Auschwitz World leaders and survivors gathered to mark the liberation 60 years ago of the Auschwitz death camp. Mideast US President George W. Bush said upcoming Iraq elections offered a "historic opportunity" for the people of Iraq to start building a truly democratic society after decades of life under a brutal dictatorship. Iraq Insurgents set off a bomb in front of an Iraqi military convoy south of Baghdad killing five people and wounding 15 others, hospital sources said. Asia The multinational relief effort in parts of Indonesia's tsunami-hit Aceh province is in chaos, an official report said, as the number of people presumed dead continued to rise and the UN warned some communities remained stranded. Finland A government team from Indonesia arrived in Finland for peace talks with the main rebel movement in Aceh province, where a long running conflict was overtaken by last month's devastating Asian tsunami disaster. Mideast Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas was to meet with the State Department's Middle East pointman William Burns in his first talks with a US official since his election. Mideast Voters flocked to the polls in 10 municipalities in the first ever local elections in the Gaza Strip, with the Islamist group Hamas confident of a strong showing in its stronghold. Iran Iran denied that its negotiations with three major European powers over its nuclear programme were at an impasse, the local press reported. Philippines Philippine helicopter gunships and planes attacked a suspected meeting between leaders of the Al-Qaeda affiliated Abu Sayyaf and Jemaah Islamiyah militant groups, the military said. China The funeral of purged Chinese leader Zhao Ziyang will take place on Saturday, his family and the government told AFP, but his official legacy looks set to remain in limbo. US Four Britons freed from up to three years at the US Guantanamo Bay detention center were spending their first day at liberty after British police decided to press no charges, with one father saying his son had "come from hell". Russia A fierce gun battle erupted as Russian special forces attacked a group of suspected pro-Chechen militants who were holding out for the third day in a small republic near war-torn Chechnya. EU Ukraine President Viktor Yushchenko postponed a planned trip to Brussels, where he was to have addressed the European Parliament, because of bad weather, his press service said. US Eleven people were killed and 183 injured when two commuter trains slammed into each other in Los Angeles after a suicidal man abandoned his car on the tracks, police said. Davos In successive appeals to some of the world's business and political elites, Britain's Tony Blair and Jacques Chirac of France called for a concerted international effort to stem the twin ravages of disease and poverty hobbling the poorest nations.