Cheney to meet with Koizumi: U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney

Cheney to meet with Koizumi: U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney
pledged U.S. support for Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi in
pressing ahead with plans to double Japan's noncombat forces in
Iraq despite the furor over the abduction of three citizens, U.S.
officials said on Sunday. The kidnapping of the Japanese by Iraqi
militants cast a pall over Cheney's visit to Japan as hundreds of
antiwar demonstrators took to the streets to urge their
government to withdraw its troops from Iraq. Cheney attended
Easter services with his wife, Lynne, at a nondenominational
English-speaking Protestant church in Tokyo. -- AP

Basque parties call on ETA to lay down arms: Moderate Basque
parties in Spain called on Sunday for the ETA to lay down its
arms, amid speculation the armed separatist movement is planning
to announce a cease-fire this month. "ETA must take a definitive
decision so the Basques can decide and have a future of peace and
freedom. ETA has no place in a free nation," said Josu Jon Imaz,
head of the Basque Nationalist Party, as Basques marked "homeland
day". "The Basque country asks it (ETA) to open a democratic and
peaceful process in a strategic and definitive way that allows
the passing of the politically-driven historic conflict," the
party said in a joint statement with fellow moderate Eusko
Alkartasuna. -- AFP