Syria Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his Lebanese counterpart Emile Lahoud were to meet in Damascus to pave the way for an expected pullback of Syrian troops in its tiny neighbour. Italy Italy was to hold a full state funeral to honor an intelligence agent, shot dead in a hail of US gunfire after helping to free an Italian journalist from her hostage-takers in Iraq. Mideast Israeli and Palestinian officials were to resume top-level talks for the first time since last month's landmark peace summit, as clashes in the West Bank city of Hebron cast a shadow over an informal ceasefire. Iraq A Bulgarian soldier killed on Friday in Iraq was the victim of "friendly fire" from a US soldier, Bulgarian Defence Minister Nikolai Svinarov said. Iraq A Jordanian businessman has been abducted in Iraq by kidnappers demanding a 250,000 dollar ransom for his release, one of his brothers told AFP. Bolivia President Carlos Mesa announced that he would resign as road blocks and demonstrations targeting multinational firms wracked Bolivia. Vietnam A 26-year old Vietnamese nurse who cared for a patient with bird flu in northern Vietnam has contracted the deadly virus, a doctor said, but it was unclear whether he contracted the virus from the patient or infected poultry. Indonesia-Malaysia Jakarta and Kuala Lumpur said they would seek a diplomatic end to a border and oil dispute even as a military-backed visit by Indonesia's president to the contested region risked stoking tensions. India Nepal's foreign minister met his Indian counterpart in New Delhi Monday in the first ministerial contact between the neighbours since King Gyanendra seized power in the Himalayan kingdom. US Michael Jackson's child-molestation trial enters its second week after what was widely seen as a poor start for the prosecution and with the alleged victim's sister on the witness stand. Japan Sony said its board had chosen Howard Stringer, a US citizen and former television journalist, as the iconic Japanese company's first non-Japanese chairman and chief executive.