US US Senator Mary Landrieu said thousands of people had died in the Hurricane Katrina disaster in the southern United States. US Thousands of National Guard troops moved into New Orleans to restore order to the hurricane-battered city where terrified survivors dodged looters, roaming gangs and gunmen. Iraq Mass funerals were held across Iraq for the nearly 1,000 Shiite pilgrims killed in a stampede on a Baghdad bridge as families continued their grim search for missing loved ones. Russia A lone bell tolled in Beslan a year to the minute after Chechen gunmen attacked a school and triggered a hostage crisis that left more than 300 dead, half of them children. Iraq Iraq hanged three convicted murderers in the first executions since the toppling of former dictator Saddam Hussein, despite appeals from the United Nations and human rights groups. Mideast-Israel-Pakistan-Turkey Israel and Pakistan held their first-ever high-level talks here in a bid to normalise ties, but Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, faced with protests at home, insisted his country was not yet ready to recognise the Jewish state. China China said it was committed to peaceful development and would never use nuclear weapons first as it outlined its arms control policy ahead of President Hu Jintao's visit to the United States. China China evacuated more than 790,000 people as powerful Typhoon Talim slammed into its east coast after barreling across Taiwan, where it left three dead and dozens injured. Afghanistan-Britain A British engineer has been kidnapped and at least three policemen killed by Taliban rebels in Afghanistan, raising security fears before key elections this month. China-US-EU Washington announced more restrictions on Chinese garment imports, hours after China and the US failed to solve a simmering textile row after three days of talks here. Albania Former right-wing Albanian president Sali Berisha, whose party has largely won July legislative elections in this former communist country, could return to power after the resignation of his main rival, Socialist prime minister Fatos Nano. Namibia Namibia's government has quietly expropriated its first white-owned farm under the terms of its land reform programme, ordering its former occupants off the premises by the end of November, the farm's owner said.