Britain Prime Minister Tony Blair said that Britons wanted to "move on" from divisons over Iraq after clinching a historic third straight term in power for his Labour Party, albeit with a much-reduced parliamentary majority. Britain Britain's Conservative leader Michael Howard said he would resign before the next general election and as soon as a successor was found following his party's defeat overnight. Britain British finance minister Gordon Brown emerged stronger as a potential successor to Prime Minister Tony Blair after helping him win a historic third consecutive term in power for the Labour Party. Iraq Police discovered the bodies of 14 men shot dead execution-style in Baghdad, while in northern Iraq a suicide car bomber rammed into a minibus carrying policemen, killing 12. Australia An Australian citizen held hostage in Iraq is still alive, Prime Minister John Howard said, as it emerged that an influential Sunni sheik has pleaded with the militants holding him to spare his life. Mideast The Fatah faction came out on top in municipal polls in the occupied territories overall, but the Islamist group Hamas beat the party of Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas in four out of five major cities. US US President George W. Bush headed for Europe for three days of ceremonies marking the end of World War II in Europe. Russia Russian President Vladimir Putin called the Soviet grip on the Baltic states after World War II a "tragedy" for Baltic peoples but insisted Moscow had already repudiated the secret pact that opened the door to it and should not have to keep apologizing. Pakistan Pakistani intelligence agents have foiled a new plot by Al-Qaeda militants to assassinate President Pervez Musharraf, security officials said. Japan China rebuffed criticism that it was not putting enough pressure on North Korea to resume talks to end its nuclear weapons program, saying it had limited influence on Pyongyang and needed other nations to do US Japan is expected to propose a deadline for North Korea to attend nuclear talks or face action at the UN Security Council, a senior official of Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's political party said. Iran Pakistan will, under certain conditions, send centrifuge parts for tests by the UN atomic agency to help establish whether Iran has been secretly developing nuclear weapons, Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said. Vietnam Vietnam's premier will meet US President George W. Bush next month, a leading US official said as he hailed Hanoi's progress on ensuring religious freedom as a significant step forward for bilateral ties. US President George W. Bush ordered the demotion of Brigadier General Janis Karpinski, the former commander of the Abu Ghraib prison, after an army investigation found her guilty of dereliction of duty and shoplifting, the army said.