American hostage found dead, government spokesman says

Iraq's president called parliament into its first session.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- An American who was among four Christian activists kidnapped last year in Iraq has been killed, a State Department spokesman said Friday.
The FBI verified that a body found in Iraq on Friday morning was that of Tom Fox, 54, of Clear Brook, Va., spokesman Noel Clay said. He said he had no information on the other three hostages.
Clay said additional forensics will be done in the United States. The U.S. Embassy in Baghdad is investigating, he said.
Fox's family has been notified, Clay said, and "our heartfelt condolences go out to them."
"The State Department continues to call for the unconditional release of all other hostages" in Iraq, the spokesman said.
Fox was the one American among four Christian Peacemaker activists kidnapped last year in Iraq.
Other hostages
On Tuesday, Al-Jazeera television aired footage of the three other activists purportedly appealing to their governments to secure their release.
The hostages seen in the brief video dated Feb. 28 were Canadians James Loney, 41, and Harmeet Singh Sooden, 32; and Briton Norman Kember, 74.
Allan Slater, a Canadian member of Christian Peacemaker Teams, said at the time that he was disturbed not to see Fox.
"We certainly are hopeful when we see three of our friends alive, but also it's very distressing that we didn't see Tom Fox, and I wouldn't want to hide that because I'm sure it's very distressful for Tom's family and friends as well," Slater told The Canadian Press from Baghdad.
The previously unknown Swords of Righteousness Brigades claimed responsibility for kidnapping the four workers, who disappeared Nov. 26.
The four had not been heard from since a videotape aired by Al-Jazeera on Jan. 28, dated from a week before. A statement reportedly accompanying that tape said the hostages would be killed unless all Iraqi prisoners were released from U.S. and Iraqi prisons. No deadline was set.
Iraqi and Western security officials repeatedly warned the activists before their abduction that they were taking a grave risk by moving around Baghdad without bodyguards.
Christian Peacemaker Teams had been working in Iraq since October 2002, investigating allegations that U.S. and Iraqi forces abused Iraqi detainees. Its teams host human rights conferences in conflict zones, promoting peaceful solutions.
Meanwhile, police and the U.S. military reported at least 20 more killings Friday, including a U.S. Marine who died in a car bombing in Fallujah. Police said they found the bodies of eight more men killed execution-style, mainly shot in the back of the head.
Called into session
In Baghdad, Iraq's president issued a decree Friday calling the new parliament into session March 19 for the first time since it was elected nearly three months ago, saying he feared "catastrophe" and "civil war" if politicians could not put aside their differences.
U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad said he hoped leaders of all Iraqi factions would soon join him some place outside Baghdad to talk round the clock to resolve political feuds -- most visibly over the proposed second-term candidacy of Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, a Shiite.
The stakes are high for the Americans, who want a strong and functioning central government in place quickly to enable Washington to begin removing some of its 132,000 troops this summer.
In Washington, President Bush acknowledged Friday that the bombing of a Shiite Muslim shrine late last month and the subsequent sectarian violence, which killed hundreds, had nearly derailed the U.S. goal.
"There's no question there was violence and killing," Bush said in advance of a series of speeches he plans in a campaign to convince Americans that the United States is on the right path to defeat Iraqi terrorists and insurgents.
But, echoing the assessment of Gen. George W. Casey, the U.S. commander in Iraq, Bush said: "The society took a step back from the abyss, and people took a sober reflection about what a civil war would mean."
Invitation
Apparently taking up Khalilzad's call for an extraordinary gathering away from Baghdad's violence and hot house political atmosphere, Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani quickly issued an invitation Friday to convene in Irbil, capital of the Kurdish province he runs.
"The negotiations in Baghdad have reached a stage that could only be described as a crisis," Barzani said in a statement released moments before his fellow Kurd, President Jalal Talabani, issued the decree to convene parliament March 19.
"To get past this crisis, we need a new mechanism in a new place that brings everybody around the table," Barzani said.
U.S. Embassy spokesman Elizabeth Colton said Khalilzad "has begun discussing the ideas with Iraqi political leaders, but there is nothing definite yet and no plans yet for where or when, should it be decided." His call for a meeting of politicians outside the capital was first reported Friday by Time magazine.
Kamal al-Saidi, a Shiite legislator in al-Jaafari's Dawa Party, said there was no objection from the bloc to going to Irbil, but "we want to know the reason behind this invitation." He said al-Jaafari's capitulation now to demands that he step aside "means committing suicide" and more forced concessions later.
For his part, Talabani sounded far from sanguine after issuing the decree on parliament.
"There is a serious crisis, and if we don't agree on a government of national unity there will be dangerous consequences, a catastrophe. We could have civil war," he said in an interview with al-Arabiya television.
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