Mexico 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 the resort area despite being downgraded to a category three storm. UN The United States led calls for action against Syria after a UN investigator implicated top Syrian officials in the assassination of former Lebanese premier Rafiq Hariri. Health A parrot imported from Latin America has become the first bird to die of avian flu in Britain, bringing the danger of the deadly virus much further west across the European Union as the global battle against the disease continued. Croatia Croatian authorities stepped up measures to fight bird flu after the virus causing the disease was discovered on samples taken from wild swans, with the EU preparing to impose a ban of poultry imports from the Balkans country. Egypt The usually peaceful Egyptian city of Alexandria was reeling from riots that left three dead and pitted police against Muslims protesting a play by Christians they charge is offensive to Islam. Iraq Arab League Secretary General Amr Mussa said he had received the support of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani for the League's mission to foster national dialogue and ease sectarian tension in Iraq. Iraq Iraqi President Jalal Talabani said he was not opposed to the death for ousted dictator Saddam Hussein, currently on trial for crimes against humanity, but would not sign the decree to authorise it, in an interview with an Italian newspaper. Pakistan Two weeks after the gigantic South Asian earthquake, the United Nations warned that all the money in the world could not buy time for survivors and called for still more tents and helicopters. Pakistan The World Bank will significantly increase aid to Pakistan to help reconstruct regions devastated by the October 8 earthquake, its president Paul Wolfowitz said here. Mideast Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas said that an independent Palestinian state could be ready by the end of President George W. Bush's term in January 2009 -- although Bush now refuses to set a deadline. 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 has unveiled his own Web site -- one week before his probe was scheduled to wrap up.