"The three Japanese taken hostage in Iraq will be freed by around noon Sunday (0300 GMT) Japan time, the Kyodo news agency reported, quoting Japanese government officials. Kyodo News quoted unidentified government officials as saying that they hadreceived information that three would be released unharmed by that time," reported the AP news agency.
"Street fighting erupted in Baghdad yesterday and sporadic gunfire echoed across Fallujah despite a new US truce offer and an effort by Iraqi officials to secure a peace deal with insurgents in the western city. Teenage gunmen shot at US troops from alleys in northwest Baghdad's Sunni Muslim Adhimiya district," reported the Reuters news agency.
"President George W. Bush pledged yesterday that the US-led coalition would defeat guerillas wreaking havoc in Iraq and he defended plans to hand sovereignty to an interim Iraqi government on June 30. Bush also promised support to Iraq after the initial handover of power and through the country's election slated for the end of next year, including armed forces to maintain peace as well as economic aid," reported the Reuters news agency.
"An armed group said yesterday it was holding 30 foreigners who would be brutally killed unless US-led coalition troops pulled out of Iraq, particularly the rebel town of Fallujah, in a video aired by Al-Arabiya news channel,," reported the AFP news service.
"Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's right-wing Likud party will hold a referendum on his go-it-alone plan to withdraw from the Gaza Strip by the end of the month, political sources said on Friday. Sharon filed paperwork on Thursday requesting a binding vote within three weeks by the party's 200,000-strong membership on his disengagement plan to withdraw from Gaza and several isolated settlements in the West Bank," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Worshippers handed over cash and jewellery to armed and masked men at Gaza mosques on Friday, at the start of a drive by Hamas to raise money for its armed wing amid US pressure to choke off its funds," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Iran's influential former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani on Friday hailed the Shi'ite Muslim militia of firebrand cleric Muqtada al-Sadr as heroic for rising up against the US occupation in Iraq. Rafsanjani told worshippers at Friday prayers in Teheran that a distinction should be drawn between Shi'ite fighters, who battled US-led troops across southern Iraq this week, and insurrectionist supporters of Saddam Hussein's Ba'ath party whom he described as terrorists," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Lebanon's top Shi'ite imam compared the US-led occupation of Iraq to that of Israel in Palestinian territories, and said on Friday that the excessive use of force against Iraqi rebels would only fuel anti-US sentiment," reported the Reuters news agency.
"The German Foreign Ministry said on Saturday two German security officials had gone missing while travelling from Jordan to Germany's embassy in Baghdad, but said there were no signs of kidnapping. A spokeswoman confirmed a report by ZDF television that the two men, aged 38 and 25, had disappeared while en route to Bagdhad several days ago. But there are no indications they have been kidnapped," reported the Reuters news agency.
"A senior Japanese official headed emergency meetings in Amman yesterday to co-ordinate efforts to rescue three nationals kidnapped in Iraq, officials said. Their abductors have threatened to burn them alive if Japan does not pull its troops out by today," reported the Reuters news agency.
"France faces no specific threats of bomb attacks but must remain alert because of concerns that it could be a target, Interior Minister Dominique de Villepin said on Friday. France has tightened security since the Madrid train bombings last month. Thousands of passengers were evacuated from the Paris urban rail network on Thursday in a false bomb alert after a CIA tip-off," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Under pressure from the 9/11 commission, the White House worked on Friday to declassify an intelligence memo that was used to inform President George W. Bush on Aug 6, 2001, that Osama bin Laden wanted to launch attacks inside the United States. Democratic members of the bipartisan commission investigating the Sept 11, 2001, attacks demanded on Thursday that the president's daily intelligence briefing for that day be released to help them with their probe," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Japan waited anxiously for the release of three civilians taken hostage in Iraq as the government struggled to determine whether the gunmen holding them planned to set them free. Amid the wait, Kyodo News reported that a person negotiating for their release told the Japanese government that they are unharmed," reported the news Agencies.
"Gunmen shot down a US attack helicopter during fighting in western Baghdad yesterday, killing its two crew members. Insurgents and marines called a cease-fire in this besieged city, but the fragile peace was shaken by shootings that wounded two Americans," reported the AP news agency.
"Prime Minister Tony Blair launched a passionate defence of what he called the historic struggle in Iraq yesterday and said he believed Britain and the United States would stay the course, despite rising violence. In his first public comments since last week's upsurge in fighting, he insisted there remained incredible possibilities of progress in the country," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Australia rejected claims by a former defence adviser yesterday that she had been sacked for refusing to exaggerate evidence of Iraq's weapons programme, a key reason for Australia joining the US war in Iraq. Jane Errey, a former analyst with Australia's Defence Science and Technology Organisation (DSTO), the research and development arm of Australia's defence department, said she was sacked because she refused to write briefing papers supporting claims Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Muslims assembled near Australia's biggest mosque yesterday to protest the presence of foreign troops in Iraq and castigate the United States for intervening in the Gulf. A crowd of about 500 marched around Lakemba mosque here chanting Out, out, America!," reported the dpa news agency.
"Jordanian authorities have found cars carrying explosives that an underground group believed linked to al-Qaeda planned to use to attack American interests, a senior security source said on Saturday. The source said an unspecified number of cars laden with explosives were found and the suspects who sought to use them had been arrested," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Prime Minister Ariel Sharon will receive, in exchange for a planned Gaza pullout, a written US assurance Israel will not have to quit all of the West Bank in any future peace deal, an Israeli newspaper said yesterday. The Haaretz daily said the pledge would be contained in a letter that US President George W. Bush will hand Sharon at their White House meeting on Wednesday," reported the news Agencies.
"A security memo sent to President George W. Bush about one month before the Sept 11 attacks warned that al-Qaeda had penetrated the United States and of possible plane hijackings, the White House said Saturday. The Bush administration released the memorandum under pressure from the official inquiry into the 2001 strikes by Osama bin Laden's group as the president's counter-terrorism strategy before Sept 11 faces growing scrutiny," reported the AFP news service.
