European Commission (EC) President Jose Manuel Durao Barroso confirmed on Monday Romanian Leonard Orban as European commissioner for multilingualism, culture and education, Romania's Rompres news agency reported.

The United States said on Monday that it will continue its support for the transitional government in Somalia while calling for reconciliation talks in the war-torn country.

Macedonian Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski on Monday expressed his regrets over the incident in which four Russian diplomats were attacked in a Skopje cafe at the weekend, news from Skopje reported.

Russian President Vladimir Putin told his Iranian counterpart Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in a telephone conversation on Monday that Moscow favored further talks on Iran's nuclear program, the Kremlin said.

A senior Palestinian security source assured that the Spanish citizen that was abducted earlier by unknown Palestinian gunmen was freed on Monday evening.

Saddam Hussein's chief lawyer Monday walked out of the court after his requests were rejected by the chief judge, while U.S. soldiers' death toll in October breached the 100 benchmark amid surging violence.

Military cooperation between Russia and the United States is an important part of interaction between the two countries, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Monday.

Sudan announced on Monday its approval of a short visit requested by the United Nations for Jan Pronk, the special representative of UN Secretary General Kofi Annan in Sudan, who was expelled by Khartoum last week.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan Monday called on the two candidates in the presidential elections of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and their supporters to avoid violence before election results are available.

Sudanese President Omar el-Bashir reiterated on Monday commitment to three agreements the government has signed on peace in south Sudan, the western region of Darfur and east Sudan.