Mideast Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is to convene ministers for a top-level meeting to discuss the state of preparations for Israel's pullout from the Gaza Strip which is due to start in six weeks' time. Iraq-Afghanistan-Britain Britain's defence ministry has drafted plans for a significant troop withdrawal from Iraq over the next 18 months and a big deployment to Afghanistan, the Financial Times reported. Afghanistan-US Two members of an American special forces team missing in Afghanistan for several days are dead, the BBC reported after the US military admitted civilians died in an air strike during a mission to rescue the servicemen. Mideast Israel and the Palestinians have reached agreement in principle over a means of transportation between the Gaza Strip and the West Bank immediately after Israel's pullout from Gaza this summer, public radio reported, citing Western diplomatic sources. India Four militants were in a gunbattle with police at the Babri mosque temple complex in the Indian town of Ayodhya, the scene of deadly Hindu-Muslim riots in 1992, television reports said. G8 Britain said it was seeking a "satisfactory outcome" to combat global warming at the Group of Eight (G8) summit, even though US President George W. Bush threw cold water on a Kyoto-style deal. Iraq Four female employees at Baghdad airport were killed and three others wounded after gunmen attacked the minibus taking them to work, said an interior ministry source. Mideast The radical Islamist movement Hamas announced it would not take part in a Palestinian national unity government as proposed by prime minister Ahmed Qorei. G8 Protesters turned up the heat ahead of this week's Group of Eight summit in Scotland, clashing with police in Edinburgh and blocking the gates of Britain's main nuclear submarine base. US NASA scientists celebrated the success of the Deep Impact mission, which rammed a space probe into a comet tens of millions of miles from Earth to glean new clues about the nature of the universe. IAEA International experts gathered in Vienna to discuss tightening restrictions on material that could be used for nuclear bombs, with Russia and the United States warning of the danger of nuclear terrorism. Japan Japanese electronics maker Sanyo said it will cut 15 percent of its workforce or more than 14,000 jobs in the next three years in a bid to return to profit.