Oil prices have risen above $140 a barrel on the New York stock exchange for the first time amid new warnings of future price rises and a Libyan threat to cut production.

US crude oil rose $5.50 to $140.05 a barrel in New York on Thursday afternoon, passing the record of $139.89 a barrel reached on June 16.

Earlier, Chakib Khelil, president of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec), had said oil prices could rise as high as $170 a barrel this year before declining later in the year.

Oil prices also rose on the London markets on Thursday, with crude oil rising $5.33 to $139.66 a barrel.

US stocks were down more than 350 points on Thursday following the news, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average closing at 11,457.41, its lowest level in two years

Libya warning

Shokri Ghanem, Libya's most senior oil official, said the country was studying options to cut its output in response to a possible US legal action against Opec.

Ghanem said he was considering cutting production in response to a bill before the US Congress that would empower the justice department to sue Opec members for limiting oil supplies.

"We are studying all the options," Ghanem told Reuters.

"There are threats from the Congress and they are taking Opec to court, extending the jurisdiction of the US outside the US," he said.

George Bush, the US president, has said he would veto the legislation if it were passed by Congress.

The House of Representatives passed the bill in May, but the Senate has yet to schedule a vote on the measure.

Oil prices have risen rapidly over the past six-years, driven by increasing demand from fast-growing economies like China and India.

Rising fuel costs have strained economies and spurred protests around the world, prompting Saudi Arabia, the world's leading oil producer, to pledge to increase output at a meeting between producer and consumer nations over the weekend.

Oil prices had fallen on Wednesday after US government data showed a rise in its crude oil stocks.

Lawyers defending Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the September 11 attacks, and four other Guantanamo detainees have asked for the presiding military judge to dismiss their cases, saying the timing is politically motivated. The men are to stand trial over the attacks on September 15, according to the court filing quoted by AP.
However the men's lawyers say the date for the trials, coming only a few weeks before the US presidential election, is politically motivated. The news comes as three other detainees were charged on Thursday with conspiracy and providing material support for terrorism. 'Strategic value' Mohammed and the four other detainees are to be arraigned in a US military court on June 5 on charges including murder and conspiracy.

Strategic value

Mohammed and the four other detainees are to be arraigned in a US military court on June 5 on charges including murder and conspiracy. "It is safe to say that there are senior officials in the military commission process who believe that there would be strategic political value to having these five men sitting in a death chamber on November 4, 2008" Navy Lieutenant-Commander Brian MizerHowever, Navy Lieutenant-Commander Brian Mizer, one of the men's lawyers, said in Thursday's court filing that their trial date could prejudice the outcome of the case. "It is safe to say that there are senior officials in the military commission process who believe that there would be strategic political value to having these five men sitting in a death chamber on November 4, 2008," Mizer is quoted by AP as saying. The other men facing charges include Ramzi bin al-Shibh, who was captured in Pakistan in 2002, Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali, known as Ammar al-Baluchi and a nephew of Mohammed, al-Baluchi's assistant Mustafa Ahmad al-Hawsawi, from Saudi Arabia, and Waleed bin Attash, reportedly from Yemen. A sixth man, Mohammed al-Qahtani, whom the Pentagon had alleged was the "20th hijacker" in the September 11 attacks, had charges against him dropped. Controversy over the upcoming trial of Mohammed arose after the US authorities admitted earlier this year that he had been "waterboarded" - an interrogation method designed to simulate the sensation of drowning - by CIA investigators before he reportedly confessed.

Further charges
Also on Thursday, three more Guantanamo Bay detainees were charged with identical counts of conspiracy and providing material support for terrorism. The men are Ghassan Abdullah al-Sharbi, from Saudi Arabia, who is alleged to have visited al-Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan and met Osama bin Laden, Jabran Said bin al-Qahtani, also from Saudi Arabia, and Algerian detainee Sufyian Barhoumi. Al-Qahtani is also accused of attending an al-Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan and learning how to make explosives, while Barhoumi is accused of being an explosives trainer for the group. The proposed charges will be reviewed by Susan Crawford, the US defence department official in charge of the military commissions, who must approve them before the men can face trial.

Thousands of protesters from one of India's lowest castes have burned tyres and blocked roads leading to New Delhi, as they step up demands for greater welfare benefits and access to jobs. Protests by India's Gujjars started in the north and west of the country two weeks ago, killing almost 40 people. The demonstrators have now headed to the capital creating huge traffic jams on major roads. Avatar Singh Bhadana, a senior Gujjar leader, said on Thursday: "The Rajasthan government must realize the mood of the people and not delay the implementation of quotas for Gujjars. The Gujjars, who threw stones at police and in places broke windshields of cars and buses, want to be reclassified further down India's complex Hindu caste and status system to qualify for government jobs and university places reserved for such groups. During Thursday's protests, Subodh Singh, from the Delhi Gujjar Federation, said: "We are here for the people of Rajasthan who have died. Who do not have food to eat. We won't settle for anything less than this scheduled tribe status, that is our least demand."

Constitutional fight

Police cleared most blockades after hours of scuffles. Some train services to towns outside Delhi, including several tourist destinations, remained suspended.

Sachin Pilot, a representative from the Gujjar community and member of the Indian National Congress party told Al Jazeera that the Gujjars, present in nine of the 25 states of India, are fighting for something they believe is constitutionally theirs.

"There has been violence and state-sponsored terrorism which has claimed 66 lives in the past 12 months, and that has activated this movement.

"India is growing at nine per cent a year - economically it is becoming a superpower," he said. "I think it's important that the backward communities have an equitable stakeholding in that process.

"It's not just a question of status, it's about having equal distribution in terms of opportunities for jobs and education."

"It is important that a country grows at an equitable pace, and every community, no matter how backward or forward it is, educationally or financially, has a say in India's growth story."

Policeman attacked

Demonstrations turned violent last week after protesters lynched a policeman and police fired on protesters, killing 36 of them in just a few days.

On Thursday morning, the protesters turned vehicles away from the towns of Noida and Gurgaon, home to scores of outsourcing and computer software firms.

Some telecom firms such as BlackBerry closed their service centres in these suburbs.

"The truth is that our politics is driving us into an explosive cul de sac," wrote Pratap Bhanu Mehta, head of the Centre for Policy Research, in The Indian Express.

"The recent, terrible violence is a reminder of what happens to societies when they can neither endure their current social condition, nor the means to overcome it."

'Exclusory system'

Javeed Alam, chairman of the Indian Council of Social Science Research, and expert on the Indian caste system, told Al Jazeera that the problem was a consequence of the Indian caste system being based on exclusion.

"These people [Gujjars] still have not been able to make headway in the same way that the Indian economy has made way for others. So they are fighting now to gain some kind of position in society.

"The Gujjars have a long history of violent protest. These were the people who were at the forefront of the revolt against the British rule in 1857. After that, the British classified them as criminal tribes.

"They have lived a life of complete exclusion and repression," he said.

Systemic issue

The Indian government reserves about half of all seats in state colleges and universities for lower castes and tribal groups to even out centuries-old social hierarchies, in what was called the world's biggest affirmative action scheme.

However, the Gujjars fall into a different grouping and seek to be reclassified under the lower "scheduled tribes and castes" grouping.

The scheme has been criticised for accentuating caste identities in India, where discrimination on caste is banned in the constitution.

Some critics say the quota system hides India's failure to provide good universal education and social equality.

Corpses used

In Rajasthan's towns of Bayana and Sikandra, where Gujjars are a majority, protesters blocked roads with bodies of some of those killed in the police firing a week ago, saying the bodies would not be cremated until the government relented.

The army and federal police forces surrounded both towns.

A year ago, Gujjars in Rajasthan fought police and members of another caste that already qualifies for job quotas. At least 26 people were killed in that violence.

After these protests, a state government committee said it would spend 2.8 billion rupees ($67 million) improving schools, clinics, roads and other infrastructure in Gujjar areas.

The Gujjars, however, rejected this option.

Saudi Arabia has donated a half-billion dollars to the UN’s World Food Program to help alleviate the current global food crisis, AP reports. By giving the money to the UN, the Saudis avoid criticism for trying to buy favor on the bodies of starving people, or any other negative cast some would like to give. The money, an unprecedented donation, will be used both for operational expenses and to procure foodstuffs.

Saudi Arabia makes unprecedented US$ 500M contribution to UN for food crisis
EDITH M. LEDERER

UNITED NATIONS - Saudi Arabia has made an unprecedented contribution of US$500 million to the U.N. World Food Program to respond to rising food and fuel prices that threatened emergency aid to millions of needy people, the United Nations announced Friday.

The contribution was by far the largest response to the U.N. food agency’s emergency appeal for US$755 million to cover its increased costs.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon “warmly welcomes the offer of the landmark contribution” from Saudi Arabia, U.N. deputy spokeswoman Marie Okabe said. “The secretary-general notes that this contribution of an unprecedented size and generosity comes not a moment too soon, given the needs of millions of people dependent on food rations.”
Source : xrdarabia.org

Fresh clashes have broken out in the Sudanese region of Abyei, an oil-rich border area between north and south Sudan. Fierce clashes between the Sudanese army and armed men of the Sudan People's Liberation movement (SPLM) erupted on Tuesday despite earlier talks to find an end to the violence. The status of the area remains contested between north and south Sudan three years after the end of the country's civil war. Usama Sayyid Ahmed, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Abyei, said a large number of civilians, including women carrying children, were fleeing the fighting. He also said injured Sudanese soldiers were unable to receive medical treatment because of the fighting. Clashes in the area were sporadic, with the AFP news agency reporting one aid worker as saying: "Fighting started this morning at 4am [01:00 GMT]. The SPLA attacked. There's a lull at the moment, but I don't think anybody thinks it's over." The Sudanese army has issued a statement holding the SPLM responsible for the deteriorating situation in Abyei. But Edward Nino, political supervisor of the SPLM, denied the group had given up its commitment to the peace deal. "It has been reported that the SPLM was not committed to the comprehensive peace agreement," Nino told Al Jazeera. "However, I say that if it was not for the SPLM stance, we would have returned to war a long time ago." Talks fail The two sides had met for talks several times in the last few days to try and reach an agreement to end the fighting, but each agreement has been broken by further clashes. Mohamed Vall, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Sudan, said the situation in Abyei was deteriorating. "After a day of calm yesterday fighting broke out again today - this is the fiercest flare up of violence since the fighting started a week ago ... The situation is still very volatile," he reported. He said thousands of people had fled the clashes. "The overall situation is that they [those who fled] are in a very precarious situation - they don't have food and they don't have water."
UN evacuation
Tuesday's violence erupted one day after UN agencies and aid workers began distributing food to some of the 30,000 to 50,000 people displaced by fighting last week that levelled the marketplace in Abyei. The UN warned on Monday that continued insecurity posed challenges to humanitarian relief efforts in the area. The organisation last week evacuated its entire civilian staff from the town following days of fighting between government forces and the SPLA. While the north currently holds special administrative rights over Abyei, a referendum in 2011 will decide whether it retains its special administrative status in north Sudan or is incorporated into the south. The clashes began on Wednesday and have exacerbated tensions between north and south Sudan, which fought a 21-year civil war that ended with a peace agreement in 2005. But the impasse over the Abyei area, whose oil wealth is contested by both north and south Sudan, is one of the stumbling blocks delaying implementation of the peace deal.
Source : aljazeera.net

Clinton's campaign says the New York senator is determined to fight on [AFP]

Barack Obama, the US Democratic presidential hopeful, is aiming to increase his lead in the party's presidential contest after polls opened in the states of Kentucky and Oregon. Obama is widely favoured to win the western state of Oregon while his rival for the candidacy, Hillary Clinton, is expected to clinch the southern state of Kentucky.
While Obama will still not have enough of the 2,026 delegates overall needed to win the nomination, after Tuesday's polls he is likely to secure enough pledged delegates and it is almost impossible for Clinton to overcome his lead, analysts say.
Obama also leads in the so-called "superdelegate" race - senior Democratic party members who vote on the nomination at the party's August convention.
Voting ends in Kentucky at 7pm local time (2300 GMT) and Oregon's mail balloting will end at 8pm local time (0300 GMT).
Results are expected shortly afterwards. Kentucky and Oregon hold a combined total of 103 delegates, according to the Associated Press news agency. Obama currently holds 1,602 delegates and 299 superdelegates, while Clinton has 1,444 delegates and 280 superdelegates, NBC reports.
Al Jazeera's Mike Kirsch in Kentucky says that even if Obama clinches enough pledged delegates, he will not make any "victory" speech out of respect for Clinton and because there are still three more primaries to be held in the semi-autonomous territory of Puerto Rico, South Dakota and Montana.

McCain has criticised Obama for "reckless
judgment" on foreign policy [GALLO/GETTY]

McCain targeted

Many in Obama's campaign are already looking ahead to the presidential election in November, where the Democratic victor will face John McCain, the presumptive Republican candidate. "A clear majority of elected delegates will send an unmistakable message - the people have spoken and they are ready for change," David Plouffe, Obama's campaign manager said in a message to supporters.
Obama has targeted McCain during campaigning in recent weeks, condemning the Arizona senator for the influence of lobbyists in his campaign and defending McCain's criticism of his willingness to talk to leaders of hostile governments such as Iran without preconditions. McCain on Monday condemned what he called Obama's "inexperience and
reckless judgment" after Obama said Iran did not pose the same global threat as the former Soviet Union had. Obama, campaigning in the state of Montana on Monday, countered swiftly that if McCain was elected "we'll keep talking tough in Washington, while countries like Iran ignore our tough talk".

'Stronger' candidate

However, at a rally in Kentucky on Monday, Clinton told supporters that there was "no way" the race was going to end "any time soon". The New York senator said that the party's superdelegates should reconsider her chances as she is the stronger candidate against McCain and has clinched primary victories in all the major US states, such as California, Pennsylvania and Ohio. "There has been a lot of analysis about which of us is stronger to win against Senator McCain, and I believe I am the stronger candidate," she said. Obama now holds his largest lead yet over Clinton, according to a Gallup poll released on Monday, with 55 per cent to her 39 per cent and a three per cent margin of error.
Clinton had held a 20 percentage point lead in the poll in mid-January.
Source : aljazeera.net

US Democrats have accused the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, John McCain, of hypocrisy after interview footage emerged of him expressing a willingness to negotiate with the Palestinian group Hamas. In an interview with Sky News in 2006, McCain said of Hamas that as "sooner or later we are going to have to deal with them".

However, on Thursday, McCain had suggested that Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama was naive and inexperienced for expressing a willingness to meet leaders of countries viewed as against the US such as Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the president of Iran.

"Obama needs to explain why he wants to sit down and talk with a man who is a head of a government who is a state sponsor of terrorism that kills young Americans," he said on Thursday.

McCain's own comments followed a speech by George Bush, the US president, in Israel on Thursday in which he compared negotiating with "terrorists" to "appeasement" - the UK's strategy of seeking to negotiate with the Nazis in the 1930s in an attempt to avert conflict. Bush's remark was seen by Obama's campaign as directed at the Illinois senator, and Obama himself said on Friday the comments by both Bush and McCain were "dishonest and divisive''.
'Smear' allegation In the 2006 interview McCain said he understood "why this [Bush] administration and previous administrations had such antipathy towards Hamas ... because of their dedication to violence and the things they not only espouse but practice". "I think the lesson is people want security and a decent life and decent future, that they want democracy. Fatah was not giving them that," he said. In an article for the Washington Post newspaper James Rubin, a former state department official in the Bill Clinton administration who conducted the 2006 interview, pointed out McCain's comments and accused the Arizona senator of hypocrisy and of "smearing" Obama. "Given his stated position then, it is either the height of hypocrisy or a case of political amnesia for McCain to inject Hamas into the American election," he wrote. However a spokesman for McCain on Friday said that the presidential hopeful believed any talks with Hamas would "require mandatory conditions'' and Hamas would have to renounce violence and "abandon its goal of eradicating Israel". Obama previously said in a debate last July that, if elected, he would hold unconditional talks with the leaders of Iran, Syria, North Korea, Venezuela and Cuba. However in April he denounced Hamas as a "terrorist organisation" and said the US should only negotiate with Hamas "if they renounce terrorism, recognize Israel's right to exist, and abide by past agreements".
Source : Aljazeera.net

Ilan Pappe says Israel needs to acknowledge the crime it committed against the Palestinian people

As part of Al Jazeera's coverage of the anniversary of the creation of Israel and the Palestinian 'Nakba', Israeli historian Ilan Pappe reflects upon the events of 1948 and how they led to 60 years of division between the Israelis and Palestinians.

Between February, 1948 and December,1948 the Israeli army systematically occupied the Palestinian villages and towns, expelled by force the population and in most cases also destroyed the houses, looted their belongings and took over their material and cultural possessions. This was the ethnic cleansing of Palestine.

During the ethnic cleansing, wherever there was resistance by the population the result was a massacre. We have more than 30 cases of such massacres where a few thousand Palestinians were massacred by the Israeli forces throughout the operation of the ethnic cleansing.

The Israeli army became a bit tired toward the end of the operation and the Palestinian villages became more aware of what was awaiting them and therefore in the Upper Galilee the Israeli army did not succeed in expelling all of the villages. This is why today we have what we call the Arab-Israelis or Israeli-Arabs.

This is a group of 50 to 60 villages that remained within the state of Israel and its population was steadfast and was not expelled over to the other side of the border - to Lebanon or Syria.

The international community was aware of the ethnic cleansing but the international community, especially in the West, decided not to confront head on the Jewish community in Palestine after the Holocaust.

And, therefore, there was a kind of conspiracy of silence and again the international community did not react and was complacent and this was very important for the Israelis because it showed them that they can adopt as a state ideology ethnic cleansing and ethnic purity.

Erasing history

Part of any ethnic cleansing operation is not just wiping out the population and expelling it from the earth. A very typical part of ethnic cleansing is wiping people out of history.

For ethnic cleansing to be an effective and successful operation you also have to wipe people out of memory and the Israelis are very good at it. They did it in two ways.

They built Jewish settlements over the Palestinian villages they expelled and quite often gave them names that reflected the Palestinian name as a kind of testimony to the Palestinians that this is totally now in the hands of Israel and there is no chance in the world of bringing the clock backwards.

The other way they did it is planting trees - usually European pine trees - over the ruins of the village and turning the village into recreational spaces where you do exactly the opposite of commemoration - you live the day, you enjoy life, it is all about leisure and pleasure.

That is a very powerful tool for 'memorycide'. In fact, much of the Palestinian effort should have been but was never unfortunately - or only recently began - was to fight against that 'memorycide' by at least bringing back the memory of what happened.

I think that there should be no reason in the world that two people - the Palestinians and the Jews - despite everything that happened in the past should not be able live together effective and in one state.

You need three things for that to happen. You need closure for the 1948 story - namely you need an Israeli acknowledgment of the crime it committed against the Palestinian people.

The second thing that you need is you need to make Israel accountable for this and the only way of making Israel accountable is by, at least in principle, accepting the Palestinian refugees right of return.

And thirdly you need a change in the Palestinian and Arab position towards the idea of a Jewish presence in Palestine as something legitimate and natural and not as an alien colonialist force.

I think these principles have to emerge and so far the political elites on both sides are unwilling to accept them.

source : AlJazeera

(CNN) -- Sen. Barack Obama has surpassed Sen. Hillary Clinton in the race for superdelegates, according to CNN's latest count.

Obama on Monday picked up an endorsement from Tom Allen, a Maine representative and U.S. Senate candidate.

"Most of the primary voters across the nation have now spoken. It is time to bring a graceful end to the primary campaign.

"We now need to unify the Democratic Party and focus on electing Sen. Obama and a working majority in the United States Senate. That is how we can change the direction of the country," Allen said.

Allen said Obama and Clinton are both "supremely qualified to be president."

Obama released a statement praising Allen's record, saying, "I'm thrilled to be working alongside him in this critical election, and I look forward to working with him as president."

With Allen's endorsement, Obama now leads in the race for superdelegates, 274 to Clinton's 273.

At the beginning of the year, Clinton led the superdelegate race by more than 100.

Superdelegates are party leaders and officials who will vote for the candidate of their choice at the Democratic convention in August.

The focus of the Democratic race has largely turned to the superdelegates because they outnumber the remaining pledged delegates that are up for grabs.

Obama has a comfortable lead in overall delegates, 1,865 to Clinton's 1,697.

The Democrats next face off Tuesday in West Virginia, where Clinton is expected to win by big margins.

Her campaign is renewing the argument that if she leads in the popular vote, she should be the Democratic nominee.

"Hillary is within striking distance of winning the popular vote nationwide -- a key part of our plan to win the nomination," campaign chairman Terry McAuliffe said in a letter to supporters Sunday.

"That means we need every last vote we can get in West Virginia on Tuesday and in the races to follow."

Her campaign is trying to turn out the vote in the remaining six contests, hoping the popular vote argument will persuade superdelegates to endorse her instead of Obama.

Clinton's campaign has argued that she would be more electable in a general election because she has done well in swing states like Ohio and Pennsylvania, as well as Florida and Michigan, which were stripped of their delegates.

West Virginia is also a key swing state. Bill Clinton won in 1992 and 1996, and George Bush carried it in 2000 and 2004.

West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin, an uncommitted superdelegate, said the delegate numbers are in Obama's favor, but the popular vote is important to the people of his state.

"I think we see what happened in 2004, when Al Gore won the popular vote, and where the country has gone and the feelings toward government since then. I put a lot of stock in that," he said on CNN's "American Morning."

"If the people believe that it was over, they wouldn't be voting maybe in the way they might vote tomorrow or in the next few campaigns," he said.

Clinton is expected to trounce Obama in West Virginia, but Manchin said he thinks Obama would also be able to carry the state in the general election.

The senator from New York has a 43-percentage-point advantage over Obama, 66 percent to 23 percent, according to a survey from the American Research Group released Friday.

The poll was conducted after last Tuesday's contests and carries a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.

Following Obama's double digit win in North Carolina and Clinton's narrow victory in Indiana, party leaders have suggested Clinton has reached the end of her campaign.

But Clinton has vowed to stay in the race until someone gets enough delegates to clinch the nomination.

Just 28 delegates are up for grab in West Virginia.

Source : CNN .

BEIRUT, Lebanon (CNN) -- Hezbollah militias pulled back from positions in western Beirut and government troops took over checkpoints there as peace returned to the Lebanese capital after days of deadly violence between rival Sunni and Shia Muslim gunmen.

Fighting was reported overnight in mountains overlooking Beirut, and pro- and anti-government forces clashed in Lebanon's northern port city of Tripoli. A cease-fire has been reached, but it is unclear if the truce will take effect.

At least 47 people have been killed and more than 188 wounded since the fighting broke out on Thursday, Lebanon's Internal Security Forces said Monday.

The initial clashes were concentrated in Beirut, and spread to other areas of Lebanon. It was the worst sectarian violence since the end of the country's civil war in 1991.

Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa said the group rejected the gunmen's actions and he offered "logistic support" to the Lebanese army.

He said a delegation from the Arab League -- made up of Arab foreign ministers -- would visit Lebanon in hopes of negotiating an agreement between Lebanon's government and Hezbollah's Shiite movement.

The U.S. government -- which supports Prime Minister Fouad Siniora and condemns Hezbollah as a terror group -- has praised Lebanese forces and the prime minister for trying to restore order in the streets. The Bush administration considers Hezbollah a destabilizing force in the Middle East with its strong ties to Iran and Syria.

The Hezbollah-led opposition has delivered a series of crushing blows to its Western-backed political opponents by imposing itself in the mountains, asserting dominance over predominantly Muslim West Beirut, silencing key pro-government television stations and closing Beirut's international airport.

The embattled government still stands, but the coalition that backs him has been severely weakened. The Lebanese army, it seems, can do little but deploy in positions where the opposition has made substantial gains in power and authority.

On Sunday people in Beirut could hear explosions from fighting in nearby mountain villages in the Mount Lebanon area, the stronghold of pro-government Druze leader Walid Jumblatt.

Anti-government forces bombarded Jumblatt's area with artillery while ground forces attacked Druze positions using rockets and machine guns, according to Western military observers. The fighting set off renewed panic among city and mountain dwellers as columns of smoke rose from Druze communities.

"What is happening now in Mount Lebanon is a threat for civil peace," Jumblatt told Lebanon Broadcasting Corp.

The battles prompted Jumblatt, a key government supporter, to back down in the face of what his supporters called an onslaught from the anti-government forces.

"It's useless to fight," he said.

Jumblatt authorized his Druze rival, Talal Arslan -- who is allied with the Hezbollah-led opposition -- to effectively negotiate a truce in the region.

"My peers in the opposition have agreed that the centers and arms should be handed over to the Lebanese army, in coordination with Jumblatt," Arslan said.

"I ask the opposition members, of all sides, to come to an immediate cease-fire. I will contact Gen. Michel Sleiman after this press conference to lay a plan to have the army take full control of the entire region of Mount Lebanon."

Arab foreign ministers met in Egypt on Sunday to try to find a solution to the latest deadly crisis and Pope Benedict XVI urged the Lebanese people to find a "reasonable compromise" to end their conflict, The Associated Press reported.

Benedict told pilgrims in St. Peter's Square that he was following "with deep concern" the developments in Lebanon, where, "with political initiative at a stalemate, first came verbal violence and then armed clashes, with many dead and wounded."
Source : CNN.

YANGON, Myanmar (CNN) -- A U.S. Air Force plane brought cyclone relief supplies to Myanmar on Monday and two more are on the way, U.S. military officials said.

The first airlift, a C-130 Hercules loaded with 28,000 pounds of supplies, including water, mosquito netting and blankets, landed in Myanmar about 2 p.m.

The next two planes are scheduled to leave Tuesday with more humanitarian aid supplies.

The shipment landed Monday as U.S. officials met with Myanmar government representatives to discuss plans for further aid.

A source described the talks as "cordial" and "preliminary."

Officials hope the missions will forge a relationship that will allow the United States to send in disaster experts.

"As of right now, visas for them have not been approved," White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said. "So we'll keep on working on this. We hope this is the beginning of a long line of assistance from the United States to the people of Burma."

Four ships that are in the region for an annual military exercise can also help in the relief mission if the Myanmar government gives the go-ahead.

The Myanmar regime is wary of Western nations, including the United States -- which does not recognize the military junta.

The United States has been a vocal critic of the junta, which maintained control of the country even after 1990, when an opposition political party won victory in democratic elections.

But the government conceded to the flights after long negotiations following the deadly cyclone a week ago. The United Nations estimates the death toll from Cyclone Nargis ranges from 63,000 to 100,000, well above the Myanmar government's estimate of about 28,000. Tens of thousands of people are missing.

"Clearly the junta has determined that the magnitude of this disaster requires additional assistance," Johndroe said.

The U.S. relief plane took off from an air base in Utapao, Thailand.

"One flight is much better than no flights," Johndroe said. "And we're going to keep on working to provide as much assistance as possible in the coming days, weeks and months, because they're going to need our help for a long time."

The military junta has said it will accept international aid but insisted it would distribute the supplies itself.

Debbie Stothard, head of the Southeast Asian human rights group ALTSEAN-Burma, said her organization has received reports of aid packages being distributed with the names of military leaders on the labels.

The country's name was changed from Burma to Myanmar in 1989, but many who do not recognize the current government still use its former name.

"There's people who are very concerned now that the reason the aid workers are being blocked is so that the military can deliver aid selectively and so that they can appropriate the aid and pretend it was from them in the first place," Stothard said.

A French naval ship is also on its way toward Myanmar, transporting 1,500 tons of medical equipment, food and water.

Bernard Kouchner, the French foreign minister, said French aid will go directly to the victims.

"We won't give aid to Burma's junta, even if they would accept it. We will use our own channels in the country."

On Sunday, Australia pledged $25 million in aid to Myanmar.

Meanwhile, a double-decker boat packed with enough relief supplies for 1,000 people hit a submerged tree in the cyclone-stricken region and sank Sunday morning, leaving nearly all of its cargo at the bottom of the muddy river, a Red Cross official said.

More than a week after the cyclone hit the south Asian country, getting relief there has been a daunting task for international aid agencies.

The Britain-based international aid agency Oxfam warns that without the proper relief -- particularly clean water -- nearly 1.5 million people could be affected by a wider humanitarian crisis.

In Bogalay township, people pumped water out of ponds filled with dead bodies, according to a situation report from the United Nations' Children's Fund.

A refugee camp in Pyanpon township was operating with five latrines for 3,500 people, UNICEF said.

The shore along the Irrawaddy River Delta remains lined for miles with bloated corpses. In the village of Da Mya Kyaung, only four of the 200 homes were partially intact.

"When I saw the water coming, I just put my two nephews on my shoulders and ran," villager U Wen Say said.

His son and his son's family drowned. Of the 500 people who lived in the village, two-thirds were missing.

Source : CNN.

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Sen. Hillary Clinton's superdelegate lead over Sen. Barack Obama was narrowed even more Saturday, according to CNN's latest delegate estimate.

Sen. Barack Obama greets supporters Friday as he campaigns in Beaverton, Oregon.

Obama closed to within one superdelegate of Clinton, picking up the support of four party leaders after a flurry of new endorsements over the past two days. Clinton, meanwhile, picked up the votes of two superdelegates but lost one to Obama.

That brings Clinton's superdelegate total to 273 and Obama's to 272.

At the beginning of the year, Clinton led the superdelegate race by more than 100.

Superdelegates are Democratic officials who hold the balance of power in determining the party's presidential nominee.

Obama holds a commanding lead in the number of pledged delegates awarded from primaries and caucuses: 1,592 to Clinton's 1,424.

Since Friday night, Obama has picked up four superdelegates, including Arizona congressman Harry Mitchell and Carol Burke and Kevin Rodriquez of the Virgin Islands.

"Like the primary voters of my congressional district, which Sen. Obama carried, I am inspired by Barack's vision for America, his ability to unify our country and bring much-needed to change to Washington," Mitchell said in a statement Saturday.

Rodriquez had backed Clinton but decided to switch his endorsement, citing Obama's ability to unite the Democratic Party and win the White House, according to Obama's campaign.

Kristi Cumming, named an add-on superdelegate by the Utah Democratic Party late Friday night, also said she will vote for Obama.

U.S. Rep. Ciro Rodriguez of Texas announced his support for the New York senator Saturday, and Arthur Powell was named an add-on superdelegate by the Massachusetts Democratic Party and said he would vote for Clinton.

The Obama campaign had announced the support of seven superdelegates Friday, including one previous Clinton backer.

A flood of superdelegate endorsements for Obama could effectively end the Democratic race.

Neither candidate has the 2,025 total delegates needed for the nomination. Obama has 1,862 total delegates and Clinton has 1,697, according to a CNN survey.

There are only 217 pledged delegates up for grabs in the remaining contests.

After Clinton's narrow win Tuesday in Indiana and and her double-digit loss in North Carolina, former Sen. George McGovern, the 1972 Democratic presidential nominee, said he had decided to back Obama over the former first lady. McGovern is not a superdelegate.

But Clinton is not going down without a fight, making arguments to superdelegates that she is the best candidate to lead a Democratic ticket in November.

Her campaign tried to appeal to elected Democrats in Republican-leaning districts, arguing that Clinton can win more votes there than Obama and thus help their re-election prospects.

In a PowerPoint presentation e-mailed to the nearly 800 superdelegates, the campaign detailed how she had defeated Obama in GOP-leaning congressional districts and had consistently topped him among key voting blocs such as senior citizens and Hispanics. View the PowerPoint presentation

Despite those efforts, the Clinton camp appears to be planning an exit strategy, according to Lawrence O'Donnell, a Huffington Post contributor who cited Clinton insiders.

"What the senior campaign official has told me is that they will go through the final votes on June 3," O'Donnell said on CNN's "American Morning." "Remember, Hillary is going to win maybe three of the elections, and Obama is going to win maybe three elections coming out of it."

O'Donnell said the source told him that the Clinton campaign would make its case to the superdelegates for about a week after the primaries ended.

Meanwhile, former Democratic contender John Edwards said Friday on NBC and MSNBC that Obama is the likely nominee. Edwards is not a superdelegate.

Both the Clinton and Obama campaigns have heavily wooed the former senator from North Carolina since he ended his presidential run in January, but he has not publicly endorsed either candidate.

Edwards said Friday that he worried the continuing campaign could take a toll on the Democratic Party's chances in November.

"I think it's fine for Hillary to keep making the case for her," he said on MSNBC's "Morning Joe." "But when that shifts to everything that is wrong with [Obama], then we're doing damage instead of being helpful."
Source : CNN

A power plant in Gaza City has shut down, affecting 500,000 local inhabitants and forcing local hospitals to run on reserve fuel.

Large parts of the Gaza Strip, particularly Gaza City, were in darkness after the main power station shut down its generators on Saturday.

The Hamas government's energy department said that about 55 per cent of Gaza City and 35 per cent of the territory's other areas had power outages as a result of the shutdown.

With hospital generators running out of fuel, it is feared that medical equipment will stop functioning soon

Border opened

An estimated 60 per cent of Gaza's power supply comes from its own power station and the rest from Israel.

In the past, Israel has resumed fuel supplies just hours before Gaza's stocks ran out.

As the siege of Gaza continued, Al Jazeera's Ayman Mohyeldin, reporting from the Gaza side of the Rafah crossing, said that the main border point between the Gaza Strip and Egypt had been reopened to allow Palestinians in need of medical treatment to pass through.

"This is part of an agreement that has been reached between Egypt and Hamas," he said.

"To keep the atmosphere of a possible ceasefire agreement alive, the Egyptians have told the Hamas authority they will allow for the next four days this restricted movement of people to go through and to come back but ... the situation in Gaza remains dire and it is not open to the general public."

Source : Al Jazeera.

LONDON, England (AP) -- Tony Blair's former deputy says he intervened in dozens of angry disputes between the prime minister and his eventual successor Gordon Brown, even advising Blair to sack his colleague.

Former prime minister Tony Blair finally relinquished power to Gordon Brown in September 2007.

John Prescott, deputy prime minister from 1997 to last June -- when he stepped down alongside Blair -- said in an interview with Britain's Sunday Times that Brown could "go off like a volcano" during the arguments.

Brown was "frustrating, annoying, bewildering and prickly," and often sulked or brooded during meetings with Prescott and Blair, Prescott is quoted as saying.

Prescott, who will quit as a legislator at the next national election, said Blair broke several promises to step down and allow Brown to lead the Labour Party, and the country.

Blair finally quit in June after 10 years as prime minister and 13 as party leader.

"I have no doubt that Tony was most to blame," Prescott is quoted as saying. "He broke his agreement with Gordon, not once but several times."

The ex-deputy is known for his bullish style and for punching a heckler in the jaw after he was hit by an egg during the 2001 election campaign.

Blair and Brown were the architects of the revival of Britain's Labour Party, broadening its appeal to middle-class voters who had previously backed the Conservatives and winning back power for the first time since 1979. They won three straight national elections from 1997.

But Prescott told the newspaper that during bitter rows he advised Brown to resign from Blair's Cabinet -- and told Blair to sack his troublesome colleague.

"Neither could take the final step," Prescott said, according to the newspaper.

Prescott's comments come as Brown faces further woe in a special election in the Crewe and Nantwich district, in northern England, on May 22, following his drubbing in recent local elections.

Brown led Labour to its worst showing in 40 years in municipal polls on May 1, and saw the main opposition Conservatives take control of London's City Hall for the first time

An ICM poll for The Mail on Sunday put the Conservatives ahead in Crewe and Nantwich, a previous Labour stronghold that Brown would be expected to retain.

The poll put the Conservatives on 43 percent, Labour on 39 percent and the Liberal Democrats trailing on 16 percent.

ICM interviewed 1,004 people by telephone on May 7 and 8. No margin of error was given, but in samples of a similar size it is plus or minus 3 percent.

Former Trade Secretary Stephen Byers said Sunday that Brown's government appeared "out of touch" to many voters.

Byers, who served under Blair, wrote in an op-ed for the Sunday Times that some now believed the party was "distant and uncaring."
Source : CNN.

Barack Obama,the Democratic presidential hopeful, has pulled ahead of his rival in superdelegate endorsements for the first time, bringing him ever closer to the Democratic presidential nomination.

He had picked up nine new endorsements by Saturday, including two superdelegates from the Virgin Islands who had previously backed Hillary Clinton.

Two others superdelegates from Ohio and Utah also declared their support for Obama.

Kevin Rodriquez, a Virgin Islands superdelegate, said he switched from Clinton to Obama because he believed Obama had brought energy and excitement to the party

"He has shown he can connect with Democrats, Republicans and independents across this country, whether we live on the mainland or an island," Rodriquez said.

Obama also won praise from John Edwards, his former Democratic rival, who told NBC's Today show: "Let's assume Barack is the nominee, because it's certainly headed in that direction."

Superdelegates

At the beginning of the year, Clinton held an imposing lead in terms of superdelegates, but there have been a number of defections.

"I always felt that if anybody establishes himself as the clear leader, the superdelegates would fall in line,'' said Don Fowler, a former chairman of the Democratic national committee and a superdelegate who supports Clinton.

"It is perceived that he [Obama] is the leader, the trickle is going to become an avalanche."

The superdelegates - a group of nearly 800 party leaders and elected officials who are not bound by the state-by-state contests and are free to back any candidate at the Democratic nominating convention in August - will be key to winning the Democratic nomination because the Democratic race has been so close.

Changing tack

Since Tuesday's primaries, where Obama won North Carolina and only narrowly lost Indiana to Clinton, the two Democratic candidates have begun scaling back their attacks on each other.

Speaking at a Kentucky Democratic party dinner in Louisville, Clinton, who if she won would be the country's first female president, only mentioned Obama to draw comparisons between women and blacks.

"Neither Senator Obama nor I nor many of you were fully included in the vision of our founders," she said.

"Once we have a nominee, I know in my heart we will come together as a party."

On Friday, Obama appeared to be turning his focus to a presidential election showdown, warning John McCain, the Republican White House candidate, would continue the "failed policies" of George Bush, the president.

He took direct aim at McCain, saying he differed with the Arizona senator on some fundamental issues such as the Iraq war, taxes, petrol prices and health care.

"John McCain wants to continue George Bush's war in Iraq, losing thousands of lives and spending tens of billions of dollars a month to fight a war that isn't making us safe," Obama said in Beaverton, Oregon.

"Senator McCain is running for president to double down on George Bush's failed policies. I am running to change them and that is what will be the fundamental difference in this election when I am the Democratic nominee for president."

'Little experience'

But in a confrontation, McCain's team is expected to question Obama's experience, in particular on national security.

They will accuse him of seeking to raise taxes on all Americans, but will also home in on what Democrats consider one of Obama's main attributes, his promises to unite the country.

Obama got a taste of what to expect from Republicans on Thursday when Karl Rove, the architect of Bush's two election victories, wrote in The Wall Street Journal that the lengthy Democratic battle had helped bring in new voters, but had also exposed weaknesses in Clinton and Obama.

The Republicans also came under scrutiny on Thursday when the man picked by the McCain campaign to run the 2008 Republican National Convention resigned after a report that his lobbying firm had represented Myanmar's military rulers.

Doug Goodyear, chief executive of lobbying firm DCI Group, resigned as convention co-ordinator, saying he did so in order not to become a "distraction".

The US magazine Newsweek reported Goodyear's firm was paid $348,000 in 2002 to represent Myanmar's government.

According to Newsweek's online story, justice department lobbying records show DCI pushed to "begin a dialogue of political reconciliation" with Myanmar's ruling generals, who in recent weeks have refused to allow international aid workers into Myanmar to help with relief efforts after the country was struck by a devastating cyclone.

Newsweek said Goodyear's firm led a public relations campaign to improve the government's image, drafting news releases praising Myanmar's efforts to curb the drug trade and denouncing claims Myanmar's rulers sanctioned rape and other abuses.

"It was our only foreign representation, it was for a short tenure, and it was six years ago," Newsweek quoted Goodyear as saying.

source : Al Jazeera.