Iraq A British official from a leading international aid organisation was kidnapped in Iraq as four Iraqi national guards were killed and scores wounded in a mortar attack on their base. Iraq-Britain Britain looked set to agree to a US request to send its troops into violence-plagued areas of Iraq, a move opponents argue is politically motivated and could see British casualties mount. Britain-US Radical Islamic cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri was charged by a British court with 16 offences including incitement to murder Jews, scuppering a request from the United States for him to face trial there on terrorism-related allegations. Mideast Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon appeared to have shrugged off pressure for a referendum on his Gaza pullout plan as his chances improved of winning parliamentary approval for his project. Mideast-Israel-France The international community, especially the United States and Arab League, must not allow the Middle East conflict to fester without response, French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier said. Myanmar Myanmar's Prime Minister General Khin Nyunt - among the most reformist of the military regime's leaders - has been sacked and placed under house arrest for alleged corruption, a Thai government spokesman said. US President George W. Bush and his Democratic rival, John Kerry, were continuing their battle for votes in the key state of Florida as a series of new opinion polls indicated the race remained a virtual dead heat two weeks before polling day. Kyrgyzstan-NATO NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer vowed to boost cooperation with the countries of Central Asia, particularly over Afghanistan, during his first official trip to the strategic region since taking over the helm of the transatlantic military alliance. Austria-Israel Israeli President Moshe Katsav arrived in Austria, making the first ever trip to the country by an Israeli head of state, in a bid to draw a line under four years of frosty relations. Sudan Sudan has lashed out at Darfur rebels for suggesting an African summit on the conflict was biased in Khartoum's favor and denied it was convened to preempt a UN Security Council meeting on the troubled region.