Mideast Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas were set to announce a mutual ceasefire, ending four years of violence, at a landmark summit in Egypt, preparing the stage for a full-scale revival of the peace process. Mideast US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice warned Syria that if it wants to avoid being "isolated" it must end support for Islamic militants intent on wrecking the Middle East peace process. Vatican As a frail Pope John Paul II marked his seventh day in hospital, with no news yet on his eventual release, comments by the Vatican's top official brought the question of the 84-year-old's possible resignation -- an old Vatican taboo -- into the open. Iraq Bomb attacks against army recruits and an assassination attempt against an Iraqi politician left at least 16 dead in the Iraqi capital. Iraq Iraqi politician Mithal al-Alusi, who favours normalising relations with Israel, watched as gunmen killed his two sons and a bodyguard in Baghdad. Iran British Prime Minister Tony Blair called Iran a state sponsor of terrorism, and urged the Islamic republic to meet EU demands to renounce its suspected pursuit of nuclear weapons. France The United States and France have agreed to repatriate the last three French citizens being held prisoner in the US military base of Guantanamo in Cuba, various sources told AFP. Denmark Voting began in Denmark's general election as polls indicated a win for Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen's center-right coalition, but with a large number of undecided voters still able to cause an upset. Chechnya Chechen rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov called on the West to mediate an end to his Muslim republic's war against Russian forces, even as the separatists' top warlord vowed unstinting resistance. China China has for the first time volunteered information on political prisoners whom the West did not know about and indicated some could receive sentence reductions, the San Francisco-based Dui Hua Foundation said. Nepal Nepal's new government warned traders and citizens against hoarding food and fuel after Maoist rebels called for a nationwide strike in the first major test of King Gyanendra's seizure of power. Togo Togo's opposition initially saw little support for a "stay-at-home" day to protest the hasty swearing-in of President Faure Gnassingbe from a population cowed by the repressive 38 years of rule of his late father Gnassingbe Eyadema. SriLanka The Sri Lankan government said that the killing of a senior Tamil Tiger rebel and five others had breached a ceasefire in the decades-old ethnic conflict and heightened the risk of a return to war.