World News joined 1

[OMEN]

Surgeons in Melbourne have saved the legs of a baby in the womb by performing what is believed to be the earliest in-utero surgery of its kind in the world.

Surgeons removed amniotic bands from above the ankles of baby Leah Bowlen while her mother Kylie was 22 weeks pregnant.

Without the surgery, Leah's legs would have naturally amputated.

Monash Medical Centre surgeons performed the operation, which involved inserting a 2mm operating telescope into Kylie's womb.

The constricting bands were then identified and divided using laser and electric current.

Leah, now almost six months old, was born at 30 weeks gestation on January 24, weighing just 1.63kg.

She had further surgery on her left leg at the Royal Children's Hospital days after her birth to help straighten it.

Leah's left leg is fully functioning, with just an indentation mark around her ankle, according to information from Monash Medical Centre.

Surgeons are hopeful that with physiotherapy and massage, Leah's right leg will also function.

A Monash spokeswoman said Leah was believed to be the youngest ever patient to have surgery to remove amniotic bands.

Amniotic band syndrome, or amniotic disruption complex, is a congenital limb abnormality, which occurs in between one in 12,000 and one in 15,000 live births.

AAP

[OMEN]

Hillary Clinton ended her historic presidential bid and endorsed Barack Obama early today (NZ time), urging her supporters to unite behind Obama and help recapture the White House for Democrats in November.

In the first step toward healing the wounds of a sometimes bitter five-month Democratic nominating battle, Clinton told cheering supporters at a final campaign rally that she and Obama shared the same values and goals.

"Today, as I suspend my campaign, I congratulate him on the victory he has won and the extraordinary race he has run," Clinton told a crowd of about 2000 at the National Building Museum in Washington.

"I endorse him and I throw my full support behind him," she said, with her husband, former President Bill Clinton, and her daughter, Chelsea, standing to the side of the stage.

"We will make history together," she said.

Obama will be crowned the Democratic nominee at the party's August nominating convention and will face Republican Senator John McCain in November's election to choose a successor to President George W. Bush.

Clinton, a New York senator and former first lady, was once the heavy favourite to become the first female U.S. president. She had resisted calls to pull out of the race for months as the split between their supporters grew wider.

But she said it was time to put aside their differences and concentrate on winning in November.

"This has been a tough fight but the Democratic Party is a family and now it's time to restore the ties that bind us together and to come together," she said.

Clinton's decision to suspend her campaign means she retains some control of her delegates and can still work to repay more than $20 million (10 million pounds) in campaign debt, including more than $11 million she loaned the campaign from her own pocket.

CLINTON GETS SPOTLIGHT

Obama did not appear at the rally, giving Clinton the spotlight for the day. Clinton won more than 17 million votes during the Democratic nominating battle, and Obama has tried to build bridges to her camp ahead of the November campaign.

Clinton was generous in her praise for the Illinois senator who will be the first black presidential nominee of a major US political party.

"I've had a front row seat to his candidacy and I have seen his strength and determination, his grace and his grit," Clinton said.

"When I started this race, I intended to win back the White House and make sure we have a president who puts our country back on the path to peace, prosperity and progress," she said.

"And that's exactly what we are going to do by ensuring that Barack Obama walks through the doors of the Oval Office on January 20, 2009."

She made no mention of speculation she will be Obama's running mate. She has said she is open to the idea, a prospect that excites many supporters but is viewed with skepticism in Obama's camp.

Some of her supporters have tried to pressure Obama into picking her, but her campaign issued a statement on Thursday saying she is not seeking the vice presidential slot.

Obama has named a three-member team to head his vice presidential search and has sworn off further discussion of the choice.

Clinton entered the race in January 2007 as the clear front-runner and was viewed as the almost certain winner for most of the year, but stumbled to a third-place finish behind Obama in the first contest in January in Iowa.

She bounced back five days later to win in New Hampshire, but never recovered from Obama's string of 10 consecutive victories in February.

Reuters

[OMEN]

Accused corrupt cop Mark Standen is now facing a second investigation - this time into his long friendship with a jailed drug runner suspected of a rape and murder.

Homicide detectives want to quiz Standen - placed behind bars this week for his alleged role in a $120 million global drug conspiracy - over his close relationship with underworld identity John Anderson.

Career criminal Anderson is also behind bars, awaiting sentence over an attempt to smuggle $A7 million worth of cocaine into Australia.

Investigators from Manly police stumbled upon the NSW Crime Commission deputy's extraordinary connection to the 68-year-old crook three weeks before he himself was arrested by federal police.

Detectives were following a cold-case lead that Anderson was involved in the rape and murder of a Sydney teenager 30 years ago when their routine enquiry found Standen's son Matthew staying in the home of Anderson's estranged wife Susan.

Now NSW Police want access to Standen in jail to question him over any knowledge he had of Anderson's criminal activities.

Anderson was charged with trying to smuggle 27 kilograms of cocaine into Australia chained to the hulls of cargo ships including the infamous Tampa in 2006. His son Michael, 30, was spotted by police attempting to dive under the Tampa before he too was arrested. Michael Anderson is also awaiting sentencing.

Standen has been a close friend of Anderson for at least 30 years and was a regular visitor to his Central Coast home, The Sun-Herald has learned.

Former neighbours of John and Susan Anderson, by co-incidence, had also known the Standen family in Sydney years before. They told how they often saw Mark Standen at the Andersons' home.

"We saw Mark there a number of times but I didn't recognise him as a top policeman until I saw him on the news this week," said the neighbour, who was too scared to be identified.

Anderson and his wife Sue, who hosted lingerie parties, were members of the local gun club and keen divers. Their passion for diving was shared by Standen's 22-year-old son Matthew, who stayed with them. There is no suggestion Matthew had any knowledge of any criminal activity.

Matthew Standen refused to comment when approached at the Standen family home on the Central Coast, where his mother Lynn was being comforted by friends and relatives last week.

The family has been rocked by revelations that Standen, one of Australia's most senior law enforcers, had been accused of attempting to bring in 600 kilograms of pseudoephedrine, used to make the drug ice.

It is alleged the 51-year-old father of four had massive gambling debts and had set up the deal, uncovered by Dutch authorities, while on a luxury trip to Dubai with his mistress, Louise Baker. She works for the Independent Commission Against Corruption. but is not considered a suspect.

Standen has been in trouble in the past. Almost 30 years ago he was departmentally sanctioned for flushing marijuana down a toilet without reporting it had been seized. Yet this failed to slow his rise through the ranks of law enforcement.

The AFP investigation into Standen began in exactly the same month New Zealand authorities had intercepted his friend Anderson's cocaine shipment en route to Australia from South America.

Told of the revelations yesterday, NSW Police Minister David Campbell said he had not been made aware of the interest in Standen's links to Anderson. He said where and when detectives interviewed Standen was a matter for them.

A spokesman for Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione confirmed homicide Strike Force Keldie had been set up to investigate the murder of Trudie Adams who went missing in 1978.

Police sources say the strike force will be driven by cold case specialists and will be seeking to speak to Standen over his friendship with Anderson.

Anderson was among six suspects first identified during the mid-1990s by task force Loquat, which at the time also held hopes of discovering Ms Adams's remains in bushland on Pittwater Peninsula.

The teenager was last seen outside a Sunday night dance at Newport Surf Club in June 1978. Investigators formed the conclusion she was pack raped.

Following her murder nine girls came forward to report also having been raped by two armed men who had abducted them while hitchhiking along Barrenjoey Road over the previous 10 months.

Eight weeks after Ms Adams disappeared, so too did 18-year-old Michelle Pope and her 21-year-old boyfriend Stephen Lapthorne. None of the bodies has ever been found.

Reuters

[OMEN]

Hundreds of naked cyclists rode through the streets of Mexico's capital to demand respect from drivers in a city choked with some 4 million vehicles.

More than 500 men and women, half of them nude, pedalled along Mexico City's historic Reforma Avenue to the vast Zocalo Square, chanting, "Save your planet, use a bicycle!"

Some had "emission-free vehicle" painted on their backs.

"We're riding nude to see if this way they'll see us, so they don't run over any more of us," said student Alejandro Hernandez, standing naked before the ride.

"Being naked means we aren't invisible. The motorists don't respect us, they see us as a nuisance," he said.

To combat daily gridlock and chronic air pollution in the sprawling metropolis of about 20 million people, the capital's leftist government is promoting bicycle use and has begun building a network of cycling lanes.

But the lanes are still few and far between, so the city's growing number of cyclists must ride alongside old buses, trucks and stressed motorists.

Mexico City is one of the world's most polluted capitals, along with Beijing, blighted by its thin, high-altitude air and a ring of surrounding mountains that traps exhaust fumes from buses and factories on the city outskirts.

Authorities have worked to remove the worst-polluting vehicles from the road. But as the capital's population grows, the city gains up to 250,000 new cars each year.

Reuters

[OMEN]

A man was arrested for trying to enter the home of Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaci in what the government called an "attack" but police said appeared to be a thwarted break in.

"We believe the motive was unlawful benefit," said police spokesman Veton Elshani.

The suspect was wounded in the arm after security guards spotted him on the balcony of the Pristina home shortly before midnight on Friday and opened fire.

A security source said the 19-year-old had been reported to police by his father. "He's a thief," the source said, adding that the suspect already had a criminal record for theft.

The prime minister's wife and son were at home at the time of the incident, but Thaci was outside Pristina.

The security guards told police there was an exchange of fire, and the government stepped up security for cabinet officials.

"Last night my family was attacked," Thaci, an ethnic Albanian former guerrilla commander, told a news conference.

"No one should have the power to attack the rule of law, freedom and security of Kosovo," Thaci said.

Police said they were unsure whether more than one person was involved.

Thaci led the territory's 1998-99 guerrilla war against Serb rule, which ended in an 11-week Nato bombing campaign to drive out Serb forces and halted their killing and ethnic cleansing of Albanian civilians.

He became prime minister in January, and Kosovo declared independence from Serbia the following month, after nine years as a ward of the United Nations.

Kosovo's postwar politics has been marked by bitter, sometimes violent rivalry. The main political factions control competing security and intelligence structures, and have often been accused of links to organised crime.

Reuters

[OMEN]

Zimbabwe's High Court overturned a police ban on opposition rallies this weekend ahead of the June 27 presidential run-off, a lawyer for the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) said.

"The effect of the order is to allow MDC rallies to proceed. The order simply says that police should not interfere with the MDC rallies. We made an urgent chamber application after police wrote to say the rallies scheduled for this weekend should not continue," MDC lawyer Charles Kwaramba said.

He said High Court Judge Alfas Chitakunye gave the order on Saturday afternoon. The application only sought to challenge the police ban on MDC rallies scheduled for this weekend.

"The ruling is logical. What is disturbing is we have to go to the High Court each time we want to meet our supporters. That only happens in a dictatorship. We are not an underground or guerrilla movement, we need to meet the people," MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa said.

He said the rallies the party planned for this weekend would go ahead.

Police on Friday banned several of the planned rallies in the campaign for the presidential run-off between the MDC's Morgan Tsvangirai and veteran leader Robert Mugabe because authorities could not guarantee the safety of party leaders.

Chamisa said the police decision to bar opposition rallies was "deplorable".

"It is absolutely deplorable that the police and some state institutions have willingly become agents of repression. They seem to be taking instructions from ZANU-PF," Chamisa said.

Zimbabwean police arrested another opposition lawmaker - Eric Matinenga - on Saturday, a day after Tsvangirai was detained for the second time this week ahead of the run-off vote.

Six MDC lawmakers have been arrested for various offences since the March 29 poll, in which Tsvangirai beat Mugabe but failed to win the majority needed to avoid a run-off.

The MDC accuses Mugabe of trying to sabotage Tsvangirai's campaign in order to preserve his 28-year hold on power.

Mugabe, however, blames the MDC party for violence and his government this week ordered all aid agencies to stop their humanitarian programmes, saying they were interfering in the country's politics.

The Southern African Development Community, a regional grouping of 14 nations, including Zimbabwe, is sending observers to monitor the run-off.

Tensions have been running high ahead of the vote.

On Thursday, police stopped and held five US and two British diplomats for several hours after they visited victims of political violence. Zimbabwe also barred relief agencies from doing work in the country, suffering economic ruin.

Reuters

[OMEN]

Oil jumped more than 8 per cent to a record $US139 ($NZ181) a barrel overnight, extending a two-day rally to more than $US16 as the slumping US currency and rising tensions between Israel and Iran attracted a flood of buyers.

United States stocks plunged on the massive spike, causing the Dow to end down nearly 400 points on renewed fears that the US economy is threatened by 1970s-style stagflation after government data also showed the jobless rate jumped the most in 22 years in May.

Based on the latest data, the Dow Jones industrial average fell 394.64 points, or 3.13 per cent, to end unofficially at 12,209.81. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index slid 43.37 points, or 3.09 per cent, to finish unofficially at 1,360.68.

The Nasdaq Composite Index tumbled 75.38 points, or 2.96 per cent, to close unofficially at 2,474.56.

For the week, the Dow dropped 3.5 pe rcent, the S&P 500 fell 2.6 per cent and the Nasdaq shed 1.9 per cent.

Oil prices could top $US150 by July 4, one of the busiest US travel holidays of the year, as strong demand in Asia triggers a slowdown in shipments of crude to the United States, investment bank Morgan Stanley said.

"We are calling for a short-term spike in oil prices," the bank said in a research note.

US crude settled up $US10.75 at $US138.54 a barrel before touching an all-time high of $US139.12 in its biggest gain in dollar terms on record, adding to a rise of $US5.49 on Thursday. London Brent crude settled $US10.15 higher at $US137.69, off the record $138.12 hit earlier.

"It's eye-popping. It's absolutely stunning," said Chris Feltin, analyst at Tristone CapitaL Inc in Calgary.

Oil has risen 44 per cent this year, threatening economic growth in major consumer countries like the United States, already hobbled by a housing crisis.

Analysts have said the dramatic rally in oil prices is due to rising demand in China and other developing economies as well as an influx of cash from investors seeking a hedge against the weaker dollar and inflation.

The greenback extended weakness against other currencies on Friday on data showing the US economy lost jobs for the fifth straight month and the unemployment rate shot up to its highest in more than three years.

The drop in the dollar added to losses from Thursday when European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet said a number of policymakers wanted higher interest rates, possibly as soon as next month.

"Obviously there's a lot of concern on the economic impacts of a weakening US dollar. That seems to be driving some of the momentum here today," said Feltin.

Further support came from remarks by Israel's transport minister that an attack on Iran's nuclear sites looked "unavoidable," the most explicit threat yet against Tehran from Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's government.

Worries of a potential disruption of the OPEC member's crude supply have helped support prices over the past year.

"We've had a huge historic rally on little fundamental input, other than the weakness of the dollar and the news this morning out of Israel that seems to have pushed some geopolitical risk premium back in the market," said Jim Ritterbusch, president of Ritterbusch & Associates in Galena, Illinois.

Morgan Stanley forecast the diversion of Middle East oil shipments away from the United States to Asian markets could push US crude to $US150 a barrel by the US July 4th holiday.

"Middle East oil exports are stable, but Asia is taking an unprecedented share," Morgan Stanley said in a report, adding US inventories have dropped by 35 million barrels since March.

"Robust Asian non-OECD demand growth, coupled with a stagnant global oil supply backdrop, appears to be pricing out Atlantic basin consumers while at the same time driving Atlantic inventories to critically low levels."

The report added to a string of upward price forecast revisions by analysts, with Goldman Sachs in May predicting prices could tip $US200 a barrel within the next two years.

A six-year rally in oil has sent prices up six-fold as demand from emerging economies such as China and India strain supplies.

High prices have started to eat away at global growth however, with some consumers such as the United States and the United Kingdom showing signs of lowering consumption.

Some Asian governments - including India - have decided to cut fuel subsidies, stirring concern rising prices could cut further into demand.

The International Energy Agency (IEA), an adviser to 27 industrialised countries, said it may cut its 2008 demand growth projection further after having already more than halved it to 1.03 million barrels per day (bpd).

Reuters

[OMEN]

An Israeli attack on Iranian nuclear sites looks "unavoidable" given the apparent failure of sanctions to deny Tehran technology with bomb-making potential, one of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's deputies has said.

"If Iran continues with its programme for developing nuclear weapons, we will attack it. The sanctions are ineffective," Transport Minister Shaul Mofaz told the mass-circulation Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper.

"Attacking Iran, in order to stop its nuclear plans, will be unavoidable," said the former army chief who has also been defense minister.

It was the most explicit threat yet against Iran from a member of Olmert's government, which, like the Bush administration, has preferred to hint at force as a last resort should UN Security Council sanctions be deemed a dead end.

Iran has defied Western pressure to abandon its uranium enrichment projects, which it says are for peaceful electricity generation rather than bomb-building. The leadership in Tehran has also threatened to retaliate against Israel - believed to have the Middle East's only atomic arsenal - and US targets in the Gulf for any attack on Iran.

Mofaz also said in the interview that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has called for Israel to be wiped off the map, "would disappear before Israel does."

A spokesman for Prime Minister Ehud Olmert did not address Mofaz's comments directly but said that "all options must remain on the table" and said more could be done to put financial pressure on Tehran.

"Israel believes strongly that while the UN sanctions are positive, much more needs to be done to pressure the regime in Tehran to cease its aggressive nuclear programme," spokesman Mark Regev said.

"We believe the international community should be considering further tangible steps such as embargoing refined petroleum headed for Iran, sanctions against Iranian businessmen traveling abroad, tightening the pressure on Iranian financial institutions and other such steps," he added.

Mofaz's remarks came as he and several other senior members of Olmert's Kadima Party prepare for a possible run for top office should a corruption scandal force the Israeli prime minister to step down.

Iranian-born Mofaz has been a main party rival of the Israeli prime minister, particularly following the 2006 elections when Olmert was forced to hand the defense portfolio to Labour, his main coalition partner, at Mofaz's expense.

Mofaz, who is also designated as a deputy prime minister, has remained privy to Israel's defense planning. He is a member of Olmert's security cabinet and leads regular strategic coordination talks with the US State Department.

Israeli planes destroyed Iraq's nuclear reactor in 1981.

A similar Israeli sortie over Syria last September razed what the US administration said was a nascent nuclear reactor built with North Korean help. Syria denied having any such facility.

Independent analysts have questioned, however, whether Israel's armed forces can take on Iran alone, as its nuclear sites are numerous, distant and well-fortified.

Reuters

[Nightblade]

God, I hate OPEC...

[OMEN]

Attack comes a day after 13 were killed in two bombings at a train station
ALGIERS, Algeria - A bomb exploded on Monday at a bus station in a town east of Algiers, killing 20 people, a security source said.

The bomb went off in Bouira, some 75 miles from the capital, the source told Reuters.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility
It was the fourth deadly bomb attack in six days in regions east of the capital of the oil and gas exporting North African country.

On Sunday, two bombs in quick succession killed killing 13 people, including a French engineer and Algerian firefighters and soldiers who responded to the first blast, a security official said.

The first bomb killed a Frenchman working on a renovation project at the station in Beni Amrane, about 60 miles east of the capital, the security official said. The second bomb hit minutes later, as security officials and rescue workers arrived at the scene. Both devices appeared to be remote-controlled.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility. Algeria's al-Qaida affiliate, al-Qaida in Islamic North Africa, is known to be active in the area.

The French engineer, working on a project to boost the number of rail lines at the station, was killed as he prepared to leave the site in a car, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to media. The man's Algerian driver was also killed. France's Foreign Ministry said it was in contact with Algerian authorities about the attack but provided no other details.

The second bomb came about five minutes later. Eight soldiers and three firefighters were killed in that explosion, the official said. Several others were wounded, though the exact number was unclear.

Other attacks
The North African nation's Islamic militants have mounted several attacks over the past week. On Wednesday, a suicide attack on a military barracks and a second bombing at a cafe shook a beach neighborhood outside the Algerian capital, wounding six people. A day later, a roadside bomb killed six soldiers in the city of Boumerdes.

The attacks of the past week have come as Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika prepares to inaugurate an international trade fair Monday outside Algiers, a high-profile event that will draw members of foreign governments.

Though Algeria has battled an Islamic insurgency for years, the number of attacks has risen dramatically since the country's main militant group vowed allegiance to al-Qaida in 2006.

Most of the country's bombings have been claimed by al-Qaida in Islamic North Africa, formerly known as the GSPC. The group grew out of an insurgency that raged in the country in the 1990s. The violence, which has left as many as 200,000 dead, was prompted by the army's cancellation of legislative elections in 1992 that an Islamist party was poised to win.

Many attacks in Algeria have targeted the national security services and military, while others have struck foreigners. Sunday's attack was apparently crafted to hit both of those targets. In December, a double suicide bombing in Algiers killed 41 people, including 17 U.N. workers. In April 2007, coordinated suicide strikes against the main government offices in central Algiers and a police station killed 33.

MSNBC