Iraq Eight Iraqis and a US soldier were killed in attacks in Iraq over the past 24 hours, officials said, as the US military opened a probe into how a suicide bomber managed to get into a fortified base in northern Iraq and kill 22 people in the deadliest attack on its forces in the country. Iraq Small packs of people returned to their homes in Fallujah nervous about what they would find in the ghost town of rubble after six weeks of fighting between the US military and Iraqi insurgents. Forex The euro hit a record high point of 1.3479 dollars in European trading, reached the new summit against the dollar in the wake of weak US data, analysts said. Russia Russian President Vladimir Putin hit out at the West's "double standards" amid a Cold-War-style dispute over Ukrainian elections, accusing it of fomenting "permanent revolutions" in Moscow's backyard. Ukraine Western observers deployed in Ukraine to monitor a presidential vote rerun this weekend as Russian President Vladimir Putin again attacked the West's role and motives in the former Soviet republic. Russia Russian President Vladimir Putin insisted that the state was protecting its rightful interests by swallowing the main asset of the Yukos oil giant, in the first renationalisation of the post-Soviet era. Mideast Palestinians in the West Bank voted in the first council elections in 28 years, serving as a litmus test for next month's presidential ballot and the support of the radical Hamas movement. Nigeria At least 20 people were killed in an explosion as they stole fuel from a damaged pipeline in a fishing community near Nigeria's economic capital Lagos, police said. Indonesia All 13 people on board were killed when an Indonesian air force helicopter crashed and burst into flames in mountainous central Java island, officials said. Britain Terror struck the pre-Christmas streets of north London when a man went on a stabbing rampage in his car, killing one man and wounding five others. India Former prime minister P.V. Narasimha Rao, who launched socialist India on the path of free-market reforms in the 1990s, died two weeks after suffering a heart attack. Pakistan An investigation was under way after two Pakistani planes together carrying hundreds of passengers including a government minister narrowly avoided a midair collision, officials said. China China's second manned space flight will blast off next September with two astronauts circling the Earth for five days to reinforce the country's status as a major space power, state media said.