Mideast Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas tried to nail down his pledge to stop attacks against Israel, preparing for talks with Gaza-based militants and dispatching a top aide for a showdown with Hezbollah. 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 Condoleeza Rice urged European negotiators to take a tough line with Iran, warning Tehran of sanctions if it refuses to renounce its suspected nuclear weapons program. Spain A car bombing claimed by the Basque separatists ETA injured at least 42 people in a Madrid business park, hours before King Juan Carlos was due to visit the area, the interior ministry said. Russia A methane blast in a coal mine in southern Siberia killed 21 people with four others missing, presumed to be still trapped underground, the Russian emergencies ministry said. 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. AFPLifestyle East 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. Togo Togo President Faure Gnassingbe vowed to hold legislative elections "as soon as possible" but stopped short of calling polls to choose an elected successor to his deceased father, the west African state's longtime dictator Gnassingbe Eyadema. Britain Prime Minister Tony Blair made a formal public apology for one of the most notorious miscarriages of justice in British legal history -- the jailing of 11 innocent people for IRA bomb blasts. Turkey Greek Cypriot opposition leader Nicos Anastassiades called for reconciliation between arch-rivals Turkey and Cyprus as he began an unprecedented visit to the country by a Greek Cypriot political leader. Russia Russia's Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov survived a vote of no confidence in his government after he accepted responsibility for poorly thinking out an unpopular social reform plan that saw pensioners take to the streets across the vast country. France The French National Assembly approved a reform of the controversial 35-hour working week -- the Socialist measure introduced to cut unemployment but which is blamed by the right for doing exactly the reverse.