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. Iraq Iraqi leaders stepped up efforts to persuade Sunni Muslims to return into the political process as the final vote count from the country's historic election got under way. Iraq An Islamist group claimed to have taken a US soldier hostage in Iraq and threatened to kill him unless Iraqis held in US prisons were freed within 72 hours, in a statement posted on a Islamist website, along with a photograph of the alleged captive. Sudan Sudan dismissed as one-sided a UN report that accused the Khartoum government of gross and systematic human rights violations in Darfur but stopped short of labelling the violence in the region as genocide. Kuwait The Kuwaiti parliament approved tough new powers for the security forces in the face of a wave of unrest by Islamic militants that has rocked the oil-rich Gulf emirate. 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. Israel President Horst Koehler pledged that Germany would never let up in the fight against anti-Semitism as he began a controversial state visit to Israel marking 40 years of diplomatic relations. England A climate conference opened to renewed concern about the worsening threat of global warming and appeals from Britain to its ally, the United States, not to stand on the sidelines. Mideast Israel put the transfer of security control in parts of the West Bank on hold as a new volley of mortar attacks by Palestinian militants in Gaza further undermined a fragile truce. Thailand 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. Zimbabwe Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has set March 31 as the date for key parliamentary elections, a member of the main opposition party announced.