Germany Pope Benedict XVI used the first foreign trip of his pontificate to urge Muslim leaders to do more to combat the "cruel fanaticism" of terrorism that aimed to poison ties between Christians and Muslims. Mideast Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas urged Israel to stop all its settlement activity in the West Bank if it was serious about peace as the evacuation of settlers from Gaza was put on hold for the Jewish sabbath. Mideast-Palestinian Mahmud Abbas confirmed that the second ever Palestinian legislative elections are to be held in January next year, paving the way for an electoral showdown between his mainstream Fatah movement and the Islamists of Hamas. Iraq Kurdish leaders offered to compromise over Iraq's constitution but rejected Islam as the main source of law in the new charter, even as the United States dropped its opposition to a strong role for religion. US-Iraq US President George W. Bush, besieged at his ranch by relatives of US soldiers killed in Iraq, launched a five-day campaign to defend the war to an increasingly skeptical US public. WSahara-Polisario-Morocco-Algeria Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika sent a message to King Mohammed of Morocco expressing his determination to develop "fraternal and privileged relations" between the two north African countries, the Moroccan press agency MAP said. Zimbabwe Amnesty International accused Zimbabwe of worsening the plight of thousands made homeless in a shantytown demolition campaign, by herding them into camps out of the reach of humanitarian agencies. US The fourth-largest US airline scrambled to stay in the air in the face of a walkout by its mechanics, but two scary incidents with its passenger planes cast a pall over the effort. Japan Riding on strong public support, Japan's Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi launched his campaign for elections that will hinge on his plan to privatize the powerful post office -- effectively the world's biggest financial institution. Britain Police who followed an innocent Brazilian shot dead on suspicion of being a suicide bomber did not believe he was an immediate threat, the Observer newspaper reported. Afghanistan State funerals were held for the 17 Spanish soldiers killed in a helicopter crash in Afghanistan, in the presence of King Juan Carlos and Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero. Japan An earthquake registering 5.0 on the Richter scale rattled northern Japan, but there were no immediate reports of casualties or damage, officials said.