NATO US President George W. Bush thanked NATO leaders for helping to train Iraqi security forces, but made clear that plans to lift a European arms embargo on China still troubled transatlantic ties. EU A special summit between the United States and the European Union opened here Tuesday in the presence of US President George W. Bush with several thorny issues on the menu. Iran At least 380 people were killed in the earthquake that struck southeastern Iran before dawn, said a provincial official. Iraq Iraqi Vice President Ibrahim Jaafari was anointed by the Shiite religious coalition that swept to victory in the January 30 elections as its candidate for the country's premiership. North Korea North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il has said his country is willing to return to nuclear disarmament talks despite an earlier threat to withdraw from negotiations, Chinese officials reported. Mideast Beleaguered Palestinian prime minister Ahmed Qorei scrapped his proposed new cabinet line-up, bowing to pressure to make a clean break from the Yasser Arafat era with a radical overhaul of government. Iraq Australia will send an extra 450 troops to Iraq to help protect a Japanese humanitarian mission in the south and bolster the country's transition to democracy, Prime Minister John Howard said. Nepal A crippling transport blockade by Maoist rebels has prevented bottled oxygen needed for vital surgery from reaching a major hospital in southwestern Nepal, officials said, as Britain and India announced they had suspended military aid to the Himalayan country. India India's army warned of fresh avalanches in Indian Kashmir, where the death toll from massive snowslides hit 188, and urged people living in the most mountainous areas to flee their homes.