:world

||| POLITICS. Senator Obama backs stockpile designed to end U.S. reliance on imported oil

Obama puts forward energy plan

||| The Democratic presidential nominee-in-waiting also endorsed long-term work on hybrid cars and renewable energy sources. ||| Only last month Senator Obama argued against tapping into the petroleum reserve, and proposed that the government sell 70 million barrels of oil from its stockpiles.

Tom Raum | AP Writer
 

LANSING – Barack Obama put forward a broad energy plan Monday designed to end U.S. reliance on imported oil within 10 years and shore up his standing amid a tightening White House race and high anxiety over gas prices.
Obama's proposal, though, in-cludes two significant reversals of positions he has taken in the past: He had steadfastly fought the idea of limited new offshore drilling and was against tapping the nation's emergency oil stockpile to relieve pump prices that have stubbornly hovered around $4 a gallon.
In a speech in Michigan, the Democratic presidential nominee- in-waiting also endorsed long-term work on hybrid cars and renewable energy sources.
"Breaking our oil addiction is one of the greatest challenges our generation will ever face," the Illinois Democrat told a supportive audience as he embarked on a week to focus on energy issues. "It will take nothing less than a complete transformation of our economy," he said.
Presumed Republican nominee Sen. John McCain, speaking in Pennsylvania, again advocated more oil drilling off the United States coast.

“Breaking our oil addiction is one of the greatest challenges our generation will ever face,” he said.

"Anybody who says that we can achieve energy independence without using and increasing these existing energy resources either doesn't have the experience to understand the challenge that we face or isn't giving the American people some straight talk," he said.
Obama and McCain are emphasizing solutions to the country's energy woes as they seek an advantage in polling that shows the race competitive just weeks before their respective national nominating conventions and the final stretch of the campaign.
The issue cuts across the di-verse electorate, resonating with voters of all stripes, and it gives the candidates a way to talk both about domestic and foreign issues.
High gas prices are causing food and transportation costs to surge and affect people's everyday pocketbooks in a weakened economy, while the country's dependence on foreign oil has emerged as a pivotal national security concern.
Obama, who as recently as last month argued against tapping into the petroleum reserve located in caverns in Texas and Louisiana, proposed that the government sell 70 million barrels of oil from its stockpiles and said that releases from the reserve in the past have lowered gas prices within two weeks.
Explaining his thinking, campaign energy adviser Heather Zichal said that Obama "recognizes that Americans are suffering." |||

||| IRAQ. First attack in nearly a month

Roadside bomb kills 2 US soldiers

Kim Gamel | AP Writer

BAGHDAD – A roadside bomb killed two U.S. soldiers in a predominantly Shiite area in Baghdad on Monday, the first deadly attack against American troops in the capital in nearly a month.
At least nine Iraqis were also killed in explosions elsewhere in the Baghdad area, Iraqi officials said, in a grim reminder of the dangers that continue to face security forces and civilians despite significant security gains over the past year.
The U.S. military said another American soldier was wounded when the blast struck a U.S. patrol at about 9:30 a.m. in eastern Baghdad.
The area was the site of fierce clashes and frequent roadside bombings blamed on Shiite militiamen before a cease-fire by anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.
The soldiers were the first to be killed in Baghdad since July 8, when a roadside bomb killed Spc. William McMillan III, an Army medic from Lexington, Ky. in a Sunni area. Iraqi politicians, meanwhile, remained in bitter debate over a power-sharing formula for the disputed area. ||| 

||| SEIZURE. Grenade launchers and other weapons

Clansmen grab Fatah bastion

Karin Laub | AP Writer

GAZA CITY – Hamas claimed Monday to have "uprooted" the last major pocket of armed resistance to its 14-month rule in the Gaza Strip, saying it seized mortars, grenade launchers and other weapons from a once powerful clan allied with the rival Fatah movement.
Dozens of members of the Hilles clan were being held by the Islamic militants of Hamas, while dozens more who fled to Israel to avoid capture during weekend fighting were given asylum Monday in the Fatah-ruled West Bank. Hilles families sent children outdoors wrapped in bright yellow Fatah flags, saying they hoped the sight would annoy Hamas fighters patrolling the neighborhood on foot and in pickup trucks.
Saturday's attack on the Hilles stronghold in Gaza City's Shi-jaiyeh neighborhood, which killed 11 people and wounded dozens, marked a fresh setback for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, the head of Fatah.
Abbas' leadership in the West Bank was already weakened by his failure to win concessions from Israel in peace talks. |||

Parliament now to vote

Bassem Roue | AP Writer

BEIRUT – Lebanon's unity Cabinet unanimously adopted a statement laying out its goals Monday, clearing the way for parliament to vote on seating a new government that includes the country's bitterly divided pro-Western and pro-Syrian factions.
The new government was formed in a compromise aimed at ending a monthslong paralyzing political deadlock that led to bloody street battles in May, during which Hezbollah and its allies routed supporters of parliament's pro-Western majority.
Information Minister Tarek Mitri said all 30 members of the compromise Cabinet endorsed the draft policy statement, which outlines what the new government hopes to accomplish before elections next May, including plans to boost the economy and strengthen security forces.
The statement includes a provision indicating the Islamic militant group Hezbollah can keep its weapons. With Hezbollah holding a veto in the new Cabinet, both sides agreed on the vaguely worded provision Friday.
Parliament will now debate the policy statement before holding a vote of confidence on the Cabinet headed by Prime Minister Fuad Saniora, probably later this week.
The Cabinet is widely expected to win the vote because it has representatives from both sides of political divide.
Hezbollah's weapons have long been a point of dispute in Lebanon, with many legislators in the Western-backed majority wanting to disarm the group. Hezbollah, which is backed by Syria and Iran, has rejected that demand.
The policy statement says it is "the right of Lebanon's people, the army and the resistance to liberate all its territories." Lebanese use "resistance" to refer to Hezbollah, which is admired by many for its stand against Israel. "All territories" alludes to Lebanon's territorial claim on the Chebaa Farms area that Israel captured from Syria during the 1967 Mideast war.