EU Incoming European Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso said he was withdrawing his proposed EU executive team, in the face of a threatened veto by the European Parliament. Mideast Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was savouring a dramatic victory for his Gaza pullout plan after MPs gave the green light to the first ever evacuation of occupied Palestinian territory. Iraq A battle group of British troops began to roll out of southern Iraq on a US-requested mission to deadlier areas near Baghdad in a major political gamble for British Prime Minister Tony Blair. Iraq Japan insisted it would not bow to the demands of Islamic militants in Iraq who threatened to behead a young Japanese drifter unless Tokyo pulled its troops from the country within 48 hours. Iraq-Australia Australia's newly re-elected government conceded for the first time that its decision to take part in the Iraq conflict may have increased the terrorist threat to its national interests. Thailand Thailand's premier announced an inquiry into the death of 78 Muslim protesters who were rounded up by troops and crammed into trucks, amid a storm of protest locally and overseas. Japan A woman and two young children buried for four days after a deadly earthquake in central Japan were pulled alive from the rubble as another powerful quake rocked the region. Afghanistan Election officials fanned out across Afghanistan to inspect several dozen suspicious ballot boxes that are delaying the end of the presidential vote count and the declaration of Hamid Karzai as Afghans' first popularly chosen leader.