EU European leaders and EU candidate Turkey hailed their historic deal to launch membership talks as a bridge between cultures, but looked warily ahead to the task of convincing a deeply sceptical public. Pakistan Pakistani security forces have arrested the chief spokesman of Afghanistan's ousted Taliban regime, senior officials said, describing his capture as a major blow to the Islamic militia. Indonesia Hindus and Muslims came together in Bali to denounce the latest bombings as Australia warned that terrorists may be preparing to strike again on the Indonesian resort island. France A nationwide one-day strike gripped France, disrupting travel and business and dealing the first major challenge from the street to the economic programme of Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin. Iraq Thousands of US troops widened their sweep for Al-Qaeda insurgents in a new offensive along Iraq's Euphrates Valley, as Iraqi security forces braced for new attacks with the start of Ramadan. US President George W. Bush used his first full-scale news conference in four months to insist the United States would emerge triumphant from Iraq, and admitted he was concerned that bird flu could mutate into a deadly human pandemic. Iraq The United Nations has criticised a last-minute rule change just 10 days before a referendum on Iraq's draft constitution, sources said, adding the latest dash of controversy to the troubled process. Pakistan A Pakistani military court sentenced four people to death and handed two others life terms for their role in a 2003 attempt to assassinate President Pervez Musharraf, officials said. China Fifty bodies have been found after a landslide hit a police academy in southeastern China, state media reported as Typhoon Longwang continued to batter parts of the country. Nobel Americans Roy J. Glauber and John L. Hall and German Theodor W. Haensch won the 2005 Nobel Physics Prize for groundbreaking work on understanding light, a quest as old as humanity itself, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said.