fighting continued in several cities in Iraq. In Najaf, American and Iraqi forces besieged the Moslem cleric Moqtada Sadr and armed followers who were defending one of the holiest of Shia symbols, the Imam Ali shrine; a peace agreement was reached after Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the country's most revered Shia cleric who had been in London receiving medical treatment, intervened. In the Basra area, through which about 90 per cent of oil exports pass, dozens of attacks aimed at disrupting oil exports took place, and in Fallujah, a kidnapped Italian journalist was shot dead after Italy refused to withdraw its 3,000 soldiers from Iraq. More deaths of hostages followed, including twelve Nepalese and two Turks. President George Bush said that 70,000 troops on military bases outside the United States would return home, including about 45,000 from Europe, mainly in Germany. Pollsters showed Mr Bush running neck and neck with the Democrat candidate, Senator John Kerry, for the presidential elections in November. The offer of a large peacekeeping force was rejected at peace talks between Sudan and Arab Janjaweed rebels, as the UN urged Sudan to do more to curb Janjaweed militiamen, who have killed 50,000 refugees and displaced one million. President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela easily won a recall vote, which was passed as free and fair by election watchdogs headed by the former US President Jimmy Carter, but derided by the opposition. The prime minister of Hungary, Peter Medgyessy, resigned over a dispute with a coalition partner. The former US President, Bill Clinton, had a quadruple bypass heart operation. The son of Margaret Thatcher, Mark, was placed under house arrest and charged with having funded a coup attempt at overthrowing the government of Equatorial Guinea. Locusts swarmed across West Africa, devastating crops in northern Nigeria. In the UK, where abortions have reached record levels, the Department of Health said that 37,043 abortions took place last year among girls aged between 15 and 19. Shares in A ban on trade with Northern Cyprus was lifted, and Turkish Cypriots began trading with Greek Cypriots for the first time in three decades. The Athens Olympics were completed successfully, with many commentators saying it was the best ever held. Henri Cartier-Bresson, whose Parisienne street scenes made him one of the twentieth century's most influential photographers, died, aged 95. Francis Crick, whose pioneering work in gene research made him the most important biologist of the twentieth century, died, aged 88. Czeslaw Milosz, the Nobel prizewinning poet, died, aged 93. Robbers with handguns and a getaway car stole one of four versions of Edvard Munch's The Scream from a museum in Norway. A woman in Wornewood, Pennsylvania gave birth to two sets of identical twins. In a pub competition in Brisbane, Australia a man bit off the tail of a mouse, set off a mouse trap with his tongue, sucked up chilies through a straw, drank a pint of anchovies, then a pint of mouthwash and a cup of maggots, and was later fined $531 for cruelty to animals.