Baltics The end of World War II brought occupation and communist oppression to the Baltic states, US President George W. Bush said after holding a summit meeting with the leaders of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Myanmar Several dozen people were killed and up to 200 people were wounded when four near-simultaneous bomb explosions struck the Myanmar capital in Yangon's deadliest bomb attack in years, witnesses, a Thai diplomat and hospital officials said. Iraq A car bomb explosion in Baghdad traffic killed 17 people, including four presumed US security guards, as Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari conceded he was still having trouble putting together a national unity cabinet. Russia Russia's President Vladimir Putin defended the Soviet achievement in defeating Nazi Germany in eastern Europe in World War II amid criticism that the end of the war marked the start of half a century of Soviet oppression in parts of Eastern Europe. Britain Questions were raised about whether Prime Minister Tony Blair will retire early despite winning a record third election with a healthy, albeit reduced, majority in the British parliament barely 48 hours earlier. Iraq Ghassan Mohammed Amin Hussein al-Rawi, a top aide of Iraq's most-wanted man Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, was arrested and an insurgent leader related to deposed dictator Saddam Hussein surrendered, Iraqi government and security sources said. ASEM China and Japan agreed to form a joint committee to study their common history amid a bitter dispute over memories of Japanese occupation, officials said. ASEM Asian and European foreign ministers urged North Korea to rejoin negotiations immediately to end its nuclear program amid worries that Pyongyang is planning an atomic test. Lebanon Lebanon's Christian opposition leader Michel Aoun left Paris after 15 years in exile to return to his homeland, where highly anticipated legislative elections are due to take place on May 29. Vatican Father Konrad Hejmo, a close friend of the late pope John Paul II accused of spying for Poland's communist-era secret services, has been suspended by his Dominican religious order for "two or three weeks", his superior said. Australia Fifteen people were presumed killed when their commuter plane crashed as it prepared to land in bad weather in a remote Aboriginal community in far northern Australia, officials said. Egypt Fire swept through the historic Islamic quarter of Cairo, interior ministry sources said without immediately being able to specify the cause.