Lebanon Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his Lebanese opposite number Emile Lahoud agreed that a widely-anticipated pullback of Syrian troops in Lebanon would take place by the end of March - a move that falls well short of international demands. Lebanon Up to 150,000 opposition supporters rallied in Beirut three weeks after the murder of ex-premier Rafiq Hariri as Syria prepared for a troop pullback in Lebanon in the face of international pressure. Vatican The Vatican said it believes Pope John Paul II would be back at the Vatican to take part in Church celebrations marking the Holy Week of Easter, before the end of March, but gave no precise date for his discharge from hospital. Italy Central Rome came to a standstill as Italy bade a solemn farewell with a state funeral for the Italian intelligence officer slain by US gunfire as he rescued a hostage in Iraq. Iraq At least 25 people, mostly Iraqi soldiers, were killed in a string of attacks against the country's security forces in Balad and Baquba north of Baghdad, police said. Mideast Israeli and Palestinian ministers met in the latest in a series of top-level talks since last month's landmark peace summit but clashes in the West Bank again clouded an informal ceasefire. Bolivia President Carlos Mesa announced that he would resign, as road blocks and demonstrations targeting multinational firms wracked Bolivia. Moldova The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said that the weekend parliamentary elections in Moldova were "generally in compliance" with democratic criteria, although the process fell short in some areas. Vietnam A 26-year-old Vietnamese nurse who cared for a patient with bird flu in northern Vietnam has contracted the deadly virus, doctors said. Israel A multi-million-dollar money laundering scandal threatens to drag Israel's largest bank through the mud, with Russian-Israeli media baron Vladimir Gusinski among dozens wanted by police for questioning. Turkey The European Union condemned the "disproportionate" use of force by Turkish police to clamp down on a women's demonstration in Istanbul, casting a new cloud over Ankara's EU hopes. Uganda Senior east African military officials began talks here on the details of deploying a controversial regional peacekeeping mission to lawless Somalia, Uganda's defense ministry said.