Shiite Militia In Iraq Ceasefire As French Hostage Deadline Extended

BAGHDAD, Aug 31 (AFP) - Rebel cleric Moqtada Sadr, the most serious threat yet to the authority of Iraq's interim government, ordered his militiamen to silence their guns Monday, as a insurgents holding two French hostages extended their deadline.
The Islamic Army in Iraq, which has already claimed the murder of an Italian journalist who also went missing about 10 days ago, extended their deadline for 24 hours as French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier pursued crisis talks in the Middle East.
The two journalists were shown on Arabic-language television network Al-Jazeera urging the French government to repeal a ban on Islamic headscarves in state schools as their captors are demanding.
Barnier and Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin have refused to comment on the development, saying only that they were closely monitoring the situation, which has left France in a state of shock.
Chirac's government has vowed not to cede to the kidnappers' demands and said it would implement the headscarf ban.
The hostage crisis cast a pall over the announcement that Sadr was halting his deadly uprising and turning his militant group into an ordinary political party, as demanded by the Iraqi government.
"This decision shows that the Sadr movement wants peace and participation in the country's political process, and within the next two days the Sadr movement will explain its political vision," a Sadr aide, Sheikh Naim al-Qaabi, told reporters.
Sadr's Mehdi Army had mounted the largest anti-US rebellion since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003.
Top Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani earlier ordered the Sadr to end three weeks of deadly fighting with US and Iraqi forces around the shrine towns of Najaf and Kufa.
The government, saying it would welcome any peace move, stressed it had not initiated the process and described Sadr's ceasefire order as a "face-saving formula after the evacuation from Najaf".
Shortly after the declaration, crude exports from southern Iraq bounced back to 1.8 million barrels per day despite several attacks on pipelines, said an official from the state-run South Oil Company.
On the world market, crude oil futures fell to their lowest levels since late July following Sadr's ceasefire order.
However near-daily attacks on pipelines and pumping stations have pushed down Iraq's oil exports to their lowest point in nearly a year, the Financial Times newspaper reported Tuesday.
The decline occurrs as world oil prices approached 50 dollars a barrel earlier in August. They have since eased back to around 42 dollars.
The US military announced that US soldier was killed and two others wounded when a homemade bomb exploded in northern Iraq on Sunday. The death brings to at least 729 the number of American soldiers who have been killed in action in Iraq since 2003.
In Washington, US officials said they may shift billions of dollars in aid to Iraq from medium- and long-range reconstruction programs to short-term security projects aimed at boosting security amid continued unrest that planners had not expected.
The shift, recommended by US ambassador to Iraq John Negroponte, would see 3.37 billion of the 18.4 billion dollars in US aid Congress approved for Iraq last November transferred from infrastructure and other projects to training and equipping more than 75,000 Iraqi national guard, police and border patrol officers.
It would also pump some 225 million dollars into Iraq's much sabotaged oil sector in an effort to enhance revenue to make up for the diverted US assistance by raising output from about 2.2 million barrels per day to three million, they said.
The recommendation was submitted to Washington last week in a diplomatic cable which argued for the switch because of the unexpected poor state of security in Iraq.
In Fort Bragg, North Carolina, two US soldiers testified at a hearing against Private Lynndie England, charged with abusing inmates at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison.
The hearing is being held to determine if England will face a court martial. If convicted, she faces up to 38 years in jail.
Private Jeremy Sivits and reserve Sergeant Kenneth Davis told a special military court here they had seen England, 21, abusing Iraqi detainees and taking photographs of prisoners who were being mistreated.
A photograph showing England holding a leash attached to the neck of a naked Iraqi inmate caused a public relations disaster for the Pentagon after it was broadcast around the world earlier this year. Scores of other photos depicting abuse at Abu Ghraib quickly followed.
The government has charged England and six other soldiers from the 372nd MP Company for being implicated in the abuse of prisoners, arguing that they are rogue soldiers.
England's lawyers, who insist she was following orders, argue the jail was run by military intelligence officers who encouraged the MPs to abuse inmates in order to soften them up for interrogations.
Sivits is the first witness at England's hearing to say he specifically saw the now heavily pregnant private meting out abuse inside the prison in late 2003.
"They were stomping on the fingers and toes of detainees," Sivits said, referring to England and a fellow soldier from the 372nd Military Police Company.
"PFC (Private First Class) England was making comments about the size of their penises," Sivits said at the hearing.
England, who sat in court impassively Monday, appears in another photograph mugging for the camera beside a line of inmates who are masturbating.