● <B>BAGHDAD.</B> Officials of the US-led coalition on Sunday showed what they said were examples of Iranian weapons used to kill 170 of their soldiers and implicated high-level Iranian involvement in training Iraqi militants.

● <B>BRUSSELS.</B> European Union foreign ministers are to step up pressure on Iran yesterday, a day after Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad pledged to pursue the country’s nuclear programme but announced no new atomic work.

● <B>RIYADH.</B> Russian President Vladimir Putin held talks with Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah on Iraq and the Palestinian-Israeli conflict on Sunday in the first visit by a Russian leader to the kingdom.

● <B>KISMAYU</B>, Somalia. An explosion tore through a ceremony in southern Somalia on Sunday, killing at least four people and wounding more than 20 others including senior military and police commanders, witnesses said.

● <B>ASHGABAT.</B> Turkmenistan voted for a new president on Sunday in its first contested election, but one virtually certain to be won by an aide to the country’s former authoritarian leader who died in December.

● <B>CANBERRA. </B>Australian Prime Minister John Howard faces a serious challenge to his re-election hopes this year with a poll yesterday showing the recently installed leader of the main opposition party is more popular with voters.