Chirac warns of 'African flood' BBC News
French President Jacques Chirac has warned that Africans "will flood the world" unless more is done to develop the continent's economy. In a TV interview, Mr Chirac said nearly 50% of Africa's 950m population was under 17 and that by 2050 there would be two billion Africans. He said the necessary resources had to be made available to help Africa. "We have an immense problem [in Africa] ... which is that of development," he said in the Bastille Day interview.

'Back to basics'
"If we do not develop... Africa... if we do not make available the necessary resources to bring about this development, these people will flood the world," he said. Mr Chirac stressed the need to go back "go back to the basic issues with regard to immigration". "One cannot solve a problem entirely outside its context, and the context here is north-south [divide]," he said. Earlier this week, French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy said Europe had to be careful not to turn itself into a fortress just to keep out immigrants. Addressing a European-African migration conference in Morocco, Mr Sarkozy said the so-called zero immigration concept was a dangerous myth.

Search for solutions
Delegates at the conference were trying to develop a common approach between Europe and Africa. Proposals included tougher policing and action against human trafficking but also measures to deal with the poverty and conflict which drive would-be migrants to seek a better life elsewhere. Last month, Spain announced a three-year diplomatic drive in West Africa to try to halt the flow of African migrants to Europe. Nearly 8,000 Africans aiming to enter the EU have arrived in Spain's Canary Islands alone in 2006. About 1,000 more are believed to have died attempting dangerous voyages in the Atlantic to reach the Canary Islands.

Bush in Russia ahead of G8 summit BBC News
US President George W Bush has arrived in Russia ahead of a G8 summit in St Petersburg at the weekend. On his arrival Mr Bush met Russian NGO leaders. Later on Friday he is due to dine with President Vladimir Putin. On Thursday the US president said he would be "firm" in expressing his concerns over freedoms in Russia. Despite a thaw in the run-up to the summit, relations between the two nations have been frosty over recent months, our correspondent says. The US president and his wife Laura arrived in St Petersburg to an understated welcome, the Associated Press news agency reports. They immediately went to pay their respects at a monument honouring those who defended the city during WWII before meeting human rights, education and environmental activists.

'Colonialist rhetoric'
Before arriving, Mr Bush said he would raise concerns about freedom in Russia during private meetings with Mr Putin - but he added that he would not lecture his Russian counterpart.

• The world's seven richest nations - the US, Japan, Germany, France, Britain, Italy and Canada have met annually since 1975
• Russia joined in 1998, turning the G7 into the G8
• 2006 summit to be held in St Petersburg - the first time Russia has hosted the G8
• Energy security, infectious diseases and education are on Russia's agenda
• Mid-East crisis, Iran, North Korea, and international terrorism are also likely to be discussed
• Summit diary
• Soulmates no more

"Our job is to continue to remind Russia if she wants to continue to have good relations she needs to share common values," Mr Bush said while in Germany. "I'll be firm about my belief in certain democratic institutions. I'll be firm in belief about the need for there to be an active civil society [in Russia]." The two leaders are due to dine at the opulent 18th Century Constantine Palace, which will host the G8 meetings. Mr Bush's comments came two days after President Putin accused Western critics of Russia's record on democracy of using "colonialist" rhetoric. In TV interviews to foreign media, Mr Putin said it was unacceptable for the West to use the issue to interfere in Russia's affairs.

'Fundamental ambivalence'
The BBC's Jonathan Marcus in St Petersburg says President Bush arrives in a resurgent Russia, one that describes itself as an energy superpower, eager to play a role on the world stage.The G8 summit provides just such a platform for Mr Putin, he says. But he adds that for the Americans there is a fundamental ambivalence in their dealings with Moscow. Some top US officials, including Vice-President Dick Cheney, have recently accused Mr Putin for backsliding on democracy and using its vast energy resources to blackmail its neighbours. There are also those in the US Congress who believe that it was a mistake to hold this summit in Russia at all, our correspondent adds. But he says Mr Bush also needs to keep his relations with Mr Putin on an even level. Pro-democracy campaigners say dozens of delegates of alternative summits in St Petersburg and Moscow have been detained.

House extends Voting Rights Act after day of debate San Jose Mercury News
The House resoundingly agreed Thursday to extend the 1965 Voting Rights Act, rebuffing conservatives' complaint that Texas and several Southern states will remain under heightened oversight despite improved civil-rights records. The 390-33 vote capped a daylong debate punctuated by lofty rhetoric, rancorous jabs and reminders of the epic civil-rights clashes of the 1950s and 1960s. "Yes, we have made some progress," thundered Rep. John Lewis, the Georgia Democrat who was badly beaten by Alabama troopers during a 1965 civil-rights march on Selma. "But the sad truth is discrimination still exists. That's why we still need the Voting Rights Act and we must not go back to the dark path." The vote brought to a close a difficult episode for House GOP leaders who were thwarted when they tried to bring the bill up last month, hoping to burnish their party's credentials with minorities. The leadership was forced to pull the legislation after conservatives in the Georgia and Texas delegations rebelled, insisting their states have remedied long-ago racism and should be freed from extra scrutiny. To quell the revolt, Republican Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, and other conservatives were allowed to offer amendments that would have relaxed some provisions of the landmark law, parts of which expire next year. The House rejected Gohmert's bid to shorten the extension to 10 years from the 25 in the bill. "I believe there is empirical evidence that shows this act needs to be reviewed much more often," he said. The Texan and other conservative critics insisted their attempt to tailor the Voting Rights Act provisions could spare the law from being struck down by the Supreme Court. But House Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin and other bill supporters denounced the conservatives' amendments as poison pills. Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., implored the House "not to allow a small group to drag us back to the days of Jim Crow voting." Lawmakers also reaffirmed support for a 1975 provision requiring bilingual ballots in areas with large numbers of voters who speak a language other than English. Requiring the use of bilingual ballots is "multiculturalism at its worst," said Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif. "We are hurting America by making it easier for people not to learn English." The House rejected an amendment that would have given the attorney general the discretion to end oversight for state and local governments required to obtain Justice Department approval before making any voting-related changes that could affect minorities. Texas is one of eight states required to get pre-clearance for changes large and small - whether plans to alter congressional and legislative district boundaries or the location of polling places. "It troubles me greatly in America that my grandchildren can be punished for the sins of my grandparents," said Jeb Hensarling of Dallas, one of six Texas Republicans who voted against the Voting Rights Act renewal. Other conservatives echoed his criticism. "We have repented and we have reformed," said Rep. Lynn Westmoreland, R-Ga., asking if Georgians "must eternally wear the scarlet letter." But while critics insisted the racism and discriminatory practices that landed Texas, Georgia and others on the extra scrutiny list are relics of a long-ago past, others insisted problems remain very real. Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson, D-Dallas, noted that just weeks ago, the Supreme Court ruled Texas had violated the Voting Rights Act in redrawing one congressional district's lines. And a controversial Georgia voter ID law has been blocked by a federal judge. As the House waged its intense debate, Texas Sen. John Cornyn convened a hearing on the other side of Capitol Hill to examine whether the Supreme Court's Texas redistricting ruling affects the ongoing Voting Rights Act debate. At a hearing of his Senate Judiciary subcommittee, the Texas Republican suggested he shares concerns about renewal of the voting-rights provisions. "It is disturbing when an act designed to ensure voters have full access to the ballot box has become a vehicle for partisan maneuvering," Cornyn said. But others on the panel indicated their support for renewal, which the Senate Judiciary Committee is expected to take up later this month.
By Michelle Mittelstadt
Bilingual ballots part of vote act backed by House Houston Chronicle
Voting Rights Act amendment stirs debate Herald News Daily
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Fairer disaster aid funding call BBC News
A fairer system for funding global emergency relief is needed, a Tsunami Evaluation Coalition report concludes. For every person affected by the 2004 tsunami £3,850 was raised but for those caught in the 2004 Bangladesh floods the figure was £1.64, a study has said. The tsunami which killed about 227,000 people and left 1.9m homeless generated £7.3bn - 41% by public donations. Earlier the same year, floods that destroyed 1.2m homes in Bangladesh, hitting 36m people, got less attention. Praising tsunami donors' generosity, the independent international group of aid agencies, which included representatives from India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia and the UK government, added it showed how little had been given to victims of other tragedies. The Tsunami Evaluation Coalition (TEC) report also referred to the 2005 drought in Somalia, where £63 was raised for each of the 1.1m people affected. "Emergency relief is given not only on the basis of need, but in response to political pressures and what aid agencies believe may be popular with the donating public," it said.Lead author John Telford added: "The gross inequity in funding for different emergencies is evident in people reduced to half-rations in Sudan in the face of increasing malnutrition, while Iraq and Afghanistan continue to get generous funding." The TEC called for independent monitoring of governments to ensure their funding systems were consistent, impartial, flexible and transparent. "The scale and frequency of modern emergencies is on the rise and the quality, capacity and regulation of the international relief system is currently inadequate to support this," the report said. Mr Telford added: "The high-profile coverage of the tsunami led to the largest and fastest funded response ever. "But the glare of public attention pressurised agencies to spend quickly and visibly, often causing them to neglect formal needs assessments and under-estimate the complexity of post-disaster recovery."The report also called for more support prior to disasters to help high-risk areas respond better when catastrophe strikes. International aid agencies should work through existing structures in affected countries, it said. Mr Telford added: "Local affected people and their neighbours saved virtually every life that was to be saved in the tsunami before international rescue teams arrived. "While aid agencies are recognised for providing affected populations with the security they needed to begin planning what do next, they need to involve them in the management of the response. "This is particularly important when emergency relief priorities rapidly change to those of rebuilding and re-establishing livelihoods."

Flooding in Chile claims 15 lives BBC News
At least 15 people have died and many are missing after heavy rains caused flooding in central and southern Chile. Roads have been blocked by mudslides, communities cut off and 1,800 trucks stranded as the tunnel through the Andes to Argentina has been closed. Rain has been falling for more than a week, causing devastation across much of the region. At least 10 people died in a mudslide in the southern town of Chiguayante, three of them firefighters. Many others are missing, including several fishermen.

More rain expected
Rivers have burst their banks, causing extensive damage to tens of thousands of homes, while whole communities have been evacuated. Fallen trees and telephone poles, as well as the mudslides, have blocked roads. Police, army and firefighters are working with local authorities to bring food, medical supplies and blankets to the worst affected communities. Chilean President Michelle Bachelet declared a state of emergency after visiting the region and said Chile was responding well to the crisis. But not everyone was pleased to see her, some accusing her of opportunism to boost her falling popularity in the opinion polls just months after she took office. She responded by saying she simply went where the problems were to find solutions to the people's suffering. "I need to see with my own eyes what the people need," added Dr Bachelet. Weather forecasters in Chile expect more rain over the weekend, although less severe than in recent days.
By Daniel Schweimler, BBC South America correspondent

Petrobras in talks with Gazprom BBC News
State-owned Brazilian oil company Petrobras is in talks with Russian's Gazprom over a string of joint ventures, the company's president said. Projects could include a gas pipeline from Venezuela to Brazil, Argentina and Chile, said Jose Sergio Gabrielli. If the move went ahead it would be the Russian gas firm's first steps into Latin America. Mr Gabrielli told Reuters that Gazprom's experience with long pipelines made it an ideal partner. In the interview he also said that Petrobras hoped to hike its production from 100,000 barrels per day to 800,000 by 2011. After meeting investors in London to talk about the company's plans he said Petrobras was in the "very early stages" of considering the Venezuelan pipeline. Other potential joint ventures included offshore exploration in Turkish waters and projects in Asia.

East Timor's new Cabinet sworn in
The Cabinet of East Timor's new Prime Minister Jose Ramos-Horta has been sworn in at a ceremony in Dili. The ceremony marks further progress towards a return to order for the country, which was hit by serious street violence and unrest. Factional fighting erupted three months ago, leaving at least 21 people dead and thousands displaced. President Xanana Gusmao said the swearing in "closed a cycle of profound crisis" that had threatened the nation. "We must now make enormous efforts to bring reconciliation among the East Timorese and to heal the wounds that divide them," he told ministers. The crisis was sparked by the sacking in March of 600 soldiers. This led to ethnic and gang violence which causes tens of thousands of people to flee their homes. It prompted a call by East Timor's government for international peacekeepers to help restore order. Former Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri, widely blamed for sparking the violence by sacking the troops, resigned last month.

'Suffered greatly'
The ceremony took place at the presidential palace and was overseen by 40 of the 2,200 Australian-led troops who have been keeping the peace in this volatile country.Mr Ramos-Horta, who was appointed prime minister on Saturday, said the immediate task of the government was to consolidate security. "Our people have suffered greatly, and many who were poor before the crisis have now lost the little that they had," he said. "This government is not going to find excuses for inertia." The 15-strong cabinet includes nine members who served under the previous government. East Timor's ambassador to the UN, Jose Luis Guterres, has been named foreign minister, while Mr Ramos-Horta will also hold the post of defence minister. Jose Teixeira was appointed minister of natural resources, with responsibility for the country's extensive gas reserves. The new Cabinet is expected to hold its first meeting later in the day.

Onus for restraint not just on Israel Toronto Star
With Israel exercising its military might on the ground in Gaza and in skies over Lebanon, leaders around the world — with the notable exception of our own Prime Minister — are calling on Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to apply less force. Speaking for Israel's closest ally, United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says: "It is extremely important that Israel exercise restraint in its acts of self-defence." And therein lies the conundrum: How to show restraint in self-defence. Israel clearly has the right, and indeed an obligation, to defend its citizens from missile attacks from outside its borders and from terrorist incursions from lands it has vacated. How to do that against heavily armed Hamas and Hezbollah militias that have complete freedom to operate in Lebanon and Gaza with unfettered materiel and financial backing from the Iranians and Syrians is the question to which no one seems to have an answer. Those who accuse Israel of falling into traps set by Hamas and Hezbollah by overreacting to their provocations do not say how it should deal with the seemingly endless attacks. But as a matter of strategy, they do nevertheless make a valid case for Israeli restraint. Although Hezbollah has parliamentary seats, and some ministers in Lebanon's ruling cabinet, it does not form the government. So a major attack on Lebanon in order to stop Hezbollah's atrocities would seem to run the risk of hitting the wrong target. Israeli officials argue that the Lebanese government has tolerated terror and allowed rocket attacks from within the country. But it is unlikely that this relatively weak government could have stopped Hezbollah even if it wanted to. At the same time, Israeli strategists seem leery of engaging in a new a ground war in Lebanon and are pressuring the country mainly through air and sea power. But that alone, no matter how aggressively pursued, is unlikely to root out Hezbollah terrorists from the many nooks and crannies, valleys and bunkers, where they can hide. The looming danger here is that Israel's attacks will only batter the enemy, and not destroy it, generating even more bitterness and militant outrage in a perilously unstable Arab world, and set it on a fresh spiral of violence. While it goes without saying that increased Israeli restraint will be vital to pull the Mideast back from the brink of all-out war, those calling for Israel to let up also need to address the attacks that have driven it to act with such force: the Hamas and Hezbollah incursions and kidnappings on Israeli soil, and the continual barrage of missiles from Lebanon and Gaza. Israel needs, and is entitled to, a quid pro quo. But it is not going to come voluntarily from Hezbollah and Hamas extremists bent on Israel's destruction, or from their backers in Syria or Iran. There is a widespread belief that Israel and the Palestinians would eventually reach a two-state peace settlement if their attempts weren't constantly and deliberately disrupted by armed extremists. Israel blames the Lebanese government for allowing Hezbollah free rein in the south, and the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority for not disarming the Gaza militias. It blames Syria and Iran for aiding and abetting these groups. Although it is impossible to deny that shared culpability, it is also true that the rest of the world has pretty much sat on its hands where these peace breakers are concerned. And while it is difficult to argue with yesterday's Financial Times editorial, which said the Israeli offensive "cries out for international intervention," the same international intervention is just as sorely needed on the other side of this escalating fight. It ought to start with the powerful industrialized countries at today's Group of Eight summit in St. Petersburg, Russia. And it ultimately would have to include Arab countries, such as Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan. But whatever form it takes, international intervention must aim at reducing hostilities on both sides of Israel's borders.
Israeli airstrikes continue to hit Lebanon Irish Examiner
Militia Leader Banks On History of `Resistance' Los Angeles Times
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Lebanon hit by more Israeli raids BBC News
Israeli planes have been carrying out a fourth day of air raids on Lebanon, targeting bridges and petrol stations in the south and east of the country. Hezbollah's al-Manar TV says three civilians were killed in an attack in Hermel, on the border with Syria. Meanwhile, Israeli media say the body of one of four sailors missing after their ship was hit by a missile fired by Hezbollah has been found. The Israeli air raids began after Hezbollah seized two Israeli soldiers. The massive bombing campaign has killed more than 60 Lebanese. Hezbollah has continued rocket attacks on northern Israel - 70 were fired on Friday alone.Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has said the offensive will continue until Hezbollah releases the two captured Israeli soldiers and stops firing rockets at Israel. Speaking after crisis talks on the violence at the Arab League headquarters in Cairo, the Lebanese Foreign Minister, Fawzi Salloukh, said the Israeli assault amounted to war. "There is open Israeli war against Lebanon from the land, the air, the sea and the attack targets all the civilian buildings, airport, bridges, and roads. There is nothing to move from one area to the other."

City deserted
Thousands of foreigners have fled Beirut - a city normally packed with foreign holidaymakers, many from Arab states, at this time of the year. Instead they have returned home in droves, leaving cafes and restaurants deserted, and the Beirut economy in tatters.After an emergency government meeting on the crisis, French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin said France was ready to evacuate its nationals from Lebanon. "We have alerted the navy and set up both civilian and military aircraft to help any French national who wishes to leave Lebanon to do so," he added. Estimates put the number of French nationals in Lebanon, a former French colony, at about 19,000 including 5,000 tourists. Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah promised "open war" on Israel in an address broadcast after his Beirut offices were bombed on Friday, In a statement broadcast on al-Manar TV on Saturday, Hezbollah said that its forces had carried out the attack which sank the Israel vessel. The ship caught fire after it was hit by either a rocket, the Israeli military said. The Israeli military said a civilian vessel was also hit by rockets during the attack, but could not confirm its nationality or if there were casualties. The BBC's Ian Pannell in Beirut says that many of the city's residents approve of Sheikh Nasrallah's defiant statement and feel that the attack on the Israeli boat indicate that not only is he willing to defend the people who live there, but that he is also willing to go on the attack.

Bush blame
Speaking at the G8 meeting in St Petersburg on Saturday, US President George W Bush said that both he and Russian President Vladimir Putin "share the same concerns" about the resulting violence. But Mr Bush said that in order to bring the conflict to an end it was important to understand why it had started in the first place, "and that's because Hezbollah has been launching rocket attacks out of Lebanon into Israel and because Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers". Mr Bush also called on Syria to put pressure on Hezbollah to end the violence. Syria has said it will support Hezbollah and Lebanon against Israel's attacks. Mr Putin was more critical of Israel's massive bombing campaign, saying that the "use of force should be balanced", But he added that it was unacceptable that Hezbollah was trying to reach its goals with abductions and strikes against an independent state.

Russian WTO bid falters at summit BBC News
Talks on Russian entry into the World Trade Organization have been making slow progress on the eve of the annual G8 summit in St Petersburg. The issue is high on the agenda of US President George W Bush and his host, Vladimir Putin, who met on Saturday as other leaders were due to arrive.Mr Bush said a trade deal had been "almost reached" and talks will go on. Other key issues for the summit are energy security and the crisis in the Middle East. Mr Bush arrived in Russia's second city on Friday - the full G8 summit will officially open on Sunday morning. Speaking after the talks, the two leaders said they had reached agreement on global nuclear energy, and fighting nuclear and other forms of terrorism. On the violence in the Middle East, Mr Bush called on Hezbollah to lay down its arms while Mr Putin called for a "balanced" use of force in the Israeli-Lebanese crisis.

'Significant progress'
No deal has yet been struck on Russia joining the WTO, US and Russian officials confirmed, though a US spokesman reported "significant progress".Russia is by far the largest economy still outside the 149-member group but the US still has some concerns - particularly on intellectual property rights. Despite a thaw in the run-up to the summit, relations between the US and Russia have been frosty over recent months. Mr Bush has pledged to raise concerns about freedom in Russia during their meetings but said he would not lecture Mr Putin. President Putin recently accused Western critics of Russian democracy of using "colonialist" rhetoric and said they should not interfere in Russia's affairs. The two leaders dined on Friday night at the opulent 18th-Century Constantine Palace, which will host the G8 meetings. On Saturday, Mr Bush thanked his host for a "good dinner" and the 60th birthday present he received. "Our relationship is good," he added.

Russia resurgent
Seven of the G8 nations, uneasy about the increasing role that Russia will have in meeting their energy needs, want energy supplies to be secure, says BBC economics correspondent Andrew Walker.Russia in turn wants its customers to be secure. The debate will take place in the context of new highs in oil prices, which have been given a further upward push by the latest fighting in the Middle East. The BBC's Jonathan Marcus in St Petersburg says a resurgent Russia is eager to play a role on the world stage and the G8 summit provides just such a platform for Mr Putin. But our correspondent says that for the Americans there is a fundamental ambivalence in their dealings with Moscow. Mr Bush needs to keep his relations with Mr Putin on an even level but many in the US still question what they see as failures in Russian democracy.

Top Khmer Rouge leader 'in coma' BBC News
The former Khmer Rouge army chief who is facing trial for crimes against humanity is in a "hopeless" condition in a coma, his relatives have said. Ta Mok, 80, known as "The Butcher", is accused of a leading role in one of the worst genocides of the 20th Century as part of Cambodia's Pol Pot regime. The one-legged ex-commander is one of only two surviving former Khmer Rouge leaders being held in detention. His lawyer said he "could die tonight, tomorrow or next week".

Hospitalised
Ta Mok, whose real name is Ung Choeun, ousted Pol Pot in 1997, becoming the group's final leader before being arrested in March 1999.His daughter, Prek Lim, 50, said she had been allowed a six-minute visit with four other relatives to the military hospital where her father is being held. "When I saw him sleeping, hooked up to oxygen and unable to move from his bed. I felt very hopeless," said Ms Prek Lim. She said he did not speak or open his eyes. "He was not even aware that relatives had come to see him." Ta Mok's niece Ven Dara said: "I am so hopeless for his condition right now. He is in a coma." Ta Mok was hospitalised on 29 June with heart, lung and respiratory problems. Ta Mok and Kaing Khek Iev, known as Duch, who headed the Khmer Rouge's notorious S-21 prison, are the only leaders being held. The Pol Pot regime saw up to two million people executed or starved or overworked to death between 1975 and 1979. This month, officials were sworn in for long-awaited UN-backed genocide trials. Many fear most of the defendants will die before being brought to trial.

UK troops take Taleban stronghold BBC News
British troops in Afghanistan are undertaking their biggest operation since the fall of the Taleban in 2001. Three hundred soldiers - backed by hundreds of American and Canadian troops - have taken control of Sangine in the southern province of Helmand. Six British troops have been killed in or near the town in recent weeks. Military chiefs earlier defended their decision to call in US planes to drop 500lb bombs on Taleban fighters in a town in nearby town Nawzad.

Gunmen abduct Iraq Olympic chief BBC News
Gunmen in Iraq have kidnapped the country's Olympic committee chief and 30 other officials, police have told the BBC. Olympic chief Ahmed al-Hadjiya and the officials were taken when their convoy was stopped by uniformed men. Police said the incident took place at a conference centre near central Baghdad, and that the kidnappers wore Iraqi army uniforms. Other reports said uniformed gunmen had stormed the committee's offices.

Jackson jury orders joint awards BBC News
A court in California has awarded $900,000 (£490,000) to an ex-business associate of Michael Jackson who sued for money he said he was owed. But the sum was well below the $3.8m Marc Schaffel originally demanded and the court also awarded Mr Jackson $200,000 in a cross-complaint. Mr Schaffel had said he was not paid for work on an unreleased charity record and documentaries with the star. Mr Jackson alleged Mr Schaffel owed him a total of $660,000.

Abstentions
The jury in the civil court in Santa Monica had earlier asked a number of questions, heard repeated testimony and then wanted to know if it could arrive at a split decision. Superior Court Judge Jacqueline Connor said some jurors could abstain from voting as only nine need to agree a verdict in a civil case. Mr Schaffel had previously lowered his demand to $1.6m then further to $1.4m. The court had earlier heard phone messages between the two men. In a message from 2001, Mr Jackson said: "Marc, please never let me down. I like you. I love you. "I really want us to be friends and conquer the business world together. Please be my loyal, loyal friend." Mr Jackson did not appear in court during the case.

Panama approves canal expansion BBC News
The Panamanian congress has formally approved a $5bn plan to widen the Panama Canal, its biggest expansion since it opened in 1914. Some modern ships are now too wide to go through the canal, and those ships that can pass have to queue for hours. The project will now go to a binding referendum to be held later this year. Opinion polls show that voters in Panama are in favour of the plan, but critics say the completed project will still not meet shipping needs. The 80km (50-mile) Panama Canal, which was controlled by the United States until 1999, handles nearly 5% of global trade. At present, it can only handle ships carrying up 4,000 containers, known as Panamax vessels.But with wider locks and deeper and wider access canals it could take ships carrying up to 10,000 containers. The current locks are 33 metres (108 feet) wide, but the new locks would be 50 metres (150 feet). A third lane of traffic would be able to handle the wider loads. Panama says the cost of the upgrades would be met from increased tolls, supplemented by a $2.3bn loan. But opponents say that when the work is finished in 2014-15, the canal will still be inadequate. An alternative plan of new terminals at the Pacific and Atlantic ends of the canal to handle containers in transit is proposed. The canal is mainly used by the US, Japan, China and Chile.

'No charges' for Menezes police BBC News
Individual police officers involved in the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes will not be prosecuted for murder or manslaughter, it is being reported. But prosecutors are expected to announce the Metropolitan Police will be charged with breaching health and safety laws, says the Guardian.Independent investigators had asked the Crown Prosecution Service to consider charges against three police officers. The Brazilian was mistakenly shot last July at Stockwell Tube station. He was wrongly thought to be a suicide bomber by anti-terror officers.The CPS received the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) report in January. It has been considering it since then and will announce what action is to be taken on Monday. Earlier this week the BBC learned prosecutors had been asked by the IPCC to consider charging Metropolitan Police Commander Cressida Dick, who was in charge of firearms operations, and two firearms officers with manslaughter. But the Guardian says no individual police officers involved will face prosecution and the CPS has ruled out murder or manslaughter charges after a review of the circumstances surrounding the shooting on 22 July. Harriet Wistrich, solicitor for the de Menezes family, told the newspaper the family was likely to be "very unhappy" if no officer was prosecuted. "They would like to see officers held to account on a personal level, for somebody to be charged with a homicide offence," she said.

Ugandan rebel peace talks begin BBC News
Historic peace talks between Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels and the government have started in Sudan. The rebels - who have been promised an amnesty - have not sent their top leaders to the negotiations, but say they are willing to sign a ceasefire. The BBC's Jonah Fisher in Juba said the talks being chaired by south Sudan's Vice-President Riak Machar began with a ceremony and prayers. They are considered northern Uganda's best chance for peace in years. Thousands have died in the two-decade conflict between rebels and the government, and some two million have been forced to flee their homes."I want both delegations to approach these talks with open minds," said Sudan's Vice-President Salva Kiir, who is also the president of south Sudan at the start of the talks. "Let the world see that now you are doing the right thing." Before the talks began, LRA spokesman Obonyo Olweny told the BBC's Network Africa programme: "We're willing to end the war." LRA leader Joseph Kony and four of his commanders are wanted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court (ICC). Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has offered them a full and guaranteed amnesty as long as they renounce violence.

Appeal
Few of the 17-member LRA delegation that arrived in Juba on Thursday have combat experience and many of them are based abroad.Our correspondent says Mr Machar is trying to put a positive spin on his failed bid to convince the senior leadership to attend the talks. He spent five days at their base on the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo in the hope of meeting Mr Kony. "It was an initiative from our side to persuade... to send at least two of their top leaders who are indicted. But then they felt insecure. You can't force somebody to come to a place where he feels insecure," Mr Machar said. As many of the LRA delegation do not live in Uganda, it is debatable whether they have the influence to negotiate on behalf of the leadership in the bush, our correspondent says. But Mr Olweny said the LRA fighters wanted to come out of the bush and "be integrated into national life".

Apprehension
Mr Machar also made an appeal to the ICC, which insists the LRA arrest warrants still hold, to give the talks a chance."We have been telling the international community that there is the need to separate the peace process from the legal process," Mr Machar said. The BBC's Ali Mutasa in Gulu, northern Uganda, says people there are apprehensive about the talks after hearing that Mr Kony is not be attending. They fear it may be a ploy to give him time to regroup and strength his position, he says. Mr Olweny, however, dismissed these fears. "[President] Museveni's not going to the start of talks, so why should Kony come to Juba? The delegation will lay out the terms of the coming of Joseph Kony to sign the agreement." In a recent interview broadcast on the BBC, Mr Kony denied the LRA had carried out atrocities, particularly against children.

Somali cabinet snubs peace talks BBC News
Somalia's weak, UN-backed government has refused to travel to Sudan for Saturday's peace talks with Islamists who control the capital, Mogadishu. The president accused the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) of breaking a truce agreed at the last Sudan talks. Correspondents say this is a setback for attempts to avoid a confrontation between the two groups. The UIC delegation has, however, travelled on the first flight to leave Mogadishu's main airport for 11 years. "We were invited by the Arab League and we are going to attend Khartoum talks. If the transitional government doesn't come, then the international community will see it who wants peace in Somalia and who doesn't," said one of the UIC leaders, Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed. Instability had prevented flights to and from Mogadishu's airport until the UIC took control of it last week. In another sign of increasing tension, interim President Abdullahi Yusuf has again accused the UIC of being backed by foreign Islamic fighters. Meanwhile, the United Nations Security Council has said it is ready to lift an arms embargo and back a peacekeeping team. The arms embargo, imposed at the start of Somalia's civil war, would have to be lifted to allow peacekeepers to be deployed and to allow the government to build its own security forces. The Islamists strongly oppose foreign peacekeepers, which the government says are needed to ensure security.

Protesters released
President Yusuf accused the UIC of becoming more radical and planning to attack his base in Baidoa, 200km from the capital. "I don't see the use of meeting them in Khartoum again," he told MPs on Friday."We will find better solutions, I don't see the value of meeting warriors. "Our own intelligence sources have confirmed that foreign fighters most of them from the neighbouring Ethiopia, Turks, Afghans and Arabs actively engaged in recent clashes, fighting along the Islamic courts," he said. The Ethiopians are understood to be ethnic Oromo rebels - the UIC has accused the Ethiopian government of sending troops to support Mr Yusuf in Baidoa. These claims are rejected by both governments. The government earlier this week said it would not hold talks with hardline elements of the UIC, saying they were linked to al-Qaeda. UIC leaders deny the accusations that they are linked to al-Qaeda and have foreign fighters with them. Earlier this week, the Islamists tightened their grip on Mogadishu and much of southern Somalia by driving one of the last remaining warlords from the city. Abdi Qeybdid fled to Baidoa and has held talks with interim Mr Yusuf but it is not clear what was discussed. In Jowhar, UIC authorities have released from prison at least 40 people arrested during protests over the imposition of new taxes. One person was shot dead during Wednesday's protests. This is the first time the UIC has tried to impose taxes in the areas it has taken control of in rapid advances during the past two months. Somalia has not had an effective national government in 15 years.

Chile head appoints new ministers BBC News
Chilean President Michelle Bachelet has sacked three of her ministers, four months after she took office as the country's first woman leader. The interior, economy and education ministers have been replaced. Correspondents say the cabinet re-shuffle follows student protests six weeks ago and floods in the south this week which killed at least 15 people.The moves keeps an equal number of men and women in the 22-person cabinet, but increases Christian Democrat numbers. "We have a new challenge," said President Bachelet, as the new ministers were sworn in."We are entering a new phase in which the central task is to complete the changes we have outlined - reaching a democracy with greater participation by the year 2010." Belisario Velasco becomes interior minister, taking over from Andres Zaldivar. Mr Velasco served as deputy interior minister in the first government after the end of the Pinochet regime in 1990. Yasna Provoste takes over as education minister from Martin Zilic, while Alejandro Ferreiro assumes the economy portfolio from Ingrid Antonijevic. Although the equal balance of men and women in the cabinet is maintained, the reshuffle brings in three Christian Democrats instead of two members of that party and one socialist. All are members of the president's centre-left coalition. President Bachelet, who took power in January, had seen her popularity drop, following the student protests.

Space shuttle moves away from ISS BBC News
Space Shuttle Discovery has undocked from the International Space Station and is moving away in preparation for a return to Earth on Monday. Six astronauts are on board, after German astronaut Thomas Reiter was left behind for a six-month ISS stay. Before re-entry Discovery's team will conduct a final scan of the craft's heat shield to check for impact damage. It will stay just 46 miles (74km) from the ISS until the scan is done so it can return if serious damage is found.

Micrometeoroid scan
The shuttle is scheduled to land at Nasa's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, on Monday. The mission is just the second to be carried out since the space shuttle Columbia broke up on re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere in January 2003, killing all seven crew on board. Accident investigators said the disaster had been caused by insulating foam falling from Columbia's external fuel tank during launch and striking the shuttle's wing, compromising the heat shield needed to protect it during re-entry. The heat shield scan will done with the same laser and camera system which was used to check for possible damage from flying debris during launch earlier in the flight. In this instance it will check for micrometeoroid impacts which could have occurred during the stint in space. The post-launch inspection found no damage and the astronauts are confident that this will be the case again. "We've been flying space shuttles for a long time and we've never had any kind of critical damage from a micrometeoroid so it's pretty remote," pilot Mark Kelly said "Based on what we've seen over the last 10 days, the inspections we've done... we've got a great ship. It's ready to come home," he added. The nine-day mission has included three spacewalks and repairs vital to resuming building work on the ISS.

Korean missile vote split looms BBC News
The US and Japan have insisted a UN Security Council vote on a resolution condemning North Korea's recent missile launches should be held on Saturday. The US envoy to the UN, John Bolton, said the draft did not have to include a reference to Chapter Seven of the UN Charter, allowing for the use of force. The resolution would still, he said, be legally binding. China has said it will veto any resolution that contains a reference to Chapter Seven. "My instructions are to get a vote by tomorrow [Saturday]," John Bolton told reporters on Friday. Japan's UN ambassador, Kenzo Oshima, said: "Japan stands on the same ground." "There are many, many occasions when the council has to take very difficult decisions and I think this is one of those very, very difficult decisions," he added.

'Too many fires'
Japan has long been seen as the Asian nation with the toughest stance on North Korea. It produced its draft resolution for the 15-member Security Council just days after North Korea test-fired seven missiles - including a long-range Taepodong-2, a weapon which is believed to be capable of reaching Alaska. But China, Russia and South Korea believe punitive action is not necessary, and China's ambassador to the UN, Wang Guangya, confirmed on Thursday he had been instructed to veto Japan's resolution at the Security Council. A rival Chinese-Russian draft eliminates mandatory sanctions, and requests rather than demands that UN member states try to prevent material that could be used in missiles from getting to North Korea. "The important thing is not the deadline, it is the unity of the council," said Mr Wang. "There are too many fires there. We don't need to put oil on all those fires," he added, in an apparent reference to the Middle East crisis and the row over Iran's nuclear plans.

Lavish birthday for Brunei ruler BBC News
Regional leaders will be among 10,000 guests at a lavish 60th birthday banquet on Saturday for the Sultan of Brunei, one of the world's richest men. Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah has been absolute ruler of the oil-rich Asian state for nearly four decades. Thousands of schoolchildren lined the streets of the capital Bandar Seri Begawan on Saturday as he arrived in his Rolls-Royce for a troop inspection. The festivities began early this month and continue until 18 August. The leaders of the Philippines, Cambodia, Thailand and Singapore are among those attending the banquet, the high point of the festivities, at the sultan's Nurul Iman palace. Bunting and flags are flying around the capital.

Exiled
The sultan is one of the world's few remaining absolute monarchs and is also the supreme commander of the armed forces. His second wife delivered him an early present recently - a baby boy. A government official said: "Every member of the Brunei royal family will be there, except for the new baby." One other not invited is the sultan's younger brother, Jefri, who is living in exile in London blamed for financial blunders that cost $7bn in the 1990s. But the celebrations are not quite on the same scale as for the sultan's 50th birthday - which attracted Michael Jackson and Britain's Prince Charles.

Bosnian Serbs face genocide trial BBC News
Seven former Bosnian Serb officers have gone on trial at The Hague war crimes tribunal for alleged involvement in the 1995 massacre at Srebrenica. The men are pleading not guilty to a range of charges including murder, persecution and genocide. The trial, the largest yet staged at The Hague, is one of just a handful dealing with the killing of 8,000 Bosnian Muslims in the UN safe haven. The massacre is the only event from the Bosnian war classified as genocide. Five of the seven standing trial at The Hague face genocide charges, as well as crimes against humanity. The prosecution alleges that some of the defendants were involved in the "systematic" operation to kill thousands of Bosnian Muslims and then conceal them in mass graves.

Objections
The trial opened in confusion when chief prosecutor Carla Del Ponte began to describe a visit to Srebrenica. "Earlier this week I was in Potocari [near Srebrenica] to mark the 11th anniversary of the Srebrenica atrocity. I stood with thousands of mourners, mostly women..." she said, before being cut off. Defence lawyers objected to her statement, complaining that it was "emotive", and judges ruled that Ms Del Ponte would have to wait until official opening statements before she could speak. Although the defendants have entered their pleas, opening statements in the trial are not due until after the tribunal's summer recess. The case was adjourned until opening statements on 21 August. Correspondents say the case is one of the most important yet brought before the tribunal. Just six men have so far been convicted over the Srebrenica massacre, and only two of those on genocide charges. The two men accused of masterminding the massacre, former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic and his military commander Ratko Mladic, remain at large.

Iran Denies Aiding Hezbollah, Describes Israeli Claim as ' 'Propaganda' Voice of America
An Iranian government spokesman has denied charges that Iran is aiding the Lebanon-based Shiite group Hezbollah. He also warned Israel of dire consequences if it attacks Syria. Speaking to reporters Sunday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said there are no Iranian Revolutionary Guards fighting alongside Hezbollah in Lebanon. Asefi also dismissed charges that Iran has provided missiles to Hezbollah as "propaganda." He said Hezbollah is strong enough to take care of itself. An Israeli army general, Udi Adam, said Sunday that Iranian troops are helping Hezbollah fire rockets into Israel, and that Israel has identified the Iranian troops. Hezbollah, a Shiite Muslim organization, was founded after the 1982 Israel invasion of Lebanon. It took its inspiration from the 1979 Iranian revolution, and most Western analysts believe it gets considerable military and financial support from the Iranian government. The United States lists Hezbollah as a terrorist group. Iran claims it gives only moral support to Hezbollah. On Saturday Abbas Ali Kadkhodai, spokesman for Iran's powerful Guardian Council, reiterated Iran's assertion that it has no influence over the group. Spokesman Asefi also said Iran stands by Syria, which has also been accused of backing Hezbollah, in the current crisis. He warned Israel against attacking Syria, saying it will face great losses if it does so.After Hezbollah abducted two Israeli soldiers, Israel began attacking targets in Lebanon in a bid to cripple Hezbollah and win the release of the kidnapped soldiers. Hezbollah has retaliated by firing rockets into Israel. President Bush has said Israel has every right to defend itself from Hezbollah attacks. Late Saturday, Iran's hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has kept up a steady stream of harsh rhetoric against Israel, likened Israel's attacks on Lebanon to the ones of Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler that began World War II. President Adhmadinejad, who was elected one year ago, has been internationally condemned for questioning the existence of the Holocaust, in which six million Jews are estimated to have been killed by the Nazi regime.
By Gary Thomas
Canadians scrambling to find ways out of Lebanon Edmonton Journal (subscription)
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Deadly Hezbollah attack on Haifa BBC News
Rockets fired by Hezbollah militants in Lebanon have killed at least eight people and wounded dozens of others in the coastal Israeli city of Haifa. It is the worst attack on Israel since the clashes with Lebanon began. Israeli jets have again hit targets in the south of Beirut as they continue a fifth day of air strikes, which have killed at least 100 Lebanese people. The Israeli air strikes began after Hezbollah seized two Israeli soldiers in a raid into Israel on Wednesday. In other developments:

• Iran's foreign ministry denies Israeli allegations that it supplied missiles to Hezbollah and warns Israel it will incur "unimaginable losses" if it attacks fellow Hezbollah supporters Syria
• The Israeli military recovers the bodies of three sailors missing after their ship was hit by a Hezbollah missile on Friday, bringing the number of Israeli troops killed in the Lebanon offensive to 12
• Lebanon's Prime Minister Fouad Siniora appeals for a UN-supervised ceasefire to end the Israeli raids, but the UN Security Council fails to agree on the issue
• Israel raises rocket alert threat as far south as Tel Aviv
• Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz says Israel will not stop its offensive until "the reality changes".

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has warned the attack on Haifa will have "far-reaching consequences". "Our government is determined to do everything necessary to reach our objectives. Nothing will prevent us," Mr Olmert said.It is the second time Haifa has been hit by Hezbollah rockets in recent days. In a first salvo on Saturday at least 13 rockets were reported to have landed in the city. The eight people who died were part of a train repair crew working at a railway depot. The BBC's Wyre Davies at the depot says that the rocket, believed to be a Katyusha rocket, crashed through the roof. About 50 people were also injured. Our correspondent says that the devastation is still apparent, with pools of blood everywhere. The attack on Haifa raised Israel's civilian death toll from the fighting to 12.

Second wave
According to Israel Radio a second wave of four rockets then hit, one landing in a city street. People driving on the roads in Haifa reportedly abandoned their cars as they fled from the onslaught. Lebanese people salvage belongings from bomb crater
Israeli war planes have continued to attack BeirutFollowing the depot attack a new barrage of rockets hit to the north of the city in Kiryat Motzkim and Kiryat Haim. Hezbollah has claimed responsibility for the attacks, saying it was retaliation for the deaths of Lebanese civilians and the destruction of the country's infrastructure during the Israeli air raids. Israel has carried out a heavy bombing campaign across Lebanon, hitting Hezbollah sites, but also a wide range of civilian targets.

City exodus
The BBC's Ian Pannell in Beirut says that there have already been a number of Israeli air strikes against Lebanese targets on Sunday. In the southern suburbs of Beirut, Hezbollah's al-Manar TV was attacked.A major power station in Beirut was also struck. There was also a raid in the eastern city of Baalbek, where local Hezbollah leaders were believed to have gathered. Foreign nationals have been leaving Lebanon to escape the violence. As the violence has escalated the number of locals attempting to flee has grown, but with the Israelis targeting the border areas and nearby roads, this has become increasingly difficult.

G8 supports 'open' energy markets BBC News
Russia has taken a step towards opening its energy sector to foreign investment at the G8 meeting in St Petersburg. The group agreed to "open, transparent" energy markets and to nuclear energy as a power source for those who want it. Russia had faced calls from the EU and US for increased international energy co-operation, amid fears Moscow may use energy as a tool of foreign policy.However Russia, a major oil and gas producer, did not ratify the Energy Charter, an international rulebook.

'Responsible supplies'
But the G8 leaders did express, in principle, their support for the Energy Charter treaty, which calls for open access to energy resources and transport infrastructure. The European Union has been pressing Russia, which supplies a quarter of the continent's gas, to fully ratify the charter which it has signed."Energy is essential to improving the quality of life and opportunities in developed and developing nations," the leaders' statement said. "Ensuring sufficient, reliable and environmentally responsible supplies of energy at prices reflecting market fundamentals is a challenge for our countries and for mankind as a whole," it added. The statement comes after months of rising oil prices - including a new spike following the Israeli action in Lebanon. Concerns were also raised this year when Russia's monopoly supplier, Gazprom, cut off gas supplies to Europe during a price dispute with Ukraine. A BBC World Service survey of 20,000 people in 19 nations in early July found that, on average, 45% trusted Russia as an energy supplier.

Nuclear options
It is against this background that the UK government recently announced the go-ahead for a new wave of UK nuclear power stations, as part of the mix of energy supply for the next 40 years. "Those of us who have or are considering plans relating to the use and/or development of safe and secure nuclear energy believe its development will contribute to global energy security, while simultaneously reducing harmful air pollution and addressing the climate change challenge," the G8 said. Most G8 countries have been looking again at the development of nuclear energy as an alternative to fossil fuels, but Germany is not supportive and plans to phase out nuclear energy by the early 2020s. And German officials have been keen to stress a phrase on the G8 statement that says: "We are committed to further reduce the risks associated with the safe use of nuclear energy."

N Korea rejects UN missile call BBC News
North Korea has angrily denounced a United Nations resolution condemning its missile tests and said it would build up its military arsenal. The country's foreign ministry described the resolution as the product of a hostile American policy and said Pyongyang would not be bound by it. North Korea would, it said, "bolster its war deterrent" in every way. South Korea has urged Pyongyang to order a moratorium on missile tests and return to six-party nuclear talks. The UN resolution demands that North Korea suspend its ballistic missile programme, and bars all UN member states from supplying North Korea with material related to missiles or weapons of mass destruction. It was passed unanimously by the Security Council after being revised to drop any mention of Chapter Seven of the UN Charter, which is legally binding and can authorise sanctions or even military action. China had otherwise threatened to veto it. The resolution was tabled by Japan after North Korea test-fired seven missiles including a long-range Taepodong-2, believed capable of reaching Alaska.

'Unambiguous message'
Japan had produced its draft resolution for the 15-member Security Council just days after the tests on 4 and 5 July. It underlines the need for North Korea "to show restraint and refrain from any action that might aggravate tension", and calls for Pyongyang to return to the six-nation talks over its nuclear programme. Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso said the Security Council had acted "swiftly and robustly in response to [North Korea's] reckless and condemnable act". The UK and US ambassadors to the UN described the resolution as strong and binding. US Ambassador John Bolton said it had sent "an unequivocal, unambiguous and unanimous message to Pyongyang". He said that if North Korea did not comply with the resolution, the council could consider further action.

Space shuttle moves away from ISS BBC News
Space Shuttle Discovery has undocked from the International Space Station and is moving away in preparation for a return to Earth on Monday. Six astronauts are on board, after German astronaut Thomas Reiter was left behind for a six-month ISS stay. The Discovery team conducted a final scan of the craft's heat shield to check for impact damage. The results of the inspection will be released on Sunday to clear the shuttle for its return home. So far Nasa engineers have not reported any problems with the shuttle heat shield. The shuttle has been kept 74km (46 miles) from the ISS so it can return if serious damage is found.

Micrometeoroid scan
The shuttle is scheduled to land at Nasa's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, on Monday. The mission is just the second to be carried out since the space shuttle Columbia broke up on re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere in January 2003, killing all seven crew on board. Accident investigators said the disaster had been caused by insulating foam falling from Columbia's external fuel tank during launch and striking the shuttle's wing, compromising the heat shield needed to protect it during re-entry. The heat shield scan was done with the same laser and camera system which was used to check for possible damage from flying debris during launch earlier in the flight. It checked for micrometeoroid impacts which could have occurred during the stint in space. The post-launch inspection found no damage and the astronauts are confident that this will be the case again. "We've been flying space shuttles for a long time and we've never had any kind of critical damage from a micrometeoroid so it's pretty remote," pilot Mark Kelly said "Based on what we've seen over the last 10 days, the inspections we've done... we've got a great ship. It's ready to come home," he added. The nine-day mission has included three spacewalks and repairs vital to resuming building work on the ISS.

Afghans investigate air strikes BBC News
Afghanistan's president has launched an inquiry into an air strike called in by UK forces in Nawzad, Helmand Province, after claims civilians were killed. Local people told the BBC a significant number of civilians died when at least three 227-kg (500-pound) bombs hit a market there on Wednesday. British forces say they have no evidence to support this. Hamid Karzai has also called an inquiry into an attack in Uruzgan Province which allegedly killed many civilians. Afghan sources allege that around 60 civilians were killed in the US air attack near Tirin Kot, southern Uruzgan, on Monday. "They shot people who were running out of houses under fire from helicopters, on the fields and everywhere," villager Feda Mohammad told AFP news agency from a hospital in the city of Kandahar. The US military has said it killed 40 militants but says it will assist the Afghan government's investigation.

'No evidence'
The bombing raid in Nawzad was called in by British forces fighting off a sustained attack on the local government compound they are defending. It is understood the Taleban fighters were within 50 metres of their positions when at least three bombs were dropped in the market area by US aircraft. British forces say there is no evidence that civilians were killed and that that the bombing raid was necessary because of the severity of the fighting. It is difficult to know for sure how many people were killed and whether or not they were civilians, as the fighting is still going on and many people have now left the town centre, the BBC's Alistair Leithead reports. Meanwhile, British forces have been continuing their biggest operation since the fall of the Taleban in Sangin Town, which they say is now in the hands of the coalition after weeks of fighting with Taleban militia.

British soldier killed near Basra BBC News
A British soldier has died following a clash north of the city of Basra, Iraq, on Saturday. The soldier was one of two wounded during a firefight between British troops and "suspected terrorists", said a military spokesman. Two suspects were held during the operation, which took place in the Garmat Ali tribal area, north of Basra. Some 8,000 British troops are stationed in southern Iraq. The death brings the total of British dead there to 114. Defence Secretary Des Browne described the death of the soldier as "terribly sad". He said: "I would like to offer my deepest condolences to their family and friends. "I wish the soldier who was injured a speedy recovery and pay tribute to the bravery of both troops."

Name withheld
The BBC's correspondent in Baghdad Jonny Dymond said the troops had been sent out to apprehend suspects intelligence sources had identified were involved in the insurgency. They met resistance, which is when the two soldiers sustained gunshot wounds. They were evacuated to a military hospital where one later died of his injuries, the Ministry of Defence said. The name of the dead soldier has been withheld until next of kin are notified. The MoD said in a statement: "An operation was conducted by multi-national Forces in Iraq in the early hours of this morning to apprehend those associated with terrorist activities "We can confirm that as a result of this operation, two men suspected of involvement in serious crime and terrorism in the Basra province have been apprehended." British forces spokesman Major Charlie Burbridge said it had been an intelligence-led operation, and that the mission's objective had been achieved.

Transfer of duties
"We have been pleased with the outcome of the operation - it went according to plan. But we do mourn the loss of one of our soldiers." He said further details about the significance of the operation would later be released. Lieutenant Tom Mildinhall, 26, and Lance Corporal Paul Farrelly, 27, both of the 1st Queen's Dragoon Guards (The Welsh Cavalry), were killed when a Land Rover they were travelling in was hit by a roadside bomb in north west Basra on 28 May. Last month it was announced that security in one of Iraq's 18 provinces was being handed to local forces for the first time since the country was invaded in 2003. Defence Secretary Des Browne said the decision to give Iraqi troops control of power in Muthanna was a "milestone" for the Iraqi people.

Forest Service takes a stand Big Bear Grizzly
Big Bear Lake-The Big Bear Valley Emergency Operations Center has been activated and a public safety alert is being issued-but only as a precaution. No immediate orders for evacuation have been issued and all roads leading into and out of Big Bear Valley are open. Sheriff's Deputies are alerting residents in the Lake William community and those living off Rainbow on Onyx Summit about the Sawtooth Complex Fire. The Valley is not in any immediate danger. The alert is to let those folks know about the aggressive stance the Forest Service is taking to prevent the fire from reaching Big Bear. The fight is from the air at this point, as the terrain is rugged. Access on foot or with fire engines is not possible. The Forest Service has joined the unified command for the Sawtooth Fire, which has burned more than 37,000 acres in the Morongo Canyon, Yucca Valley and Pioneertown area. California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection is the lead fire agency in coordination with the county Office of Emergency Services managing the fire. While an EOC has been established in Big Bear, all management and release of information regarding the fire must come from CDF and OES at this time. Press releases must be approved by OES before release in Big Bear Valley. A community meeting is in the planning stages to provide Big Bear residents with information about the Sawtooth Complex fire and how it affects Big Bear. According to Veronica Magnuson of the Forest Service said two bull dozers, two hot shot crews and two strike teams are on standby for the Valley. In addition, Big Bear Lake and Big Bear City fire departments are fully staffed with extra personnel. Officials are reminding the public once again, not to panic, but to be aware and prepared. Have an evacuation plan for your family, know where you are going, and make sure to take important papers, medications and other necessities with you. For fire information, call the Forest Service fire information line at 909-383-5688. Stay tuned to KBHR 93.3 FM radio if an evacuation becomes necessary. Log on to bigbeargrizzly.net for up-to-date information regarding the fire and its impact on the Valley.
By JUDI BOWERS - Contact Judi Bowers at 909-866-3456, ext. 137 or by e-mail at jbowers@bigbeargrizzly.net.
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US, China seek return to talks with N.Korea Reuters AlertNet
China and the United States on Sunday urged a resumption of talks to persuade North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons, a day after the UN Security Council imposed weapons-related sanctions on Pyongyang. Chinese President Hu Jintao told reporters after meeting U.S. President George W. Bush the talks among the United States, North and South Korea, Russia, Japan and China were the way to resolve peacefully the impasse over Pyongyang's nuclear plans. Hu and Bush met on the sidelines of a summit of Group of Eight leaders in St Petersburg. "Both sides agreed to continue their efforts to move forward with the six-party talks so that at the end of the day the entire Korean penninsula can be de-nuclearised in a peaceful way through dialogue and in negotiations," Hu said. Both Bush and U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice praised China for backing the U.N. Security Council resolution condemning North Korea's recent series of missile tests. "Here we have an affirmative Chinese vote -- not an abstention," Rice said. She told reporters that because of the international unity displayed by Saturday's resolution, "ultimately, North Korea will have no choice but to return to the talks..." The negotiations stalled last November because Pyongyang objected to U.S. financial sanctions based on accusations North Korea counterfeited U.S. currency and trafficked drugs. Defying international warnings, North Korea launched at least six missiles on July 5 and a seventh some 12 hours later. A long-range Taepodong-2 fell into the Sea of Japan. The Security Council resolution requires all U.N. members to prevent imports from or exports to North Korea of missiles and missile-related items as well as materials that could be used in weapons of mass destruction. North Korea said it "totally rejects" the resolution. To avert a China veto, the resolution does not mention Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter, which is cited in a legally binding document. But White House aide Dan Bartlett said the resolution that was passed would have "very much the same effect as a Chapter 7 resolution". "It probably is not surprising that they (the North Koreans) immediately rejected, but sometimes the first response is not the only response, the final response," Bartlett said. The resolution was also praised by Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, who told German Chancellor Angela Merkel at the G8 gathering that it sent a strong message to Pyongyang, Japanese officials said.
By Caren Bohan
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Israel renews south Lebanon raids BBC News
Israeli air raids have killed at least 23 people in southern Lebanon hours after Israel warned that the area would come under further heavy attack. More than 120 Lebanese have died since clashes with Israel began on Wednesday. Twelve Israeli civilians have been killed from Hezbollah rockets, including eight in Haifa on Sunday. Early on Monday, Israel planes targeted the port of Tripoli, Lebanon's second city, for the first time. There is so far no word on casualties. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said the Haifa attack - the worst on Israel since clashes started - would have "far-reaching consequences".The Israeli air strikes began after Hezbollah seized two Israeli soldiers in a raid into Israel on Wednesday. In other developments:

• The Israeli army says Hezbollah rockets fired from Lebanon have struck deeper into Israel than ever before, hitting the town of Afula, 50km from the border, and the outskirts of Nazareth
• New Israeli air strikes late on Sunday set fuel tanks ablaze at Beirut's international airport
• Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah says the battle against Israel is "just at the beginning", in his first televised appearance since the offensive
• Iran's foreign ministry denies Israeli allegations that it supplied missiles to Hezbollah
• Top European Union and United Nations officials arrive in Beirut for talks on the crisis. The UN envoy backs Lebanon's call for a ceasefire but urges the release of the captured soldiers
• Leaders of the G8 nations blame extremist forces for the crisis, but call on Israel to end military operations.

Israel rattled
At least 16 died in Israeli air strikes on Sunday the city of Tyre, while attacks on a border village killed at least seven, including five with Canadian and Lebanese citizenship. Rescuers searched the debris in Tyre with more feared trapped under the rubble. The strikes came hours after the Hezbollah attack on Haifa, which prompted Israel to warn the perpetrators would pay a "very heavy price". Correspondents say the large death-count in a strike on Israel's third-largest city has rattled the whole country. The eight killed were part of a train repair crew working at a railway depot when the rocket crashed through the roof. It is the second time in three days that Haifa has been hit by Hezbollah rockets, and raises Israel's death toll from the fighting to 24 overall. According to Israel Radio a second wave of four rockets then hit, followed by a new barrage of rockets to the north of the city. Hezbollah claimed responsibility for the attacks, saying it was retaliation for the deaths of Lebanese civilians and the destruction of the country's infrastructure during the Israeli air raids. Israel has carried out a heavy bombing campaign across Lebanon, hitting Hezbollah sites, but also a wide range of civilian targets.

City exodus
On Sunday, warplanes renewed attacks on Beirut's airport. Hezbollah's al-Manar TV was attacked in the southern suburbs of Beirut, and a major power station in the city was struck. There was also a raid in the eastern city of Baalbek, where local Hezbollah leaders were believed to have gathered. US security teams have landed at the US Embassy in Beirut to start planning the evacuation of Americans. Foreign nationals have been leaving Lebanon to escape the violence. As the violence has escalated the number of locals attempting to flee has grown, but with the Israelis targeting the border areas and nearby roads, this has become increasingly difficult.

Scores dead in Java tsunami DailyIndia.com
An earthquake measuring 7.2 on the Richter scale shook the Indonesian island of Java Monday, spawning a tsunami that killed scores of people. Government geologists told the Antara news service the center of the tremor was around 385 miles south of Bandung, 20 miles below sea level. The southern coast of Java and Australia's Christmas Island were included in a tsunami warning from Hawaii's Tsunami Warning Center, Voice of America reported. Fitri Sudikah of the Indonesian Red Cross told the New York Times in a telephone interview that at least 80 people had been killed. She said most of the dead were swept out to sea and then carried back in again. Scores more were missing. The area hit hardest by the tsunami was Pangandaran, a coastal resort and fishing village. Beach cottages were demolished by the wave. Buildings in Jakarta, some 200 miles away, swayed but there were no immediate reports of damage. At least two aftershocks were reported, local media said. The tsunami was far smaller than the one that killed more than 200,000 people in the Indonesian province of Aceh and elsewhere around the Indian Ocean. In May, central Java was struck by a 6.3 magnitude quake that killed nearly 6,000.
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Bush May Send Rice to Help Calm Mideast New York Times
British Prime Minister Tony Blair and United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan called today for an international “stabilization force’’ to quell the fighting between Israel and the Hezbollah militia, while President Bush pungently suggested that Mr. Annan should pay more attention to reining in Hezbollah. Mr. Blair and Mr. Annan called for a deployment that would be far larger than the 2,000-member United Nations observer force currently stationed in southern Lebanon. Without such a force, “then I think it’s very difficult to see how we restore calm,’’ Mr. Blair said, according to Agence-France Presse. American and Israeli officials gave a tepid response to the idea, with Israel’s prime minister, Ehud Olmert, telling the Knesset that a ceasefire could only come after Hezbollah returns two captured soldiers and that Lebanese, not international soldiers should be deployed along the border, The Associated Press reported. Mr. Bush did not address the plan directly. But he expressed his unhappiness about Mr. Annan’s overall approach to the crisis quite bluntly and, unintentionally, quite publicly. His words were picked up by an open microphone while he and Mr. Blair chatted during a lunch that followed Mr. Blair and Mr. Annan’s joint statement on the final day of the Group of 8 summit here. Leaning over the back of Mr. Bush’s chair, Mr. Blair first brought up trade discussions, as the president chewed thoughtfully on a roll. Mr. Bush then abruptly changed the subject to the Mideast, complaining about Mr. Annan’s approach to the crisis, and for holding the view — which is shared by many of the leaders here — that Israel and Hamas and Hezbollah should halt the violence and then hash out their differences. The Americans have said that Israel would likely only stand down if Hamas and Hezbollah returned the soldiers they have kidnapped and ceased their shelling of Israeli towns. “I don’t like the sequence of it,’’ Mr. Bush said. “His attitude is basically ceasefire and everything else happens.” He went on to say the U.N. should directly enlist the Syrians to intervene. “I feel like telling Kofi to get on the phone with Assad and make something happen,” he said to Mr. Blair, referring to Syria’s president, Bashir Assad. “See, the irony is that what they need to do is get Syria to get Hezbollah to stop doing this "expletive deleted" and it’s over,” Mr. Bush said. Mr. Blair reiterated his argument, made earlier in the day with Mr. Annan, for an international force to be dispatched to the area. “I think the thing that is really difficult is you can’t stop this unless you get this international presence agreed,” Mr. Blair said. “You need to get this done quickly otherwise this thing will spiral out of cont...’’ Mr. Bush interrupted to say, “Yeah, she’s going. I think Condi’s going to go pretty soon.” Mr. Blair then argued that it would be less risky for him to take the lead in a visit to the region instead of Ms. Rice, saying her presence could put America’s prestige on the line. “If she goes out she’s got to succeed as it were, where as I can just go out and talk,” Mr. Blair said. At that point, Mr. Blair appeared to notice the nearby microphone, and leaned over to turn it off. Mr. Annan today said that the Security Council members would start working on a detailed proposal for the deployment of a stabilization force. At the United Nations, the Security Council went into its third session on Lebanon in four days, but beforehand John R. Bolton, the American ambassador, discouraged talk of sending a multilateral force to the area. Mr. Bolton said that three major questions had to be addressed first. "Would such a force be empowered to deal with the real problem ?," he said. "The real problem is Hezbollah." The second, he said, was "Would it be empowered to deal with countries like Syria and Iran that support Hezbollah?" The third was how a new force would be different or better than the existing United Nations force which has been there for 28 years and whether it would undercut past Security Council resolutions which have sought to strengthen Lebanese institutions. Mr. Bolton was also asked why the United States was not backing an immediate ceasefire. "We could have a ceasefire in a matter of nanoseconds if Hezbollah and Hamas would release their kidnap victims and would stop engaging in rocket attacks and other acts of terrorism against Israel," he said. Mr. Bolton said that any Security Council action on Lebanon should await the return of a three-man mission that Secretary General Kofi Annan dispatched Friday to report back on the crises in Gaza and Lebanon. United Nations officials said the team was due back in New York the end of the week. The three, Middle East advisors Terje Roed-Larsen and Alvaro de Soto and Mr. Annan’s political advisor, Vijay Nambiar, have met with Arab League officials and leaders of Egypt, Oman, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the Palestinian authority in Cairo and with Fouad Siniora, Lebanon’s prime minister, and the speaker of the Lebanese parliament, Nabih Berri, in Beirut. Mr. Nambiar said in Beirut Monday that the team was now going to Israel and might return to Lebanon afterwards. It is also scheduled to go to Syria and the Palestinian territories. "Our work will require the support and goodwill for my delegation from all the parties," he said. "But they should know that the consequences of failure could indeed be grave." In Jerusalem, a government spokeswoman said that it was too soon to discuss a buffer force. “We’re at the stage where we want to be sure that Hezbollah is not deployed at our northern border,’’ said the spokeswoman, Miri Eisin. On Sunday, during their meeting in St. Petersburg, the leaders of the Group of 8 countries blamed “extremist forces” and “those who support them” for the surge of Middle East violence. They urged Israel to exercise “utmost restraint” and expressed their “deepening concern for rising civilian casualties on all sides and the damage to infrastructure.” The leaders did not call for an immediate cease-fire but urged Hezbollah to restore peace by releasing captured Israelis and ending attacks on Israel, followed by the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza and the release of detained Palestinian legislators belonging to Hamas. The seeming unity of that statement papered over deep divisions between the nations. Those disagreements were underscored today when the French prime minister, Dominque Villepin, headed to Beirut to express “solidarity’’ with its beleaguered government, according to Agence-France Presse. At the lunch today at the vast Konstantinovsky Palace in this suburb of St. Petersburg, not all of what the open microphone, controlled by a Russian television service, was serious diplomacy. In another segment Mr. Bush told an aide asking him about his upcoming remarks, “I’m just going to make it up, right here — I’m not going to talk too damn long like the rest of them.” He added, “Some of these guys talk too long.” A foreign counterpart was heard to agree, but it was unclear who that was. At the lunch were the leaders of the Group of 8 industrial nations — France, Germany, Japan, United States, Russia, Great Britain, Italy, and Canada – as well as those of China, India, and Brazil, among others. At another moment, Mr. Bush was clearly itching to return to the White House, saying to someone, “Good job, gotta keep this thing moving — I gotta’ leave at 2:15 — you’ll want me out of town so to free up your security forces.’’ . “Gotta go home. Got something to do tonight,” Mr. Bush said, then, apparently turning to Mr. Hu, adding, “How about you? When are you going home?”
Bush caught on tape swearing about Syria MSNBC
Bush Drops Diplomacy in Talk With Blair Captured by Microphone Bloomberg
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Discovery makes Florida landing BBC News
The Discovery space shuttle and its six-strong crew have returned to Earth after a 13-day mission to the International Space Station. The orbiter touched down at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 1314 GMT. Mission control had raised concerns about weather conditions, but gave the go-ahead shortly before the ship began its hour-long descent. Nasa hopes the mission's success has drawn a line under doubts over the shuttle programme's safety. "Welcome back Discovery and congratulations on a great mission," mission control told shuttle commander Steven Lindsey, as the orbiter came to a halt on the runway after deploying its parachute. "It was a great mission. A really great mission," Lindsey replied. Discovery was cleared for re-entry over the weekend when inspections revealed no signs of damage to the craft. The orbiter's flight was only the second shuttle mission since the Columbia broke up on re-entry in 2003 killing everyone on board and grounding the rest of the shuttle fleet.

Six-month stay
Crew members were woken early on Monday to begin preparations for re-entry, one of the riskiest phases of a shuttle mission. Mission control waited until almost the last minute to confirm the weather was good enough for the shuttle to return. There had been some worry over a bank of rain clouds in northern Florida which were expected to head towards the landing site. Once the go-ahead was given, Steven Lindsey and co-pilot Mark Kelly started the spacecraft's plunge out of orbit. The shuttle reached a velocity of nearly 25 times the speed of sound as it hurtled through the atmosphere, generating huge amounts of heat. No problems were reported with the ship's heat shield, and the shuttle touched down on schedule under overcast skies. The orbiter has returned a man lighter than at take-off, having left German astronaut Thomas Reiter on board the International Space Station (ISS) for six months.

'Enormously successful'
After landing, Lindsey said he and the crew had accomplished both their major objectives - completing the post-Columbia testing of the shuttle and its redesigned fuel tank, and preparing the way for Nasa to restart building work on the ISS. The work was halted after the Columbia disaster."We're ready to go assemble station," Lindsey said, "and we're ready to start flying shuttles on a more regular basis." Nasa chiefs were delighted with the landing, and declared the flight "enormously successful". "This is as good a mission as we've ever flown but we're not going to get over-confident," Nasa administrator Michael Griffin said. Accident investigators said the Columbia disaster had been caused by insulating foam falling from the vehicle's external fuel tank during launch, striking the orbiter's wing and damaging the heat shield needed to protect it during re-entry. Discovery's heat shield was examined in detail just after launch and just before re-entry. Astronauts used a laser and camera system to check over the ship's nose and belly. The final inspection was geared in particular to look for micrometeoroid impacts that could have damaged the shuttle during its stint in space. The Discovery mission undertook three spacewalks, including doing repairs on the ISS that were vital to resuming building work on the platform. Before the space shuttle fleet is retired in 2010, Nasa hopes to carry out many more missions, with the goal of completing work on the ISS. Its shuttle programme will continue next month, when the space shuttle Atlantis is scheduled to blast off.

Tsunami kills at least 86 on Java island Seattle Post Intelligencer
A tsunami crashed into beach resorts and fishing villages on Java island Monday, killing more than 300 people and leaving more than 160 missing after bulletins failed to reach the region because no warning system was in place.The Java coastal area was spared by the devastating Asian tsunami of 2004, but many residents recognized the danger when they saw the sea recede. Frantic tourists and villagers shouted "Tsunami! Tsunami!" as the wave more than 6 feet high approached. Some climbed trees or fled to higher ground to escape while others crowded into inland mosques to pray. At least 23,000 people fled their homes, either because they were destroyed or in fear of another tsunami, Dudi Junaidi, an official at an emergency coordination post in the worst-hit area of Pangandaran on Java's southern coast, said Tuesday. "We saw a big wall of black water. I ran with my son in my arms when I looked back, the waves were at our house, they destroyed our house," said Ita Anita, who was on the beach with her 11-month-old child and other relatives. "The water knocked me down, my son slipped out of my hands and was taken by the water." Anita, 20, and her husband live 30 feet from the beach in Pangandaran, a resort popular with tourists. Also on the beach were her son, mother, sister, brother, nephews. All except her mother are missing. She said a series of large waves as tall as coconut trees came and then the water began to recede. "When the wave receded, there was total panic. Everybody was looking for everybody," Anita said from her hospital bed at the Pangandaran medical clinic. She said she was swept inland by the wave into a rice paddy, tossed around and dragged across asphalt before she managed to climb to safety on the roof of a house. Early Tuesday, desperate villagers and soldiers dug through destroyed homes and hotels looking for survivors as the death toll rose to at least 306. Junaidi said at least 172 people were killed and 85 others were missing in the Panganderan area. He said a Pakistani national, a Swedish national and a Dutch national were among the dead, but did not give their genders. Most of the victims were believed to be Indonesians. In nearby Cilacap district, at least 77 were killed and more than 70 others were missing, said central Java police chief Dody Sumantiawan. At least 44 others died in Tasikmalaya, said Lina, a district official who like many Indonesians goes by only one name. Another 13 died elsewhere along the coast, local officials said. "I don't mind losing any of my property, but please God return my son," said Basril, as he and wife tearfully searched though mounds of debris pile up on the beach at Pangandaran. Nearby, the body of a woman lay on the beach, covered with a mat. Regional agencies had warned that a 7.7-magnitude earthquake that struck 150 miles off Indonesia's southern coast was strong enough to create a tsunami on Java. But there was no warning system for those on the southern coast. The waves sent boats, cars and motorbikes crashing into resorts and fishing villages. Houses and restaurants were flattened along a 110-mile stretch of the densely populated island's southern coast. Jan Boeken, from Antwerp, Belgium, said he was sitting at a bar when his waiter started screaming. "I looked back at the beach and saw a big wall of thundering black water coming toward us," said the 53-year-old, who escaped with minor cuts to the head and knees. "I ran, but I got trapped in the kitchen, I couldn't get out. I got hit in the body by debris and my lungs filled with water." A witness told el-Shinta radio station he saw the ocean withdraw 1,500 feet from the beach a half-hour before the powerful wave smashed ashore, a typical phenomenon before a tsunami. "I could see fish jumping around on the ocean floor," Miswan said. Witnesses said the wave came several hundred yards inland in some places. Buildings sit close to the beach in Pangandaran. Pedi Mulyadi, a 43-year-old food vendor, said he was waiting on the beach for customers when the wave struck, killing his wife, Ratini, 33. The pair were clinging to one another when they were swallowed by the torrent of water and pulled 300 feet inland, he said. "Then we were hit, I think by a piece of wood," Mulyadi said. "When the water finally pulled away, she was dead. Oh my God, my wife is gone, just like that." Roads were blocked and power cut to much of the area. Damage and casualties were reported at several places along the 110 miles of beach affected, officials and media reports said. "All the houses are destroyed along the beach," one woman, Teti, told el-Shinta radio. "Small hotels are destroyed and at least one restaurant was washed away." Indonesia has installed a warning system across much of Sumatra island but not on Java. The government has been planning to extend the warning system there by 2007. Java was hit seven weeks ago by a 6.3-magnitude earthquake that killed more than 5,800 people, but was spared by the 2004 tsunami that killed 216,000 people, nearly half of them in Indonesia's Aceh province. Chris Goldfinger, an earthquake expert at the College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences at Oregon State University, said Monday's quake was probably not related to the 2004 tsunami though some of the tremors in the region since then were related. The May earthquake did not affect the part of the island hit by Monday's tsunami, which was spawned by a quake that struck deep beneath the Indian Ocean 150 miles southwest of Java's coast. The quake struck at 3:24 p.m., causing tall buildings to sway hundreds of miles away in the capital, Jakarta. The strength of the temblor was revised upward from magnitude 7.1 after a review by a seismologist, the U.S. Geological Survey said. The quake was followed by a series of powerful aftershocks. After the quake, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center and Japan's Meteorological Agency issued warnings saying there could be a tsunami in the Indian Ocean. The tsunami struck Java about an hour after the quake and its effects could be felt as far as Bali island and near Australia's Coco Islands. Indonesia is on the so-called Pacific "Ring of Fire," an arc of volcanoes and fault lines encircling the Pacific Basin.
By IRWAN FIRDAUS. PANGANDARAN
200 perish in Java quake, tsunami CNN International
Australian PM expresses sympathy over tsunami in Indonesia People's Daily Online
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Lebanon evacuation gathers pace BBC News
The evacuation of foreigners from Lebanon is being stepped up, as Israeli warplanes carry out a seventh day of air strikes. France and Italy have moved 1,600 Europeans by ship to Cyprus, and British warships are preparing to transport thousands of Britons. The United Nations has warned of a humanitarian disaster in Lebanon as people flee their homes. Israel is targeting Hezbollah fighters, who have captured two of its soldiers. More than 200 Lebanese citizens have been killed since Israel launched air strikes last Wednesday. Twenty-four Israelis have died - 12 as a result of Hezbollah rocket attacks. Tens of thousands of foreigners are set to leave Lebanon by land, sea, and air in the coming days. On Tuesday morning, a ferry chartered by France brought 1,200 Europeans to the Cypriot port of Larnaca. Nearly 400 people arrived on an Italian navy vessel on Monday night. They appeared tired, but relieved to be away from the violence. "It's getting worse and worse, the bombs are actually so close that we could see the smoke and the fire," one evacuee told Reuters news agency. "Kids were crying. It's quite scary." Another said: "It was hell, it was scary. We're glad we're here but at the same time we're very sad." British warships are standing by to transport up to 12,000 Britons and a further 10,000 people with dual British-Lebanese nationality to Cyprus. British military bases on the island have offered to provide short-term shelter for people as they wait for repatriation flights.

'Worse by the hour'
US military helicopters have started flying American citizens from Lebanon to Cyprus. A commercial ship escorted by a US destroyer is due to move another 25,000 people to safety. Other governments are organising pullouts by land to Syria. The BBC's Jim Muir in southern Lebanon says the roads are clogged with packed vehicles. Many of the displaced people appear exhausted and bewildered. The UN's top humanitarian official, Jan Egeland, said air strikes on roads and bridges were hampering efforts to help the people fleeing their homes. "It's already very bad, and it is deteriorating by the hour," he told the BBC. "Now it seems we are headed for another scenario where we will have to do a lot of rebuilding, a lot of humanitarian relief, a lot of life-saving relief". Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has said the attacks will not end until the two soldiers, who were captured by Hezbollah in a cross-border raid, are freed. He also insisted that Hezbollah guerrillas should be disarmed, and that the Lebanese army should take control southern Lebanon.

Detective novelist Spillane dies BBC News
US crime writer Mickey Spillane, who created the tough private eye Mike Hammer, has died at the age of 88. He wrote his first novel, I The Jury, in 1946. Two dozen books followed, including 12 Mike Hammer novels. Notable titles included The Killing Man, Vengeance is Mine, and My Gun is Quick. His book Kiss Me Deadly was made into a classic 1955 film noir. Spillane's literary trademarks were violence and a blunt, gritty style. He died at his home in South Carolina. There was no immediate word on the cause of death. Born in Brooklyn, New York in 1918, Spillane grew up in neighbouring New Jersey, and started his career as a comic strip writer. The writer, whose real name was Frank Morrison Spillane, became a Jehovah's Witness in the early 1950s. He had few literary pretensions, and said that "If the public likes you, you're good". Spillane had critics among fellow writers. Rival detective novelist Raymond Chandler described his work as "nothing but a mixture of violence and outright pornography". But Spillane was immune to such criticism. "Those big-shot writers could never dig the fact that there are more salted peanuts consumed than caviar," he once pronounced.

Car bombing kills dozens in Iraq BBC News
A car bomb attack in the southern Iraqi city of Kufa has killed at least 53 people and left 103 injured. The bomb hit a crowd of labourers as they gathered close to a Shia shrine in the centre of the city at 0730 local time (0330 GMT), officials said.Witnesses said the labourers seeking work had gathered around a minibus which then exploded. Shia Muslims in Kufa, 160km (100 miles) south of Baghdad, have been the frequent targets of attacks.

Police attacked
Nasser Kadhim, who lost his brother and was injured in the blast told the AFP news agency that a vehicle pulled over and dozens oflabourers surrounded it, expecting to be offered work."A few minutes later the explosion happened and everything was thrown into the air," he said. Some reports said the minibus had filled up with volunteers and was pulling away as it blew up. Policemen who arrived at the scene were pelted with stones and fired shots into the air to disperse the crowds, Reuters reported.

Anger and mistrust
The blast took place close to the golden-domed mosque in Kufa, a key Shia pilgrimage site. It marks the site where Imam Ali, cousin and son-in-law of the Prophet Muhammad, is said to have been mortally wounded.The town is also a stronghold of the radical Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr, whose Mehdi army militia is widely accused by Sunnis of carrying out sectarian attacks. The bombing comes a day after at least 48 people were killed and more than 60 injured in a gunfire and mortar attack on a market in the town of Mahmoudiya, south of Baghdad. Most of the victims were believed to be Shia Muslims. The BBC's Adam Brookes in Baghdad says this sectarian violence is designed to fuel, anger and mistrust between the different sects. It aims to undermine Iraq's new government by making it appear powerless in the face of the armed groups who now roam Iraq looking to wreck its new politics, our correspondent says.

Fresh warnings of Darfur disaster BBC News
Aid agencies and the EU have warned Darfur is teetering on the brink of catastrophe and have called for urgent efforts to bolster the peace process. The warnings came ahead of a major international conference on Darfur in Brussels on Tuesday. The aid agencies said Western donors were failing African Union soldiers in Darfur who depend on their funds. A Darfur peace deal was signed two months ago but correspondents say the security situation has got worse. Most of Darfur's two million displaced people have rejected the deal and rebel movements continue to fight one another, says the BBC's Jonah Fisher in Khartoum.

Troops 'set up to fail'
In their statement, the eight agencies - which include Oxfam, Care International, Islamic Relief and Oxfam International - say the 7,000 AU soldiers in Darfur are being set up to fail.The soldiers would like to expand their mission and increase their capabilities, says our correspondent, but Western donors refuse to release funds, and so instead they lurch from crisis to crisis. The agencies accuse donors of treating Darfur's people like a bargaining chip, and say $300m is urgently needed to fund the AU mission until the end of the year. The aid agencies' plea comes as some 70 delegations prepare to attend a large conference on Darfur in Brussels on Tuesday. International efforts to address the conflict have been hampered because the AU wants to pull out by the end of September but the Sudanese government is refusing to allow a replacement UN force to take over.But aid agencies say the international community should focus on funding the existing AU mission now rather than concentrating on trying to secure agreement on the transfer of the AU mission to the UN. "While an enormous amount of energy is being spent debating what will happen in six months' time, no-one seems to have noticed that people are still being killed today," said Denis Caillaux of Care International.

Genocide warning
The EU representative to Sudan also spoke out ahead of the conference, warning of the potential for greater conflict - or even genocide - in Darfur. "If the African Union says: 'Sorry, we have to finish now, we cannot run this operation,' we lose the last internationals who are following the situation - in the camps, around the camps, who are giving at least a minimum protection to these refugees," Pekka Haavisto told the BBC. "I think internationally we cannot afford this... because then we are very close to the possible scenarios of genocide, or Rwanda scenarios, if you don't have any organised international force on the ground."

Guatemala urged to act on murders BBC News
Guatemala is still failing to take action over the high number of murders of women and girls in the country, according to Amnesty International. The rights group said there has been little progress since June 2005, when it called on the authorities to act.Up to 70% of murders of women are not investigated and no arrests are made in 97% of cases, Amnesty says. It adds that some officials recognise how serious the problem is, but many still tend to blame the victims. Amnesty's latest report cites police figures which show that 229 women and girls were killed in Guatemala in the first six months of 2006.Many of the murders were exceptionally brutal, with the victims suffering sexual violence, mutilation and dismemberment. Amnesty says that it knows of only two convictions out of 665 murders of women in 2005.

Training
Among the cases highlighted in the report is that of Cristina Hernandez, who was forced into a car outside her home on 27 July 2005. Her father tried in vain to give chase and then went to a police to report the abduction and to ask the officers to set up roadblocks. Her father said the officers refused, arguing that girls often ran off with boyfriends and that they could not begin a search for 24 hours.Cristina's body was found the next morning. She had been shot four times and bitten all over her body. Her family, afraid for their safety, went into hiding. Her killers are still at large. Amnesty says that in many cases, there is a failure to carry out even basic investigations, process the crime scene and preserve potential evidence. Heavy case loads, lack of equipment and the shortage of police investigators mean that few cases are pursued vigorously. Amnesty is calling on the Guatemalan authorities to improve the quality of criminal investigations, including providing more training for investigators. It also says there should be more efforts to guarantee the safety of witnesses and family members, and to follow up reported abductions of women and girls.

Senate approves stem-cell funding MarketWatch
The Senate on Tuesday approved legislation that would allow federal funding of embryonic stem-cell research, but backers appear unlikely to override a promised presidential veto. The Senate voted 63-37 to lift restrictions on embryonic stem-cell research put in place by President Bush in 2001. The House passed the bill last year. It now goes to the White House, which this week has repeatedly reiterated Bush's plan to veto the bill. The move would mark the first veto of Bush's presidency. Both the House and Senate appeared unlikely to come up with the two-thirds majority needed to override a veto. Tuesday's vote came after the Senate unanimously passed two non-controversial stem-cell bills. One would prohibit a practice dubbed "fetal farming," while the other would encourage federal funding of research into methods for obtaining stem cells without harming embryos. But Democrats charged that Republicans were offering those pieces of legislation merely to provide political cover to the White House and to lawmakers who vote against federal funding for embryonic research. The embryonic stem-cell bill passed with the support of the chamber's Democrats and a large chunk of Republicans after nearly two days of often emotional debate. Bush, in a 2001 executive order, restricted research to embryonic stem-cell lines already in existence at that time. Advocates of embryonic stem-cell research contend the administration's restrictions have slowed the development of treatments for those suffering from spinal-cord injuries and a range of diseases, including Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease and diabetes. "It is a clear cut question to use embryos to save lives because otherwise they will be destroyed. There are some 400,000 frozen embryos, and the choice is between discarding them or using them to save lives," said Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., a co-sponsor of the bill. Opponents, including the White House, contend the research destroys human life and shouldn't be funded by taxpayer dollars. "The president is not opposed to stem-cell research, he's all for it. But there is one kind of research and that is that which involves the destruction of human life that he does not think is appropriate for the federal government to finance. He's been absolutely clear about it," said White House spokesman Tony Snow. "Just because the budding lives would not survive does not mean that we should ghoulishly conduct experiments on them," said Sen. Jim Bunning, R-Ky. The legislation would require the federal government to support research using stem cells from excess embryos created as part of fertility treatments and that were due to otherwise be discarded. The written consent of the embryo donors would also be required. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., surprised colleagues last year when he announced he would back an easing of longstanding White House restrictions on federal funding. The White House also issued statements Monday backing passage of the other two other bills being considered by the Senate. "Fetal farming" refers to the use of fetal tissue obtained from a pregnancy initiated for research purposes. The other measure would encourage federal funding of research into methods for obtaining stem cells without harming embryos.
Senate Approves Embryonic Stem Cell Bill ABC News
Senate Approves Bill to Expand Wall Street Journal (subscription)
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Israel claims Iran link to crisis BBC News
Hezbollah's capture of two Israeli soldiers last week was timed to divert attention from Tehran's nuclear programme, the Israeli PM has claimed. Ehud Olmert said that the cross-border raid in which the two soldiers were taken and eight others killed was co-ordinated with Tehran. About 30 people died in a seventh day of conflict, most of them in Lebanon. US President George W Bush has meanwhile accused Syria of trying to use the crisis to return to Lebanon. "Syria is trying to get back into Lebanon, it looks like to me," Mr Bush said in Washington. "It's essential that the government of Lebanon survives this crisis. We've worked hard to free - and we meaning the international community - worked hard to free Lebanon from Syrian influence." The US state department refused to confirm comments by an Israeli ambassador that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice would travel to the region on Friday. Israel launched its assault and blockade last Wednesday after the two soldiers were captured. About 230 Lebanese people have been killed since then - the majority of them were civilians, but the toll includes about 30 soldiers. The number of Hezbollah militants killed is not known. Twenty-five Israelis have died - 13 civilians and 12 members of the military. Israel has frequently blamed Syria and Iran for arming and backing Hezbollah, but Mr Olmert's comments were the first explicit claim of Tehran's direct involvement in the capture of the soldiers, correspondents say.Mr Olmert said the timing of the incident was not an accident, and the international community at the G8 summit in Russia had fallen for it - discussing Lebanon rather than Iran's nuclear programme. Earlier, Israel's foreign minister met a UN team trying to negotiate a ceasefire, but said the soldiers' release and the deployment of the Lebanese army in the south would have to precede any ceasefire. Thousands more foreigners have continued to flee Lebanon as the crisis deepens. The UN announced that its non-essential staff would join the exodus. A British warship docked in Beirut at the start of a mission to transport up to 12,000 Britons and a further 10,000 people with dual British-Lebanese nationality to Cyprus. The US, Canada and other governments were also organising evacuations by land, air or sea.

In other developments:

• Lebanese PM Fouad Siniora said Israel was "opening the gates of hell and madness" on his country, and said Israel's response to the soldiers' capture had been disproportionate
• Pro-Syrian Lebanese President Emile Lahoud vowed to stand by Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah
• UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said he expected European nations to contribute troops to a proposed stabilisation force to end the fighting
• The UN warned of a humanitarian disaster as Lebanese flee their homes, with air strikes on roads and bridges hampering efforts to help them
• Shlomo Goldwasser, the father of one of the missing Israeli soldiers, said he hoped all means - legal or illegal - would be used to get his son Ehud back

As Israel launched fresh air strikes and cross-border attacks on Tuesday, six bodies were pulled from the rubble of a home in the Lebanese border village of Aitaroun, and another family was killed in the coastal city of Tyre. In one attack, 11 Lebanese soldiers were killed at a barracks east of Beirut. The Lebanese army has been ordered not to respond to the Israeli attacks. But Lebanese soldiers have now died in several strikes, including one on the port of Abdeh on Monday in which nine died. Fresh volleys of Hezbollah rockets landed on northern Israel on Tuesday. One attack killed an Israeli in the town of Nahariya. Rockets also hit Haifa, Safed, Acre, Kiryat Shemona, and Gush Halav region near Safed, Israeli officials told AP news agency. Israeli military officials say more than 700 Hezbollah rockets have now landed in Israel since the crisis began.

Search for Java tsunami survivors BBC News
Rescue workers are searching for survivors of a tsunami that struck Java, killing at least 341 people. Nearly 230 people are missing and many thousands of others have been displaced, Indonesian officials said. The tsunami was triggered by a 7.7 magnitude undersea earthquake that struck off the resort of Pangandaran on Monday, causing a 2m-high wave. Indonesian police and troops are helping search for the missing. The death toll is expected to rise. Doctors in the worst-affected region near Pangandaran have called for more medical supplies to be sent to help treat the hundreds of injured. Meanwhile, questions are being asked about what warning was given to local communities before the tsunami struck.After the earthquake which triggered the tsunami, US and Japanese agencies issued tsunami alerts for parts of Indonesia and Australia. But there was no reported local warning of the disaster, despite efforts to establish an early warning system in the wake of the 2004 Asian tsunami. The Associated Press news agency reported that the government acknowledged it had received regional warnings about the impending tsunami, but did not pass them on to threatened areas along Java's southern coast. Vice President Jusuf Kalla said no warning had been issued because most people had fled inland following the earthquake, the agency reported. Peter Cameron, from the Red Cross in the Indonesian capital Jakarta, told the BBC that Indonesian authorities had received a warning about 20 minutes before the tsunami struck.He said that "by the time they got it and got ready to disseminate it the tsunami had already hit the coast". "They don't have mechanisms, sophisticated mechanisms in place to get hold of local authorities and therefore the local people to warn them very fast and so in this case, anyway, the timing was not that good." A government official working on the Indonesian tsunami warning system told Reuters that just two buoys of the 22 need to cover the country had been deployed, and that those were damaged.

Bodies in trees
Survivors of Monday's disaster spoke of a black wall of water engulfing them, causing destruction as far inland as half a kilometre. At first light, rescuers were confronted with the sight of bodies in the branches of trees, and in the rubble of smashed hotels and houses. At least 42,000 people were reported to have been displaced, either because their homes were destroyed or because they feared another tsunami. Body bags and other essential items have begun to arrive, and relief aid such as tents and food are being sent for the thousands of people who have fled their homes. The UN's World Food Programme said it was sending 15 metric tons of noodles and high-energy biscuits to the survivors. At least three foreign nationals were said to be among the dead, including a Dutch citizen. Two Swedish children who had been reported missing were later found safe and well, the Swedish foreign ministry said, according to the French news agency AFP. More than 130,000 people were killed in Indonesia in the December 2004 disaster. The country sits on the seismically active Pacific "Ring of Fire", and experiences frequent earthquakes. On 27 May, a magnitude 6.3 earthquake hit near the city of Yogyakarta in Java, killing more than 5,800 people.

Indonesian tsunami death toll hits 341 Houston Chronicle
Indonesia pledged to build a nationwide tsunami alert system as soldiers pulled bodies from ravaged beaches, homes and hotels Tuesday. Parents searched tearfully for their children and the death toll hit at least 463, with nearly 280 people missing.Bodies covered in white sheets piled up at makeshift morgues, while others lay beneath the blazing sun in the tourist resort of Pangandaran, a 6-month-old baby among them. The search for survivors continued Tuesday, with parents among the last to give up. "The water was too strong," said Irah as she dug through a pile of rubble with her bare hands, close to the spot where she last saw her 6-year-old son. "Oh God. Eki, where are you?" The magnitude 7.7 undersea quake on Monday triggered walls of water more than six feet high that crashed into a 110-mile stretch of beach on Java island, an area spared by the devastating 2004 Asian tsunami. The waves destroyed houses, restaurants and hotels and tossed boats, cars and motorbikes far inland. The government said Wednesday that emergency workers recovered dozens of more bodies, pushing the death toll to 463 with nearly 280 people missing. Almost all the victims were Indonesians, but a Pakistani, a Swede and a Dutch citizen were among those killed, officials said. At least 42,000 people fled their homes, either because they were destroyed or in fear of another tsunami, adding to the difficulty of counting casualties. At the area's main hospital, in the town of Banjar, medics scrambled to treat a steady stream of patients, most from the Pangandaran coast. Some slept on dirty mattresses on the floor, while others were treated in the admissions hall. Among the handful of foreign patients was Hamed Abukhamiss, a 40-year-old Saudi who was eating french fries with his family at a beach-side cafe when the tsunami came into view on the horizon. His 12-year-old son, Yousif, saw the wave approaching through binoculars, but no one believed him when he yelled "Tsunami!" Less than a minute later the family was swept away in the torrent of water, and Abukhamiss' wife and 4-year-old son were killed. "I'll bury them here, but I will never come back," he said, crying in his hospital bed. "How am I going to tell my daughter her mother is dead?" Monday's quake struck at 3:24 p.m. about 150 miles beneath the ocean floor, causing tall buildings to sway hundreds of miles away in the capital, Jakarta. After the quake, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center and Japan's Meteorological Agency issued warnings of a possible tsunami. It struck Java about an hour later. Science and Technology Minister Kusmayanto Kadiman said Indonesia received the bulletins 45 minutes before the tsunami hit but did not announce them because they did not want to cause unnecessary alarm. "If it (the tsunami) did not occur, what would have happened?" he told reporters in Jakarta, noting that there was no effective way to spread a warning without a system of sirens or alarms in place. He said Indonesia now planned to speed up plans for a nationwide warning system. Indonesia was hardest hit by a 2004 tsunami that killed at least 216,000 people in a dozen Indian Ocean nations _ with more than half the deaths occurring in Sumatra island's Aceh province. Though the country started to install a warning system after that disaster, it is still in the early stages. The government had been planning to extend the alert system to Java _ which was hit by a quake in May that killed more than 5,800 people _ in 2007. Answering reporters' questions as to why no warning was issued on Monday, Vice President Jusuf Kalla claimed there was no need because most people had fled inland after the earthquake, fearing a tsunami. "After the quake occurred, people ran to the hills ... so in actual fact there was a kind of natural early warning system," he said. However, of dozens of people interviewed by The Associated Press in Pangandaran on Tuesday, only one person said he felt a slight tremor. None said there was a mass movement of people to higher ground before the tsunami, though some residents recognized the danger when they saw the wall of water approaching. Indonesia is on the so-called Pacific "Ring of Fire," an arc of volcanoes and fault lines encircling the Pacific Basin.
By IRWAN FIRDAUS Associated Press Writer. PANGANDARAN, Indonesia —
Jakarta officials failed to give tsunami warning Guardian Unlimited
Indonesians recover bodies after tsunami Ely Times
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Three charged over Katrina deaths BBC News
A doctor and two nurses have been charged with murdering hospital patients in the US city of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina last year. The three, who were arrested and then released on bail, are accused of giving lethal injections to four people. At least 34 patients died at Memorial Medical Center, which was cut off after Katrina hit the city on 29 August. Prosecutors have investigated claims of negligence and euthanasia, and subpoenaed 73 staff in the inquiry. Dr Anna Pou and nurses Lori Budo and Cheri Landry have been charged with four counts of second-degree murder. They are accused of giving four patients - two in their 90s and two in their 60s - lethal doses of morphine and a sedative. Louisiana Attorney General Charles C Foti said: "This is not euthanasia. This is homicide." He added: "While I am aware of the horrendous conditions that existed after Hurricane Katrina... I believe that there is no excuse for intentionally killing another living human being." He said he expected more arrests to follow. A lawyer for Dr Pou said she was innocent of the charges.

Stranded
Patients at the 317-bed hospital spent four days stranded in floodwater, with no electricity, after Hurricane Katrina struck Louisiana. Before rescuers reached the hospital, at least 34 patients had died. Tenet Healthcare Corporation, which owns Memorial, said the arrest warrants alleged that the medics "may have administered pain medication that hastened the deaths of certain patients in the chaotic aftermath of Hurricane Katrina". "If proven true, these allegations are very disturbing. Euthanasia is repugnant to everything we believe as ethical healthcare providers, and it violates every precept of ethical behaviour and the law." In all, more than 970 people are known to have died in Louisiana in the aftermath of Katrina, and more than 200 in neighbouring Mississippi. In a separate case, two nursing home owners were charged with manslaughter last year over the deaths of dozens of people at the St Rita's home. They are accused of ignoring orders to move residents out.

EU plans emergency border squads BBC News
A plan to create rapid reaction teams of border guards to deal with European Union immigration crises will be unveiled in Brussels on Wednesday. The proposal comes in response to requests from member states for the creation of teams of experts able to respond quickly to requests for help. Spain asked in May for help tackling an influx of migrants to the Canary Islands, but it has yet to arrive. About 11,000 people have landed on the islands this year, beating all records. Sources in Brussels say not all the countries that promised ships, aircraft and manpower have made good on their pledges. They add that it has taken time to define the details of the operation, which is the first entrusted to the new EU border security agency, Frontex.

Registration system
The proposals to be discussed by the European Commission on Wednesday define the tasks rapid reaction teams of border guards would undertake and how they would be funded. In the Canary Islands operation, Spain will control the foreign border guards, but Frontex experts will provide support and assistance. At their summit last December, EU leaders invited the Commission to "bring forward a proposal for the creation of rapid reaction teams made up of national experts able to provide rapid technical and operational assistance at times of high influxes of migrants". The Commission is also expected to approve on Wednesday a list of priority policies to tackle illegal immigration. These are expected to include a new system for registering the arrival and departure of non-EU citizens visiting the EU, and encouragement to member states to crack down on employment of illegal immigrants.

New aid for AU Darfur peace force BBC News
Major donors have pledged to increase aid for peacekeeping in Sudan's Darfur region, responding to warnings that the delicate peace process is in danger. The 7,000-strong African Union force in Darfur is running short of funds. At a donor conference in Brussels, the US pledged an extra $116m, while the EU offered $30m. Earlier, aid agencies and the EU warned that the region is teetering on the brink of disaster, amid fears a peace deal signed in May could collapse. The aid agencies said Western donors were failing African Union (AU) soldiers in Darfur who depend on their funds. Correspondents say the security situation in Darfur has got worse despite the peace deal. Most of Darfur's two million displaced people have rejected the deal and rebel movements continue to fight one another.

'Limitation'
Despite the cash injection, which came after UN Secretary General Kofi Annan made a personal appeal, questions remain over the AU's longer-term deployment. Sudan's government has not yet given backing for UN troops to take over from the AU, but the AU itself needs even more money to remain in the region past September. Said Djinnit, from the AU, said the organisation would need more support if it was to stay on until the end of the year. "The African Union has made that specific operation because of its commitment to peace to Darfur and to Sudan. It was aware of its limitations. "It is the conviction of the African Union that it has taken the responsibility for peacekeeping operations in Darfur to the limit of its capacity."

Troops 'set up to fail'
In their statement, the eight agencies - which include Oxfam, Care International, Islamic Relief and Oxfam International - said the 7,000 AU soldiers in Darfur are being set up to fail.The agencies accused donors of treating Darfur's people like a bargaining chip, and said $300m was urgently needed to fund the AU mission until the end of the year. The agencies insisted that more focus was needed on the situation on the ground now, rather than plans for the months to come. "While an enormous amount of energy is being spent debating what will happen in six months' time, no-one seems to have noticed that people are still being killed today," said Denis Caillaux of Care International.

Genocide warning
The EU representative to Sudan also spoke out ahead of the conference, warning of the potential for greater conflict - or even genocide - in Darfur. "If the African Union says: 'Sorry, we have to finish now, we cannot run this operation,' we lose the last internationals who are following the situation - in the camps, around the camps, who are giving at least a minimum protection to these refugees," Pekka Haavisto told the BBC. "I think internationally we cannot afford this... because then we are very close to the possible scenarios of genocide, or Rwanda scenarios, if you don't have any organised international force on the ground."

Coalition targets 'Taleban towns' BBC News
US-led forces say they are preparing to retake two Taleban-held towns in the southern Afghan province of Helmand. "Decisive operations" would begin soon against Taleban fighters who had taken control of the areas of Garmsel and Naway-i-Barakazayi, a statement said. A spokesman said: "I cannot tell you when for security reasons, but we will re-establish government authority." Some 10,000 US-led troops are fighting the Taleban and their allies. Hundreds of people have been killed this year.

'Extremists'
The statement from the US-led coalition said a massive military operation had seriously disrupted Taleban fighters in southern Afghanistan, particularly in the districts of Sangin, Musa Qala and Baghran in Helmand province."Afghan and coalition forces in the last week have killed numerous lower and mid-level commanders that the senior Taleban leadership rely on to intimidate villages, threaten elders and lead small bands of extremists to conduct attacks on Afghan and coalition forces," it added. The statement also confirmed that a coalition soldier had died on Monday in neighbouring Uruzgan province. The nationality of the dead soldier has not yet been released. The troops came under fire after destroying a truck that militants were loading in Tarin Kowt district. Eleven other soldiers were wounded, the coalition said. Large numbers of Taleban militants entered Naway-i-Barakzayi on Monday, clashing briefly with police who then fled, a local police official was quoted by the Associated Press news agency as saying. Local people say the Taleban have taken over the government centre and assumed control of the town. On Sunday, the police chief of Helmand confirmed that Taleban fighters had overrun Garmsel, a town south of Naway, near the Pakistan border. The two towns are both a few miles west of Lashkar Gah, where the British military operation centre is based. Al-Qaeda and Taleban militants have mounted a series of attacks in Afghanistan in recent months. Most of the violence has been in the south and east, in provinces bordering Pakistan.