Vatican Cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church will begin a conclave to elect a successor to Pope John Paul II on April 18 and his testament will be read out on Thursday. Vatican Authorities will close off the queue waiting to see the body of Pope John Paul II at 10:00 pm (2000 GMT) Wednesday, to allow 24 hours for the last people to file past before St Peter's Basilica closes for the funeral preparations. Iraq Iraq's new parliament chose former Kurdish rebel fighter Jalal Talabani as the country's first freely elected president in history and Islamist Adel Abdel Mahdi and Sunni tribal magnate Sheikh Ghazi al-Yawar as his two deputies. Iraq The Islamic Army in Iraq, a militant group that has taken several foreigners hostage, has decided to release two Sudanese men abducted last month, according to a video and statement posted on the Internet. Afghanistan A US military CH-47 Chinook helicopter crashed after hitting bad weather in southeastern Afghanistan, killing everyone on board, the US military said. Monaco Prince Rainier of Monaco died at the age of 81 after weeks in intensive care fighting heart, lung and kidney problems, the royal palace said, ending a life marked by Hollywood glamour after his marriage to Grace Kelly. Netherlands A Dutch court acquitted a Dutch national of Moroccan origin of planning terror attacks against the parliament, Schiphol airport and a nuclear plant, but sentenced him to three months in prison for illegal firearms possession. SAfrica Ivory Coast leaders agreed to an immediate and final end to 30 months of hostilities that have divided the west African country in an accord reached in Pretoria under the auspices of President Thabo Mbeki. Zimbabwe Zimbabwe's opposition accused President Robert Mugabe's ruling party of stealing last week's elections as it released a list of irregularities in 30 constituencies that it said showed "massive fraud" in the elections. Asia Two million more Asians have joined the ranks of the poor following the Indian Ocean tsunami disaster even though the overall impact on the economies of the affected countries looks small, said the Asian Development Bank. Vietnam Bird flu deaths in Asia reached 50 as Vietnamese medical sources reported a 10-year-old girl had died in the capital. HongKong Hong Kong will ask Beijing to step in and avert a looming "constitutional crisis" over the tenure of its next chief executive, the city's caretaker leader said, triggering an angry response from pro-democracy lawmakers in the Chinese enclave.