• Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi said yesterday his government will not oppose US plans to expand one of the biggest American military bases in Europe, despite divisions in his centre-left coalition over the issue.

• Senior US and North Korean officials met in Berlin yesterday to discuss how to pave the way for a resumption of six-party talks on ending North Korea's nuclear ambitions, the US State Department said.

• US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said yesterday insurgent attacks from Pakistan into Afghanistan were increasing, hours after Pakistan launched an air strike on a militant camp near its Afghan border, killing up to 20 people.

• Russia said yesterday it had delivered new anti-aircraft missile systems to Iran and would consider further requests by Tehran for defensive weapons.

• Prime Minister Ehud Olmert brushed aside yesterday an unofficial peace plan drafted by Israelis and Syrians, saying the Israeli government had no part in the initiative and did not take it seriously.

• Democratic Senator Barack Obama of Illinois jumped into the 2008 White House race yesterday, promising to bring Americans together and "change our politics" with a campaign that could make him the first black president in US history.

• Western oil companies evacuated staff from three oilfields in Nigeria's southern Niger Delta yesterday after gunmen killed 12 people including four community chiefs in a dispute over oil money.

• Israel's state prosecutor ordered a criminal investigation yesterday into Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's role in the 2005 privatisation of Israel's second largest bank, the Justice Ministry said in a statement.

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