Iraq Iraq announced that its first post-Saddam Hussein elections will be held on January 30, as world powers prepared for a conference on the country's future against a backdrop of unrelenting violence. Iraq The so-called Paris Club of creditor nations has agreed to cut Iraq's debt by 80 percent. They were confirming an announcement made earlier in the day in Berlin, where finance ministers and central bank governors of the G20 group of industrialied nations have been meeting. Ukraine Ukrainians voted for a new president, choosing between a Western-leaning reformer and their pro-Russian prime minister, in a bitterly-fought contest that many fear could provoke turmoil and even violence. China Fifty-four people were killed when a plane crashed into a lake shortly after take-off, apparently after a blast, in China's deadliest aviation disaster in two years, witnesses and state media said. China Thirty-three miners were confirmed dead and 61 others were missing after a fire at five iron ore mines in northern China, state media reported. APEC Asia-Pacific leaders, yanked into the "war on terror" and a nuclear proliferation crisis, wrapped up an annual summit dominated by US President George W. Bush's core security agenda. Namibia Namibian President Sam Nujoma's chosen successor, Hifikepunye Pohamba, won a landslide victory with more than 76 percent of the vote in the country's third elections since independence. Bahrain A Bahrain human rights activist, who earlier Sunday was jailed for one year on a charge of inciting hatred against the regime, has been pardoned by King Hamad bin Issa al-Khalifa. Mauritania The trial opened in Mauritania of 181 people accused in three purported plots to overthrow the government of President Maaouiya Ould Taya, after long delays over a legal wrangle.