China A gas explosion ripped through a coal mine in north China's Shaanxi province trapping 166 miners in what threatens to be the worst disaster to hit the world's biggest coal producer in recent years. Ukraine Ukraine: Ukraine's pro-Russia regions met amid threats to break off over a disputed presidential vote that has split this former Soviet republic and left Moscow and Western capitals glowering at each other across a Cold War-like divide. Ukraine Ukraine's pro-Western opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko demanded that prosecutors open a criminal inquiry into the heads of pro-Russian eastern and southern regions for threatening to declare autonomy. Mideast Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was set to end his 15-month-old boycott of the Palestinian leadership after expressing a willingness to meet new PLO chief and presidential favourite Mahmud Abbas. Iraq Iraq's landmark January polls looked set to take place as planned, authorities said, although ongoing violence did nothing to alleviate the security concerns of the proponents of a delay. Romania Romanians vote to choose a new president in an election 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. Iran Iran stuck by its demand that 20 centrifuges be exempted from its pledge to freeze nuclear fuel work, but said it was still hoping it could salvage a deal with the Europeans and avert the threat of UN sanctions. Nairobi Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki appealed to non-signatories to the treaty banning antipersonnel mines to join the Ottawa Convention and destroy their stockpiles of landmines, as a summit to review the 1997 treaty got under way. Papua New Guinea An urgent evacuation of around 9,000 villagers from Papua New Guinea's remote Manam Island got under way amid fears that increasing activity in the island's volcano may signal an impending major eruption. Mideast Tens of thousands of Moroccans, most of them Islamic radicals, took to the streets of Rabat on Sunday to protest a planned forum on US President George W. Bush's vision of a "Greater Middle East" to be held in the Moroccan capital next month. 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. Antarctica Famed New Zealand adventurer Sir Edmund Hillary, the first man to conquer Mount Everest, lashed out at the United States for building a 1,600 kilometre (1,000 mile) road across Antarctica.