Britain British Prime Minister Tony Blair said he had "listened and learned" after a public battering over the Iraq war undermined a historic third consecutive general election victory for his ruling Labour Party. Britain The leader of Britain's main opposition Conservatives, Michael Howard, announced that he would step down after a stinging election defeat at the hands of Prime Minister Tony Blair's Labour Party. Britain Leaders the world over applauded British Prime Minister Tony Blair on his third general election win and while many avoided the thorny Iraq issue others hailed him for his strong stand on the matter. Iraq A car bomb ripped through a busy market south of Baghdad and another smashed into a minibbus packed with policemen north of the capital, killing a total of 29 people and wounding more than 40. Iraq A group holding an Australian citizen hostage in Iraq has given Australia 72 hours to start withdrawing its troops from the country, Al-Jazeera television said, showing footage of Douglas Wood. Pakistan Pakistan has smashed a new plot to kill President Pervez Musharraf by an Al-Qaeda cell with links to a captured Libyan accused of being the network's number three, security officials said. NKorea A North Korean nuclear test would have disastrous political and environmental consequences, UN nuclear watchdog chief Mohamed ElBaradei 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 Russia Russian President Vladimir Putin has 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. 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.