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Berlin - In a first debate Wednesday, most members of Germany's parliament were supportive of up to 300 airmen serving on NATO airborne command posts in the skies over Afghanistan.

About one third of the aircrews, maintenance engineers and other staff working with the NATO planes will be German. The airborne warning and control system (AWACS) planes will mainly supervise military air traffic.

Bloemfontein, South Africa - As the Iraqi national anthem played ahead of Wednesday's Group A contest with international heavyweights Spain, a group of brightly coloured balloons was released. It carried a small version of the red, white and black Iraqi national flag high into the air and out of the stadium.

Berlin - German legislators spoke out Wednesday in parliament in support of the protests in Iran against last week's election result in which President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was declared re-elected.

During the snap debate, Johannes Jung, a Social Democratic supporter of the German government, demanded that Tehran free arrested demonstrators, investigate the deaths in the course of the clashes and permit free reporting about the conflict.

Prague - Czech President Vaclav Klaus, an opponent of the European Union's reform Lisbon Treaty, said that the bloc's deal with Ireland that would enable a new
referendum on the stalled pact should be submitted for ratification by the national parliament.

The treaty, which is designed to boost the EU's global standing through reforming its institutions, has been stalled since Irish voters rejected in a referendum a year ago.