U.S. President George W. Bush on Tuesday called Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, congratulating on his re-election, White House spokesman Tony Snow said.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair on Tuesday narrowly survived a vote in the House of Commons tabled by nationalist parties demanding an immediate investigation into the Iraq war.

World Bank Managing Director Juan Jose Daboub will arrive in Malawi on Wednesday for a three-day visit as part of his seven-country visit in Africa.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Tuesday called foreign ministers of Britain, China, France and Russia in a bid to speed up sanctions against Iran, Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns said.

A number of foreign diplomats in Liberia have been placed on the country's diamond task force to "assist in ensuring the implementation of the Kimberley Process Certificate scheme for the lifting of United Nations sanctions on Liberian rough diamonds."

The African Union (AU) on Tuesday welcomed a smooth conduct of the Democratic Republic of Congo's landmark presidential run-off, saying that it "constitutes a victory for the Congolese people as a whole in their march towards democracy, stability and peace."

France said on Tuesday that Israel should stop overflights of Lebanon's airspace.

The UN envoy to Lebanon expressed deep concern about Israeli flights over Lebanon on Tuesday, calling on the Jewish state to cease its violations of Lebanese airspace.

Germany's high court decided on Tuesday to delay ruling on the European Union's constitution until as late as 2009, dealing a blow to Chancellor Angela Merkel's efforts to revive the treaty ratification process.

The Ugandan rebel group, Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) has threatened to pull out of the shaky peace talks with the government again as the renewal of a truce agreement is still pending on Tuesday.