US The United States favors diplomatic pressure to resolve its differences with Syria and has many options, but has not ruled out military force, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said. Lebanon French Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie called for Lebanon to regain its "full sovereignty", stepping up pressure on Syria to withdraw its troops and end its domination of Beirut. US President George W. Bush nominated US Ambassador to Iraq John Negroponte to oversee all 15 US spy agencies, including the CIA, as the first-ever director for national intelligence. Iraq The first free electoral process in Iraq since Saddam Hussein's fall came to a close with confirmation of the results and the makeup of a parliament that will draft the country's constitution. Mideast Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon told the new US security coordinator for the Middle East that progress in the peace process was dependent on the implementation of Palestinian security reforms. Thailand A car bomb exploded outside a hotel in southern Thailand, killing five people and injuring up to 40 just two hours after Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra cut short a trip to the restive region, officials and police said. Togo Togo's new military-installed leader Faure Gnassingbe failed to win over the fiercest critic of his sudden seizure of power, the chairman of the African Union, President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria. Croatia The European Union will not begin accession talks with Croatia next month unless Zagreb hands over fugitive general Ante Gotovina to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, Poland said. Georgia Zurab Nogaideli was overwhelmingly approved by lawmakers as Georgia's country's new prime minister, following the death earlier this month of Zurab Zhvania in an apparent accident. Ireland Seven people have been arrested in the Republic of Ireland over possible involvement in a massive bank robbery in Northern Ireland, blamed on the IRA paramilitary group, Irish police said.