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American Hostage Found Dead in Iraq
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http://enews.voanews.com/t?ctl=114FAB8:3919ACA Peace activist Tom
Fox was one of four Western aid workers from North American-based
group Christian Peacemaker Teams abducted in Iraq last November





Tom Fox of Clear Brook, Virginia, is seen in this image aired by Al
Jazeera TV on Saturday, Jan. 28, 2006U.S. and Iraqi officials say a
body found in Iraq has been identified as missing American hostage Tom
Fox.

A U.S. State Department spokesman announced the death of the Christian
peace activist late Friday.

Iraqi officials say Fox was found with his hands tied and with gunshot
wounds. They say there were signs he was beaten before his death.

Fox was one of four Western aid workers from the North American-based
group Christian Peacemaker Teams abducted in Iraq last November. Two
Canadians and a Briton are still being held.

In another development, the U.S. military in Iraq says coalition
forces detained eight suspected insurgents, Saturday. A statement says
four men were captured at a Sunni mosque in the violence-plagued
Khadhra neighborhood of Baghdad that had been identified as a possible
al-Qaida in Iraq safe haven. The other four were detained from other
sites raided during the operation.

On the political front, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani has summoned
the country's new parliament to meet on March 19, saying the impasse
in forming a new government could lead to an increase in sectarian
violence.

The first meeting of the newly-elected parliament has been delayed
because the three main political parties, deeply divided along
sectarian and ethnic lines, have failed to agree on a power-sharing
formula.

In Washington, President Bush expressed concern Friday about the
sectarian violence following the February 22 bombing of a Shi'ite
shrine in Samarra. He said, however, the Iraqi people have taken a
"step back" from the unrest. Some information for this report was
provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.


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