Iraq-US A US soldier at the heart of the prisoner abuse scandal at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison pleaded guilty to a range of charges from making hooded inmates masturbate to punching them in the chest. Iraq US warplanes struck targets in rebel-held Fallujah while Iraq suffered a fresh blow with international aid group CARE halting operations after the kidnapping of a top relief worker. Iran Iran refused to give up on producing enriched uranium in defiance of the West and said dialogue was the only way to resolve the nuclear standoff, on the eve of talks with the EU's Big Three. Lebanon Lebanon's billionaire Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri resigned and vowed he would not be heading the next government, bringing to a head a political crisis that has paralysed the country for weeks. Afghanistan Yunus Qanooni, Hamid Karzai's chief rival in Afghanistan's presidential election, said he will accept the outcome as Karzai swept the country's south and southeast en route to outright victory. Indonesia Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono was sworn in as Indonesia's sixth president, promising to revive a precarious economy by personally leading a war on endemic graft while also tackling terrorism. US US President George W. Bush and his Democratic rival, John Kerry, move their battle to the Midwestern state of Iowa as the two candidates slug it out on issues ranging from national security to government-run pensions less than two weeks before polling day. Russia President Vladimir Putin defended his plans to strengthen Russia's central authority, arguing that his widely questioned proposals mirror practices used today in western Europe. Cambodia Cambodia's new King Norodom Sihamoni arrived home to a huge welcome from thousands of his subjects, less than a week after he was appointed to the throne vacated by his revered father. Belarus Belarus charged 40 people who protested a vote paving the way for the country's hardline leader to keep power indefinitely and dismissed Western criticism of the poll as "biased."