China A gas explosion ripped through a coal mine in north China's Shaanxi province, trapping 170 miners in what threatens to be the worst disaster to hit the world's biggest coal producer in recent years. Ukraine A tense Ukraine awaited a supreme court hearing on a bitterly disputed presidential election that has split the former Soviet republic and left Moscow and Western capitals glowering at each other across a Cold War-like divide. Romania Romanians began voting to choose a new president in elections that will pull down the curtain on the era of post-communist leader Ion Iliescu and set the country firmly on a path towards membership of the European Union. Iraq Leading figures in Iraq resisted calls by several political parties to delay the elections scheduled for January by six months, as the country continued to be hit by the violence that prompted the request. Iraq Seventeen more bodies were found in Mosul, a US military spokesman said, bringing to almost 60 the number of men executed and dumped on the streets of the northern city in the past 10 days. Iran Iran stuck by its demand that 20 centrifuges be excluded from its agreement to freeze nuclear fuel work, and complained a draft International Atomic Energy Agency resolution was "not satisfactory". PNG An urgent evacuation of around 9,000 villagers from Papua New Guinea's remote Manam Island got underway amid fears that increasing activity in the island's volcano may signal an impending major eruption. Sudan Visiting EU aid commissioner Louis Michel denounced continued violations of a ceasefire agreement in Sudan's troubled Darfur region, which he said had forced aid workers to flee.