• Police found the decapitated and bound bodies of nine policemen in an al Qaeda stronghold in Iraq, as US commanders blamed the militant group for chlorine gas bombs that poisoned hundreds in the same province. Anbar, a Sunni Arab province west of Baghdad, has long been among the most troublesome areas of Iraq for the US military, which is sending additional combat troops there to fight insurgents and al Qaeda militants engaged in an escalating power struggle with local Sunni tribesmen.

• North Korea is on track to fulfil its side of a breakthrough disarmament accord by shutting down its main atomic facility next month, the US envoy to six-party talks on the North's nuclear programme said. Christopher Hill said he was confident that a new round of the talks opening today could move past a spat over North Korea's frozen bank accounts and concentrate on pushing forward the February 13 deal.

• Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert ruled out resuming talks on Palestinian statehood with President Mahmoud Abbas and urged the international community to shun his new government with Hamas. Palestinians hope formation of the power-sharing government between Abbas's secular Fatah faction and Islamist Hamas will stop factional fighting and ease a crippling aid embargo that has increased poverty.

• The US said its ban on direct aid to the Palestinian government would remain in place but it broke ranks with Israel by authorising contacts with some members of the new unity administration. The US consulate in Jerusalem said Washington would continue to shun Hamas ministers in the power-sharing Palestinian cabinet but permit contacts with non-Hamas members on a case-by-case basis.