Reuters World News Highlights at 1800 GMT, March 10

TOP STORIES

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BAGHDAD - Initial results from Iraq's national election are likely to be released by Thursday, Iraqi and U.N. officials said on Wednesday, as further signs emerged of a strong showing for Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.

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Luke Pachymuthu - Oil major Royal Dutch Shell has stopped gasoline sales to Iran, oil traders said on Wednesday, the latest addition to a growing list of firms that have halted supplies under threat of future U.S. sanctions.

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KABUL - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates traded barbs on Wednesday during briefly overlapping visits to Afghanistan, where Washington has troops at war but Tehran has growing clout.

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RAMALLAH - U.S. Vice President Joe Biden publicly scolded Israel on Wednesday over a Jewish settlement plan, saying it was undermining peace efforts after Palestinians agreed to U.S.-mediated talks.

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MOSCOW - Russia plans to sign over $10 billion worth of deals with India during the visit of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin later this week, Putin's deputy, Sergei Sobyanin, told Reuters in an interview.

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ABUJA - Thousands of Nigerians marched to the gates of the presidential villa on Wednesday to demand an end to the presidency of ailing leader Umaru Yar'Adua so Acting President Goodluck Jonathan can take over as head of state.

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WASHINGTON - U.S. Health Secretary Kathleen Sebelius ratcheted up the pressure on health insurance companies on Wednesday, urging them to forgo short-term profits and stop fighting President Barack Obama's health reform plans.

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LONDON - The United States and Europe face growing tensions over restrictions on export deals involving BAE Systems while European politicians protest the collapse of efforts to sell aerial tankers to the United States.

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BEIJING - China's top climate negotiator said on Wednesday that the cause of global warming was still not clear but the problems it was creating were so serious that the world must anyway act to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

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RABAT - The crisis in relations between Libya and its Western partners is an expression of Muammar Gaddafi's inner circle: a family he protects fiercely but which is torn between old habits of isolation and a desire to open up.

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CANBERRA/JAKARTA - A suspected mastermind of the Bali bombings was killed in a police raid in Indonesia in the latest blow to an Islamist militant movement in the world's most populous Muslim country.

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YANGON - Western sanctions that have decimated Myanmar's once-thriving garment sector have led to a rare spate of strikes that have unnerved its military rulers, fearful of civil unrest in the run-up to long-awaited elections.