Iraq US-led troops occupied most of Fallujah and aimed to take full control within 48 hours, as kidnappers threatened to kill members of Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's extended family unless the assault was stopped. Iraq Iraqi troops have found houses in Fallujah where foreign hostages were held and "slaughtered", said Major General Abdul Qader Mohan, chief spokesman for the joint US-Iraqi operation in the rebel city. Mideast Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat remained close to death as a senior Islamic cleric prayed at his bedside and an aide declared his life to be "in the hands of God." Mideast Israel gave the go-ahead for the eventual burial of ailing Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to take place at his headquarters in the West Bank town of Ramallah. Ivory Coast An exodus from Ivory Coast began with a first planeload of French nationals while thousands of Ivorians fled to escape a week of deadly violence, amid new tensions that sent thousands into Abidjan's streets. Ivory Coast African Union chairman Olusegun Obasanjo consulted with African leaders with plans to convene an urgent summit to decide on action over the Ivory Coast crisis, an official statement said. Netherlands Dutch police confirmed that they made two arrests during a siege of a building where suspected terrorists had been holed up here, the state prosecutor's office said. Bosnia Bosnian Serb authorities apologized for the first time to relatives of around 8,000 Muslims killed by Serb forces in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, Europe's worst atrocity since World War II. Japan Japan was on alert after a suspected Chinese nuclear submarine entered its waters near a disputed gasfield, setting off a high seas chase amid mounting disputes between the two countries. US US Attorney General John Ashcroft and Commerce Secretary Don Evans have resigned their posts, kicking off a series of cabinet changes in the White House after President George W. Bush won his second, four-year term in office last week.