[19.15 GMT] Freeing of German hostage brings hope to Iraq peace workers, Ekkesia, 18/12/05 - includes background (Susanne Ofsthoff picture here); Bush to cite Iraq progress in major speech (Reuters); Nur al-Cubicle: A weblog on the current crises in the Middle East and news accounts of events in Iraq as collected from stories and dispatches in the French and Italian media: Le Monde (Paris), Il Corriere della Sera (Milan), La Repubblica (Rome), L'Orient-Le Jour (Beirut) and occasionally from El Mundo (Madrid).