Sunni Arab groups in Iraq refused on Thursday to join talks about a new government until the United Nations reviews disputed results in the recent parliamentary elections. If they do attend, it will be ”only to look for solutions for the political crisis”, Dhafer al-Ani, spokesperson for the Iraqi Accordance Front — the main Sunni electoral bloc — told Reuters.

Austria’s president on Thursday admitted that many of his citizens are ”fed up” with the European Union, as the country prepares to take over the EU presidency from Britain on Sunday. Heinz Fischer conceded that Austrians had ”cooled” on the EU, and warned that the bloc was not ”limitlessly expandable”.

These are better days to be an American diplomat. After four years of humiliation and powerlessness under Colin Powell, the United States state department is enjoying a renaissance under new leadership. Condoleezza Rice may not have the stratospheric poll ratings of her predecessor, but she is still the most popular member of the Bush administration.

The Paris metro is considering digging anti-suicide trenches or fitting warning radar in its 380 stations in an effort to reduce the number of people who try to kill themselves on the network. In a confidential study leaked to the French press, the capital’s transport authority RATP estimated an average 61 suicide attempts a year cost it in the region of â,¬9m.