RP and Muslim rebels to issue statement on peace talks:

RP and Muslim rebels to issue statement on peace talks: Philippine negotiators and Muslim rebels are expected to issue a joint statement on Saturday underlining their commitment to reviving formal peace talks on ending decades of fighting in the south of the country, an official said. Presidential peace adviser Jesus Dureza said informal talks between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, which began in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday were "moving smoothly" late Friday. He did not give more details. -- AP

Drunken prank closes New York bridge: Three men climbed on a New York bridge in a drunken prank on Friday, shutting the bridge, sparking an anti-terrorism response and sending the dollar down in morning trading, officials said. Police said they arrested three men in their 30s, who were caught by a police officer in the morning rush-hour after they were spotted climbing the cables of the Williamsburg Bridge that links Manhattan and Brooklyn across the East River. Anti-terrorism teams, including helicopters, radiation detection units and bomb squads -- on high alert since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and stepped up since the U.S.-led war on Iraq started last Thursday -- converged on the area. -- Reuters

Syria toughens stance after war on Iraq begins: Syria has hardened its attitude to the United States following the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, with President Bashar al-Assad expressing the hope that Washington will fail in its objectives. In an interview published on Thursday in the Lebanese daily As-Safir, Assad predicted that if they take over Syria's neighbor, the United States and Britain would be confronted by a "popular resistance" which would prevent them from controlling it. -- AFP

Half a million Iraqi kids may suffer trauma: Half a million or more Iraqi children caught in fighting may be left so traumatized they will need psychological help, the United Nations Children's agency said on Friday. "I suspect that some half a million children in Basra, Najaf, Kerbala and Baghdad would possibly be in need of psycho-social rehabilitation once we go back in," Carel de Rooy, Unicef's Iraq representative told a news briefing. -- Reuters