Maldini

Democrats win control of Congress By JIM KUHNHENN, Associated Press Writer Jim Webb is celebrating but his victory has not been confirmed WASHINGTON - In a rout once considered almost inconceivable, Democrats won a 51st seat in the Senate and regained total control of Congress after 12 years of near-domination by the Republican Party. The shift dramatically alters the government's balance of power, leaving President Bush without GOP congressional control to drive his legislative agenda. Democrats hailed the results and issued calls for bipartisanship even as they vowed to investigate administration policies and decisions. Democrats completed their sweep Wednesday evening by ousting Republican Sen. George Allen of Virginia, the last of six GOP incumbents to lose re-election bids in a midterm election marked by deep dissatisfaction with the president and the war in Iraq Democrats had 229 seats in the House, 11 more than the number necessary to hold the barest of majorities in the 435-member chamber. "In Iraq and here at home, Americans have made clear they are tired of the failures of the last six years," said Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada, in line to become Senate Majority leader when Congress reconvenes in January. As watershed elections go, this one rivaled the GOP's takeover in 1994, which made Newt Gingrich speaker of the House, the first Republican to run the House since the Eisenhower administration. This time the shift comes in the midst of an unpopular war, a Congress scarred by scandal and just two years from a wide-open presidential contest. Allen lost to Democrat Jim Webb, a former Republican who served as Navy secretary in the Reagan administration. A count by The Associated Press showed Webb with 1,172,538 votes and Allen with 1,165,302, a difference of 7,236. Allen was awaiting the result statewide postelection canvass of votes and did not concede the race. Democrats will have nine new senators on their side of the aisle as a result of Tuesday's balloting. Six of them defeated sitting Republican senators from Pennsylvania, Ohio, Missouri, Rhode Island, Montana and Virginia. The other three replaced retiring senators from Maryland, Minnesota and Vermont. Their ideologies are as varied as their home states. Bernie Sanders, an independent who will replace Vermont Sen. Jim Jeffords, is a Socialist who has served in the House and voted with Democrats since 1990. Bob Casey Jr., who defeated Republican Sen. Rick Santorum in Pennsylvania, is an anti-abortion moderate. Webb once declared that the sight of President Clinton returning a Marine's salute infuriated him. Besides the Webb-Allen race, the Montana Senate contest also was too tight to call early Wednesday. But by midday, Democrat Jon Tester outdistanced Republican Sen. Conrad Burns who had to fight off campaign miscues as well as his ties to Jack Abramoff, the once super-lobbyist caught in an influence-peddling scheme. In the House, 10 races remained too tight to call, with three of them leaning to the Democrats Rep. Nancy Pelosi who would become the first female speaker in history, called for harmony and said Democrats would not abuse their new status. She said she would be "the speaker of the House, not the speaker of the Democrats." She said Democrats would aggressively conduct oversight of the administration, but said any talk of impeachment of President Bush "is off the table." In the Senate, Sen. Charles Schumer of New York, the head of the Democrats' Senate campaign committee, said, "We had a tough and partisan election, but the American people and every Democratic senator — and I've spoken to just about all of them — want to work with the president in a bipartisan way."

Bush's legacy, Iraq war on line in vote By John Whitesides, Political Correspondent WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Americans voted on Tuesday in elections for Congress that could curb the power of George W. Bush's Republicans, force a change of direction in Iraq and shape the legacy of a U.S. president with two years left in office. Democrats are on course to recapture control of the U.S. House of Representatives from Republicans for the first time since 1994, opinion polls showed, with their chance of taking over the Senate hinging on several key races that are too close to call. A majority for the party in even one chamber of Congress could slam the brakes on Bush's second-term legislative agenda, hasten his lame-duck status and give Democrats a chance to investigate his most controversial policy decisions, such as the war in Iraq. Polls opened at 6 a.m. EST (1100 GMT) in some areas of the eastern United States and will start to close at 6 p.m. EST (2300 GMT), but it could be hours before results are known in many crucial races. Bush cast his ballot in Crawford, Texas, joking that he had "pretty much" made up his mind. After a five-day swing through 10 states to fire up supporters in Republican strongholds, Bush urged all Americans to vote no matter which side they backed. Ann Balentine of Des Moines, Iowa, said she was insulted by the flood of negative campaign advertising and felt that members of Congress should have their terms limited. "I'm thinking these morons need to be out of office after eight or 12 years," she said. For Jan Mitchell, a 54-year-old nurse voting at Miami's city hall, Iraq was the major factor. "We've got to get out of there," she said. "We shouldn't have been there in the first place, but that is sort of beside the point." All 435 House seats, 33 Senate seats and 36 governorships are at stake and Democrats need to pick up 15 House seats and six Senate seats to seize control of both chambers. About 50 contested House races and 10 Senate races are the chief battlegrounds. Independent analysts predict Democrats could gain 20 to 40 House seats, while polls show races for Republican-held Senate seats in Missouri, Virginia, Tennessee, Montana and Rhode Island are too close to call. Democrats probably need to win four of those five Senate races to take control of the chamber. Two national opinion polls on Monday showed Democrats still held a double-digit advantage when likely voters were asked which party's candidate they would support. The new polls contradicted two surveys released on Sunday that showed Republicans closing the gap on Democrats. History was with Democrats -- the party holding the White House traditionally loses seats in a president's sixth year. STRONG CHALLENGES The battle for the House will be fought largely in the East and Midwest, where scores of Republican incumbents are fighting for their political lives amid what polls show is a strong desire for change. At least three Republican incumbents face strong challenges in Indiana and Connecticut, while four Republican-held seats in Pennsylvania and five New York seats could fall to Democrats. In a campaign dominated by Iraq, Bush defended his handling of the war to the end and questioned what Democrats would do differently. "We have a plan for victory. We've got a strategy to win. And part of that is to elect Republicans to the Congress and to the Senate," Bush told a rally in Bentonville, Arkansas on the eve of the election. Bush, who has been hampered by low approval ratings, said Republicans were coming back and would retain control of Congress. "I knew we were going to finish strong. I knew that we were going to come roaring into Election Day, because we've got the right position on taxes and we've got the right position on what it takes to protect you from attack," he said. Democrats put leaders like former President Bill Clinton , former Vice Preside, former Vice President Al Gore and Illinois Sen. Barack Obama on the campaign trail to drum up votes in the final hours.

Israel pulls out of Gaza town, eight Palestinians killed by Adel Zaanoun BEIT HANUN, Gaza Strip (AFP) - Israeli troops have left Beit Hanun as eight people were killed elsewhere in Gaza, raising to more than 60 the Palestinian death toll in the beleaguered territory in a week. Soldiers departed overnight from a town the military charged had become a launchpad for rocket attacks against Israel , repositioning elsewhere in the northern Gaza Strip and leaving behind scenes of destruction. "We withdrew our forces from Beit Hanun after having completed our mission," a military spokesman confirmed after daybreak. Roads were left gouged out. Homes, two mosques and a school were destroyed. The historic old town was pockmarked with bullet holes and shell craters, electricity pylons ripped from the ground and sewage spewing in the streets. Residents picking their way through the wreckage mourned their "martyrs", eyes red with fatigue, filled with hate and tears, an AFP reporter said. The army said troops had seized a large amount of weaponry, including rocket launchers, anti-tank missile launchers and grenades. Dozens of Palestinians "suspected of terror involvement" were also taken for questioning, it said. In Gaza for crunch talks with the Hamas-led cabinet on forming a unity government, Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas condemned Israel's attacks, charging that Palestinian casualties were no guarantee of its security. "If Israel wants peace and security, the path of Palestinian blood is not the one to be followed," Abbas told AFP. "The Israelis announced that they had left Beit Hanun and we thought they had finished, but unfortunately they've begun again," he added. "This proves Israel is determined to continue its aggression not only in Beit Hanun but in the entire Gaza Strip." Five militants and a woman were among the eight Palestinians killed Tuesday in a string of incidents in which Israeli troops opened fire. Two of the militants were from Islamic Jihad, which claimed a Monday attack in which a Palestinian woman blew herself up alongside Israeli troops, one from the military wing of Hamas and two from the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades. A woman, Nahla Shanti, and Abdel Majid Ghirbawi were killed when a shell struck the home of Hamas lawmaker Jamileh al-Shanti where the two were staying. The army said it returned fire after militants fired two rocket-propelled grenades at its forces in the area. An Israeli military spokesman said forces "identified hitting 10 gunmen" after six incidents in which gunmen approached the army or troops came under attack in northern Gaza as well as one air strike on a militant cell. The six-day reoccupation of Beit Hanun failed to halt rocket fire, with some 40 rockets hitting Israel since the start of Operation Autumn Clouds. Gaza militants carried out their deepest rocket attack into Israel in months Tuesday, when four projectiles struck the town of Ashkelon, causing no damage, after the army rumbled out of Beit Hanun. Another rocket fell further south. The latest Israeli incursion, following four months of military activity in Gaza in which more than 300 Palestinians have been killed since a soldier was captured in late June, was condemned by the international community. Israeli officials have repeatedly vowed that they have no intention of permanently reoccupying Gaza, from whichn the Jewish state withdrew troops and settlers last year after a 38-year occupation. In all, 64 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza in a week, including more than 50 and one Israeli soldier who died during Autumn Clouds. Despite the bloodshed, Abbas was due to hold another round of crunch talks Tuesday with Hamas prime minister Ismail Haniya on a unity cabinet. Abbas has tried in vain for months to persuade the Islamist party to agree to a moderate platform acceptable to the international community in order to lift a crushing economic and political boycott of the Palestinian territories. In Damascus, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem expressed support for a Palestinian unity government after talks with Khaled Meshaal, the hardline exiled leader of Hamas, the official Sana news agency reported.

Voters choose who will control Congress By CALVIN WOODWARD, Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON - Voters put the Republican congressional majority and a multitude of new voting equipment to the test Tuesday in an election that defined the balance of power for the rest of George W. Bush's presidency. Both parties hustled to get their supporters out in high-stakes contests across the country, Republicans conceding nothing as their vaunted get-out-the-vote machine swung into motion, Democrats appearing confident and appealing one more time for change. Democratic Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York seconded her party's mantra, with one qualification. "I voted for change, except for me," she said, casting her ballot with her husband Bill, the former president, in Chappaqua, N.Y. Voting at sunrise, Bush switched from partisan campaigner to democracy's cheerleader as he implored Americans of all political leanings to cast ballots. "We live in a free society and our government is only as good as the willingness of our people to participate," Bush said, his wife, Laura, at his side and an "I voted" sticker on the lapel of his brown suede jacket. "Therefore, no matter what your party affiliation or if you don't have a party affiliation, do your duty, cast your ballot and let your voice be heard." The Iraq war, as predicted, was prominently on people's minds. Separated by age, party of choice and their position on the war, Melanie Tate, 22, in Louisville, Ky., and Mario Georgalas, 41, in Miami Beach both spoke of the energizing experience of voting. "I was more excited the first time I got to vote than the first time I got to drive," Tate, 22, a political science student and head of the University of Louisville Democrats, said after casting her ballot. "We're seeing our friends going to the war. A lot of us are voting for Democratic candidates who will work to end the war," Tate said. Georgalas cast his ballot on the way to work. "I was in the Navy for six years, that's why I vote," he said. He voted for the GOP ticket because he didn't believe the U.S. should leave Iraq. "What you start," he said, "you should finish." About a third of voters were using new equipment, and problems in several states were reported right out of the gate. The government deployed a record number of poll watchers to the many competitive races across the country. Glitches delayed balloting in dozens of Indiana and Ohio precincts, and Illinois officials were swamped with calls from voters complaining that poll workers did not know how to operate new electronic equipment. In Delaware County, Ind., officials planned to seek a court order to extend voting after an apparent computer error prevented voters from casting ballots in 75 precincts. Florida officials, working to avoid a repeat of the vote-counting debacle of 2000, fielded extra voting machines, paper ballots and poll workers. In the Jacksonville suburb of Orange Park, Fla., voters were forced to use paper ballots after an electronic machine broke. The uncertainty of it all made many jittery, candidates included. In Tennessee, where Republican Bob Corker and Democrat Harold Ford Jr. were in a pitched battle for a Senate seat, even a spotty rain made Corker edgy. "Any candidate doesn't like to see rain," Corker said, greeting supporters on a damp Tuesday morning in Kingsport. "You don't know what kind of variables that brings into it." His opponent, bidding to become the first black senator from the South since Reconstruction, declared the election to be in "God's hands" as he stood a respectful distance from the Lindenwood Christian Church, doubling as a polling station. But Ford wasn't leaving everything to divine fate. When he spotted voters standing in the church doorway, he shouted: "I would come up there but I don't want to get in trouble. I'd appreciate it if you'd vote for me." At stake in the midterm election were all 435 House seats, 33 in the Senate, 36 races for governor, ballot measures on gay marriage, embryonic stem cell research, the minimum wage and more — plus the overarching fate of Bush's agenda in the last two years of his presidency. Democrats hoped finally to answer the rout that drove them from legislative power in 1994. Despite brave words for public consumption, Republicans worried that control of the House would slip from their hands. Even Senate control was up in the air, but a tougher climb for Democrats. Democrats needed to gain 15 House seats or six in the Senate to form a majority, a development that would give them a stronger voice against a war that has cost more than 2,800 U.S. lives and has come to be seen by most Americans as misbegotten. Sharply critical of Bush's prosecution of the war throughout the campaign, Democrats nevertheless lack a common position on how to get the U.S. out. Republicans have been the acknowledged champions at getting supporters out to polling stations, a critical skill in midterm elections when turnout is typically low, around 40 percent, and one that heightened suspense over which party would hold the levers of power at the end of the counting. Evangelical conservatives are the foundation of that mobilization and motivation drive, but their own enthusiasm was in question as they faced the prospect of a president too politically weak to take forward their agenda and looked back on a campaign tainted by the congressional page sex scandal and more. Even so, some final opinion polls indicated a tightening race; others suggested the Democrats were still far in front in national sentiment. At least two dozen Republican House seats were at risk. Among GOP-held open seats, those in Arizona, Colorado, New York, Ohio and Iowa seemed most vulnerable. Republican Reps. John Hostettler, Chris Chocola and Mike Sodrel of Indiana; Charles Taylor of North Carolina; Curt Weldon, Don Sherwood and Melissa Hart of Pennsylvania; and Charles Bass of New Hampshire were in particularly difficult re-election struggles. In Senate races, Republican incumbents Mike DeWine in Ohio and Rick Santorum in Pennsylvania appeared in deepest trouble; Sens. Lincoln Chafee in Rhode Island and Conrad Burns in Montana somewhat less so. Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California, in line to become the first woman speaker in history if Democrats win, was in Washington after a weekend of campaigning for candidates in Pennsylvania and Connecticut.

Vote machines crash in Ohio EAST CLEVELAND, United States (AFP) - Early trouble with crashing electronic voting machines sparked immediate problems in some areas as US elections again went ahead amid fears of delays and polling irregularities. In one elementary school in the predominantly black district of East Cleveland, Ohio, all 12 machines went down when voting opened at 6:30 am (1130 GMT), according to an AFP correspondent at the scene. The machines were not started up until two hours later and poll officials refused to hand out paper ballots until a lawyer for the watchdog group Election Protection showed up. "The machines weren't working and they were just turning people away," said the attorney, Fred Livingstone. "They are not allowed to do that." More than 250 problems were reported at polling places in Ohio soon after polls opened according to an Election Protection watchdog operation run by a minority rights group and other non-governmental organizations. Ohio was the epicenter of controversy during the 2004 elections, as Democrats charged voter fraud incidents disproportionately helped Republicans. Democrats Tuesday hoped a strong countrywide showing would help them break the Republican hold on Congress and punish President George W. Bush over the war over the war in Iraq. In one polling station in Friendship Heights, Maryland just outside Washington, one of the 16 voting machines on offer failed as soon as the polls opened. Others worked well, but did not assuage voter concerns about whether their vote cast by electronic machines was safe. "They are very user friendly and there is good support, but I still wish they had a printout," said voter Chris Strom told AFP after casting her ballot. Up to 250 incidents were also reported through a voter hotline and by poll watchers in states including New York, Pennsylvania and Florida, according to the Election Protection database partly maintained by National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP). Though the site did not give specifics, problems included glitches at polling places and worries over registration of voters. Both Republicans and Democrats sent battalions of lawyers and poll watchers out observe booths, especially in areas expected to see voting problems, to immediately challenge any perceived problems. The Departet of Justice also dispatched 800 lawyers to certain jurisdictions "to ensure that everything with regard to federal laws is being complied with." Tens of thousands of lawyers were recruited for the 2004 presidential election in which George W. Bush was re-elected, four years after the Republican defeated Democratic candidate Al Gore in a hotly contested vote. The 2000 election turned to catastrophe when the results in the decisive state of Florida were contested and held in limbo for 36 days of recounts and litigation.

Put him in jail the rest of his life is most brutal The execuation is mercy and for the violence, the proverb says : Bitter pills may have blessed effects.

His death will make many people feel fine, I'm one of them

He deserve it and I hope they execute him quickly

WHO BENEFITS ? PART II Jewish history teacher Paula Hyman of Columbia University has observed: "With regard to Israel, the Holocuast may be used to forestall political criticism and suppress debate; it reinforces the sense of Jews as an eternally beleaguered people who can rely for their defense only upon themselves. The invocation of the suffering endured by the Jews under the Nazis often takes the place of rational argument, and is expected to convince doubters of the legitimacy of current Israeli government policy." ('New York Times Magazine', Sept. 14, 1980, p. 79). One major reason that the Holocuast story has proven so durable is that the government of the major powers also have a vested interest in maintaining it. The victorious powers of the Second World War -- the United States, the Soviet Union and Britian -- have a stake in portraying the defeated Hitler regime as negatively as possible. The more evil and satanic the Hitler regime appears, the more noble and justified seems the Allied cause. For many Jews, the Holocaust has become both a flourishing buisness and a kind of new religion, as noted Jewish author and newspaper publisher Jacobo Timerman points out in his book, 'The Longest War.' He reports that many Israelis, using the word Shoah, which is Hebrew for Holocaust, joke that "There's no business like Shoah business." ('The Longest War', (New York: Vintage, 1982), p. 15). The Holocaust media campaign portrays Jews as totally innocent victims, and non-Jews as mortally retarded and unreliable beings who can easily turn into murderous Nazis under the right circumstances. This self-serving but distorted portrayal greatly strengthens Jewish group solidarity and self-awareness. A key lesson of the Holocaust story for Jews is that non-Jews are never completely trustworthy. If a people as cultured and as educated as the Germans could turn against the Jews, so the thinking goes, than surely no non-Jewish nation can ever be completely trusted. The Holocaust message is thus one of contempt for humanity.

China pledges billions to Africa By JOE McDONALD, Associated Press Writer BEIJING - China launched a sweeping effort Saturday to expand its access to Africa's oil and markets, pledging billions of dollars in aid and loans as dozens of leaders from the world's poorest continent opened a conference aimed at building economic ties. African leaders at the two-day meeting said they welcomed Chinese investment and business ties, but Beijing also faces criticism that it is treating Africa like a colonial territory and supports regimes with poor human rights records President Hu Jintao pledged to double China's aid to Africa from its 2006 level by 2009. Speaking at the conference's opening ceremony, he promised $3 billion in loans, $2 billion in export credits and a $5 billion fund to encourage Chinese investment in Africa. "Chinese assistance to Africa is sincere, unselfish and has no strings attached," Premier Wen Jiabao said at a gathering of Chinese and African entrepreneurs held as part of the conference. Possibly reacting to criticism that China's aid to Africa might fuel human rights abuses or corruption, Wen promised to ensure that projects are "open, just, fair and transparent." The two-day event includes heads of state from 35 of the 53 African nations and top officials from 13 others — one of the largest such gatherings in history. China's trade with Africa soared to $39.7 billion last year, four times its 2000 level, according to Wen. He called for efforts to boost that to $100 billion by 2020 and promised to open China's markets wider to African exports. China's state oil companies are expanding in Africa, signing deals in Nigeria, Angola, Sudan and elsewhere. Manufacturers are trying to expand exports to African markets. Human rights activists accuse China of supporting governments such as Sudan and Zimbabwe that are accused of chronic abuses. African business groups complain about poor treatment by Chinese companies and competition from a flood of low-cost imports. But a succession of African leaders who spoke Saturday said they want closer commercial ties with China and hope to learn from its two-decade-old boom as they try to reduce poverty. "Chinese companies can become key players by investing in our development processes," said President Paul Kagame of Rwanda. Hu said Beijing also will forgive debts owed by the poorest African countries and grant more of their goods tariff-free import status. China will train 15,000 African professionals, build schools, hospitals and anti-malaria clinics, send agriculture experts and youth volunteers to Africa and build a new conference center for the African Union, Hu said. He said China would double the number of scholarships given to African students to 4,000 by 2009. At a banquet Saturday, Hu invoked the shared history of colonialism in China and Africa and their struggle with poverty. "The Chinese people rejoice at the achievements made by the African people," he said. "The Chinese people will continue to provide assistance and support to African people in an effort to achieve common development." The New York-based group Human Rights Watch appealed to Beijing on Saturday to be judicious in giving aid. It called on Chinese leaders to avoid giving Sudan assistance that might fuel the Darfur conflict and to stop supplying Zimbabwe with electronic surveillance and Internet-censoring technology. "Africans do not need another external power enabling abusive regimes," the group said in a statement. World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz accused Chinese banks last month of ignoring human rights and environmental standards in Africa. He warned that their surge in lending could fuel corruption and debt burdens. This weekend's conference is a major prestige event for China's communist leadership. The capital was hung with banners welcoming the African leaders. The government called on residents to avoid driving to keep streets clear for their motorcades. On Saturday, state television showed Chinese surgeons working in African hospitals, a Kenyan stadium paid for by Beijing, and Chinese and African students dancing together.

Russian nationalists rally against immigration by Olga Rotenberg MOSCOW (AFP) - Russian nationalists and neo-fascists have rallied in Moscow and across Russia to mark National Unity Day in what they billed as a show of force by the country's rising anti-immigrant movement. More than 1,000 people calling for restraints on immigration and special privileges for ethnic-Russians converged on a square near central Moscow's Park Kultury in the face of a huge police presence. Some activists gave Nazi-style salutes, while others waved Russian Orthodox church symbols and icons. "We demand to be rid of illegal immigrants. They are taking our jobs, bringing drugs and terrorism," Irina Saveleva, a parliamentary deputy from the nationalist Rodina party, told the crowd Saturday. "It is time to rise up!" said Nikolai Kuryanovich, an ultra-nationalist deputy. "This march is a demonstration of the awakening of the national consciousness. The authorities are scared." Meanwhile, up to 700 liberals and human rights campaigners held an alternative rally in another part of central Moscow, decrying what they described as tacit support from the authorities for ultra-nationalism. November 4 officially celebrates the liberation of Moscow from Polish invaders in 1612 by groups of Russian volunteers who joined forces in the capital. President aladimir Putin laid flowers at a monument to the battle on Red Square, while Orthodox Patriarch Alexei II called on the country to show unity. However, ultra-nationalists seized the occasion to mount protests in several major cities, including the far eastern city of Vladivostok and the country's second city, Saint Petersburg. Nationalist groups, such as the Movement Against Illegal Immigration, appear to be successfully tapping into growing fears that native Russians are losing out, especially economically, to the hundreds of thousands of immigrants who come to the country every year. Human rights monitors and Russia's small number of liberal politicians frequently accuse the authorities of playing the race card to boost loyalty toward the government. Activists gathered Saturday across the river from the Kremlin in what they described as an "anti-fascist" meeting meant to counter the ultra-nationalist rally. "We have to protest this ideology of lies and hate," Svetlana Gannushkina, from the Memorial human rights organisation, told the crowd. "Facism is founded with the tacit support of the authorities, which uses it for their own goals. The authorities don't want to take responsiblity, so we will have to." However, the authorities had made it clear well in advance of Saturday that an openly racist rally, like one that took place on the same day a year ago in Moscow, would not be tolerated. An application by the especially well-organised Movement Against Illegal Immigration to hold its own rally in Moscow was turned down, while the sanctioned protest near Park Kultury took place under unusually heavy police guard. Riot police, backed by interior ministry soldiers turned out in force. Dozens of troop trucks were visible, as well as enclosed trucks used for carrying prisoners. Helmeted riot police surrounded the nearest underground train station and also stood close to the protest itself. Police could be seen searching dozens of people. The Moscow police department said that 37 people had been arrested, mostly for minor violations, state-run RIA Novosti news agency reported. The nationalist parliamentary deputy Dmitry Rogozin accused riot police of behaving "savagely". "I think Russians are being abandoned, even though they bear most of the country's economic burden," said one demonstrator, Konstantin Lukin, 39, a computer specialist. "We want to show there're a lot of us and that we know what they're doing -- helping anyone other than ethnic-Russians." Another demonstrator, Andrei, 21, said he was demonstrating against what he described as "Russophobia" in the media. "Russians should have priority" over other ethnic groups, he added. In Saint Petersburg, about 200 people gathered, shouting "long live Russia!" However, police blocked them from staging a march and 12 people were arrested after trying to enter the main Nevsky Prospect. An AFP photographer was also detained while working at the

NATO attacks Taliban fighters near Kabul By RAHIM FAIEZ, Associated Press Writer KABUL, Afghanistan - NATO forces struck a suspected insurgent compound in rare violence near Kabul and battles continued Saturday in the area, NATO said, while Afghan authorities reported a dozen people dead in attacks. NATO troops backed by warplanes launched a raid Friday north of Kabul, hitting a compound with eight to 10 suspected Taliban fighters inside, said Maj. Luke Knittig, a NATO spokesman. Most of the recent fighting in Afghanistan has been concentrated in the country's south and east, close to the border with Pakistan. Knittig said he did not know how many insurgents were killed in ongoing fighting in the Tagab Valley, some 40 miles northeast of Kabul. The operation "is going to address known areas where the Taliban, we suspect, are seeking safe haven," he said. "If that's close to Kabul, then so be it." Militants have been stepping up attacks the last several months around Afghanistan, which has seen its deadliest period of violence since the Taliban regime was ousted in late 2001 for hosting Osama bin Laden A photographer kidnapped in Afghanistan last month and freed Friday returned home to Italy on Saturday. Relatives and officials greeted the photographer, Gabriele Torsello, at Rome's Ciampino airport. "I am well. Thank you, Italy," Torsello said moments after stepping off the plane, wearing traditional Afghan dress and with a long, full beard. Torsello, 36, was kidnapped Oct. 12 while traveling by bus from Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand province in southern Afghanistan, to neighboring Kandahar, said Ettore Francesco Sequi, Italy's ambassador to Afghanistan. His captors left him on the side of a road Friday. A NATO airstrike in Helmand province on Thursday killed nine militants and wounded 30, the Defense Ministry said. The airstrike came after a rocket attack on an Afghan army base, it said. The statement did not explain how officials counted the dead or wounded, nor did it specify where in Helmand province the airstrike hit. Taliban fighters on Friday attacked a supply convoy heading to a NATO base in Khost province, killing two Pakistani drivers and wounding an Afghan driver, said Gen. Anan Roufi, Paktia's provincial police chief. The attackers opened fire on the trucks in a mountainous area between Paktia and Khost provinces. Militants also attacked an Afghan army patrol in the eastern province of Laghman on Thursday, killing one solider and injuring three, the Defense Ministry said. In Helmand province, meanwhile, 10 schools that have been closed the last 10 months for security reasons reopened Saturday, said Siafulmaluk Noori, the provincial education director. The schools were able to reopen after tribal elders said they would help protect them, he said. More than 160 schools have been attacked around Afghanistan this year, up from 146 during all of last year. Most have been nighttime arson attacks that hurt no one a tactic aimed at undermining the reach of President Hamid Karzai's government, which reversed the fundamentalist Taliban's ban on girls' education. Between 5 million and 6 million children now attend school in Afghanistan, including some 2 million girls.

Baghdad on alert awaiting Saddam verdict By SAMEER N. YACOUB, Associated Press Writer BAGHDAD, Iraq - U.S. and Iraqi forces drastically tightened security across Baghdad on Friday in advance of Sunday's expected guilty verdict against Saddam Hussien and the Iraqi prime minister said he hoped the ousted dictator will "get what he deserves." Saddam has been on trial for murder and crimes against humanity and, if convicted, could be sentenced to death by hanging. Violence is already running high, with police finding the bodies of 87 torture victims throughout the capital between 6 a.m. Thursday and 6 p.m. Friday. A verdict is expected to set off further bloodshed, underscoring the trial's failure to bring reconciliation to a country fractured ever deeper along sectarian lines. "We hope that the verdict will give this man what he deserves for the crimes he committed against the Iraqi people," said Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who has declared he hoped Saddam would be hanged. "The Iraqi people will express their happiness in a way they see fit and we will call on the Iraqi people through a broadcast statement to remain calm and express their happiness in an appropriate way in this current situation, in a way that does not risk their lives," the Shiite prime minister said after a meeting with tribal leaders from the restive southern city of Amarah. An aide to al-Maliki said authorities are imposing a 12-hour curfew on Baghdad and three surrounding provinces starting at 6 a.m. Sunday. Not just cars, but people will be barred from the streets. Baghdad's airport also will be closed. The curfew will cover all of Baghdad province, Salahuddin province, which includes Saddam's hometown of Tikrit, and the Sunni insurgent hotbeds of Diyala and Anbar provinces. Leave for all military personnel has been canceled indefinitely and vacationing soldiers recalled to active duty. New checkpoints sprang up around main roads, including within the heavily fortified Green Zone that houses Iraqi government offices and the U.S. and British embassies. Larger than usual numbers of policemen and U.S. troops patrolled city streets, while U.S. Army Stryker armored vehicles blocked traffic on both sides of the al-Jumhuriyah Bridge, one of the capital's most heavily guarded because it carries traffic past the Green Zone. "We received orders to tighten security measures and to use any available policemen to tighten the security," police Lt. Ali Abbas said. Any violence would be met with a stern response, said a spokesman for the Interior Ministry, which commands the police. "We warn anyone who intends to exploit this event that our response will be tough and severe," police Brig. Abdul-Karim Khalaf told The Associated Press without elaborating. Many of Saddam's fellow Sunni Arabs are predicting a firestorm if the ex-president is sentenced to death. On the other hand, majority Shiites, who were persecuted under Saddam but now dominate the government, are likely to be enraged if he escapes the gallows. Setting the tone, al-Maliki, said last month that a conviction for Saddam would help break the will of the former dictator's followers in the largely Sunni Arab-led insurgency. Saddam and seven co-defendants including a half brother have been on trial since Oct. 19, 2005, for their alleged roles in the deaths of about 150 Shiites in the town of Dujail after an assassination attempt against the president in 1982. A second trial against Saddam — for alleged genocide against the Kurds began in August and more charges are expected to follow. It is unclear whether those cases would move forward if Saddam is condemned to hang. On Wednesday, one of Saddam's lawyers said a death sentence would "open the gates of hell" to the roughly 140,000 U.S. troops in Iraq. Bushra al-Khalil, a Lebanese lawyer who was thrown out of Saddam's trial in May, also accused President Bush of exploiting the verdict — which comes two days before hotly contested U.S. Congressional elections for "electoral purposes." In a letter addressed to the presiding judge, Saddam's 10-member defense team, including former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark, wrote that it would be premature to deliver the verdict on Sunday "because the court did not receive the final defense statements yet." It was not possible to confirm that the judges had received the letter. Among those killed in violence Friday was Ahmed al-Rasheed, a correspondent for the privately-owned Sharqiya channel. The station said he was the third employee to be killed since the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq. With al-Rasheed's death, at least 88 journalists have been killed in Iraq since hostilities began in March 2003 including 28 this year according to an Associated Press count based on statistics kept by the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists.

Democrats take on GOP over Iraq strategy By KIMBERLY HEFLING, Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON - A congressional candidate said Saturday that a Democrat-led House would fight for a new direction in Iraq so U.S. troops can come home. "No matter how bad Iraq gets or how many respected Americans say that our strategy is not working ... our president and his Republican Congress have promised not to change a thing if they are returned to power," Pennsylvania Democrat Lois Murphy said in her party's weekly radio address. "Democrats will tackle the challenges that we face head on," she said. Murphy, a lawyer, is challenging Republican Rep. Jim Gerlach a two-term incumbent from suburban Philadelphia whom she nearly beat in 2004. Their rematch is considered one of the nation's most competitive races. Democrats need to gain 15 seats in Tuesday's elections to win control of the House. Murphy has said the Iraq war has made America less safe and Congress should demand that President Bush present a comprehensive plan for success. Gerlach has accused her of being inconsistent in her support for U.S. troops in Iraq. A Democrat-led Congress would raise the minimum wage, exercise fiscal responsibility, enact ethic reforms and encourage stem cell research, Murphy said. She also said Democrats would work with GOP members. "This pattern of being out-of-touch and out-of-sync with the American people, this failure to take our responsibility, has carried over to the corruption that plagues our Congress, the deficit that threatens our children and the health care costs that burden our families," Murphy said. Bush has said Democrats don't have a plan to keep Americans safe from terrorists, and that the United States is winning the war in Iraq. He's also heralded tax cuts he said have led to a strong and growing economy. "Harsh criticism is not a plan for victory. Second-guessing is not a strategy," Bush said at a campaign stop Friday.

Bush envoy confirms backdown on Darfur peace force WASHINGTON (AFP) - In a major policy reversal, Washington's special envoy for Sudan has confirmed the United States is backing away from demands for deployment of a UN peacekeeping force to halt what it has called genocide in the the war-torn region of Darfur. Andrew Natsios, President George W. Bush 's personal envoy to Sudan, said Washington and other Western governments were looking for an "alternate way" to deal with the violence in Darfur which has left at least 200,000 people dead and 2.5 million homeless in the past three-and-a-half years. It was the first public admission that the United States was reconsidering its backing for an August 31 UN Security Council resolution, which Washington sponsored, demanding the immediate deployment of some 20,000 UN troops to replace an ineffective African Union peacekeeping force in Darfur. Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir rejected the UN demand and refused to meet with Natsios during a visit to Khartoum last week, the US envoy said in an interview with the US National Holocaust Memorial Museum which was posted on the memorial's website on Friday. Natsios said Beshir was furious over Bush's renewal this week of US financial sanctions imposed on Sudan for its handling of regional conflicts, including Darfur, and alleged support for international terrorists. "They were quite upset about (it), so much so that they cancelled my meeting with President Beshir," he said. At a White House meeting with Natsios on Wednesday, Bush said he was reviewing the US approach to the Darfur crisis, described as the first genocide of the 21st century, but he and other US officials refused to provide details. The crisis in Darfur, a region roughly the size of France in western Sudan, erupted in early 2003 when rebel's representing the region's mostly black African population launched a revolt to obtain autonomy from the Arab-led government in Khartoum. Beshir's regime responded by armed Arab militia, known as the Janjaweed, who have carried out a scorched earth policy of rape and pillaging across the region. A UN-brokered peace agreement signed in May with one of the rebel groups brought hope for an end to the carnage, but ultimately failed when the other groups refused to sign on. Since then government-allied forces have renewed offensives in the region, with the UN reporting Friday that scores of civilians had been massacred in refugee camps in the region over the past few days. Under pressure from European allies and human rights groups, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice made Darfur a major US foreign policy priority in the middle of this year, insisting that only a UN "blue-helmeted" force would have the financial and political clout to stop the killing. But Besher has refused to budge. "Our real interest here is not what it is called or what it looks like in terms of its helmet, but how robust and how efficient it is," he said. "If it does not have a UN helmet, but it is very competent and very aggressive, then we have fulfilled our intention," he said. Washington could accept either a strengthened African Union force or one led by Arab or Muslim nations, possibly backed by UN financial or logistical support, he said. Another element of the new US approach is to use African mediation -- Natsios mentioned Eritrea as a potential go between -- to renegotiate the May peace agreement in a bid to draw in other rebel groups. The prospect of a policy turnaround amid the ongoing violence in Darfur was assailed as "shameful" by one former US official involved in the issue. "If where we're headed now is some sort of appeasement or accommodation with the government of Sudan so they can yet again cherry pick and constrain a new peacekeeping force, we really are complicit in failing to stop this second wave of genocide," said Susan Rice, the State Department's top Africa official in the previous administration of president Bill Clinton. "The only reason the Sudanese don't want the United Nations is because they think it will be more effective in protecting civilians, and that's precisely why we should want it," she said.

North Korea says Japan not welcome at nuclear talks By Jack Kim SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea said on Saturday Japan should not bother to attend six-country nuclear talks because Tokyo is refusing to recognize the reclusive communist country as a nuclear weapons state. "There is no need for Japan to participate in (the talks) as a local delegate because it is no more than a state of the U.S. and it is enough for Tokyo just to be informed of the results of the talks by Washington," North Korea's foreign ministry said in a statement on Saturday. Japan's refusal to accept the North as a nuclear weapons state when the talks resume later this year proved they were "political imbeciles incapable of judging the trend of the situation," said the statement carried by the North's official Korea Central News Agency. North Korea agreed on Tuesday to return to the talks involving the two Koreas, Japan, China, Russia and the United States after snubbing them for a year in protest over a U.S. crackdown on its international finances. North Korea conducted its first nuclear test on October 9 and is now referring to itself as "a responsible nuclear weapons state." "It is unacceptable that North Korea returns to the six-party talks on the premise that it has become a nuclear weapons state," Noriyuki Shikata, a Japanese Foreign Ministry spokesman, said on Saturday. AID AND SECURITY A South Korean government official said it was "preposterous" to assert the goal of the talks has changed since an agreement in principle was reached in September 2005, under which North Korea would dismantle its nuclear programs in exchange for aid and security guarantees. But some analysts said Pyongyang's nuclear test and agreement to return to the talks three weeks later likely marked the beginning of North Korea's pursuit to turn the six-way talks into bilateral arms reduction negotiations with the United States. North Korea has feuded with Japan over the abduction of at least 13 Japanese citizens in the 1970s and the 1980s, and criticized Japan for raising the issue at the six-way talks. Tokyo has been implementing U.N. sanctions imposed after the North launched ballistic missiles in July and in moving to apply additional U.N. measures after Pyongyang conducted its nuclear test. Pyongyang's number two official said on Friday that North Korea agreed to come back to the six-party talks to give the United States a face-saving way out of the impasse, and it was now Washington's turn to show good faith by ending the financial crackdown. "The result of the six-party talks depends on the attitude of the U.S.," the president of North Korea's assembly, Kim Yong-nam, was quoted as saying by South Korea's leftist Democratic Labour Party, whose delegation was visiting Pyongyang. The Bush administration had "used the six-way talks as a campaign tactic" in next week's mid-term elections instead of working to resolve the conflict between the two countries, Kim was quoted as saying. Washington has said it was willing to discuss at the talks the North's illicit activities that triggered a financial crackdown on a Macau-based bank. Japanese police sources were cited as saying in Japan's Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper on Saturday that North Korea used accounts at Banco Delta Asia to buy equipment that could be used to develop biological and nuclear weapons.

Iranians mark US embassy siege By Frances Harrison BBC News, Tehran Protesters compared George W Bush to Hitler Thousands of school children and students in Tehran have marked the anniversary of the hostage-taking at the American embassy in 1979. The speaker of the Iranian parliament compared the event to the current nuclear row, saying America always wanted to put Iran under pressure. It was a rowdy celebration of student power, with boys and girls segregated outside the former American embassy. A huge red flag saying "Death to America" was burned. Many people carried banners with the same slogan and even puppets of Uncle Sam. Addressing the crowd, the speaker of the Iranian parliament, Gholam Ali Hadad-Adel, warned America that Iranians were ready to react to any attempt to limit their access to nuclear power. He said Iran was willing to pay the price of its independence once again. No regrets Iran's former President, Mohammad Khatami, had expressed regret for the seizure of the American embassy and its staff but today - with a new more conservative government in power - there is little sign of remorse. Instead the speakers asked why America had not learned its lesson from the hostage-taking. One young girl born after the revolution said she did not think the American embassy would ever reopen in Tehran because the United States was against Iran. Another boy said if Iran was threatened again, he would be willing to copy the students who seized the US embassy in 1979.

Israeli military offensive kills seven in Gaza by Adel Zaanoun A militant died and another two were badly injured when this van was hit GAZA CITY (AFP) - Seven people, including a teenager and five gunmen have been killed in the Gaza Strip as Israel pressed an offensive on militants that has left 42 Palestinians and one soldier dead in four days. The bloodshed followed one of Gaza's deadliest days in months, when 19 people were killed as Israel continued with an operation launched early Wednesday aimed at stopping rocket fire into Israeli territory. Two brothers, aged 25 and 26, as well as a 16-year-old boy were killed in an afternoon helicopter raid in Jabaliya on Saturday. The armed wing of the ruling Islamist Hamas movement said the brothers belonged to the faction. Earlier a local Hamas militant commander was killed in an air raid in Gaza City that wounded four other militants, medics said. A Hamas militant and a 46-year-old man were killed in Beit Hanun, and another Hamas militant died of wounds sustained in an artillery strike on nearby Jabaliya, which wounded four other gunmen. One Israeli soldier was also seriously wounded in overnight clashes, the army said. Faced with the mounting death toll, Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, who has slammed the operation as a "massacre," called on the United Nation Security Council to convene to discuss the issue, his spokesman told AFP. The president "has sent a message to the head of the Security Council asking him to convene immediately to discuss the tragic situation in Gaza because of Israeli aggression, which has killed 42 Palestinians so far," Nabil Abu Rudeina said. Abbas also called the Arab League chief Amr Mussa to "initiate an Arab League meeting to discuss the Israeli aggression against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip." In Beit Hanun, which has been reoccupied by Israeli forces since the start of the operation, residents who have been cooped up inside their homes since Wednesday got a brief respite after the army suspended patrols for three hours to give them a chance to step outside. Israel says the town, which has borne the brunt of "Operation Autumn Clouds", has become a launchpad for the rocket fire. "Most of the time, because of the combat, we're calling on people that it's best to stay at home," an army spokesman said. "Today between 8 am and 11 am (0600 and 0900 GMT) humanitarian organizations were allowed into Beit Hanun and we stopped many of our patrols in order for people to leave their homes, open their stores." The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, delivered water, food and other basic assistance into the town, with its Gaza director John Ging saying that the situation inside the town was "desperate". "Death, destruction and despair are the terms to describe the situation," Ging told reporters afterward. "The situation is very grim. The civilian population is living in a very difficult situation. There is shortage of food, of water, there is destruction and devastation everywhere... The entire population is now living in fear, it's extremely dangerous." "We have to make an appeal to end the violence because the cycle of violence results in innocent civilians paying the price, often with their lives," he said. In all, 42 Palestinians, including at least 21 militants, and one Israeli soldier have died and more than 90 Palestinians have been wounded in the operation, which has also seen around 100 people detained. Israel says it launched the operation to stop militants from firing rockets, an almost constant curse in communities bordering the Gaza Strip since Israel left the territory last year and closed the curtain on a 38-year occupation. But the latest military blitz has failed to stop the fire, with one rocket falling in Israel on Saturday and 17 in all since the start of the operation on Wednesday, lightly wounding at least three people. To protest the operation, businesses in the West Bank went on strike Saturday, with shopfronts in Ramallah remaining shuttered after a call to do so by the Al-Aqsa Brigades, a militant group loosely linked with president Mahmud Abbas's Fatah party. On the international front, Britain, France and the United Nations called for restraint and avoiding further civilian casualties, but Israel's most powerful ally the United States put the blame for the violence on Palestinian militants and said the Jewish state was defending itself. Egypt, one of two Arab countries to have signed a peace treaty with Israel, Saturday condemned the operation's "excessive use of force and lack of regard for civilians." Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit also called on all Palestinian factions "to stop launching rockets in order not to provoke a reaction by the Israeli forces, and not to give them a pretext to carry out other intensive military offensives which do not spare civilians."

Comatose Sharon stable, doctors say By ARON HELLER, Associated Press Writer TEL AVIV, Israel - The comatose Ariel Sharon was in an intensive care unit Friday after an infection attacked his heart, raising new concerns about his survival. The former Israeli leader's hospital said his overall condition had suffered a deterioration but was now stable. Sharon, who has been in a coma since suffering a major stroke in January, contracted a new infection that affected his heart, said David Weinberg, a spokesman for the Chaim Sheba Medical Center near Tel Aviv. "At this point, his condition is stable," Weinberg said. The hospital refused to comment further. Experts have speculated that because of the severity of his stroke, Sharon, Israel's prime minister from 2001 to 2006, is unlikely to recover. Dr. Barbara Paris, director of geriatrics at Maimonides Medical Center in New York City, said that even with the best possible treatment, such an infection in Sharon's circumstances renders the situation critical. "Mr. Sharon's condition was precarious prior to development of this infection," said Paris, who is not involved in Sharon's treatment. "A superimposed heart infection portends an extremely grave prognosis." Sharon, 78, has undergone several extensive brain operations to stop cerebral hemorrhaging, in addition to more minor procedures. He had a small stroke in December and was put on blood thinners before experiencing a severe brain hemorrhage on Jan. 4. After months in the Jerusalem hospital where he was initially treated, Sharon was transferred to the long-term care facility at Sheba hospital in May. He was rushed into intensive care in July for dialysis after his kidneys began failing, but was transferred back to Sheba after his condition improved. Sharon lapsed into a coma just months after he ended Israel's 38-year occupation of the Gaza Strip bolted his hard-line Likud Party to form the centrist Kadima faction. After the stroke, Sharon's successor, Ehud Olmert, led Kadima to victory in a March 28 vote and became prime minister.

UN calls for end to Israeli flights over Lebanon BEIRUT (AFP) - The United Nation has given a positive assessment of the situation in south Lebanon almost three months after the Israel -Hezbollah war except for continued Israeli violations of Lebanese airspace. "Things in the south are looking very well, but we need an end to the overflights," Geir Pedersen, the Lebanon representative of UN chief Kofi Anann , said after a meeting with Lebanese Foreign Minister Fawzi Sallukh on Saturday. Israel has drawn intense international criticism by continuing the overflights despite the August 14 ceasefire that ended a month-long war between the Jewish state and Lebanon's Hezbollah militant group during which the south was battered. Last month, Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz said the overflights were necessary to monitor what he charged was continuing arms smuggling by Hezbollah. On Friday, a senior Israeli government official revealed on condition of anonymity that the United States had joined world governments in expressing discontent about continued Israeli flights over Beirut.

Syria and Iran are supporters of militant group Hezbollah Syria, Iran dismiss U.S. accusation on Lebanon By Khaled Yacoub Oweis DAMASCUS (Reuters) -Syria and Iran on Thursday dismissed a U.S. accusation that they are trying to topple Lebanon's government with their Lebanese ally Hezbollah. Hezbollah said the U.S. backing of the government of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora was "a blatant interference" in Lebanon's internal affairs and vowed to pursue its demand for a national unity government. "This pure vilification is meant to raise turmoil in Lebanon and cause fallout with Syria, which paid with blood to maintain Lebanese independence and sovereignty," an editorial in Syria's government newspaper Baath said. The White House said on Wednesday Washington had evidence that Syria, Iran and their allies in the Shi'ite Muslim group were preparing to topple the Beirut government, which is dominated by U.S.-backed politicians. The comments came a day after Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah gave Siniora and his majority allies until the middle of this month to agree on the formation of a unity government or face protests demanding a new election. "We do not care about such accusations. They're worthless," Syrian Expatriates Minister Buthaina Shaaban told reporters. "They are practicing terrorism while accusing others of it. The problem in Lebanon is U.S. and Israeli interference." The Syrian newspaper said the United States should make public any evidence of the alleged Syrian role in efforts to topple the Lebanese government. U.S. officials say the information is classified. Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini denied the U.S. accusation and said Washington should review its policies in the Middle East. "These are repeated claims aimed to create divisions among Lebanese people and their government," Hosseini told Reuters. "HOLLOW SLOGAN" The United States has no diplomatic ties with Iran and has strained relations with Syria, accusing both countries of supporting terrorism and destabilizing the Middle East. Both countries deny the charges. Iran says its offers only moral support to Hezbollah. A State Department spokesman said Nasrallah's ultimatum has raised U.S. concerns about the intentions of Hezbollah and other players toward Lebanon, which is still recovering from Israel 's 34-day war with Hezbollah guerrillas in July and August. Anti-Syrian politicians had rejected calls for a national unity government, saying such demands were aimed at regaining Syria's influence in Lebanon. Hezbollah said the White House statement showed Washington's declared goal of promoting democracy in the Middle East was "a hollow and deceptive slogan." "We stress that this American violation of our national sovereignty will not terrorize our people or stop it from practicing every one of its constitutional rights, led by the right to demonstrate, hold elections and choosing its government," a Hezbollah statement said. Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri said Washington's strong support of Siniora's government could prove its undoing. Berri, a Shi'ite Muslim leader allied to Hezbollah, has called for roundtable talks between Lebanese leaders next week to discuss the formation of a new government. Syrian forces pulled out of Lebanon after a 29-year presence following last year's assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri. Mr Hariri was killed in an explosion in February 2005 A U.N. investigation implicated Syrian security officials in the killing. Damascus, which denies involvement, has deepened its ties with Tehran after facing increasing isolation by the West following the assassination.

Syria denies plan to topple Lebanon govt. By SAMAR KASSABLI, Associated Press Writer DAMASCUS, Syria - Syria on Thursday denied U.S. accusations that it was seeking to topple Lebanon's Western-backed government with the help of Iran and Hezbollah. The Foreign Ministry said Syria has stayed out of its neighbor's affairs since pulling its troops out of Lebanon last year. "The U.S. administration's attempts to circulate that Syria, Iran and Hezbollah are seeking to destabilize Lebanon are not true," the Foreign Ministry said. "Since it withdrew its troops from Lebanon, Syria has voiced its support for anything that the Lebanese agree on through their national dialogue." White House spokesman Tony Snow said Wednesday there was "mounting evidence that the Syrian and Iranian governments, Hezbollah, and their Lebanese allies are preparing plans to topple Lebanon's democratically elected government." A strongly worded statement from the White House did not detail that evidence. It did single out Syria for an alleged plan to derail possible prosecutions for the assassination of Rafik Hariri, a former Lebanese prime minister who had tried to draw his country away from Syrian domination. Lebanese and international pressure following Hariri's February 2005 assassination forced Syrian troops to end their 29-year presence in Lebanon. The U.S. ambassador to yhe UN , John Bolton, accused Syria and Iran on Monday of violating a U.N. embargo meant to keep Hezbollah from rearming after the Lebanese guerrillas' 34-day war with Israel last summer. He said Tuesday that violations of that embargo are part of the "evidence base" the White House used. Syria denies it is violating the embargo. Terje Roed-Larsen, the top U.N. envoy for Syria-Lebanon issues, said representatives of the Lebanese government "have stated publicly and also in conversations with us that there has been arms coming across the border into Lebanon." The Lebanese government denied having shared such allegations. "Neither the government, nor I told anybody about this," Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora reporters Wednesday. Lebanese Defense Minister Elias Murr said Roed-Larsen's comments were "inaccurate." Israel has said weapons smuggling for the Iranian- and Syrian-backed Hezbollah was continuing despite the U.N. embargo. Israel has said its military overflights of Lebanon are necessary to monitor the situation. The Lebanese government has deployed thousands of soldiers on the border with Syria to stop smuggling. A U.N. maritime force led by Germany is patrolling the Mediterranean off Lebanon to enforce the embargo. Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah gave Saniora's government an ultimatum on Tuesday: establish a Cabinet of "national unity" by Nov. 13 or face street protests. Such a Cabinet would give the Islamic militants and their allies veto power over key decisions. U.S. officials said they consider Nasrallah's threat serious.

Most Israelis bothered by high level corruption JERUSALEM (AFP) - The vast majority of Israelis are concerned about high-level corruption, according to a survey published amid a string of scandals embroiling the nation's leadership. Asked what bothers them most about Israeli society, some 80 percent said "public corruption", an increase of six percent from last year, according to the survey, excerpts of which were published in several dailies on Thursday. Some 73 percent also listed poverty, violence and the continuing conflict with the Palestinians as a major concern, the survey reported. Among the least trusted public institutions are political parties, it found, with only 13 percent trusting parties they voted for during a March parliamentary election. Just 16 percent said they trusted the police and only 25 percent put their faith in the judicial system. The survey, called the Social Strength Index and conducted for the fourth consecutive year, questioned 1,111 adults in October. Israel's leadership has been wracked by a series of recent scandals. President Moshe Katsav, a 60-year-old father of five, faces possible indictment on rape, sexual harassment and wire-tapping charges. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has also been the subject of numerous corruption probes over past property deals and appointments, although no charges have yet been filed.

Israel kills 4 Palestinians in Gaza By Nidal al-Mughrabi BEIT HANOUN, Gaza (Reuters) - Israeli troops killed four Palestinians including two civilians and trapped scores of gunmen in a Gaza town on Thursday, witnesses said, as the army pressed ahead with one of its biggest operations in the strip in months. The armed wing of the ruling Hamas Islamist movement said its gunmen hit a group of Israeli soldiers with an anti-tank missile in the northern town of Beit Hanoun, inflicting casualties. The army said it had no information. Witnesses said around 60 militants were holed up inside the center of Beit Hanoun, with army helicopters circling overhead. Soldiers loaded many residents into trucks and took them to the edge of Beit Hanoun for questioning, witnesses said. They said it was one of the biggest roundups of Gazans in years. "I urge all women in Gaza to go to the besieged area to help stop the Israeli army from killing the Mujahideen (fighters)," one caller to a local radio station said. The Israeli offensive has further weakened any chance of resuming peace talks between the two sides, already minimal since Hamas took office in March after winning elections. Hamas is sworn to Israel 's destruction Hamas has said the bloodshed could also complicate Egyptian-brokered talks aimed at arranging a swap of Palestinian prisoners in Israel for an Israeli soldier abducted by militants in a cross-border raid last June. The town of 30,000 people was effectively under an army curfew, residents said. Although the army operation is aimed partly at halting rocket fire at the Jewish state from the area, militants launched four homemade missiles at the nearby Israeli border town of Sderot, wounding two people, medical officials said. ARMY QUESTIONING An Israeli army spokeswoman said all men in Beit Hanoun had been asked to gather in one place to answer questions. "I have no doubt that the vast majority will then be allowed to return home unhindered. This is intended to avoid friction and reduce shooting incidents," she said. The latest casualties, confirmed by hospital officials, bring to 13 the number of Palestinians killed since Israeli troops entered Beit Hanoun on Wednesday. One Israeli soldier has been killed in the raid. More than half the Palestinians killed were militants. "Residents are in panic as the sound of gunfire and explosions never stops. The curfew is very, very tight," said Yamen Hamad, a local journalist in Beit Hanoun. Relatives said one of the civilians killed on Thursday, a 75-year-old man, was shot by troops on a rooftop when he went onto the balcony of his home to take his disabled son inside. The army said its forces were targeting only militants. The assault is one of the biggest since Israel launched an offensive in Gaza to try to force the release of the captured soldier and to halt the rocket fire. More than 280 Palestinians have been killed in the four-month-old offensive, about half of them civilians. Three Israeli soldiers have been killed. Israel withdrew its army and Jewish settlers from Gaza last year after a 38-year occupation, but tension increased along the frontier when Hamas took office and rebuffed Western demands to recognize Israel and renounce violence. That prompted the West to impose sanctions on the Palestinian government. While opposed to explicit recognition of Israel, some Hamas officials have tried to formulate wording that suggests a softer position as part of efforts to agree a unity government with the Fatah faction of President Mahmoud Abbas, a moderate. Palestinians hope such a government would help restore direct Western aid. Political sources in Gaza said there might be an announcement about progress on a unity administration later on Thursday.