Lebanon-Syria Syria said it would withdraw all its forces from Lebanon before Lebanese elections set for May, a move that could spell an end to the longtime Syrian dominance of the country. Asia Dazed survivors on the Indonesian island of Nias were scrabbling through rubble in the hunt for relatives and friends crushed when a massive earthquake struck, killing hundreds of people. Indonesia-Japan Japan dispatched an 11-member emergency medical team to help survivors in Indonesia's quake-hit Nias island and shipped 140,000 dollars' worth of aid. UN-Iraq UN Secretary General Kofi Annan vowed he had no intention of resigning after a critical new report on the scandal-tainted oil-for-food programme which he said cleared him of wrongdoing. Iraq The new Iraqi parliament's second session ended in chaos as deputies failed to select a new speaker and jeered one another, prompting warnings that the body is risking its credibility. Kyrgyzstan Kyrgyzstan's ousted leader Askar Akayev for the first time laid out the possibility that he would step down as president of the former Soviet republic, but demanded he be given guarantees. Kyrgyzstan The head of the Organisation for Security and Coooperation in Europe (OSCE), Slovenia's Foreign Minister Dimitrij Rupel, will visit Kyrgyzstan to discuss the situation following last week's lightning revolt, an OSCE spokeswoman said. US-Afghanistan US First Lady Laura Bush is bound for Afghanistan to highlight improvements in women's quality of life since the US-led war ousted the Taliban, the White House said. Russia Russian prosecutors asked a Moscow court to sentence Mikhail Khodorkovsky, founder of the Yukos oil company and a Kremlin opponent, to 10 years in prison as the tycoon's tax evasion and embezzlement trial entered its final phase. Bosnia-Serbs A Bosnian Serb, Ljubomir Borovcanin, wanted by the UN war crimes court for the massacre of some 8,000 Muslims in Srebrenica during Bosnia's 1992-95 war is to surrender to the tribunal, Bosnian Serb President Dragan Cavic said. Mideast Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon cleared the last legislative hurdle between him and his plan to withdraw from the Gaza Strip when parliament adopted his state budget by a wide margin. Vatican A frail Pope John Paul II could be hospitalised for a third time in two months amid deepening concerns that he is failing to recover from a recent throat operation, Vatican watchers said. UN-Sudan The UN Security Council voted 12-0 with three abstentions to apply targeted sanctions on individuals who commit atrocities, impede the peace process or "constitute a threat to stability" in Sudan's Darfur region.