Germany German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder put forward a crisis package of corporate tax cuts and investment projects as he struggled to revive a stagnant economy crippled by high unemployment. Oil price World oil prices soared to fresh record high levels with New York's main crude contract above 57 dollars per barrel for the first time, underpinned by robust global demand. UN The United States will not be proposing a motion criticising China at this year's UN human rights commission, a US delegation official said, citing Beijing's improving record in the area. Russia Anatoly Chubais, the influential chief of Russia's electric power monopoly and one of the country's most controversial politicians, escaped unhurt when his car was raked with automatic weapons fire after a pre-set explosion, officials and witnesses said. US President George W. Bush will mark Saint Patrick's Day at the White House by meeting with the family of a murdered Catholic man who are pressing their campaign to bring his alleged IRA killers to justice. Lebanon Syria's military withdrawal from Lebanon gathered steam, with 4,000 troops having returned home in a completed first phase and a roughly equal number re-deployed to eastern Lebanon, a senior Lebanese army officer said. Mideast Israel's prime minister stepped up efforts to pass his 2005 budget through parliament to save the government from collapse as Palestinian militants holding crunch talks in Cairo agreed to an open-ended period of calm but no full ceasefire. Iraq After the historic opening of their elected national assembly, Iraq's political heavyweights bartered over the make-up of the next government, seeking a balance among the fractious ethic and religious communities. Afghanistan US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice praised the Afghan people as an inspiration to the world for emerging from decades of turmoil and embarking on the road to democracy, as a bomb blast in the birthplace of the ousted Taliban regime killed five people.