Mideast Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is ready to meet Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas in the West Bank city of Ramallah, an aide to Sharon said, following their landmark summit in Egypt where the leaders agreed a ceasefire to end more than four years of bloodshed. Mideast A high-level meeting of the so-called Middle East quartet tasked with advancing the peace process will be held in London on March 1, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters. Mideast World leaders hailed the ceasefire agreement that emerged from the landmark Israel-Palestinian summit, but Middle East analysts warned it was only a small step on the long road to a durable peace. Iraq Authorities in Iraqi delayed announcing the final result of the country's historic election, as gunmen shot dead a journalist for a US-funded television station in a series of new attacks. US US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, visiting her NATO and EU counterparts, sought to open a new chapter in relations with NATO and Europe after a two-year feud over the Iraq war, but new strains emerged over Iran. US US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice took a swipe at European countries negotiating to halt Iran's nuclear drive, saying they had failed to make sufficiently clear the threat of UN sanctions. Spain A car bombing claimed by the Basque separatist group ETA injured at least 39 people in a Madrid business park, hours before Spanish King Juan Carlos was due to visit the area, dealing a fresh blow to efforts to defuse its four-decade campaign for indepdendence. Vatican Cardinals at the Vatican have locked horns in an unholy row as debate rages over the thorny question of Pope John Paul II's resignation, while the hospitalised 84-year-old missed Ash Wednesday prayers for the first time in his lengthy pontificate. Nepal Nepal's King Gyanendra faced mounting opposition from a legal challenge and planned street protests as top lawyers said his emergency rule was against the spirit of the constitution. China China, which puts more people to death than the rest of the world combined, has executed at least 650 in the two months leading up to the Lunar New Year, rights group Amnesty International said. Asia Asia celebrated its most important holiday with traditional rituals and ceremonies as millions of people saw in the Lunar New Year with family and friends after a troubled year of the monkey. Russia A methane blast in a coal mine in Kuzbass, in southern Siberia, killed 17 people, with nine others presumed to be still trapped underground, Russian news agencies reported. Kenya An inquiry into Kenya's biggest-ever financial scandal resumed here amid a storm of controversy over alleged government graft and the suspension of millions of dollars in US aid.