Mideast Palestinians voted for a successor to veteran leader Yasser Arafat with his longtime deputy Mahmud Abbas poised for a victory that world leaders predicted could revive the Middle East peace process. Mideast Islamic militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad, which urged their members to boycott the Palestinian presidential election, declared they would cooperate with the victor after the poll. Mideast Israel said it was ready to meet the winner of the Palestinian presidential election, which the Israeli press hailed as the start of a new era and a boost to peace hopes. Sudan Africa's longest-running civil war came to an end as the Sudan's government and southern rebels signed a long-awaited peace accord amid calls for the deal to be extended to cover the crisis in Darfur. Asia Aid groups conceded some survivors may not have received help despite an unprecedented emergency operation two weeks after tsunamis killed more than 156,000 when they crashed into Indian Ocean shores, as local insurgencies complicated rescue efforts. Asia Two weeks after the Asian tsunami killed more than 5,300 people in Thailand, the interior ministry cast doubt on the nationalities of more than one third of them. Iraq A US warplane bombed a house mistaken for an insurgency hideout in northern Iraq, killing at least five people, while a car bomb killed one, and four Iraqi officials were kidnapped in the run-up to national elections. US A US army sergeant was sentenced to six months jail for ordering soldiers to push two Iraqis into the Tigris river, but a military jury earlier cleared him of charges of manslaughter. Saudi Four wanted militants were killed in a shootout with security forces in a desert area in Saudi Arabia, where the government is battling a wave of attacks by Al-Qaeda linked militants, the interior ministry said. Lebanon Three members of a UN patrol were injured in unrest in south Lebanon after a cross-border attack by the Lebanese Hezbollah militia triggered a retaliatory Israeli air raid.