Ukraine Ukraine's parliament declared the nation's disputed presidential election invalid and expressed no confidence in the central election commission. Ukraine The European Union's Dutch presidency urged Ukraine to hold new presidential elections to end a row over the results of the vote held last weekend, and suggested the poll could be held before the end of the year. Iraq Iraq's electoral commission ruled out postponing landmark elections planned for January 30, but a political crisis was still brewing as the parties who sought the delay could decide to boycott the poll. Iraq The US ambassador to Iraq stressed that January's landmark elections should be held on time as he toured the devastated streets of Fallujah in the highest-level visit to the city since the US-led offensive to root out rebels. Mideast Palestinian security officials have dismantled a notorious militia squad, known widely as "the death group", in what appeared to be the first concrete move towards reforming the sprawling security forces, a top Palestinian security official said. ASEAN Foreign ministers from 10 Southeast Asian ministers debated forming a new East Asian bloc with China, Japan and South Korea that would cover one-third of the world's population. Myanmar Myanmar has completed its mass release of more than 9,000 prisoners, a prison department source said, amid opposition claims the move would be meaningless without the freeing of more dissidents. US The US Army freed deserter Charles Jenkins, who defected to North Korea in 1965 but was given a lenient sentence so he could be reunited with his Japanese wife whom he met in the Stalinist state. Iran Iran is hoping to reach an agreement on its nuclear programme at the UN atomic agency on Monday, with European proposals to solve the dispute now very close to Tehran's own expectations, a top Iranian nuclear negotiator said.