Germany Germany was left in political limbo as the conservative opposition scraped to a narrow election victory over Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's Social Democrats but crucially failed to win a governing majority. Germany German conservative opposition leader Angela Merkel insisted she had won a mandate to form the country's next government despite failing to secure a ruling majority in the general election. Afghanistan Millions of Afghans voted for their first parliament in more than 30 years, streaming to polling stations in mosques and schools and defying last-ditch attempts by Taliban rebels to derail the election. Iraq Iraqi rebels shot dead an MP and wounded another hours before parliament signed off the much-awaited draft constitution, paving the way for the charter to be put to a referendum on October 15. Iran Iran signalled it will never bow to Western demands to dismantle parts of its nuclear programme and is ready to face the consequences, as the UN atomic watchdog prepared to meet to consider how to tackle the deepening stand-off. UN Top US, British, French and German officials huddled here to assess Iran's latest proposals for resolving their nuclear standoff a day before a key meeting of the UN nuclear watchdog in Vienna on the crisis. US The head of the federal relief operations after Hurricane Katrina called on the mayor of New Orleans to "slow down" the return of the city's population, due to start on Monday, as the area was still unsafe. Mideast Mahmud Abbas warned against any interference in Palestinian affairs after Israel intensified its threats to disrupt January's parliamentary elections if the radical Hamas movement takes part. US The BBC strongly defended itself against accusations of anti-US bias after British Prime Minister Tony Blair reportedly complained to media tycoon Rupert Murdoch about the public broadcaster's coverage of Hurricane Katrina. NKorea Talks aimed at scrapping North's Korea's nuclear weapons will drag on at least one more day, delegates said amid last-ditch wrangling over a document aimed at breaking the deadlock.