Ukraine Ukraine's civil servants went back to work for the first time in weeks as the opposition lifted its blockade of government buildings and a political crisis eased following a compromise with the ruling regime. NATO NATO and Russia issued a joint call for free and fair elections in Ukraine, in what NATO's chief hailed as "a major breakthrough" in defusing tension between the West and Moscow. Iraq Iraq's majority Shiite Muslims unveiled a broad alliance ahead of next month's key elections that is backed by their highest religious leader but which excludes radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. NATO NATO pressed its allies to put aside their splits over the Iraq war and focus on beefing up missions in Afghanistan and Iraq, but there were few immediate signs of progress. Canada Canada's Supreme Court ruled that government plans to allow same-sex marriage were constitutional, in a landmark ruling in the long battle for equal rights for gays and lesbians. Mideast Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was facing a key hurdle to his plan to pull out of the Gaza Strip as his own party members voted on whether to allow the main opposition faction into government. Philippines Philippine rescuers were frantically digging for more survivors after four people, including a toddler, were pulled alive from a building crushed by a landslide 11 days ago. Japan Japan extended its troop deployment to Iraq for another year despite public unease about the mission, which ended the country's post-World War II taboo against using its military in an overseas war zone. NIreland The Irish Republican Army (IRA) said it remained committed to the peace process in Northern Ireland but not if that meant "humiliation" in the face of its unionist rivals. Italy A panel of three judges began deliberating a verdict in Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's long-running corruption trial, with a decision not expected before Friday at the earliest, the court said. DRCongo Troops in the Democratic Republic of Congo have begun redeploying in the east after reports that neighbouring Rwanda had sent its soldiers across the border to deal with Hutu extremist rebels there.