Iraq Australian Prime Minister John Howard vowed to stand firm in the face of insurgent demands to withdraw his forces from Iraq after the kidnapping of an Australian contractor, as a new wave of car bombs hit Baghdad killing at least four people. US Some 190 nations begin a review of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, with worsening crises in North Korea and Iran showing how seriously the world's fight against the spread of atomic weapons is imperiled. Mideast Israeli cabinet minister Nathan Sharansky, one of US President George W. Bush's intellectual guiding lights, resigned in protest at the plan to pull Jewish settlers out of the occupied Gaza Strip. Mideast An Israeli soldier and a fugitive Palestinian militant were killed in an exchange of fire in the northern West Bank, Israeli and Palestinian military sources said. Britain British Prime Minister Tony Blair refused to take his ruling Labour Party's lead in opinion polls for granted three days before general elections, renewing a call not to use the Iraq war as a protest vote. Taiwan Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian said he was ready to hold peace talks with China any time and supported confidence-building measures to reduce military tension in the Taiwan Strait. NKorea The United States, Japan and South Korea played down North Korea's test-firing of a short-range missile off its east coast, saying it was not related to Pyongyang's drive for nuclear weapons. Italy A report by the US military clearing troops who killed a top Italian intelligence officer in Baghdad is to be challenged when Italy produces its own account of the affair. The two countries conducted a joint investigation but failed to agree on its findings. India The Indian army said a campaign to hunt down suspected Islamic militants in Kashmir had left 90 rebels dead since the launch of a bus service last month meant to signal peace in the divided state. US Private Lynndie England, the US soldier infamously photographed holding a leash attached to the neck of a naked Iraqi inmate at the Abu Ghraib prison, was expected to plead guilty to several charges at a court-martial here. US Michael Jackson's trial on child sex abuse charges resumes with defence lawyers champing at the bit for their chance to roll back 10 weeks of often-sensational testimony against the pop icon.