Iraq Iraq's most wanted man Abu Musab al-Zarqawi has been wounded, his Al-Qaeda front group said on its website, as insurgent attacks left eight US soldiers and dozens of Iraqis dead over a 48-hour period. Iran Iranian hardliners agreed to allow two reformists to stand in next month's presidential election amid fears their disqualification could provoke a mass public boycott of the polls. China China expressed "extreme" dissatisfaction over Japanese leaders' visits to a war shrine, blaming Tokyo for Vice Premier Wu Yi's abrupt cancellation of a meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi. EU Iran warned that there was only a 50 percent chance of success in crunch nuclear talks with the European Union this week, aimed at avoiding an escalation of Tehran's standoff with the West. EU With new opinion polls confirming the "no" camp's lead five days before France's referendum on the EU constitution, treaty supporters pulled out all the stops to win over key swing voters on the left. Germany German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said he would turn an expected general election into a personality contest, as polls showed his Social Democrats lagging far behind the opposition. IISS Washington's policies of promoting democracy in Iraq and elsewhere look "increasingly effective", and even the threat from terrorism abated slightly in 2004, the International Institute for Strategic Studies said. Mideast Mahmud Abbas embarked on his first trip to Washington as Palestinian leader, expressing hope of achieving a diplomatic breakthrough at a summit with US President George W. Bush. CentrAfrica Francois Bozize, the outgoing military leader of the Central African Republic, has won his first democratic term of office in a presidential poll, and his supporters have done well in parliament, the election panel said.