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A state of emergency has been declared in Armenia's capital on the 11th consecutive day of protests against an allegedly rigged presidential election.



The measure, signed by President Robert Kocharian, bans public gatherings and imposes restrictions on media reports.

It came after police fired in the air to disperse demonstrators. Some reports suggest a number of casualties.

Prime Minister Serzh Sarkisian won the 19 February vote against opposition challenger Levon Ter-Petrosian.

Mr Ter-Petrosian says he is under house arrest.

International observers judged the poll in the ex-Soviet Caucasus republic to be generally democratic.

'Standing firm'

The latest clashes erupted after police cleared Freedom Square of opposition demonstrators who had been camping there since the election. At least 31 people were wounded in the morning stand-off.

Regrouping later, they used buses as barricades. Some cars were set on fire.

Lines of police were deployed to face the protesters.

A witness told Reuters news agency police had fired in the air "to scare us".

"They have fired tear gas. But people are standing firm. There are thousands of people standing here with us."

Some unconfirmed reports said a number of people had been injured as police fired in the air. It was not clear how the injuries were sustained.

Alan, a development consultant in Yerevan, heard a lot of gunfire from his home close to Freedom Square.

"After the shooting, we heard a lot of shouting and saw people running from the scene. We could see red tracer bullet fire being shot in two directions," he told the BBC.

Lori, who lives in the centre of Yerevan, saw a line of tanks roll down her street shortly before the violence erupted.

"About 30 minutes later I saw a flash from my window and then we heard a boom sound," she said.

"We heard shooting and saw red tracer bullets firing in our direction. The shooting was constant and very heavy for more than an hour."

But President Kocharian told a late evening news conference that some of the demonstrators were armed and that police said they had been shot at.

"What's going on now is not a political process. It has gone over the edge," he said.

"I appeal to the people of Armenia to show restraint and understanding."

The state of emergency is to remain in force until 20 March, the presidential decree says. Witnesses say they have seen army lorries carrying soldiers on the main road heading towards the Armenian capital.

The opposition has said it will continue with the protests.

Official results gave Mr Sarkisian 53% of the vote, with Mr Ter-Petrosian, a former president, getting 21.5%.

BBC News

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A top commander of Colombia's left-wing guerrillas the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc) has been killed in combat, the government says.



Colombia's Defence Minister described the death of Raul Reyes as the "biggest blow so far" to Farc.

Reyes, 59, also known as Luis Edgar Devia, is the first member of Farc's ruling secretariat to be killed in combat in the group's 44-year history.

He died with 16 other rebels during an attack near the Ecuadorian border.

Reyes was killed in an air raid followed by a ground operation, Defence Minister Juan Manuel Santos said on Saturday.

The rebels had been in a camp 1.8km (1 mile) on the Ecuadorian side of the border across from the province of Putumayo when the attack was called in, Mr Santos said.

Aura of invincibility

Colombian President Alvaro Uribe had telephoned Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa to discuss the operation.

"The Colombian Air Force proceeded to attack the camp from the Colombian side (of the border)," he said.

"Once the camp was bombarded, Colombian forces were ordered in to secure the area and neutralize the enemy."

The BBC's Jeremy McDermott, in Medellin, says the military defeat of the Farc has been a corner-stone of President Uribe's administration since he came to power in 2002.

The killing of such a leading figure within Farc's secretariat, whose members are renowned for dying of natural causes, means the group's aura of invincibility has evaporated, our correspondent adds.

As well as being on Farc's seven-member secretariat, Reyes acted as the group's international spokesman and had led Farc's negotiating team during the failed three-year peace process with the previous government of Andres Pastrana.

He had joined the rebel group from the Communist party in the 1970s.

Hostage releases

With the ageing of Farc's leader, Manuel "Sureshot" Marulanda, Reyes had frequently been mentioned as a potential successor.

His death comes as Mr Uribe was coming under pressure to make concessions to the rebels after Farc released four hostages earlier this week, our correspondent says.

Despite the releases, which were brokered by Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez, scores of hostages - including the French-Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt - are still being held by the rebel group.

Colombia's government has received billions of dollars in aid to fight the guerrillas from the US administration, which along with the EU, views Farc as a terrorist organisation.

While Colombian troops have recently retaken control of areas previously held by rebel groups, Farc retains a strong hold over Colombia's more remote regions.

BBC News

[OMEN]

LATEST: Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has suspended peace negotiations with Israel, demanding it end a Gaza offensive that has killed more than 100 Palestinians, many of them civilians.
Israel said it was acting in self-defence in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip to curb constant cross-border rocket attacks by militants and threatened to intensify its ground and air campaign despite allegations it was using excessive force.

Abbas had ordered "the suspension of negotiations. . . until (Israeli) aggression is stopped", a senior aide to the Palestinian leader said in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

But Abbas stopped short of declaring dead the US-brokered statehood talks opposed by Hamas Islamists who seized control of the Gaza Strip from his Fatah movement in June.

The United States later called for an end to the violence and a resumption of negotiations. "The violence needs to stop and the talks need to resume," White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told his cabinet: "Israel is interested in negotiations but not at the price of giving up our right to protect Israeli citizens".

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is due to meet Abbas and Olmert this week. Washington has said it hoped Israeli-Palestinian talks can lead to a statehood deal before President George W Bush leaves office in January.

A 21-month-old Palestinian girl, two other civilians and three militants were killed in the latest fighting in the Gaza Strip, raising the Palestinian death toll in five days of bloodshed to more than 100, including about 60 civilians, medical officials said.

Anti-Israeli demonstrations erupted in the occupied West Bank, where Israeli forces confronting stone-throwers near the town of Hebron shot dead a 14-year-old boy wearing a Hamas headband, witnesses said.

More than 10 rockets slammed into southern Israel, wounding four people, Israeli ambulance workers said. For the first time since the surge of violence began, Fatah militants in the Gaza Strip said they launched salvoes across frontier.

"Israel has no intention of stopping the fight against the terrorist organisations even for a minute," said Olmert, who faces the new challenge of long-range rockets striking the major southern city of Ashkelon, where a house was hit on Sunday.

Israel has sent tanks and other armoured vehicles as well as special forces and front-line infantry units into the Gaza Strip, but has released no precise troop figures.

"EXCESSIVE FORCE"

Earlier, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon accused Israel of using "excessive force". He demanded a halt to air and ground attacks that killed 61 people on Saturday, the bloodiest day for Palestinians since the 1980s, and militants' rocket salvoes.

European Union president Slovenia condemned Israel's attacks as disproportionate and violating international law. The presidency statement also called for an immediate halt to the rocket fire.

Abbas designated Sunday a day of mourning.

One Israeli has been killed by a rocket launched from Gaza since the current surge in bloodshed began. Hamas has said such salvoes would stop if Israel abandoned operations in the Gaza Strip and raids against militants in the occupied West Bank.

"We are acting to hit the Hamas infrastructure. . . the final target is to bring an end to the firing of Qassams," Defence Minister Ehud Barak said about the crude rockets.

"This will not be achieved in the next two days, but we will continue the activity with all our strength. And we need to prepare for escalation, because the big ground operation is real and tangible," Barak said.

Meeting in emergency session, the UN Security Council said it was deeply concerned about civilian deaths in southern Israel and the Gaza Strip and urged a cessation of violence.

"We are capable of sustaining the fight and tolerating (attacks) beyond the expectations of the enemy," said Abu Ubaida, spokesman of Hamas's Izz el-Deen al-Qassam Brigades.

Olmert has been under pressure from some of his cabinet members to launch a broader offensive in the Gaza Strip, especially after militants began firing longer-range Katyusha rockets at Ashkelon, a city of 120,000 people.

But Israeli officials have spoken publicly of the heavy loss of life such a campaign could cause on both sides. Two Israeli soldiers were killed in fighting with Gaza militants on Saturday.

"I am ashamed to say they have succeeded in chasing us away," said an Ashkelon resident, who gave his name only as Avy, after a rocket smashed through the roof of his house, causing extensive damage. No one was hurt.

Across the Gaza Strip, passages from the Koran echoed from mosque loudspeakers and families erected traditional mourning tents for the dead.

Reuters

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[OMEN]

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has moved tanks to the Colombian border and mobilised fighter jets, warning Bogota could spark a war after its troops struck inside another of its neighbours, Ecuador.

Reacting to Colombia's killing on Saturday of a Colombian rebel inside Ecuador, a Venezuelan ally, Chavez also ordered the withdrawal of all his diplomats from Bogota in the worst dispute between the neighbours since he came to office in 1999.

"Mr Defence Minister, move me 10 battalions to the frontier with Colombia immediately, tank battalions," Chavez said on his weekly TV show.

"The air force should mobilise. We do not want war. But we are not going to let them ... come and divide and weaken us."

Colombia's military said on Saturday troops killed Raul Reyes, a leader of Marxist Farc rebels, during an attack on a jungle camp in Ecuador in a severe blow to Latin America's oldest guerrilla insurgency. The operation included air strikes and fighting with rebels across the frontier.

Chavez, who had warned a similar operation in Venezuela would be "cause for war," said on Sunday he would send Russian-made fighter jets into US ally Colombia if its troops struck inside his Opec country.

Colombia denied it failed to respect Ecuador's sovereignty and said Saturday's operation was a response to fire from across the border.

"Colombia has not violated any sovereignty, only acted in accordance with the principal of legitimate defence," the government said in a statement.

"The terrorists, among them Raul Reyes, were used to killing in Colombia and invading the neighbouring countries to hide. Many times Colombia has suffered these situations, which we are obliged to avoid to defend our citizens," it said.

Colombian President Alvaro Uribe has often jousted with neighbours over spillover from its four-decade conflict but has managed differences with pragmatism. Now the dispute among the conservative Colombian and his leftist counterparts has gone from aggressive words to action.

Uribe has complained before that Farc guerrillas take refuge in frontier areas, though neighbours say his troops are not doing enough to prevent violent spillover from the conflict.

The leftist anti-US Chavez has been in a diplomatic dispute with his ideological opposite, Uribe, for months because of the Venezuelan's mediation with Farc rebels over their hostages. Uribe has accused Chavez of using the mediation to meddle in Colombian affairs.

On Sunday, Chavez accused Uribe of lying over the details of the operation that killed the rebel in Ecuador, where the leftist government of President Rafael Correa is a close Venezuelan ally. He called it a "cowardly assassination" of a "good revolutionary."

"I am putting Venezuela on alert and we will support Ecuador in any situation," Chavez said

Ecuador has withdrawn its ambassador to Colombia in protest and also questioned if Uribe lied when he initially explained to his southern neighbour that the strike was in response to fire from rebels across the border against Colombian troops.

"He (Uribe) is a criminal. Not only is he a liar, a Mafia boss, a paramilitary who leads a narco-government, and leads a government that is a lackey of the United States ... he leads a band of criminals from his palace," Chavez said.

Colombia's government had no immediate reaction to Chavez' troop movements and comments on Sunday, although Uribe has in the past called for prudence in diplomatic disputes.

Chavez, a Cuba ally, sees himself as a leader of Latin America's left and says right-wing Uribe is an obstacle to uniting South America.

Michael Shifter of the Inter-American Dialogue thinktank in Washington and a critic of Chavez, said the Venezuelan was playing with fire even if the spat could distract from his domestic problems such as chronic shortages of some foods.

"There is a risk here as he reacts strongly and often overreacts, but this could backfire on him," Shifter said. "This is not going to achieve what he wants in terms of regional politics ... It maybe is a measure of how concerned he is about his own domestic support."

"I don't know how far he is going to go with this but it is a risky political action," he added.

Reuters

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[OMEN]

At least 39 people have been killed and scores more injured when a suicide bomber attacked a traditional tribal meeting in northwestern Pakistan.

Pakistan is in the middle of a wave of violence blamed on al Qaeda-linked militants based in tribal lands on the Afghan border and there have been three suicide attacks in as many days.

Over 500 people have been killed in militant related violence this year alone.

A top government official in Darra Adam Kheil tribal region said the bomber detonated a device while tribal elders were holding an outdoor "jirga", or traditional meeting.

"They were finalizing the formation of a committee of locals to take steps against miscreants and help the government," said Kamran Zaib, a government official.

A security official who asked not to be identified put the number of dead at 39.

Local television showed pictures of residents and authorities cleaning up the blast site, a shady clearing surrounded by tall trees with a backdrop of rugged mountains.

Piles of torn clothing and bloody Muslim prayer caps were mixed up with the shattered remains of "charpoys", wood and rope daybeds.

"I saw three persons. . .all of them were not locals. The youngest one walked straight toward elders and blew himself up in the middle of them," said Naimat Khan, a witness.

Zaib said a head and identity card found at the scene were believed to belong to the bomber. He said the attacker was aged around 18-20.

A suicide attack on a police funeral in northwest Pakistan killed at least 38 people on Friday, while on Monday the army's top medical officer was killed in a bomb attack in Rawalpindi.

The escalating violence has raised concern about the stability of the nuclear armed state as it passes through a period of political transition, with doubts over how long President Pervez Musharraf can hold on to power after his allies lost a parliamentary election on February 18.

Militants intensified their suicide bomb campaign after the army stormed Islamabad's Red Mosque last July to crush a militant student movement.

Reuters

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The man early results suggest has won Russia's presidential election, Dmitry Medvedev, has vowed to continue the course of predecessor Vladimir Putin.



While cautioning that the full results were not in, Mr Medvedev told reporters he hoped to work in an "effective tandem" with Mr Putin as his PM.

As president, he said, he would control foreign policy with the defence of Russian interests his chief priority.

Mr Putin, he confirmed, would be moving out of the Kremlin.

Mr Medvedev was leading with 69% of the vote with more than 70% of ballots counted, the Russian election commission reports.

Such a result would hand Mr Medvedev the election outright, without the need for a second round.

His nearest rival was Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov, on nearly 20%. He vowed to go to court over alleged fraud, Itar-Tass news agency reports.

Joint appearance

Mr Putin congratulated the front-runner on his lead when they appeared together at a rally in Moscow's Red Square.

Speaking to reporters later, Mr Medvedev said his policies would be "a direct continuation of that path which is being carried out by President Putin".

Asked about foreign policy, he said "the president defines Russia's foreign policy according to the constitution".

Russia's priorities would, he said, continue to be its fellow ex-Soviet republics.

On where Mr Putin would work as prime minister, he said "the place of the prime minister and the government is the White House", referring to the government building a few miles from the Kremlin.

A first deputy PM, Mr Medvedev was the clear favourite from the start and enjoyed generous television coverage.

Mr Putin, who has been in office for eight years, was barred by the constitution from seeking a third term, but has pledged to serve as Mr Medvedev's prime minister.

'Irregularities'

Turnout was high, at nearly 68%, officials said. But there were reports that many workers were told by their bosses to vote.

Various inducements were also offered to mobilise voters, including cheap food, free cinema tickets or toys, correspondents say.

After polls closed Mr Zyuganov said there had been widespread irregularities.

"We will go to court over this," Itar-Tass quoted him as saying.

The Kremlin has dismissed claims of fraud.

There has been very little scrutiny of voting by Western election observers, many of whom stayed away.

The main independent Russian observer group, Golos, said the turnout was impossibly high in some regions.

BBC News

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Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is sending thousands of troops and tanks to the border with Colombia, marking a sharp escalation in regional tensions.



Speaking on his weekly television show, President Chavez also said Venezuela's embassy in Colombia would close.

Mr Chavez said he was reacting to the "cowardly murder" of a leading Farc rebel by Colombian forces in a raid just inside Ecuador on Saturday.

Later, Ecuador recalled its ambassador to Bogota in protest at the incursion.

Raul Reyes and at least 16 other rebels were killed in the operation, which took place about 1.8km (one mile) inside Ecuadorean territory.

'Invasion'

Mr Chavez has been mediating with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia - or Farc - to secure the release of hostages the rebels hold, and six have so far been freed under this initiative.


Senior Farc commander Raul Reyes, file picture

But he lamented the killing of Reyes - whom he called a "good revolutionary" - when he spoke on his show, "Alo, Presidente".

Colombia's defence minister had described the death of Reyes as the "biggest blow so far" to Farc.

But Mr Chavez described the strike as "a cowardly murder, all of it coldly calculated".

He said Colombia "invaded Ecuador, flagrantly violated Ecuador's sovereignty".

Mr Chavez addressed his defence minister, asking him to "move 10 battalions to the border with Colombia for me, immediately" - a deployment likely to involve several thousand soldiers.

"The air force should mobilise. We do not want war. But we are not going to let them... come and divide and weaken us."

He ordered the Venezuelan embassy in Bogota closed and said all embassy personnel would be withdrawn.

Mr Chavez had earlier warned Bogota that any incursion into Venezuelan territory similar to Saturday's operation would be a "cause for war".

Ecuador anger

Later, Ecuador announced that it too was taking punitive measures against what it terms an illegal incursion, and had recalled its envoy to Colombia.

Map

But this is not a full severance of ties, as commercial relations will remain intact, said officials at the country's foreign ministry.

In his address, Mr Chavez said Ecuador's President Rafael Correa had also agreed to send troops to the border, Associated Press news agency reported.

President Correa has complained to the Colombian government about its incursion, calling it "scandalous", and a formal protest has been lodged with Bogota.

Colombia's government has received billions of dollars in aid from Washington to fight the guerrillas - as the US, along with the EU, views Farc as a terrorist organisation.

Colombian troops have recently retaken control of areas previously held by rebel groups, but Farc retains a strong hold over Colombia's more remote regions.

BBC News

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The UN Security Council has voted in favour of new sanctions against Iran over its nuclear programme.



Fourteen of the council's 15 members voted in favour of measures including asset freezes and travel bans for Iranian officials. Indonesia abstained.

Western powers suspect Iran may be developing nuclear weapons, but Iran says its nuclear programme is for peaceful power generation only.

Tehran has refused to comply with demands that it stop enriching uranium.

This can be undertaken for power generation, but may also be a precursor to building an atomic bomb.

This third sanctions resolution - formally submitted by France and Britain - adds to resolutions adopted in 2006 and 2007.

It calls for the foreign assets of 13 Iranian companies to be frozen, and imposes travel bans on five Iranian officials.

It imposes a ban on the sale to Iran of so-called dual-use items - which can have either a military or civilian purpose.

The measures are in a sense lowest common denominator sanctions that even China and Russia - who maintain closer links with Iran than the Western powers - would support, says the BBC's Laura Trevelyan at the UN in New York.

Both China and Russia are permanent, veto-wielding members of the Security Council.

Iranian anger

The resolution received the backing of all five permanent members - also including France, Britain, and the US.

The non-permanent members - none of whom holds a veto - all backed it, except Indonesia, which abstained, saying it remained to be convinced of the necessity of the sanctions.

The vote had been planned for Saturday, but was delayed to give the sponsors time to try to win over four members - Indonesia, Libya, South Africa and Vietnam - who had expressed doubts.

In a statement before the vote, Iran's envoy to the UN, Mohammad Khazee, described the resolution as politically motivated, illegal, and illegitimate.

He insisted Iran's nuclear programme "has been, is, and will remain, absolutely peaceful".

He said Iran would ignore the sanctions.

'Forged'

In remarks to reporters, the British envoy to the UN, John Sawers, said the five permanent council members would ask the EU's foreign policy chief Javier Solana to meet Iran's chief nuclear negotiator to try to resolve the impasse with Tehran.

He restated a offer made in 2006 to assist Tehran with its civilian nuclear programme, in exchange for the suspension of uranium enrichment.

The UN's nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, reported in February that Iran had cleared up most of the outstanding questions regarding its past nuclear activities.

But the IAEA has criticised Iran for refusing to clarify remaining questions about intelligence suggesting Tehran may have been exploring ways to "weaponise" nuclear materials.

Iran's envoy to the IAEA, Ali Asghar Soltanieh, has dismissed the intelligence as "forged and fabricated".

He said in Vienna after a meeting of the IAEA's 35-nation board that "all the outstanding issues have been concluded".

Earlier on Monday, IAEA head Mohamed ElBaradei called on Iran "to be as active and co-operative as possible in working with the agency" to resolve the issue.

BBC News

[JohnCenaFan28]

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said the presence of foreign forces in Iraq is a humiliation and an insult to the region.



On the second day of a visit to Iraq, he said major powers should not be interfering in the region's affairs.

Mr Ahmadinejad called for the immediate withdrawal of foreign troops.

It is the first-ever visit to Iraq by an Iranian president. The two countries fought an eight-year war when Saddam Hussein invaded Iran in 1980.

Mr Ahmadinejad did not mention the US by name, but Washington still has more than 150,000 soldiers based in Iraq, nearly five years after it led the 2003 invasion.

The Iranian president and his Iraqi counterpart, Jalal Talabani, on Monday signed a number of co-operation agreements on trade and transport.

"Without the presence of the foreign troops the region will live in peace and brotherhood," Mr Ahmadinejad said.

"We believe that the forces that came from overseas and travelled thousands of kilometres to reach here must leave the region, and must hand over responsibility to people of the region," he said.

Strategic accord

Mr Ahmadinejad made these comments in response to questions from Iraqi and foreign journalists.

BBC Baghdad correspondent Jim Muir says Mr Ahmadinejad's comments did not amount to a strident call for an immediate American withdrawal.

He knows his Iraqi hosts are about to negotiate a long term strategic accord with the US that would keep troops here long enough to ensure the Baghdad government's survival against both internal and external threats.

Our correspondent says Mr Ahmadinejad's visit could not contrast more strongly with those of Iraq's only other presidential visitor since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, President Bush, whose trips have been unannounced, brief and confined to American military bases.

'New page'

Mr Ahmadinejad arrived in Iraq on Sunday.

He accused the US of bringing terrorism to the region, called on Washington to change its standpoint towards Iran and said it had to understand that the Iraqi people did not like the US.

US officials have often accused Iran of supporting militants operating in Iraq.

The Iranian leader is due to end his visit on Monday.

Iraqi leaders extended a warm welcome to the Iranian president on Sunday.

After talks with Mr Talabani, Mr Ahmadinejad said the visit had opened a "new page" in Iran-Iraq relations.

Prime Minister Maliki said his talks with Mr Ahmadinejad had been "friendly, positive and full of trust".

Despite the reconciliation between Baghdad and Tehran, many analysts believe that in the long term, the two countries are destined to be rivals for regional power.

During the long war between them in the 1980s, many of the prominent Shia now in positions of power in Iraq fled to Iran as Saddam Hussein cracked down on internal dissent.

The US-led overthrow of Saddam Hussein's regime allowed them to return from exile.

Trade is now growing between the two countries and tourism, in the form of Iranian pilgrims visiting major Shia shrines in Iraq, is booming.

BBC News

[JohnCenaFan28]

A gunman killed one person and injured several others at a Florida restaurant before turning the gun on himself.



The incident occurred at a Wendy's outlet in West Palm Beach, in the south-east of the state.

The gunman emerged from the toilets dressed in a business suit and opened fire, eyewitnesses told local TV.

Three of the survivors were in critical condition, a Palm Beach County sheriff spokeswoman said. Two others were slightly wounded.

A woman quoted by Associated Press news agency said she had been buying petrol near the restaurant when the shooting happened.

I thought this can't be happening - you see your life flash before your eyes
Witness Ashley Milton

"I just saw a lady with a little boy in her arms come running out screaming, 'Somebody's shooting!"' said Sandra Jackson.

Another woman described opening the door of the restaurant to hear the "pop pop" of gunfire and see people running.

"I really didn't think that's what it was. I thought this can't be happening," said Ashley Milton, 28.

"You see your life flash before your eyes."

BBC News

[Stamkos]

Wow, this is rediculous. People wonder why America is always pointed out for the most violence in the world due to guns, but yet we read these stories everyday that come out of America. The way their gun laws are enforced is just rediculous. It should be more difficult to receive a gun there.

[OMEN]

London - Princess Diana's heart-surgeon lover, Hasnat Khan, feared that marriage to one of the world's most-famous women "would be hell because of who she was", the inquest into her death was told on Monday.

"I knew I would not be able to lead a normal life," said Khan in a highly personal statement to the inquest looking into the deaths of Diana and Dodi al-Fayed in a high-speed Paris car crash in August 1997.

Khan revealed that Diana decided to end their relationship after they had a two-year romance during which they were hounded by the media and he was sent hate mail.

"My main concern about us getting married was that my life would be hell because of who she was," Khan said.

He feared that if they ever had children together "I would never be able to take them anywhere or do normal things with them."

Khan told Diana, who as the world's most-photographed woman was pursued everywhere by paparazzi, that he could not face leading that sort of lifestyle, constantly in a media spotlight.

Khan felt the only way they could lead a normal life together was to move to Pakistan, an option that she considered for a while, but rejected.

Dodi's father, luxury department store Harrods owner Mohamed al-Fayed, alleges the couple were killed by British security forces on the orders of Prince Philip, Queen Elizabeth's husband and Diana's former father-in-law.

But, Khan said he thought the couple were victims not of a sinister British Establishment conspiracy but of a tragic accident.

Khan said in his statement that Diana was "concerned about her safety, but was not paranoid about it".

The heart surgeon said media attention was not his only problem in such a high-profile relationship.

Harsh hatehail

"I did receive a lot of anonymous threats through the post.

"I have received envelopes containing cut-out pictures of me together with a noose around my neck. This went on and on and it was very stressful."

After Diana came back from a holiday aboard Mohamed al-Fayed's yacht in the south of France in the summer of 1997, "Diana told me it was all over between us," said Khan.

Khan said he thought Diana realised that Dodi al-Fayed "could give her all the things I could not. He had money and could provide the necessary security for her."

Under British law, an inquest is needed to determine the cause of death when someone dies unnaturally.

French and British police investigations have both concluded the deaths were tragic accidents caused by their speeding chauffeur who was found to have been drunk.

Both inquiries rejected al-Fayed's conspiracy theories.

Reuters

[OMEN]

Crispian Balmer and Jonathan Lynn

Paris - A rebel commander killed by Colombian forces was France's contact in negotiations aimed at winning the release of hostage Ingrid Betancourt, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said on Monday.

"It is bad news that the man we were talking to, with whom we had contacts, has been killed," Kouchner told France Inter radio.

"Do you see how ugly the world is?"

Colombia's military said on Saturday its troops had killed Raul Reyes, considered by analysts to be number two in the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), dealing a severe blow to Latin America's oldest guerrilla insurgency.

The killing came days after a former FARC hostage said Betancourt had been mistreated and kept in chains, had a serious liver problem and was mentally exhausted.

Betancourt is a former Colombian presidential candidate who also holds French nationality.

Medical emergency

She has been held hostage in the Colombian jungle for six years and her plight has become a major political issue in France.

"We need to redouble our efforts to talk about Ingrid Betancourt," Kouchner said, adding that she was a "medical emergency".

The killing, carried out beyond Colombia's border in Ecuador, infuriated both Ecuador and its ally Venezuela.

In Geneva, Colombian Vice-President Francisco Santos called at the UN Human Rights Council for international help to free the hundreds of people held by FARC guerrillas in what he said were concentration-camp like conditions.

He said all states were committed by UN Security Council resolution to fight terrorism and to thwart anyone using their territory to plan or commit terrorist acts in other countries.

"... let there be no misunderstanding: we shall continue to be firm in our stance against the worldwide drug problem and against terrorism," he said.

Reuters

[OMEN]

German airline Lufthansa says its pilots averted a crash at Hamburg airport after a strong gust of wind caused a plane, with 130 passengers on board, to veer dangerously on landing.
Amateur video footage, played repeatedly on German television, showed the Airbus A320 buffeted by crosswinds and driving rain as it landed on Saturday at Fuhlsbuettel airport near the northern German port city.

Winds were reported to have reached 250km an hour.

The plane approached the asphalt runway at an odd angle, then swerved sharply before touching down, with one of its wings scraping the ground. The pilots averted disaster by quickly taking off again, going into a so-called go-around manoeuvre.

"Just before landing, the plane was hit by a very strong gust of wind that led to the left wing touching the ground very briefly," said Juergen Raps, Lufthansa executive vice president of operations.

"The pilots reacted outstandingly by inducing a go-around."

No passengers or crew were injured and the plane, which had taken off from Munich, circled for about 10 minutes before landing safely on another runway.

Gale force winds caused chaos in Germany and other central European countries over the weekend, killing several people and causing power cuts as well as major travel disruption.

Flights across Germany were cancelled, diverted or delayed.

Reuters

[OMEN]

Venezuela, Ecuador and Colombia have all sought international backing in a crisis that raised the specter of war after Venezuela and Ecuador deployed troops to the Colombian border.
The crisis erupted after Colombia bombed and sent troops inside Ecuador in a weekend raid that killed a Colombian rebel leader in his jungle camp in a major blow to Latin America's oldest guerrilla insurgency.

Governments from France to Brazil sought to defuse the crisis in the Andes, where Washington ally Colombian President Alvaro Uribe faces left-wing leaders fiercely opposed to US free-market proposals for the region.

Traffic was normal in San Antonio at the main border crossing point between Venezuela and Colombia and while Venezuela and Ecuador said they had reinforced their borders, there was no immediate sign of any mobilization.

Venezuela state TV offered blanket coverage of the crisis but it showed no images of tanks, planes or troops moving and no other media reported military movements in the border area.

Colombia said it would not send extra troops to its frontiers with Venezuela and Ecuador.

Bogota justified its operation on Monday by saying international law allows such actions against "terrorists" and accused Ecuador of permitting the Marxist FARC rebels to take refuge in its territory.

"We have never been a country for ventures either in politics or in military matters," Colombian Vice President Francisco Santos told a UN human rights commission in Geneva. "We have always been respectful of the principal of non-interference."

But Ecuador, a close ally of the larger, richer Venezuela, said Colombia deliberately violated its sovereignty and urged Latin American governments to pressure Bogota so that it does not repeat its "aggression."

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who is struggling to fix chronic food shortages in the OPEC nation, sent tanks to the border and threatened to counterattack with Russian-made jets should Colombia unleash a similar raid in Venezuela.

Chavez, who urged governments to side against Colombia, also closed his embassy in Bogota and fellow leftist Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa expelled Colombia's ambassador from Quito. Chavez and Correa both called conservative Uribe a liar.

With Chavez warning war could break out, there was immediate impact on the economies of the three Andean nations which share active trade ties.

Venezuelan and Ecuadorean debt and Colombia's currency all lost value on Monday, reflecting worries of increased risk in investing in the countries.

"It raises headline risks for all three countries significantly," Gianfranco Bertozzi of Lehman Brothers said.

Brazil, the region's diplomatic heavyweight, said it would seek to resolve the standoff, cautioning that the tensions were destabilizing regional ties.

Chilean President Michelle Bachelet demanded Colombia explain to the region why its troops entered Ecuador.

"A situation of this nature without a doubt merits an explanation," she said. "The most important thing today is that we can avoid an escalation of this conflict."

France, which has worked to free rebel-held hostages, called for restraint on all sides and said the rebel's killing was bad news because he had been pivotal in freeing hostages.

Colombia, which apologized for the raid, sought to ease tensions.

Despite the leaders' passions and brinkmanship, as well as the risk of military missteps on the tense border, political analysts said a conflict was unlikely.

Chavez - the leader of Andean leftists - was more interested in firing up his base of support with rhetoric and can ill afford to lose food imports from Colombia, they added.

The opposition criticized Chavez for drawing Venezuela into a crisis over a raid that involved other nations.

"The odds of an escalation to a war-like conflict still seem modest, with so much at stake for all sides," Bertozzi said. "Tension should therefore dissipate in the coming days."

Reuters

[Stamkos]

SAN LUIS OBISPO, California (CNN) -- A respected California transplant doctor faces charges he hastened a comatose man's death to retrieve his organs -- a far-reaching case that could impact the nation's organ donation industry.

1 of 2 Dr. Hootan Roozrokh, 34, is accused of ordering excessive doses of drugs to expedite the death of Ruben Navarro, a 25-year-old man who had suffered from a debilitating nerve disease since he was 9, according to the criminal complaint.

On February 3, 2006, Dr. Roozrokh hurried from San Francisco to the Sierra Vista Regional Medical Center with a transplant team after receiving word Navarro would be a donor.

In a pretrial hearing last week, Dr. Laura Lubarsky, a critical-care specialist, testified she would not have ordered morphine or the sedative Ativan as Roozrokh allegedly did. She said she was called into the operating room to monitor Navarro after he was taken off life support and to pronounce him dead.

Lubarsky told the court she heard Roozrokh order a nurse to give Navarro more "candy," meaning additional drugs.

CNN.com

[JohnCenaFan28]

Thanks for this.