Iraq Iraq's interim President Ghazi al-Yawar sought reconciliation with radical Sunni parties which boycotted watershed elections, calling on all parties, except those involved in the insurgency, to take part in negotiations. Iraq The main Kurdish alliance is set to win two-thirds of the vote in Iraq's tense northern oil centre of Kirkuk, reports said, fanning Turkish fears about Kurdish ambitions for the ethnically divided region. Iraq A probe into why a British military transport plane crashed in Iraq at the weekend, killing 10 service personnel, could take weeks as investigators grapple with marshy terrain and armed groups, defense officials cautioned. Nepal King Gyanendra dismissed Nepal's coalition government, imposing direct rule and enforcing an indefinite emergency, but igniting charges he staged a coup in the Himalayan outpost battling a Maoist revolt. Climate A scientific conference kicked off to fresh warnings about the threat of climate change and a veiled call from Britain to the United States to join international efforts to combat the peril. Mideast Israel put the transfer of security control in parts of the West Bank on hold after Palestinian forces in the Gaza Strip failed to prevent a volley of mortar attacks by Hamas. Russia Iran signalled that it would sign a key deal with Russia on the return of spent fuel that will finally let Moscow launch the Islamic state's first nuclear power plant, despite new saber-rattling from Washington. Sudan The Sudanese parliament unanimously ratified a peace deal which the government signed last month with rebels of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement in the south of the country, ending two decades of civil war. Kuwait An Islamist group that identified itself with Saudi militants warned Kuwait in a statement posted on the Internet that it faced a fierce war unless US forces left the oil-rich Gulf emirate. Asia The UN's World Tourism Organisation, meeting at its first ever emergency session, endorsed a plan to revive the industry in nations hit hard by the devastating December 26 Indian Ocean tsunamis. US Pop star Michael Jackson faces another group of 300 prospective jurors, as hundreds of reporters and fans settled in for the second day of a child molestation trial that is expected to last six months. Vietnam A 25-year-old Cambodian woman who died in southern Vietnam has tested positive for bird flu, making her the first Cambodian known to have died after contracting the virus, a doctor said.