Ukraine President Vladimir Putin said during visit to Turkey that Moscow was ready to work with any new leader of Ukraine following new elections December 26. OSCE The Ukrainian opposition asked for large numbers of international monitors for the replay of presidential elections amid calls at the Organization for Security and Cooperation In Europe to muster all-out help. Saudi Three gunmen with suspected Al-Qaeda links who attacked the US consulate in the Saudi Red Sea city of Jeddah were killed by security forces. Four Saudi national guard members also were killed while all Americans were reported safe. Mideast PLO chairman Mahmud Abbas held historic talks with Syria's president on the first official Palestinian visit since 1996 -- part of a post-Yasser Arafat push to forge stronger ties with Arab countries. Mideast Opposition leader Shimon Peres said he was keen to join a new Israeli national unity government to give peace a chance as he hailed the new Palestinian leadership for having renounced violence. Britain Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf said the world is "absolutely" less safe because it is failing to tackle the core causes of terrorism such as political disputes, poverty and illiteracy. China German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder arrived in China reiterating his support for lifting an EU arms embargo against the communist country and overseeing a raft of business deals. ICoast South African President Thabo Mbeki met his Ivory Coast counterpart Laurent Gbagbo and other high-ranking officials as he wrapped up a four-day peace-making trip to a nation embroiled in conflict since 2002. Russia Russia announced it has fitted strategic bombers with long-range cruise missiles that can make precision strikes over thousands of miles. Bulgaria The Bulgarian government rejected a proposal by Tripoli that it pay compensation to secure the release of five Bulgarian nurses sentenced to death in Libya for administering AIDS-contaminated blood products, saying this would amount to acknowledging their guilt. Italy Two more people were murdered in the Naples region -- one of them a restaurant owner who was shot dead in front of his terrified patrons -- in a conflict which Italian police describe as a war between rival Mafia drugs gangs. Spain Seven bombs went off in as many Spanish cities within the space of half an hour, shortly after anonymous callers claiming to speak for the underground Basque separatist group ETA told a Basque newspaper to expect the explosions.