The results in 18 of the 23 constituencies where ballots were being double-checked stayed the same after the recount of a March 29 vote, officials said, re-affirming victory for the Movement for Democratic Change.

The remaining five constituencies were not sufficient for the Mugabe’s ruling Zimbabwean African National Union — Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF), which has controlled parliament uninterruptedly since 1980, to gain a majority of seats.

At least four people were injured in the scuffles in the mountain resort of Nagano, where more than 85,000 people packed the streets including Chinese students who turned the town into a sea of red national flags.

After relative calm elsewhere in Asia, the torch met at least hundreds of protesters here ranging from Buddhist monks and pro-Tibet demonstrators to nationalists, who provocatively waved Japan’s old imperial flag.

The Forties pipeline in Grangemouth, west of Edinburgh, Scotland, is being closed as a knock-on effect of industrial action by 1,200 workers at a neighbouring oil refinery in a row over pensions.

It is the first time in more than 70 years that a British refinery is being closed by a strike.

But Syrian ambassador to the United States Imad Moustapha told reporters in Washington that the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) “is already cooperating with Syria. We have excellent relations … They have never ever complained to us about anything.”

“We are not involved with North Korea in any illegal or internationally banned activities,” he added. “Syria does not have a plan or a project to acquire nuclear technology even for peaceful purposes.”

Results of a parallel presidential poll have not been released, but the parliamentary defeat increases pressure on Mugabe ahead of an expected run-off against Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).

The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) said it did not know when the presidential results would be published. It hoped to compile the recount statistics by Monday and then invite candidates to verify results before making them public.

Dozens of lenders have left the federally guaranteed student loan program and remaining lenders have had trouble selling securitized student loan debt on the secondary market — the main way many of them raise capital for new loans.

The U.S. House of Representatives has already passed a White House-backed bill that would offer temporary authority to the Department of Education to buy federally guaranteed loans that would likely offer some stability to the market.

China blames the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism, for a wave of anti-government unrest throughout its Tibetan areas, and has vilified him as a separatist bent on independence for Tibet and disrupting the Beijing Olympics.

“It’s too early to tell if the meeting will produce results or is just for PR purposes in advance of the Olympics,” Mary Beth Markey, a vice-president at the International Campaign for Tibet, said in a statement.

The federal government is under a judge’s order to reconsider an earlier decision against listing the sage grouse as endangered, and wildlife biologists are scouring the species’ customary mating grounds to see how many are left.

The species was seen as recently as 2004 over an area as large as California and Texas combined, but its habitat used to be close to twice that and research has shown that many types of human activity continue to harm it.

But the short and soft-spoken specialist is at the center of a legal controversy. He has filed a lawsuit alleging he’s been harassed and his constitutional rights have been violated because he doesn’t believe in God. The suit names Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

“I’m not in it for cash,” Hall said. “I want no one else to go what I went through.”

FilmL.A. Inc., an agency that tracks on-location filming, said the increase came in comparison to the first quarter of 2007.

“The studios are trying to get production wrapped before June 30,” the expiration date for the current Screen Actors Guild contract, Jack Kyser, chief economist for the Los Angeles Economic Development Corp., said Friday.

“We can’t spend more than we bring in,” said Mart Green, an Oklahoma City businessman who recently donated $70 million to the school. “Let’s find out where we’re fat, where we’re thin and make this place strong, and not just going hand to mouth year after year.”

Green’s comments on Friday came days after a tense faculty meeting where administrators braced professors for the possibility of job cuts as a way to make budget ends meet. Professors were also implored to persuade students thinking about transferring to return to the school in the fall.

In a rare interview with The Associated Press, Patriarch Theofilos III says his Greek Orthodox Church in Jerusalem is in “the position of an acrobat,” faced by challenges on all sides.

The Orthodox Easter Week, which ends Sunday, was overshadowed again by squabbling. On Palm Sunday, Armenian and Greek Orthodox worshippers exchanged blows over rights of worship at Church of the Holy Sepulcher, built on the site where tradition says Jesus was entombed and resurrected.

The 30-second spot, which will air for three weeks on CNN and MSNBC and targets John McCain’s economic views, reflects a growing sense among Democratic leaders that the prolonged nomination fight is giving Senator McCain a free pass for too long.

The ad coincides with a set of other Democratic Party efforts this week to counter the Arizona senator, including a national grass-roots door-knocking effort and a series of “counter-activities” near McCain campaign stops and fundraisers.

The move is one of many being assessed as fears rise that the collective effort of NATO forces there lacks coherence. The Taliban’s comeback over the past two years has been marked by a spike in suicide bombings and other violence – at the same time that critics say the complex command structure governing NATO and US forces has stifled combat and reconstruction efforts.

American officials see a possible answer in modeling the southern region after the east, which falls under NATO but is led by a subordinate US command and viewed as relatively successful.

Dr. Michael Kussman, a department undersecretary for health, testified during a trial in San Francisco federal court that will determine whether the VA is shirking its duty to provide adequate mental health care and other medical services to millions of veterans.

The two veterans groups suing the VA want U.S. District Court Judge Samuel Conti to order the agency to dramatically improve how fast it processes applications and how it delivers mental health care, especially when it comes to preventing suicides and treating post-traumatic stress disorder.

Martin Lousteau, a 36-year-old economic wunderkind, left the Cabinet as the government battles inflation with price controls and attempts to redistribute soaring farm profits stoked by global food prices.

Lousteau reportedly had feisty run-ins with other officials over the direction of the economy after a 21-day farm strike – a bitter fight with the government over how to divide the windfall proceeds of soaring grain prices.

Sorting out the housing crunch and funding could further delay moving all personnel into the compound until next year and exposes shortcomings in the planning for America’s more than $700 million diplomatic hub in Iraq.

The issue of “hardened” housing in the U.S.-protected Green Zone has gained renewed prominence since Shiite militias resumed steady attacks on the enclave in late March as part of backlash to an Iraqi-led crackdown.

The Navy lawyer, Capt. Prescott Prince, said he used the two-and-a-half-hour meeting Thursday to explain Mohammed’s rights in his upcoming death-penalty trial, but he still does not know whether his client will accept his help.

“This is the first time he’s had an opportunity to meet someone who can honestly say he represents his well-being,” Prescott said Friday in a telephone interview after returning from the Guantanamo Bay naval station in southeast Cuba. “That is a lot for him to digest after having been incarcerated from his capture in 2003.”

A spokesman for an umbrella group of Pakistani militants defended the car bombing by saying the militants maintained their right to carry out revenge killings, a glaring exception to a cease-fire declared by the group in response to the peace talks.

Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan spokesman Maulvi Umar also insisted the group would continue to support attacks on U.S. forces in Afghanistan, even though a senior Pakistani intelligence official said the proposed peace deal would forbid them.

Those caught in the Amazon without a permit granted by military and justice authorities could face a fine of US$60,000.

The government plans to send Congress a bill to require the permits within months, National Justice Secretary Romeu Tuma Jr. told The Associated Press on Friday.

The bill is designed to prevent foreign meddling and illegal activity. It would cover all activity in the area Brazil considers the “legal Amazon” – including nature tours, business trips or visits to any cities across 2 million square miles (5.2 million sq. kilometers).

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The bill reflects suspicions among conservative politicians and the military that foreign nongovernmental organizations working to help Indians and save the rain forest are actually attempting to wrest the Amazon and its riches away from Brazil.

A Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) spokesman said the bombing had caused no casualties.

Turkey has carried out a series of air strikes in northern Iraq since the end of a cross-border land offensive in February, which prompted concern in Washington about further regional instability and was watched closely in financial markets.

It was the second Turkish air strike this week on northern Iraq, which the PKK uses as a base from which to launch attacks in Turkey, after an operation on Wednesday.

“I understand there are various opinions (within the Democratic Party),” Fukuda told reporters traveling with him on a two-day visit to Moscow.

“There are various opinions within the LDP and there are also various public opinions.”

Opposition Democratic Party leader Ichiro Ozawa has made no secret of wanting to force a snap election for the lower house in the hope of ousting Fukuda’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP).

“The dumping site has been cordoned, and the relevant authorities have been asked not to dump rotten rice at unrestricted spots anymore,” a security official said.

Hundreds of poor people thronged the dumping site as the Food Department started ditching some 500 tonnes of damaged rice on Friday.

A Russian Foreign Ministry envoy said on Friday that Russia might have to use military means to protect “compatriots” in the regions if they were attacked.

“The statement about the possible use of force against Georgia in Abkhazia and South Ossetia on the part of Russia is a violation of all international legal acts and agreements,” Georgia’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

President Vladimir Putin, due to become prime minister after leaving the Kremlin on May 7, told Fukuda at a presidential residence outside Moscow that relations had substantially improved.

“In the last two or three years we managed to change our relations in a qualitative manner,” Putin said.

The move, announced by Economy Minister Luis Alberto Arce late Thursday, deepens tensions between Santa Cruz’s opposition governor and the leftwing administration of President Evo Morales.

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The four autonomy-seeking territories account for 65 percent of the country’s gross domestic product.

The crisis was triggered by Morales’s plans to overhaul Bolivia’s constitution to redistribute much of the wealth of the eastern provinces to the poorer Andean highlands.

Overnight, some hundred Ukrainians including President Viktor Yushchenko and other top state officials laid wreaths at the monument to the victims of Chernobyl in Kiev and lighted candles during a religious service held for the tragedy, the presidential press service said.

In Slavutich, a small town 50 kilometers (30 miles) away from the wrecked nuclear power station, where most of its personnel live, an overnight vigil was due to be held.

“The Chernobyl catastrophe became planetary and even now continues to take its toll on people’s health and the environment,” the health ministry said in a statement.

In an interview with McClatchy , Mangal Bagh , who leads a group called Lashkar-i-Islam, voiced his disdain for America but said he’s rebuffed an offer from the Taliban to join them.

Truckloads of food, equipment and fuel for NATO troops wind through the Khyber Pass daily to the bustling border at Torkham. Last month, Taliban fighters bombed fuel trucks waiting at Torkham to cross into Afghanistan , and last week, fighting between Bagh’s men and a pocket of Taliban resistance closed the highway for several days.

With the backing of Turkey’s reform-minded government, the team of 80 Islamic academicians from around the world is preparing to release a revised collection of the Prophet Muhammad’s words and deeds, which guide Muslims on everything from brushing their teeth to reaching heaven.

As with most religions, the accuracy of the words that have been handed down through centuries has long been in dispute.

Bishop John-David Schofield led his 8,800-member Diocese of San Joaquin based in central California out of the Church last December. He and his followers do not accept the Church’s decision in 2003 to consecrate its first openly gay bishop.

Last month the 2.4 million member U.S. Episcopal Church elected a new bishop to replace Schofield and on Thursday filed a complaint in Fresno County Superior Court over real estate and personal property in the dispute.

Wachovia is one a several large US banks being examined for relations with Mexican and Colombian money-transfer and foreign exchange firms directly involved in the laundering, the Journal said.

Wachovia officials are cooperating with the investigation, the Journal reported, citing spokeswoman Christy Phillips-Brown as saying “Wachovia is committed to maintaining a strong anti-money-laundering program.”

GM spokesman Dan Flores said the automaker has secured enough components to restart the Detroit passenger car plant, and that 1,300 laid-off workers have been called back to help restart production.

“We can resume regular production and we’re telling employees report for work at their normal start times,” Flores said.

The plant, which builds the Cadillac DTS and Buick Lucerne, was closed on March 28 due to a parts shortage created by the United Auto Workers strike at supplier American Axle and Manufacturing Holdings Inc.

He’s not alone: As gas prices marched higher and now top $3.50 per gallon across the nation, car buyers across the country increasingly are abandoning SUVs and pickups in favor of smaller crossovers and cars.

“Fuel is money,” Piechocinski said. “You have to be realistic.”

With only 21,000 miles on it, he’s advertising the six-cylinder vehicle with the online network Craigslist for $13,991 – about $200 less than Kelley Blue Book’s suggested retail value. Hoyos’ mom purchased a Mazda 5, a smaller crossover vehicle with plenty of interior room but better gas economy – up to 28 miles per gallon as opposed to about 20 for the Mitsubishi.

“Nobody is buying used SUVs,” said Hoyos, 35, who stopped accepting them six months ago. “The truth is more and more dealers are staying away from used SUVs and large trucks … It doesn’t pay. You can’t have a unit sitting on the lot forever.”

The 48-hour strike over pension issues, due to begin Sunday at the Grangemouth oil refinery in central Scotland, is expected to disrupt energy supplies and hinder delivery of Britain’s North Sea oil.

There is plenty of gasoline and diesel in Scotland to meet demand, government business secretary John Hutton told the British Broadcasting Corp. “But of course there is going to be a challenge if people change the way that they consume fuel.

Murdoch’s New York Post daily tabloid newspaper is the chief rival to Zuckerman’s Daily News. Murdoch’s bid would leave a small percentage of the paper in the hands of Tribune in order to defer the tax hit that Tribune would take if it sold the paper.

The source said Zuckerman’s bid is similarly structured, but Zuckerman is betting that the deal would be more attractive to Tribune because it could get done more quickly without heavy U.S. regulatory scrutiny.

The Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada determined that the polar bear was a “special concern species” because evidence wasn’t strong enough to recommend elevating the polar bear’s status to threatened or endangered.

“That’s not to say that it’s not in trouble,” said committee chairman Jeff Hutchings. “A special concern species is a species at risk in Canada.”

The narwhal, a whale with a long spiral tusk that inspired the myth of the unicorn, edged out the polar bear for the ranking of most potentially vulnerable in a climate change risk analysis of Arctic marine mammals.

The study was published this week in the peer-reviewed journal Ecological Applications. Polar bears are considered marine mammals because they are dependent on the water and are included as a species in the U.S. Marine Mammal Protection Act.

The bones indicated that a broken collarbone on the younger woman had been healing for several weeks — meaning the break was not part of a ritual execution as suspected since the 22-metre (72 ft) long Oseberg ship was found in 1904.

“We have no reason to think violence was the cause of death,” Per Holck, professor of anatomy at Oslo University, told Reuters after studying the two women who died in 834 aged about 80 and 50.

“Who would have thought that as recently as 70,000 years ago, extremes of climate had reduced our population to such small numbers that we were on the very edge of extinction,” said paleontologist Meave Leakey, of Stony Brook University, New York.

The genetic study examined for the first time the evolution of our species from its origins with “mitochondrial Eve,” a female hominid who lived some 200,000 years ago, to the point of near extinction 70,000 years ago, when the human population dwindled to as little as 2,000.

EU Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas “intends to come forward with legislation which bans the importation and sale of products derived from seals that had been… inhumanely killed,” his spokeswoman Barbara Helfferich told reporters in Brussels.

She did not say when such legislation might be presented to the European Parliament and the 27 EU member states.

That dual goal “obliges us to plan several mechanisms and regulations in Europe and in France… to ensure food security,” said Jean Arthius, who led the French senate finance committee on the six-day trip, which ends Saturday.

The official, a former economy minister, suggested in a briefing in Sao Paulo to reporters that taxes on biofuels could be one form of regulation.