Iraq Iraq's new 275-member national assembly opened, beginning a new phase in the nascent democracy, but politicians failed to agree on a unity government ahead of the historic first session. Italy Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi told US President George W. Bush in a telephone call that he wants to begin removing his country's 3,300 troops from Iraq in September if possible, his office said. Mideast Israel handed to the Palestinian Authority limited security control in the West Bank city of Jericho, in a symbolic first step of a four-week promised transfer. Croatia European Union foreign ministers announced an indefinite delay to the start of EU membership negotiations with Croatia amid a standoff over a key war crimes suspect. Vatican Pope John Paul II blessed pilgrims from his apartment window overlooking St Peter's Square, in his first public appearance since his discharge from hospital. Pakistan US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived in the Pakistani capital Islamabad for talks with military ruler President Pervez Musharraf, a key ally in Washington's war on terror. NKorea North Korea lashed out at US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice for calling the communist country an "outpost of tyranny" and ruled out new talks over its nuclear ambitions. Spain More than 500 suspected paedophiles who lured their victims over the Internet have been arrested in 12 countries in Europe and Latin America, Spanish police coordinating the operation said. Britain British Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown predicts 3.0-3.5 percent economic growth this year, boasting in his pre-election budget of the longest period of sustained economic expansion since records began in 1701.