BAGHDAD (AP) -- Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki dug in his heels Monday on the future of the U.S. military in Iraq, insisting that all foreign soldiers leave the country by a specific date in 2011 and rejecting legal immunity for American troops.

Despite the tough words, al-Maliki's aides insisted a compromise could be found on the two main stumbling blocks to an accord governing the U.S. military presence in Iraq after a United Nations mandate expires at the end of the year.

Former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has pulled his PML-N party - the country's second biggest - out of the multi-party governing coalition.

He has been in dispute with the country's biggest party, the PPP, on the reinstatement of judges sacked by former President Pervez Musharraf.

The two sides also disagree over who should be the next president.

MOSCOW, Aug 25 (Reuters) - Russia's flagship cruiser re-entered the Black Sea on Monday for weapons tests hours after the Russian military complained about the presence of U.S. and other NATO naval ships near the Georgian coast.

The 'Moskva' had led a battle group of Russian naval vessels stationed off the coastline of Georgia's breakaway region of Abkhazia during Russia's recent conflict with Georgia and sank smaller Georgian craft.

The assistant to the Russian Navy's commander-in-chief told Russian news agencies the cruiser had put to sea again two days after returning to its base at the Ukrainian port of Sevastopol.

"'Moskva' has today departed toward the Black Sea Fleet's naval training range to check its radio-controlled weapons and onboard communications systems," Captain Igor Dygalo was quoted as saying by Interfax.

KABUL, Afghanistan -- The Afghan Council of Ministers decided Monday to review the presence of international forces and agreements with foreign allies, including NATO and the United States, after a series of military operations that have caused heavy civilian losses. Skip to next paragraph Related Two Afghans Lose Posts Over Attack (August 25, 2008)

The ministers demanded a status of forces agreement, which would stipulate that the authority and responsibilities of international forces be negotiated, and said aerial bombing, illegal detentions and house raids by international forces must be stopped.

The declaration came after several military operations involving American forces resulted in heavy civilian casualties, most recently air strikes in western Afghanistan that killed more than 90 people, most of them women and children, according to a government commission.

RAMALLAH, West Bank -- Israel on Monday released 198 Palestinian prisoners in a move intended to bolster the Palestinian president, Israel's negotiating partner, hours before Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived in the region to try to nudge forward Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts.

Before embarking on two days of talks with top Israeli and Palestinian officials, Ms. Rice told reporters on the plane to Tel Aviv that there was a "lot of work ahead" if the sides hoped to reach a peace agreement by the end of the year.

BANGKOK, Aug 25 (IPS) - A United Nations-led effort to push political reform in military-ruled Burma plunged to a humiliating low on the weekend, raising questions about the effectiveness of the world body's special envoy to the country, Ibrahim Gambari.

This shift was conveyed in the way Aung San Suu Kyi, the detained pro-democracy leader, treated Gambari during his six-day mission, which ended on Aug. 23. She refused to see him on at least two occasions. It was a silence of Gandhian proportions for the Nobel Peace laureate and, for the U.N. envoy, an unprecedented snub.

Deprived, as a result, was the photo opportunity that Gambari had used after his three previous visits to Burma, over the past year, to give the impression that he was making headway with Suu Kyi in paving the road for political reform. The images of the Nigerian diplomat posing with the 63-year-old Suu Kyi, who has spent over 13 of the past 18 years under house arrest, suggested she had confidence in the U.N.

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Other Burma watchers are as scathing. `'Unlike Gambari, Aung San Suu Kyi refuses to be a pawn in the junta's game,'' says Debbie Stothard of ALTSEAN, a regional body campaigning for human rights in Burma. `'This confirms that she has lost confidence in Gambari. She has said so through the only peaceful form of resistance available to her.''

Gambari's failure should `'be a wakeup call to the Security Council's members that they can no longer be conned by the junta,'' Stothard told IPS. `'Most of the key decisions makers at the U.N. used Gambari's shuttle diplomacy as an excuse not to act on Burma. But nothing has moved, and now there is little left to hope for.''

Speaking to Walter Isaacson at the Aspen Institute in Colorado on Thursday, McCain found himself explaining a recent interview with Blender Magazine in which he selected ABBA's 1976 track "Dancing Queen" as his favorite song.

"What were you thinking?," Isaacson asked him, looking incredulous.

"If there is anything I am lacking in, I've got to tell you, it is taste in music and art and other great things in life," McCain joked. "I've got to say that a lot of my taste in music stopped about the time I impacted a surface-to-air missile with my own airplane and never caught up again."

Should we have a moratorium on stories like this, and post instead on those rare occasions when he says something right?

At least three people have been arrested in the US over an alleged plot to kill US Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama, reports say.

The suspects planned to shoot Mr Obama in Denver, Colorado, during his speech accepting the nomination to run for US president, CBS4 TV station reports.

BBC NEWS | World | Americas | Democrats praise 'new hope' Obama

I thought Michelle Obama's speech was effective but not a knock-out; it doesn't settle the matters of perceived lack of patriotism and oddness and effeteness (if that is a word)

In JustinWorld, 'black' = 'odd', apparently. Also, a girly speech from a girly girl - kiddies and smiles instead of properly manly bombs and threats of nukular war.

Very unpatriotic. And effete.