Philippines refuses Iraqi hostage-takers' demand
 | Protester at rally in Manila on Sunday urges immediate withdrawal of troops from Iraq. |
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 A Filipino taken hostage in Iraq has not been released.
 President Bush defends his decision to invade Iraq.
 Marine quizzed over disappearance from U.S. base in Iraq.
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(CNN) -- The Philippines will not meet a demand by hostage-takers to withdraw their troops from Iraq about a month earlier than scheduled, Secretary of Foreign Affairs Delia Albert announced Sunday.
Militants who abducted Angelo de la Cruz in Iraq gave the Philippines until Sunday evening to agree to pull its troops out of Iraq by July 20, according to a statement released Saturday.
The captors, who have identified themselves as members of the Khaled Bin Al-Walid Squadrons, part of the Islamic Army of Iraq, originally threatened to kill de la Cruz if Filipino troops did not leave Iraq by Saturday.
They extended the deadline by 24 hours.
As part of the ongoing hostage negotiations, the government will fly de la Cruz's wife and brother to Iraq with the Philippines labor secretary.
There has been confusion as to the fate of de la Cruz. Before the captors announced the deadline extension Saturday, a top Philippines official announced the 46-year-old truck driver and father of eight was being released. Later, a Philippines diplomat in Iraq said that was not the case.
Ahead of the original deadline, the Philippines announced Saturday it would not extend the mandate for its 50-strong humanitarian force, who will leave Iraq as scheduled on August 20.
Albert said that decision was not directly related to the ongoing hostage negotiations.
The Bulgarian Foreign Ministry said Sunday that it had information indicating two of its citizens held hostage in Iraq were alive, although a reported deadline set by the kidnappers had expired.
The Ministry identified the hostages as Ivailo Kepov and Georgi Lazov and said they are truckers. (Full story)
Militants have abducted drivers because they have been transporting goods to U.S.-led forces.
U.S. soldier killed
A U.S. soldier was killed and another wounded Sunday morning when their convoy was hit by a roadside bomb in northern Iraq near the city of Mosul, according to a news release from the Coalition Press Information Center.
The bomb also killed an Iraqi citizen who was driving behind the Task Force Olympia convoy, CPIC said.
As the wounded soldier was being treated after the explosion, a vehicle sped up to the scene and opened fire on the convoy, CPIC said. The soldiers returned fire, killing the driver.
The attack happened about 87 miles (140 km) south of Mosul.
The death brings the total among U.S. forces to 887 -- 663 killed in combat, 224 killed in non-hostile situations -- and increases the number of multinational fatalities since the start of the war to 1,007.
Marine being debriefed
U.S. Marine Cpl. Wassef Hassoun, the 24-year-old translator who disappeared June 19 and resurfaced this week in Lebanon, was debriefed Saturday at a U.S. military base in Germany and may be back in the United States early next week. (Full story)
Hassoun had been listed as "captured" in Iraq after being seen on video blindfolded with a sword being held over his head.
A narrator on the tape said the captive would be killed if the United States did not free jailed Iraqis. There were conflicting reports on Hassoun's fate, including claims on Islamist Web sites that he had been beheaded.
It's unknown how Hassoun got to his family's home in Tripoli, some 500 miles (805 kilometers) away from where he was last seen at his unit's base in Iraq.
Other developments
Some 150 demonstrators in Baqubah, north of Baghdad, Sunday chanted for Saddam Hussein to return to power. The protesters -- some of them armed, others wearing masks -- also condemned the interim Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi. Elsewhere in Baghdad, video from The Associated Press Television Network showed Iraqi protesters hanging an effigy of Saddam, then setting it on fire. Four Marines died Saturday in Iraq's vast Al Anbar province while conducting "security and stability operations," according to a multinational forces news release. They were members of the Marine Expeditionary Force. No other details were released.Marines killed two insurgents in a gunfight in Ramadi, attackers gunned down a guard at a Kirkuk farmers' cooperative headquarters, and assailants thought to be Muslim fundamentalists killed a cab driver in attacks on Baqubah stores targeted because they sell liquor. A movie theater owned by a Turkmen businessman was burned down in Kirkuk.Saboteurs attacked a natural gas pipeline Saturday in northern Iraq, Kirkuk's deputy mayor said. Marwan Al-Anni said a bomb was planted at a pipeline that feeds into a northern power station between Kirkuk oil fields and Beiji refineries, more than 40 miles (64.4 kilometers) west of Kirkuk.A planned trip by Iraqi interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi to Europe next week has been canceled. A government official said that the trip was scrapped because of pressing security concerns, while another said it was delayed because Allawi wanted to visit Middle East countries first.CNN's Maria Ressa and Jane Arraf contributed to this report.
