Afghanistan Hamid Karzai was sworn in as Afghanistan's first democratically elected president promising to restore security to the war-shattered country three years after the fall of the Taliban. Ukraine The struggle for power in Ukraine shifted to parliament where lawmakers were set to try to break a deadlock between the ruling regime and the opposition over legislative changes ahead of a new vote. Ukraine US Secretary of State Colin Powell roundly rejected scathing Russian criticism of the West's role in Ukraine's election crisis, saying the United States and its allies were interested only in freedom for the Ukrainian people. Saudi The Saudi branch of Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda terror group used an Islamist web site to claim responsibility for Monday's attack on the US consulate in the Saudi port of Jeddah, stating that some assailants had managed to flee after the operation. Iraq The presidents of Iraq and the United States pledged there would be no delay to landmark elections on January 30 despite a flare-up of violence that left about 100 dead in three days. Netherlands Dutch police have arrested a 62-year-old chemicals dealer suspected of involvement in war crimes and genocide allegedly committed by former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, the Dutch national prosecutor's office said. US A US special envoy left for China, South Korea and Japan in a bid to jump start North Korean nuclear talks, the State Department said, as the UN nuclear watchdog chief warned Pyongyang could develop up to six atomic bombs. Ghana Voting opened in Ghana's fourth election since democracy returned to the west African state in 1992. Argentina-climate-UN-environment BUENOS AIRES: The United States resisted calls for talks on the Kyoto Protocol on reducing greenhouse gases at a UN conference on climate change.