Malawi ex-leader fights poll ban

Bakili Muluzi is also battling $12m corruption allegations

Malawi's former President Bakili Muluzi has mounted a legal challenge to the electoral commission's decision to bar him from running again in May's polls.

The commission said on Friday Mr Muluzi - who headed the southern African nation from 1994 to 2004 - had already had his limit of two terms.

But Mr Muluzi's lawyers say it is for the courts to rule whether he can stand again, not the electoral commission.

They argue that he can stand again, after a period out of office.

The former president says the decision is a "breach of political rights".

Fergus Lipenga, of the Malawi Electoral Commission, told the BBC News website they had received a high court summons on Monday from Mr Muluzi's legal team to explain their decision.

Malawian commentators say the constitution is not clear as to whether a citizen who has had two terms as president can, after a gap, run again.

Bingu wa Mutharika fell out with Mr Muluzi after becoming president

In an affidavit seen by AFP news agency, Mr Muluzi wrote: "I am eligible to stand as a presidential candidate in the forthcoming elections, after a lapse of one term in office when another person occupied the office of the president."

He was succeeded by the incumbent, President Bingu wa Mutharika, who is seeking re-election.

Mr Muluzi is also battling a corruption case after he was charged in February with a number of counts of graft over the alleged theft of $12m in aid money.

In the country's first multi-party poll in 1994, Mr Muluzi defeated Kamuzu Banda, who had ruled Malawi with an iron fist for three decades.

After serving two terms, Mr Muluzi handpicked Mr Mutharika to succeed him in 2004.

But the pair fell out soon afterwards and the president formed his own party.

Mr Mutharika said his former political associates were opposed to his anti-corruption drive.

Palestinian dies in Lebanon blast

A senior representative of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon has been killed in a bombing, security officials say.

Officials say Kamal Medhat of the Fatah faction was killed in a bombing outside Mieh Mieh refugee camp near Lebanon's southern port city of Sidon.

Lebanon's crowded and poorly-developed camps, housing families expelled from what became Israel in 1948, are prone to violent unrest and insecurity.

Two people were killed in a gun battle in Mieh Mieh camp on Saturday.

Details of Monday's incident are still coming in.

Conservative leads Macedonia poll

Gjorgje Ivanov will contest a run-off on 5 April

The candidate for Macedonia's ruling conservative party has taken the lead in presidential elections praised for their lack of violence.

But partial results showed Gjorgje Ivanov, of the governing VMRO-DPMNE party, had not win enough votes to avoid a 5 April run-off.

The presidential and local polls were seen as crucial to Macedonia's hopes for joining the EU and Nato.

There was tight security, with thousands of extra police deployed.

The electoral commission said voting went well during the day.

There were no reports of the kind of violence between rival ethnic Albanian parties that marred last June's parliamentary election.

"It seems that everything was in order," said EU envoy Erwan Fouere. "It was a calm and positive atmosphere."

A dispute with Greece over its name has also threatened its EU and Nato bids.

Snow

Partial results showed Mr Ivanov - the candidate of Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski's VMRO-DPMNE party - to be ahead with more than 35% of the vote.

The race for second place was between Ljubomir Frckoski, who is backed by the Social Democratic SDSM, and former Interior Minister Ljube Boskoski, who was acquitted by the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague last year.

This is probably the last opportunity for quite some time for the country to show that it has not only the capacity, but also the political will, to organise elections in line with international standards Erwan FouereEU envoy to Macedonia

Five other candidates are also running for the largely ceremonial presidency.

Final results were expected later on Monday.

Current President Branko Crvenkovski is not running for a second term.

Heavy snowfall prevented 134 of almost 3,000 polling stations from opening.

But Aleksandar Novakovski, head of the state electoral commission, said the affected polling stations had 12,556 voters registered - less than 1% of the total 1.8 million eligible voters.

It is expected that voting there will be repeated in two weeks.

Local polls were also being held simultaneously to elect mayors for 85 communities.

Name squabble

The three weeks of campaigning passed off mostly peacefully, with a few claims of voter intimidation.

One person was killed and several injured in ethnic Albanian areas of Macedonia during parliamentary elections in June 2008 that monitors said fell short of international standards.

More than 500 international and around 7,000 local observers have been on hand to monitor Sunday's vote.

"So far so good," US Ambassador Philip Reeker said in an initial assessment of the poll.

Mr Fouere said the vote was "the last chance not to miss the train again to EU" membership.

"This is probably the last opportunity for quite some time for the country to show that it has not only the capacity, but also the political will, to organise elections in line with international standards," he said.

Last year, Greece said it would block Macedonia from joining Nato and the EU unless it compromises over its official name.

Macedonia is also the name of a northern region of Greece.

In December 2008, Macedonia decided to take the issue of its name to the International Court of Justice in the Hague.

Liverpool 5-0 Aston Villa

By Phil McNulty Chief football writer at Anfield

Gerrard was in inspirational form for Liverpool

Liverpool turned up the pressure on faltering Premier League leaders Manchester United as they swept Aston Villa aside with another goal spree at Anfield.

Steven Gerrard inevitably provided the inspiration with a hat-trick - two from the spot - as Liverpool sent out another emphatic statement of intent about their renewed title ambitions.

Rafael Benitez celebrated signing a new five-year contract by watching his side seal victory by half-time as they established a three-goal lead - building the platform for a win that leaves Liverpool in second place and just a point behind United after their shock defeat at Fulham.

Liverpool then racked up two more crucial strikes after the interval to extend their goal difference beyond United's, a factor that could become decisive in the coming weeks.

United may still have that crucial game in hand, but the huge shift in momentum since Liverpool's crushing victory at Old Trafford has all at Anfield seriously believing they can overhaul their fierce rivals in the run-in.

Dirk Kuyt started the rout early on with a close-range finish after Gerrard's free-kick was headed on to the crossbar by Xabi Alonso.

606: DEBATE What are your thoughts on the game?

Albert Riera half-volleyed home the second from keeper Pepe Reina's long clearance and Gerrard added the third before the interval.

He beat Brad Friedel with ease from the spot after Nigel Reo-Coker had fouled Riera.

With Villa despondent, Gerrard struck again from a well-worked free-kick five minutes after half-time and he sealed his treble on 65 minutes.

It was again a penalty, awarded after Friedel brought down Fernando Torres, an offence that earned Villa's unfortunate keeper a red card.

Defeats for United and Chelsea opened the door for Liverpool to really start breathing down the necks of the pace-setters, and this display was exactly what Benitez would have demanded.

Liverpool's title race looked all-but run after defeat at Middlesbrough at the end of last month, but a series of blistering displays have sent confidence surging through the ranks and re-ignited their hopes of claiming the Premier League and the Champions League.

Real Madrid and United were on the end of four-goal beatings - and here they went one better against a Villa side whose main aim of qualifying for the Champions League appears to be receding on a weekly basis.

Kuyt's goal set Liverpool on the way to victory

Liverpool, in contrast, have found a high tempo to their game that has eluded them too often this season, and despite a good Villa spell midway through the first half that saw Reina twice save well from John Carew, they were always in command.

And it was a victory that did not even require any real flashes of trademark brilliance from Torres, who was kept relatively quiet, such was Liverpool's dominance in all parts of the pitch.

Buoyed by United's setback at Craven Cottage on Saturday, Liverpool opened in the manner of a team who had seen the title come back into their sights in dramatic fashion.

It took only seven minutes for Liverpool to take the lead - and inevitably captain Gerrard was heavily involved.

Alonso glanced his swerving free-kick against the bar and Kuyt was on hand to slam the rebound past Friedel.

Villa needed to survive the predictable early assault from Liverpool, and once they did they had success with their attempts to give Carew the ammunition to cause havoc in the penalty area.

He was twice denied by important saves from Reina, first from a shot at the near post as he got on the end of Ashley Young's cross and then with a header that was turned away superbly by Liverpool's keeper.

Reina was then instrumental in Liverpool's second goal after 33 minutes that broke Villa's resolve and effectively sealed the points.

He launched a long clearance that was allowed to make its way into the Villa penalty area, where Riera lashed a half-volley high past Friedel.

And if Villa harboured any hopes of a revival they were snuffed out six minutes before the interval when Gerrard added Liverpool's third from the penalty spot.

Reo-Coker, pressed into service as an emergency right-back, was having a miserable time and he was lured into a challenge on Riera in the area that was never going to end in anything other than a spot-kick, which Gerrard duly dispatched.

Gerrard scored his second, and Liverpool's fourth, after 50 minutes when he slid a wonderfully-precise low finish beyond Friedel from Xabi Alonso's tapped free-kick.

With goal difference emerging as a real factor, The Kop urged Liverpool forward and their rampant side obliged.

Liverpool made it five after 65 minutes in a moment that summed up Villa's afternoon.

Torres raced clear and was hauled down by Friedel - although there seemed little malice in the keeper's challenge.

Referee Martin Atkinson produced the red card and substitute keeper Brad Guzan's first task was to pick Gerrard's penalty out of the net as the Liverpool captain completed his hat-trick.

Liverpool then played out time and conserved energy for battles ahead - safe in the knowledge that they had sent out another warning signal to United.

---

Liverpool: Reina, Arbeloa (Agger 76), Carragher, Skrtel, Aurelio, Mascherano, Alonso (Lucas 66), Gerrard (Ngog 80), Kuyt, Riera, Torres. Subs Not Used: Cavalieri, Dossena, Hyypia, El Zhar.

Booked: Gerrard.

Goals: Kuyt 8, Riera 33, Gerrard 39 pen, 50, 65 pen.

Aston Villa: Friedel, Reo-Coker (Guzan 64), Cuellar, Davies, Luke Young, Milner, Petrov, Barry, Ashley Young, Heskey (Agbonlahor 58), Carew (Gardner 88). Subs Not Used: Delfouneso, Knight, Salifou, Shorey.

Sent Off: Friedel (64).

Booked: Luke Young, Gardner.

Att: 44,131

Ref: Martin Atkinson (W Yorkshire).

Tibetan monks 'held after riot'

Some 93 monks have been held by Chinese police after a riot in an ethnically Tibetan town, state-run media report.

The monks were held after a crowd of at least 100 attacked a police station in Gyala township in Qinghai province on Saturday, Xinhua news agency said.

The agency quoted officials as saying policemen and government staff had been assaulted and "slightly injured".

The protest was apparently sparked after a monk detained for advocating Tibetan independence escaped from jail.

Chinese authorities said the monk fled on Saturday and was still missing.

But a Tibetan website said the monk had killed himself by jumping into a river.

Security tight for Macedonia vote

Heavy snowfall in parts of the country could disrupt the vote

Security has been tightened in Macedonia ahead of presidential and local polls seen as critical to the country's EU and Nato membership bids.

About 8,500 extra police are being deployed to avoid a repeat of violence that marred elections last year.

The EU's envoy to Macedonia said the vote was the last chance in a long time for the country to prove it could hold elections to international standards.

A dispute with Greece over its name has also threatened its EU and Nato bids.

Heavy snowfall over the weekend, especially in the north and west of the country, could disrupt the voting.

Run-off expected

According to opinion polls, Gjorgje Ivanov, of Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski's governing conservative VMRO-DPMNE party, has about a 10-point lead over Ljubomir Frckoski, who is backed by the Social Democratic SDSM.

Five other candidates are also running for the largely ceremonial presidency, including former Interior Minister Ljube Boskoski, who was acquitted by the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague last year.

This is probably the last opportunity for quite some time for the country to show that it has not only the capacity, but also the political will, to organise elections in line with international standards Erwan FouereEU envoy to Macedonia

Current President Branko Crvenkovski is not running for a second term.

Neither of the frontrunners is expected to gain the absolute majority needed to avoid a run-off vote on 5 April.

The 1.8 million eligible voters in the former Yugoslav republic will also elect the mayors of 85 communities.

The three weeks of campaigning passed off mostly peacefully, with a few claims of voter intimidation.

One person was killed and several injured in ethnic Albanian areas of Macedonia during parliamentary elections in June 2008 that monitors said fell short of international standards.

More than 500 international and around 7,000 local observers are on hand to monitor Sunday's vote.

Macedonian and European officials urged voters to carry off a peaceful election.

"We will do everything in our power in line with the law and police authority to enable the citizens to vote peacefully and without pressure," Interior Minister Gordana Jankulovska said.

The EU's envoy in Skopje, Erwan Fouere, said the vote was "the last chance not to miss the train again to EU" membership.

"This is probably the last opportunity for quite some time for the country to show that it has not only the capacity, but also the political will, to organise elections in line with international standards," he said.

Last year, Greece said it would block Macedonia from joining Nato and the EU unless it compromises over its official name.

Macedonia is also the name of a northern region of Greece.

In December 2008, Macedonia decided to take the issue of its name to the International Court of Justice in the Hague.

Iran demands change in US policy

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Iran would 'observe and judge' the US

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has demanded concrete policy changes from the US as the price for new relations between the two states.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said he had seen no change in America's attitude or policy, singling out US support for Israel and sanctions against Iran.

But he also said that if President Barack Obama altered the US position, Iran was prepared to follow suit.

President Obama on Thursday offered "a new beginning" in relations with Iran.

He made the offer in a video message to Iran's leaders and people seen as a dramatic break with the approach of George W Bush's administration.

Relations between Iran and the US have been strained over Tehran's nuclear activities.

BBC Iranian affairs analyst Sadeq Saba says that a minimum requirement for Iran would be a move by Washington to ease US sanctions.

'Words not enough'

Speaking to a large crowd in the holy city of Mashhad, Ayatollah Khamenei said Iran had "no experience with the new American government and the new American president".

One gesture the US administration could make would be to ease some of the sanctions on passenger aeroplanes and spare parts Cyrus, Tehran Iran views: Obama message

"We will observe them and we will judge," he said.

"If you change your attitude, we will change our attitude."

In the speech, which was carried live by Iranian television, he said Iran was yet to see such a change.

"What is the change in your policy?" he asked.

"Did you remove the sanctions? Did you stop supporting the Zionist regime? Tell us what you have changed. Change only in words is not enough."

The BBC's Sadeq Saba says the Iranian supreme leader may be acting to prevent any internal division between moderates and hardliners over how to react to President Obama's offer.

The demand for the US to withdraw support for Israel is clearly unrealistic, he says.

But any easing of bilateral sanctions or a freeze on Iranian assets could signal to Iran that the US is serious, he adds.

'Mutual respect'

Mr Obama's offer came in a direct video address to mark the Iranian New Year.

In the message, Mr Obama said he was seeking engagement with Iran that was "honest and based on mutual respect".

"My administration is now committed to diplomacy that addresses the full range of issues before us," he said.

The address was distributed to news outlets in Iran with subtitles in Farsi, and posted on the White House website.

Mr Obama's approach - prefigured in his inauguration speech - was seen as a clear departure from the approach of the Bush administration, which described Iran as part of the "axis of evil".

In another possible move towards engagement, the state department is said to be considering an overture in the form of a letter to Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei before the Iranian elections this summer.

Even so, a week ago Mr Obama extended sanctions against Iran for one year, saying it continued to pose a threat to US national security.

The US fears Iran's uranium enrichment programme is a cover to build atomic weapons, a charge Iranian officials deny.

Pontiff celebrates mass in Angola

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Crowds greet the Pope in Angola

Pope Benedict XVI is due to attend mass in Angola's capital Luanda, on the last stop of his week-long African tour.

The pontiff, who arrived in Angola on Friday from Cameroon, will later meet youths at a city football stadium.

On Friday, he made an emphatic appeal to Africans to rid the continent of corruption once and for all.

The 81-year-old said in a televised address in Luanda that Africans could transform their continent with integrity, magnanimity and compassion.

Thousands of people welcomed the Pope at Luanda's airport, the BBC's Louise Redvers says.

Pope's visit raises hopes Can Catholicism help Africa?

The Pope said in his address that Africans needed "a firm determination to change hearts and finally put a stop, once and for all, to corruption".

Benedict's speech was echoed by President Jose Eduardo dos Santos, who has been Angola's leader for the past three decades and through a civil war which has left hundreds of thousands dead.

He said Angolans were "looking for the best ways to rebuild what was destroyed in the recent past, and to build a modern society that will integrate all the people without discrimination or exclusion".

Mr dos Santos' party won elections last year that critics said were marred by fraud and corruption.

Angola, a former Portuguese colony, is rich in diamonds and oil, but war has left most of its people in poverty.

The Pope sparked controversy earlier on his tour for remarks refusing to advocate condoms as a way to help stop HIV/Aids, prompting France, Holland and even the pontiff's native Germany expressed concern.

Austria frees 'murder pits guard'

Josias Kumpf left Austria in 1956 to settle in the US

A former SS man alleged to have taken part in the extermination of 8,000 Jews in one day has been freed by Austria, a day after being extradited from the US.

The Austrian justice ministry said the former guard, 83-year-old Josias Kumpf, could not be put on trial because the statute of limitations had expired.

The US says he acted in the killing and burial in pits of Jewish interns at the Trawniki camp in Nazi-occupied Poland.

He left Austria in 1956 to settle in the US, and became a citizen in 1964.

The US justice department sued to strip Mr Kumpf, who lived in Wisconsin, of his citizenship in 2003.

Austrian justice ministry spokeswoman Katharina Swoboda said Vienna had warned the US that Mr Kumpf would not be prosecuted in Austria because the statute of limitations relating to his crimes had expired in 1965.

"We have always pointed out to the United States that he cannot be charged here with the crimes of which he is accused," she said.

'Orders to shoot'

The justice ministry also said Mr Kumpf had been a teenager at the time of the alleged offences and had never been an Austrian citizen.

The opposition Greens have called on the government to amend the law to allow for the prosecution of alleged Nazi war criminals regardless of the time elapsed.

The US justice department said on Thursday that Mr Kumpf had admitted that he stood guard over a pit where prisoners were being gunned down and "finished off" the wounded.

Mr Kumpf was found to have served as a guard at Sachsenhausen concentration camp in Germany and Trawniki in Nazi-occupied Poland, where the mass shooting took place in 1943.

His assignment had been to watch for victims who were still "halfway alive" or "convulsing" and prevent their escape, the US justice department said.

There was no immediate comment from Mr Kumpf or his lawyer, Peter Rogers. They have in the past denied that Mr Kumpf had a role in any atrocities.

Obama promotes reforms on TV show

Mr Obama was also asked about his personal life in the White House

US President Barack Obama has appeared on a popular TV chat show to promote moves to resolve the economic crisis.

He told NBC's Tonight Show he was taking full responsibility "to fix" the economy, in the first-ever appearance on the show by a serving US president.

Mr Obama said he was "stunned" by the huge bonuses that bailed-out insurance firm AIG was paying its employees.

The bonuses - totalling $165m (

Can stimulus help the Mississippi delta?

By Kevin Connolly BBC News, Mississippi

The closer it gets to the Gulf of Mexico, the more the Mississippi river seems to slow down - as though reluctant to leave behind the rich soil of the delta.

Mississippi's blues heritage should attract tourism

And this is fertile ground, although not everything that grew here was good.

Cotton was king - although only because the black families that picked it and lifted it were slaves whose lives of humiliation and poverty built the fortunes of the white plantation owners.

Something in the tension and poverty and suppressed violence of those days made Mississippi fertile in other ways too though - this is the state of William Faulkner and the misleadingly-named Tennessee Williams. And Oprah and Morgan Freeman too, come to think of it.

And above all, it is the home of the Blues - the music emerged in a sanitised and marketable form as rock'n'roll once it had been filtered through the rich, dark soil of the Delta.

Heritage

Curiously, the Blues - that agonised chronicling of poverty, alienation and loss that can trace its roots back to the field hollers of the slaves - just might help to point the way out of recession for a state which is struggling to cope in today's hard times.

President Obama's stimulus funds may have a role to play too, of course, but the Blues might be a way for the Mississippi Delta to help itself.

The idea is to develop the tourist potential of the Blues to bring more visitors to the Delta.

When parents and their children can turn up at a school and see doors that don't need to be fixed... then you'll know [the stimulus is] working Heather HudsonMayor of Greenville, Mississippi

Factories will always migrate to poorer countries in search of lower wages and leave behind jobless workers in Mississippi, but you cannot take away a heritage.

It's easy to be sceptical of course.

Show me a deprived area anywhere on earth that does not talk about exploiting its tourist potential and I will show you an area that is hiring the wrong consultants.

But the Mississippi Delta does have tourist potential as a kind of Blues Trail.

Highway 61, the road that inspired Bob Dylan's most influential album runs through here.

Robert Johnson, the greatest bluesman of them all, is said to have sold his soul to the devil at a crossroads on US 61 in return for mastery of his guitar.

BB King and Howlin' Wolf called this place home too, and loved and lost and fought and sang their way around the Delta - creating rock music incidentally as they went.

Something different

So in Washington and Tunica Counties and in the towns of Greenville and Clarksdale and others, the potential is there for development, according to Howard Boutte, a community organiser I met in Greenville.

He sees the irony though. As he says: "Isn't that interesting? To me that's a testimony that, if you're talking about the struggles that went on back then, now creating jobs for young black African-Americans - that's a positive side. I think now with where we're going it's a mechanism for creating economic activity in the Delta."

Mayor Hudson is hopeful that the stimulus will work

And the Delta needs all the economic help it can get - some of the towns along Highway 61 look like the good times never got good enough to allow you to notice a recession when it came along.

So this region is not going to make it back onto its feet by Blues Power alone - the Obama administration's huge expansion of public spending is going to have to play a role too.

And that is where Heather Hudson, mayor of Greenville, Mississippi, comes in.

You know there is something different about Heather the moment she steps out of her office to meet you.

Lining the stairway in the middle of City Hall, Greenville, is a row of photographs of every mayor the town ever had.

They are all white and they are all men - and Heather is a black woman, as much of a candidate change at the local level as Barack Obama is at the national.

Mayor Hudson has already been to the White House to be briefed by the president about how the funds from his stimulus programme will be "trickled down" from Washington to towns like Greenville.

She is becoming an expert on who can apply for what - what size of town can apply for which category of grant, how applications can be presented and how the money must be spent.

Positive mood

The question is often asked in America - how voters will know whether or not Mr Obama's stimulus programme is working.

But Heather Hudson does not have the slightest doubt.

"When parents and their children can turn up at a school and see doors that don't need to be fixed, and see new energy-efficient light-bulbs and folks see sewer lines and roadways brought up to standard then you'll know it's working," she says.

Mayor Hudson's dream is to be in a position to return to Washington to tell the president that Greenville's first tranche of money has been wisely spent. And then to ask him for more.

There are plenty of doubts about whether or not spending extra government cash on infrastructure projects can really work - and plenty of fears about the damage Mr Obama's frightening new levels of borrowing might mean in the longer term for the American economy.

But in Greenville after decades of poverty, the mood is positive. They believe that the stimulus programme will prime the economic pump and start to reverse long years of deprivation.

And of course, if it does not deliver for any reason, there is always the Blues.

Obama 'mulls Afghan army boost'

Afghan police currently number about 80,000

The US is planning to more than double Afghanistan's national security forces to try to bring stability to the country, the New York Times reports.

It quoted senior US administration officials as saying the plan would mean creating a force of about 400,000 Afghan troops and police officers.

President Barack Obama is currently finalising a new strategy for the war against the Taleban.

He has set Afghanistan as a foreign policy priority.

'Civilian surge'

The New York Times said the president was expected to approve the new plans for Afghanistan in the next few days.

However. it said there were already concerns about the cost of boosting the army and police - which it put in the range of $10bn to $20bn over the next six or seven years.

The new plan would increase the army to about 260,000 soldiers, with the remainder made up of police, border guards and commandos, the paper quoted officials as saying.

It said there were concerns about such a large force given what it called the corruption in the Afghan government, but said officials believed the Taleban insurgency was the greater threat.

Defence Secretary Robert Gates has not commented in detail on the new strategy.

However he said: "I've been very concerned about an open-ended commitment of increasing numbers of troops for a variety of reasons, including the size of our footprint in Afghanistan and my worry that the Afghans come to see us as not their partners and allies, but as part of their problem."

Reuters news agency quoted a US official as saying another part of the new strategy would be a "civilian surge" in which hundreds of US civilian officials would be deployed nationwide to try to counter the effects of the insurgency.

One key issue the new strategy will have to tackle is whether to increase drone missile strikes inside Pakistan.

The US has stepped up such attacks this year but the Pakistani government regularly expresses anger, saying they are a violation of its sovereignty and breed local resentment.

The New York Times had earlier reported that the US was considering expanding strikes into Balochistan province.

US-Syria relations still mired in mistrust

By Natalia Antelava BBC News, Beirut

Syria has hosted a number of high-level US visitors since Mr Obama's victory

Under the Bush administration the relationship between the US and Syria was dire. Washington described Damascus as a pariah, imposed economic sanctions on the country and recalled its ambassador. Now President Barack Obama wants to change this.

But in his spacious Beirut office decorated by the portraits of the Syrian president, the pro-Syrian politician Lebanese Weam Wahab told me why it would be so hard for the United States and Syria to find a common language.

The main problem, he said, is that Damascus is never in a hurry, while Washington always is.

"The Iranians could take 20 years to weave a carpet," he told me.

"And the Syrians would say to them: Don't rush, we have plenty of time. But the Americans want to eat their hamburger in three minutes and move on."

This fundamental difference to the approach in the process of policy making is the reason why Mr Wahab is sceptical about President Obama's new attempt to engage with the Middle East.

But he does admit that to him and his allies in Damascus, Mr Obama's new efforts bring a certain sense of vindication.

"George Bush's plan failed, Syria won and Syrians now feel that their policies were correct all along," he says.

Realistic plan

Syria has cautiously welcomed President Obama's efforts.

But mistrust still runs deep on both sides, differences are vast and Washington's agenda in Syria is still the same.

Obama's silence on Gaza was noted in the region, and I don't think that the US administration has taken a real decision in the way they view the Middle East Karim Makdisi

The US wants Damascus to stop its support for the two anti-Israeli militant groups - Hamas and Hezbollah, play a more constructive role with its neighbour Lebanon and distance itself from Iran.

Martin Indyk, the former US ambassador to Israel, believes that the plan is realistic.

"I think beneath the bravado, Syria is in fact uncomfortable with Iran and that both President [Bashar] al-Assad and his people would prefer to look to the West," he says.

Mr Wahab laughs at this assumption.

"Iran is the only country that stood with Syria through the hard times. It's an illusion to think that you can distance Syria from Iran," he says.

He also questions the value of what Washington could offer Syria in return: relief of economic sanctions and the end of its isolation from the West.

Mr Wahab's personal experience tells him that Syria can easily carry on without either.

"Two years ago George Bush decided to ban me from entering America and to freeze my assets in the States. I laughed: I have nothing to lose in America. And the people of this region feel the same - we have nothing to lose," he says.

Fickle policy

The US could win over Syria with the prospect of returning the Golan Heights occupied by Israel since 1967.

This standoff has a bigger chance of being resolved than any other in the Middle East - and many in Washington believe that Israeli-Syrian peace could lead to peace between Israel and the Palestinians.

But political scientist Karim Makdisi believes America's track record in the region will create problems for President Obama.

"People in the region understand that the US policy has been very fickle," he says.

Mr Makdisi says it is not in Syria's interest to give up Hezbollah or Iran for the sake of the Golan Heights.

"If Syrians then run into problems and Israelis and suddenly Hezbollah and Iran are no longer on their side, what do you do as Syria?" Mr Makdisi asks.

And feeding into this scepticism is the fact that the Obama administration has already made it clear that US loyalty in the Middle East still lies above all with Israel.

Mr Makdisi says that became especially evident during Israel's war in Gaza.

"Obama's silence on Gaza was noted in the region, and I don't think that the US administration has taken a real decision in the way they view the Middle East," he says.

"We are talking about the shift in tactics, in the way of dealing with the Syrians and the Iranians, but fundamentally things have not changed," he says.

Since President Obama's election things in the Middle East have become less tense, perhaps a bit more friendly and everyone here welcomes America's new attitude.

But when it comes to real changes no-one in the Middle East is holding their breath.

Bolt to run on Manchester streets

Bolt won three gold medals at the Beijing Olympics

Triple Olympic champion Usain Bolt will compete in a 150 metre street race in Manchester on 17 May.

Bolt will use the Great CityGames event as his first race in Europe this year ahead of the World Championships.

Jamaican Bolt, 22, won gold in the men's 100m and 200m at the Beijing Olympic Games in world record times and also triumphed in the 4x100 team.

Ethiopia's Haile Gebrselassie will be bidding to regain his Bupa Great Manchester Run title on the same day.

Israel rejects Shalit swap terms

Gilad Shalit is coming up to his 1,000th day in captivity in Gaza

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has said that Hamas's terms for swapping captured soldier Gilad Shalit for Palestinian prisoners are unacceptable.

He spoke after senior Israeli envoys returned from indirect talks with Hamas in Cairo without a deal.

One of his ministers accused Hamas of raising its demands to a level no Israeli government could accept.

Hamas played down suggestions a deal had been close and said it had not changed its conditions.

Israel accused the Palestinian militant group of hardening its position on the proposed prisoner exchange.

The talks were part of a final push by the outgoing Israeli prime minister to secure a deal before he left office.

The young soldier's father, Noam Shalit, acknowledged he would not see his son again soon.

"This government, it seems, will not be able to bring Gilad back," he said.

'We have red lines'

Gilad Shalit, then a corporal, was captured by Palestinian militants from Gaza, including some from Hamas's armed wing, in a cross-border raid in June 2006.

Israel holds thousands of Palestinians prisoner accused of militant activity

Two other troops and two militants were killed in the raid. Gilad Shalit has since been promoted to the rank of sergeant.

Egypt has been brokering the indirect talks.

Hamas has been demanding the release of more than 400 of the thousands of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.

In a television address, Mr Olmert accused Hamas of making additional demands.

"We will not agree to the release of additional prisoners from Hamas's list above and beyond the hundreds that we have already agreed upon and informed Hamas about," he said.

"We have red lines, and we will not cross them. We are not a defeated nation."

Daniel Friedman, the Israeli justice minister, said Hamas had wrecked a possible deal by making unrealistic demands.

"The prime minister was prepared to make far-reaching concessions, far beyond what some other ministers were willing to do," he said.

"That being said, Hamas's demands reached such proportions that we believe no Israeli government could accept them."

Deportation issue

A senior Hamas official, Osama Hamdan, said Israel negotiators had brought no new proposals to the talks.

He suggested the Israelis appeared to believe Hamas would accept any offer ahead of the formation of a more hardline government in Israel by right-wing prime minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu.

Among the prisoners Hamas wants to be freed are senior militants who have been involved in deadly attacks on Israeli civilians.

Reports from the talks say one of the issues dividing the sides was Israel's wish to deport some of these prisoners, fearing they would be a security risk if released in the Palestinian territories.

Hamas representatives have said the group rejects the deportation proposal on principle.

Mr Olmert had made the release of Sgt Shalit a major issue of his premiership.

Sgt Shalit's family and supporters have said they fear a harder-line cabinet led by Mr Netanyahu may be less likely to do a deal.

The Shalits set up a tent in front of Mr Olmert's house last week, escalating their campaign after the prime minister said demonstrations calling for Sgt Shalit's release were unhelpful.

Nothing has been heard from the Israeli conscript since June 2008, two years after his capture, when a letter in his handwriting was delivered to the Carter Centre in Ramallah in the West Bank.

US home construction accelerates

US house construction has bounced after a 50-year low in January

The rate of construction of new homes in the US soared by almost a quarter in February compared with the previous month, official figures have shown.

The US Commerce Department said the construction of new homes and apartments rose to an annual rate of 583,000 in the month.

In January, the annual rate to fell to 477,000 homes, the fewest in 50 years.

The jump, driven by an increase in apartments, came as a surprise to analysts, who had expected a drop.

But even with February's big jump in building activity, housing construction is still down by almost a half compared with the same month a year ago.

Sign of recovery?

The January rate was the lowest since the US Commerce Department started keeping records in 1959.

Some analysts were at a loss to explain the rise seen in February.

"We see no specific factor that might explain this jump," said Ian Shepherdson of High Frequency Economics.

This is an encouraging sign for the US economy. It is good signal of what is to come Matt Esteve, Tempus Consulting

"Multi-family starts are always noisy, but this is exceptional. With new home sales still falling and the [recent] months' supply at a record there is no reason for homebuilding to rise."

Applications for building permits, which are seen as a reliable indicator of future building activity, were also up by 3% to an annual rate of 547,000.

Wider impact

The collapse of the US housing market was a key factor in the global economic downturn.

And some analysts believe these housing figures are a sign that the economy may be on its way to recovery.

"This is an encouraging sign for the US economy. It is good signal of what is to come," said Matt Esteve at Tempus Consulting.

"With the rally in equities, we hopefully have seen a bottom for the economy here."

Others, however, were rather more circumspect.

"This is a temporary rebound, not a recovery," said Mr Shepherdson.

Russia announces rearmament plan

The move is partly aimed at countering the enlargement of Nato

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has said Moscow will begin a comprehensive military rearmament from 2011.

"The primary task is to increase the combat readiness of our forces, first of all our strategic nuclear forces," he told top military officers.

Explaining the move, he cited concerns over Nato expansion near Russia's borders and regional conflicts.

Last year, the Kremlin set out plans to increase spending on Russia's armed forces over the next two years.

Russia will spend nearly $140bn (

Iranian drone 'shot down in Iraq'

US forces shot down an Iranian drone 60 miles (100km) north-east of Baghdad last month, the US military says.

A military spokesman said the Unarmed Aerial Vehicle (UAV) was in Iraqi airspace for almost an hour and 10 minutes before it was engaged.

"This was not an accident on the part of the Iranians," the spokesman said, without elaborating. The incident took place on 25 February, he said.

The US has long accused Iran of military interference inside Iraq.

There was no immediate comment from Iran.

The US spokesman said in a statement that pilots "were directed to shoot the UAV down after determining there would be no possibility of collateral damage".

The unmanned Iranian aircraft was believed to be an "Ababil 3", he said.

Fritzl admits rape, denies murder

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Josef Fritzl arrives at court for his trial

Josef Fritzl, accused of imprisoning his daughter and fathering her children, has pleaded guilty to rape and incest but not guilty to murder.

The Austrian is accused of the murder by neglect of one of his daughter's children. He also denied enslavement.

Earlier TV pictures showed the 73-year-old enter the courtroom with his face concealed by a blue file. He refused to answer journalists' questions.

The trial, in the city of St Poelten, is attracting intense media interest.

Mr Fritzl is alleged in 1984 to have lured his daughter into a cellar with windowless soundproofed chambers beneath their house and then raped her repeatedly.

The daughter and three of her seven children were kept captive in the cellar until the case came to light in April last year when one of the children became seriously ill and was taken to hospital.

No-fly zone

Escorted by six policemen and dressed in a grey suit, Mr Fritzl made the short walk down the corridor from his cell to the courtroom, where journalists tried unsuccessfully to question him before the judges arrived.

Speaking in a weak voice, Mr Fritzl gave the judges his name and other personal details.

An estimated 200 journalists are in St Poelten for the trial.

However, fewer than 100 were allowed inside the courthouse, and camera crews and photographers were told by judges to leave shortly after the trial started.

Mr Fritzl put down the blue folder only after they had gone, Reuters news agency reported.

A no-fly zone has been imposed above the courthouse to prevent news crews using helicopters to get aerial shots.

Mr Fritzl has been held in custody in St Poelten since his arrest nearly a year ago.

Testimony

Prosecutors say Mr Fritzl is guilty of murder through neglect in the case of one of the children, a boy twin, who died shortly after birth.

All evidence in the trial is due to be given behind closed doors, with no press or public present, out of concern for the privacy of the family.

The evidence includes hours of pre-recorded testimony given by the daughter at the centre of the case.

Edited details of the day's proceedings will then be released to the press each afternoon.

The trial is predicted to last just a week, with a verdict expected on Friday.

US drone 'kills five in Pakistan'

A suspected missile fired by a US drone has killed at least five people in Pakistan, officials say.

The missile hit a house in Janikhel, in Bannu district in North West Frontier Province, near the Afghan border late Sunday night.

Correspondents say this is the sixth drone attack on Pakistani territory since Barack Obama became US president.

Pakistan is critical of the tactic because, it says, civilians are often killed, fuelling support for militants.

Meanwhile, an attack on a terminal on the outskirts of the city of Peshawar has destroyed supplies bound for Nato troops in Afghanistan.

Criticised

Local tribesmen in Janikhel said the house destroyed in the missile attack was frequented by the Taleban and foreign militants.

All the killed men were militants and they included two Arabs, they said.

Local administration officials confirmed the missile attack but they said the identity of the dead could not be confirmed at the moment.

This is the second attack in the region in the last five days.

Twenty-five people were killed in a missile strike on a Taleban compound in the tribal region of Kurrum on 12 March.

The attacks are believed to have been carried out by US drones, although this has never been formally acknowledged by the US authorities.

Pakistan's government has strongly criticised the attacks which have led to an increase in anti-Americanism in the country.

Meanwhile, an attack on a terminal on the outskirts of Peshawar has destroyed supplies bound for Nato troops in Afghanistan.

The attack took place at 3am local time (2200GMT) on Monday when militants used rockets to attack trucks parked at the terminal.

At least eight trucks were destroyed and several others damaged as a blaze engulfed the terminal after the attack.

A policeman told the BBC that all the supplies loaded on the trucks had been destroyed.

This is the second suck attack on Nato convoys leaving Peshawar in recent weeks.

The road from Peshawar to Afghanistan is a major supply route for US and Western forces battling the Taleban.