UN The United States led calls for action against Syria after a UN investigator said top Syrian officials were implicated in the assassination of former Lebanese premier Rafiq Hariri. US Sea water rushed into the Mexican resort city of Cancun as Hurricane Wilma whipped up a massive storm surge and unleashed heavy rain and driving winds over a resort area known for its picturesque beaches. SAsia NATO approved plans to send up to 1,000 troops to Pakistan as part of a beefed-up package of help for the quake-hit country, after the UN's top aid chief lobbied the alliance to do more to help. Iraq Iraqi police found the body of a lawyer for a co-defendant of Saddam Hussein, shot in the head just days after the first trial against the former dictator opened in Baghdad. SKorea The United States and South Korea agreed to accelerate talks on switching the command structure of Korean forces in wartime in what would be a major shift in the half-century-old alliance. Mideast Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas said that an independent Palestinian state can be ready by the end of President George W. Bush's term in January, 2009 -- although Bush now refuses to set a deadline. Mideast The radical Islamist movement Hamas slammed US President George W. Bush for dropping any concept of a fixed timetable for the creation of a Palestinian state and warned against pressure to disarm "resistance" factions. US In the clearest indication to date that criminal charges against top White House officials may be in the offing, the special prosecutor investigating the CIA leak case unveiled his own Web site -- one week before his probe was formally scheduled to wrap up. WTO Days of meetings at the World Trade Organisation have done little to clear the deadlock that is threatening a crucial summit in Hong Kong, now less than eight weeks away. Liberia Liberia's "Iron Lady" Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and "King George" Weah will contest a presidential run-off vote on November 8, the National Electoral Commission said after releasing the last of the preliminary results from polls 10 days earlier.