U.S. administrator Paul Bremer holds talks at the White House on Friday on objections by Iraq’s most powerful Muslim cleric to Washington’s plans for handing back sovereignty to Iraqis without first holding elections. In Tokyo, a team of Japanese soldiers set off for Kuwait on their way to Iraq, where they will be the advance scouting team for a larger force due to deploy in the next month — Japan’s riskiest and most controversial deployment since World War II. Bremer’s talks in Washington with President Bush, Secretary of State Colin Powell and other officials are expected to focus on possible changes to U.S. plans for the handover of power in Iraq. Full Story