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Washington - The European and Russian space agencies on Wednesday called on NASA to lengthen its commitment to the International Space Station (ISS) beyond 2015.

The comments came as part of a review that the Obama administration is conducting of the US manned spaceflight programme. An independent review committee is re- evaluating all aspects of human spaceflight, including the retirement of the space shuttle, the creation of the Orion spacecraft to replace the shuttle and plans to return to the moon.

Ostrava, Czech Republic - World record holder Usain Bolt of Jamaica recorded his first sub-10 second time of the season in the 100 metres on his way to victory Wednesday at the Golden Spike meet in Ostrava.

The three-time Olympic champion claimed victory in a time of 9.77 seconds, just eight hundredths of second slower than the world record time of 9.69 he set on his way to taking gold at last summer's Beijing Games.

Rustenburg, South Africa - The President of football's controlling body Joseph Blatter said on Wednesday that his organization was just as concerned about filling seats at the Confederations Cup as they were about selling tickets.

Although ticket sales for the competition were good and is lying just two per cent below what it was at the Confederations Cup in Germany in 2005, none of the five matches so far have been sold out and in some cases the stadium have been half-empty.

Tehran - Iranian opposition leader Mir-Hossein Moussavi and former reformist president Mohammad Khatami called on the judiciary chief Wednesday to release all those arrested and imprisoned in the course of the recent protest demonstrations in Tehran.

In a letter to Mahmoud Hashemi-Shahroudi, carried on Moussavi's website, the two condemned the violent confrontation of "people would were protesting peacefully against violation of their rights."

Brussels - Eight countries from around the Baltic Sea on Wednesday agreed to link up their energy markets in a bid to make them less dependent on outside suppliers such as Russia.

The prime ministers of European Union member states Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Lithuania, Latvia, Sweden and Poland signed an agreement launching a series of projects at a dinner in Brussels with the head of the EU's executive, Jose Manuel Barroso, a statement from the European Commission said.

Bloemfontein, South Africa - The Spanish national team beat Iraq 1-0 in Group A of the Confederations Cup Wednesday to notch their 14th victory on the trot, joining Brazil, France and Australia teams as record-holders of the longest consecutive streak of international victories.

They also moved to within one of equalling Brazil's record for most matches unbeaten in a row. Spain have now gone 34 games without defeat, a streak that started with a
1-0 victory over England in February 2007. Their last loss was to Romania in November of the previous year.