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