Indonesia President Hu Jintao said China would maintain friendly ties with Japan despite outstanding grievances after talks with Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi aimed at salvaging relations. Vatican Pope Benedict XVI launched a media charm offensive a day ahead of his solemn inauguration, telling journalists in four languages that thanks to them the "entire world" had been focused on the Roman Catholic Church. Italy Finding a delicate compromise to please his fractious allies, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi announced his new government, keeping key ministers in place while bringing back his longtime ally Giulio Tremonti as deputy premier. US Four top US Army officers, including a former commander of US forces in Iraq, have been cleared of any wrongdoing in the prisoner abuse scandal at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison, defense officials said. Iraq Nine Iraqi soldiers were killed in a suicide car bombing in a western Baghdad suburb, one of a spate of deadly attacks in Iraq as politicians continued to wrangle over key government posts. Mideast Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon plan to meet next month in what would be their first encounter in almost three months. Togo Togo's acting head of state appealed for calm on the eve of presidential elections in the west African country after a campaign tarnished by violence and opposition allegations of fraud. Ecuador Ousted Ecuadoran leader Lucio Gutierrez, who says he was deposed unconstitutionally, was holed up at the Brazilian embassy as his country's new government refused him safe passage into exile.