Iraq Iraq's first freely-elected parliament in half a century met in Baghdad, although politicians failed to form a unity government ahead of the historic session. Iraq A series of explosions were heard on Wednesday from Baghdad's fortified Green Zone, home to Iraqi institutions and the US embassy, where the swearing in of the new Iraqi parliament was due to begin, AFP reporters said. Mideast Israeli troops began the first steps of a security handover to the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank city of Jericho, Palestinian security sources said. India US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice praised growing peace moves by India and Pakistan and pledged to increase defence and energy cooperation with New Delhi, while calling for a return to democracy in neighbouring Nepal. Croatia The EU will keep its door open for Croatia even if it delays the start of EU accession talks with Zagreb due to a standoff over a key war crimes suspect, the bloc's Luxembourg presidency said. North Korea North Korea lashed out at US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice Wednesday for calling the communist country an "outpost of tyranny" and ruled out new nuclear crisis talks as she headed to the region. China Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian on Wednesday condemned China's anti-secession legislation as a "law of aggression" and repeated a call for one million people to march in protest. OPEC OPEC ministers were meeting in Iran under pressure from cartel kingpin Saudi Arabia to raise their oil production quotas, amid near record prices and an expected hike in global demand for crude. Iran An Iranian serial killer convicted of kidnapping and murdering 21 people, most of them children, was publicly flogged and hanged south of Tehran before thousands of spectators, an AFP reporter at the scene said. Japan Chess legend Bobby Fischer, who faces prison if he returns to the United States, can only avoid deportation from Japan if Iceland upgrades its granting of residency to full citizenship, a Japanese lawmaker said.