacks on Christian churches sparked fears of a repeat of deadly Christmas Eve bombings four years ago.