MideastIsraeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon gave his army orders to crush militants in the Gaza Strip and accused new Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas of failing to lift a finger to stop attacks. US The US electorate expressed its support for the war on Iraq by re-electing George W. Bush to a second term as president, Bush said, calling the election an "accountability moment" for mistakes and misjudgments in the justification and execution of the war. Afghanistan Eighty Afghan detainees were released from US custody at Bagram air base near Kabul on ahead of the Muslim festival of Eid as the government sought to encourage reconciliation with moderate Taliban supporters, officials said. Spain The armed Basque separatist group ETA has backed a call for dialogue with the Spanish government put forward by its political wing, ETA said in a statement published by a Basque newspaper. Croatia Croatians voted in a presidential election runoff that is expected to return incumbent Stipe Mesic for a second five-year term in which he has promised to lead the former Yugoslav republic into the European Union. Kuwait Saudi militants fleeing a security clampdown at home and Kuwaitis returning from fighting US troops in Iraq are behind a spate of deadly attacks in Kuwait, security sources and Western diplomats said. Asia Foreign forces including the US Navy can continue tsunami relief operations in Indonesia beyond a March 26 deadline, the government said as the disaster's overall death toll topped 168,000. US A US soldier was sentenced to 10 years behind bars and a dishonorable discharge from the army for the notorious abuses of Abu Ghraib prisoners which he claimed he was ordered to carry out. Russia Russian security forces foiled a mass hostage-taking by pro-Chechen rebels in southern Russia on the scale of the bloody Beslan school hostage tragedy, media reported. Algeria The Algerian government in Algeria has reached an agreement with tribal leaders from the restive Kabylie region, where hostility to Algiers authorities erupted into bloody unrest in 2001, Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia said. Britain Britain's main opposition Conservatives put on a brave face after a poll showed the party was heading for its worst general election result for almost a century and one of its deputies defected to Prime Minister Tony Blair's Labour party. Romania A 67-year-old Romanian became the oldest woman ever known to have given birth, although one of her twin girls died shortly afterwards, Bucharest's Giulesti Hospital said, in a report carried by a TV station.