David Petraeus, the American general who presided over Iraq’s pull back from the brink of all-out civil war, relinquished his command today to General Ray Odierno under a cascade of official thank-yous.

Burma’s military regime distributed international aid today but plastered the boxes with names of top generals in an apparent effort to turn the relief effort for last week’s devastating cyclone into a propaganda exercise.

Two suicide bombers struck a wedding convoy today in a crowded market district northeast of Baghdad as bystanders cheered it on, killing at least 35 people and wounding 65, officials said.

Iraqi soldiers manned the gates of a central Basra base today after the bulk of British tanks and troops pulled out overnight.

Authorities in Thailand are preparing to stop 99 elephants and thousands of villagers from protesting against the possible dissolution of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra’s political party.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert faced calls for his resignation in the wake of harsh findings of an official inquiry into the shortcomings of his leadership during last summer’s costly, but inconclusive, war in Lebanon.

A string of bombings killed 10 people in the Baghdad area today and the US announced a marine had died in fighting west of the Iraqi capital.

A Sea Knight helicopter crashed near Baghdad today, sending flames and a huge plume of black smoke into the sky, the fifth helicopter lost in Iraq in just over two weeks.

Violence raked Baghdad today as an Iraqi general took charge of the security operation in the capital and Iraqi police and soldiers manned new roadblocks - initial steps indicating the start of the long-anticipated joint operation with American forces to curb sectarian bloodshed.

Israel’s outgoing army chief today promised an “orderly transition” for his successor, the army said.

Nato was today set to expand its security mission to the whole of Afghanistan, taking command of more than 13,000 US troops in the east of the country.

Nato will soon assume direct control over most military operations in Afghanistan, a move that will place 12,000 more US troops under its authority, a spokesman for the alliance has said.

Nato defence ministers face a tense meeting in Portoroz, Slovenia, today with their Russian counterpart, Sergei Ivanov, after the Western alliance angered Moscow last week by agreeing to deepen co-operation with Georgia.

Nato defence ministers yesterday approved an extension of the alliance’s Afghan security mission across the entire country, taking in the volatile eastern region and bringing up to 12,000 more US troops under allied command.

Thailand’s top graft buster said today the country’s military rulers may freeze the assets of ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and members of his Cabinet if evidence is found that they tried to transfer their wealth abroad.

Former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra may have whisked some of his assets out of the country aboard two aircraft days before a military coup ousted him from power, airline officials said today.

Israelis would vote Ehud Olmert out of office if elections were held now, polls indicated today, as the defiant prime minister defended his performance in the Lebanon war and lashed out at his critics.

Thailand’s new military leaders today moved to tighten their grip on power, restricting political activities and taking over legislative powers, as former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra broke his silence on his ousting, saying he would take a rest.

A string of suicide bombings across Afghanistan killed 18 people, including four Canadian soldiers, today and wounded scores of others a day after Nato announced a victory over insurgents in a southern Taliban stronghold.

US artillery and airstrikes killed between 50 and 60 suspected Taliban militants today, the fourth day of a Nato-led offensive in southern Afghanistan, a Nato spokesman said.

Sri Lanka’s armed forces and Tamil Tiger rebels traded artillery fire overnight, as the military advanced on a strategic Tiger-held enclave in the northeast in an assault that has killed at least 79 people, the military said today.

A senior police officer said today that John Mark Karr, who had confessed in Thailand to the killing of a six-year-old beauty queen in the US, seemed “abnormal".

Thai authorities today barred access to murder suspect John Mark Karr as varying accounts of what he said about the death of six-year-old JonBenet Ramsey raised questions as to whether his confession could help solve the decade-old case.

Murder suspect John Mark Karr today awaited expulsion to the US where questions mounted over whether his confession to the killing of six-year-old beauty queen JonBenet Ramsey would stand up.

An American expatriate school teacher said publicly today he was with JonBenet Ramsey when she died in what he called “an accident", a stunning admission after a decade without answers in the six-year-old’s murder.

The American suspect in the 1996 killing of six-year-old beauty queen JonBenet Ramsey in Colorado told questioners he drugged and then had sex with his victim before accidentally killing her, a senior Thai police officer said today.

The Israeli military’s inquiry on the bombing of a building in the south Lebanese village of Qana that killed at least 28 civilians admits a mistake, but charges that Hezbollah guerrillas used civilians as shields for their rocket attacks, according to a statement released early today.

Israel launched its deepest ground strike into Lebanon today, claiming it had killed 10 Hezbollah guerrillas and captured five in the northeastern city of Baalbek, while nearby air strikes killed at least 15 civilians.

Two soldiers from the Nato-led security force were killed in combat today and a third was missing, a day after the military alliance took command of insurgency-wracked southern Afghanistan.

Nato troops assumed command today of military operations in volatile southern Afghanistan from the US-led coalition in the latest bid to crush resurgent Taliban forces behind a deadly spike in bloodshed.

Afghan and US-led coalition forces backed by helicopter gunships killed 19 suspected Taliban in southern Helmand province as NATO prepares to take command of the volatile region, a local official said today.

France mobilised to send urgent aid to Lebanon, the Red Cross managed to get relief supplies to the south, and Israel agreed to allow a safe corridor for ensuring that food and medicine reaches those in need.

Twelve Tamil rebels and five Sri Lankan sailors were killed today in a clash near a western naval base, a navy spokesman said – the latest violence threatening to cause a four-year ceasefire to completely collapse.

A suicide bomber on a motorcycle blew himself up next to a car carrying a top Sri Lankan general today, killing the third-highest ranking officer in the military and three other people.

The US Marine Corps today planned to charge seven Marines and one sailor with murder in connection with the April death of an Iraqi civilian, a defence official said.

The US Army has charged three soldiers in connection with the murders of three Iraqi men who were in military custody in Iraq in early May, the military said today.

Hundreds of Palestinian security men loyal to president Mahmoud Abbas went on a rampage against the Hamas-led government, riddling the parliament building and cabinet offices with bullets before setting them on fire in retaliation for an attack by Hamas gunmen in the Gaza Strip.

US-led coalition aircraft killed up to 80 suspected Taliban militants in a night airstrike on a rebel stronghold in southern Afghanistan, the coalition said today. The local governor said 16 civilians also died.

A female suicide bomber, believed to be a Tamil Tiger rebel, exploded a bomb in front of a car that was taking Sri Lanka’s top military general inside the army headquarters in Colombo today.

The former US military intelligence chief at Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison says he regrets not setting “appropriate controls” there, where detainees were bitten by dogs and assaulted and sexually humiliated by guards.

Sunnis and Shiites have traded bombings and mortar fire against mainly religious targets in Baghdad, killing at least 68 people after authorities lifted a curfew that had briefly calmed a series of sectarian reprisal attacks.

Two explosions hit Shiite targets in northern Baghdad after sundown today, killing at least 15 people and wounding 72, police said. The attacks raised the death toll for the day to at least 56.

Five explosions – including three car bombs, a suicide attacker wearing an explosives belt and a blast near the National Theatre – rocked Baghdad today, killing 41 people and wounding scores.

SUICIDE bombers in explosives-laden cars attacked the world’s largest oil processing facility yesterday, but were prevented from breaking through the gates when guards opened fire on them, causing the vehicles to explode, officials said.