People who enrolled in the settlement by this past Friday could be eligible to receive an interim payment later this year. Whitehouse Station, N.J.-based Merck has said it will withdraw from the agreement unless at least 85 percent of people in different groups of claimants join in the settlement.

Those thresholds would be met - and exceed 93 percent of eligible claims in each of four key categories - if all of the more than 44,000 submissions are verified, the company said. "We are very pleased with the large number of enrollments we are seeing and are confident that when the enrollments are verified, all 85 percent thresholds will be met and exceeded within the timeframes in the agreement," Ted Mayer, a lawyer for Merck, said in a statement.

Lawyers for Merck and thousands of people who blamed Vioxx for their heart attacks or strokes announced the settlement in November 2007 during a court hearing in New Orleans. The deal was expected to end an estimated 45,000 to 50,000 state and federal lawsuits. Merck voluntarily pulled Vioxx off the market in 2004 after its own study showed the painkiller doubled the risk of heart attack when taken for at least 18 months. Vioxx accounted for $2.5 billion of Merck's 2003 sales and an estimated 15 percent of the company's profit that year.

Dozens of sex workers marched to demand the decriminalization of adult prostitution, securing social recognition of sex work as a valid profession and establishing sex workers' right to self-determination. The movement started in India in 2001 when 25,000 sex workers mobilized together to raise awareness of the violence directed at sex workers and their lack of rights.

Palestinians say Israel's pilotless planes have been a major weapon in its latest offensive in Gaza, which has killed nearly 120 people since last week. "Our experience is that the drone missile is successful in hitting its targets, and it's deadly," said Dr. Mahmoud Assali, a Palestinian physician who works in the emergency room of a northern Gaza Strip hospital that has often treated Palestinian gunmen hit by Israeli drones. "The drone has a zone of around 15 meters (50 feet) where it decimates everything. It targets people and leaves them in pieces," Assali said. Israel is at the forefront of the drone technology that is increasingly being used in hotspots around the world.

The unmanned craft provide a deadly and cost-effective alternative for armies to target enemies, without risking their own pilots' lives and reducing civilian casualties in heavily populated areas. Damian Kemp, an aviation desk editor at Jane's Defence Weekly, said Israel is probably the first country in the world to use unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs, for both surveillance and to fire missiles. Israel is a world leader in the field and "capable of doing everything from the very small to the very large," he said.

He said drones were likely more accurate, cost-effective and safer than manned F-16 fighter jets and Apache helicopters. "The key thing in a UAV is it does missions that are dull, dirty and dangerous," Kemp said. "They can be up there for a long time and in areas where you don't need to put a pilot at risk."

Venezuela also said it was expelling all Colombian diplomats in the wake of the raid, which killed senior Farc rebel Raul Reyes and 16 others. Venezuela and Ecuador have deployed troops to their borders amid calls for restraint led by the head of the UN. Latin American powers including Chile, Mexico and Brazil have offered to mediate in the dispute.

An emergency meeting of the Organisation of American States will be held on Tuesday to discuss the crisis. Farc - the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia - has been fighting for more than four decades with the declared aim of a fairer wealth distribution in Colombia. They fund themselves largely through the cocaine trade, analysts say, while holding hundreds of kidnapped hostages for ransom and political ends.

Meanwhile, Colombia accused Ecuador and Venezuela of having ties with the Farc and said the rebels had tried to buy uranium. The Colombian authorities said the information had come from documents found during Saturday's raid on the rebel camp in Ecuador. "When they mention negotiations for 50 kilos of uranium, this means that the Farc are taking big steps in the world of terrorism to become a global aggressor. We're not talking of domestic guerrilla but transnational terrorism," said Colombian national police chief Oscar Naranjo at a news conference in Bogota. Other documents showed that President Chavez had provided $300m (£151m) to the Farc, and had received funds from them many years earlier, he said.

Hungarian Ludwig von Wohl persuaded senior intelligence figures that he could replicate the forecasts of the Nazi leader's personal astrologer. He claimed that if London knew what astrological advice Hitler was getting, then they would know his next move.

De Wohl came up with his proposal to examine the astrological advice being given to Hitler by Swiss stargazer Karl Ernst Krafft. De Wohl claimed that as Hitler relied heavily on Krafft's predictions, which were based on mathematics surrounding birthdates, the British could gain a unique insight into his thinking if they knew the astrological advice he was receiving. The plan appealed to some leading figures, including the Director of Naval Intelligence Admiral John Godfrey, who found Hitler's erratic strategic moves hard to work out.

Another MI5 officer said none of de Wohl's predictions had come true, apart from his forecast of Italy's entry into the war, which he made when it was "quite patent to anybody with the slightest knowledge of international affairs". Historians now say that Hitler took no notice at all of astrological forecasts.

Israel said the operation was launched to defend itself against rocket attack. Medical sources say at least 114 Palestinians have been killed since Wednesday, when Israel intensified its campaign in Gaza. Three Israelis have died - a civilian killed by a rocket on Wednesday, and two soldiers since.

There has been widespread international alarm at the scale of the Israeli action and West Bank-based Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has formally suspended contacts with Israel in protest. He has even donated his blood to help victims in Gaza - a highly symbolic move after Hamas seized control of the territory from his ruling party by force last June.

Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Haim Ramon told Army Radio: "This operation has run its course. The main goal of the Israeli government is to end the firing [of rockets] at targets in the south. There were dozens of deaths among the Hamas terrorists - this is certainly deterrence." The administration of US President George W Bush joined international calls for a halt to the fighting in Gaza, saying: "The violence needs to stop and the talks need to resume."

Five representatives from each side will meet on Tuesday for two days in Rome to work out the details of a larger meeting that will include Pope Benedict later this year. "We have to bring the dialogue up to date following the great successes of the pontificate of John Paul II," said Yahya Sergio Yahe Pallavicini, vice-president of the Italian Islamic Religious Community.

Catholic-Muslim relations nosedived in 2006 after Benedict delivered a lecture in Regensburg, Germany, that was taken by Muslims to imply that Islam was violent and irrational. Muslims around the world protested and the Pope sought to make amends when he visited Turkey's Blue Mosque and prayed towards Mecca with its Imam. After the fallout from the Regensburg speech, 138 Muslim scholars and leaders wrote to the German-born Pontiff and other Christian leaders last year, saying "the very survival of the world itself" may depend on dialogue between the two faiths.

"Terrorism is one thing that has to be discussed," he said. "All religious leaders must renew a message of peace in their faith. Then it will be easier to isolate extremists and avoid the wrong use of religion," he said.
Although Benedict repeatedly expressed regret for the reaction to his speech in Regensburg, he stopped short of a clear apology sought by Muslims. Pallavicini said the enlarged meeting would likely take place either at the Vatican before the summer or at Benedict's summer residence south of Rome in August.

The weaker dollar that has propelled oil and other commodities prices higher sent light, sweet crude for April delivery past $103.76 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. That's the level many analysts consider to be the true record high for oil, after its $38 barrel price from 1980 is translated into 2008 dollars. Futures later retreated from that high to settle up 61 cents at $102.45 after Royal Dutch Shell PLC said it would resume oil shipments from Nigeria that had been disrupted by rebel attacks.

Oil's most recent run into record territory has been driven by the greenback's slump against other world currencies. Crude futures offer a hedge against a falling dollar, and oil futures bought and sold in dollars are more attractive to foreign investors when the dollar is falling. Gold, copper and wheat are among the other commodities that have rallied as the dollar has fallen. "It's coming down to another commodity price rally," said Phil Flynn, an analyst at Alaron Trading Corp., in Chicago.

As for where oil goes from here, analyst estimates vary widely, with some predicting an eventual decline to the $65 or $70 range as supplies continue to grow and demand falls, and others seeing oil rising as high as $120 as investment capital continues to flow into oil markets from overseas.

"The West and the Northwest are increasing in population growth like never before," said John Redding, regional spokesman for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation in Boise. "How do you quench the thirst of the hungry masses?" The population of the Western states grew nearly 20 percent in the 1990s, to more than 64 million, and continues to swell even as climate change poses new threats to the water supply.

Ironically, consideration of new dams comes even as older ones are being torn down across the country because of environmental concerns - worries that will likely pose big obstacles to new construction. In Oregon, a deal has been struck to remove four dams on the Klamath River to restore struggling salmon runs. There are lots of other ideas for increasing water supplies in the West. They include conservation, storing water in natural underground aquifers, pipelines to carry water from the mountains, desalination plants to make drinking water from the ocean, small dams to serve local areas.

Most of those ideas are much more popular than big new dams. "Our water future doesn't lie with new dams," said Dr. John Osborn, a Spokane physician and chairman of the Sierra Club chapter in Spokane. "It's water conservation."

Now, the chickens have come to roost, as Oklahoma wants a federal judge to stop 13 Arkansas-based poultry companies from dropping any more chicken litter in a once-pristine watershed. The preliminary injunction request is part of the state's 2005 lawsuit against the $2 billion poultry operation here - including Tyson Foods Inc., the world's largest meat producer, Cargill Inc., George's Inc. and Simmons Foods Inc. - for polluting with chicken waste, which contains bacteria, antibiotics, growth hormones and harmful metals.

The Oklahoma-Arkansas region supplies roughly 2 percent of the nation's poultry and is one of several regions nationally where the industry is most concentrated. At stake is a practice thousands of farmers have employed for years: Taking the ammonia-reeking stuff - clumped bird droppings, bedding and feathers - and spreading it on their land as cheap fertilizer.

However inexpensive, decades of mass-dumping of the litter has wreaked havoc in the 1-million-acre Illinois River watershed, turning it into a murky, sludgy mess, environmentalists say. If a judge orders an end to disposing the waste here, the ruling could lead to similar environmental lawsuits nationwide against the industry, which produced more than 48 billion pounds of chicken in 2006.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez threatened to join the rebels in a war to overthrow hard-line Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, a key ally of the United States, deploying tanks, fighter jets and thousands of troops along the Colombian border.

Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa also ordered troops to the border, expelled Colombia's ambassador and recalled its ambassador to Bogota, but left its embassy open. Venezuela closed its embassy in Colombia and ordered all diplomats home. A weekend battle sparked the mobilization, in which Colombian forces killed a top leader of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), in a camp in Ecuador.

"The obsessive conduct of those who prize the military option sharpens the armed conflict with grave possible consequences" read a statement from Venezuela's Foreign Ministry after the weekend killing of FARC's second in command, Raul Reyes. On his weekly Sunday talk show "Hello President," Mr. Chavez accused Colombia of "invading" Ecuador, and compared the action to Israeli attacks against Palestinians.

Medvedev had more than 70 percent of the vote with 97 percent of the precincts counted, according to the Central Election Commission. He is expected to rule in concert with his mentor, an arrangement that could see Putin calling the shots despite his constitutionally subordinate position as Russia's prime minister.

Medvedev, 42, the youngest Russian ruler since the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution, is expected to heed Putin's advice, continue his assertive course with the West, maintain state control over Russia's mineral riches and freeze out real opposition movements. "We will increase stability, improve the quality of life and move forward on the path we have chosen," Medvedev said Sunday, appearing alongside Putin at a celebration at the Red Square outside the Kremlin. "We will be able to preserve the course of President Putin."

Putin said Medvedev "has taken a firm lead" and congratulated his protege. "Such a victory carries a lot of obligations," Putin said. "This victory will serve as a guarantee that the course we have chosen, the successful course we have been following over the past eight years, will be continued."

Prince Alois, who once acknowledged he led a boring life, had been seen as conciliatory, distant or even timid. But his reaction to Germany's crackdown on secretive bank accounts in his principality has dramatically raised his profile. The 39-year-old prince lacks many of the fiery traits that make his father Hans-Adam II a controversial figure, but his 35,000 subjects have warmed to him as he grapples with one of Liechtenstein's worst recent crises.

"People had criticized him for being too cautious. Now he has shown he can act differently, and people liked it," said Kornelia Pfeiffer, a journalist at the Liechtensteiner Volksblatt daily newspaper. He accused Germany of violating the law by purchasing information on suspected tax dodgers from an informant the principality views as a criminal. "It is surely a crisis when one is shot at in this way by such a big country," the prince told a news conference in the capital Vaduz.

"Germany would be better off using its tax revenues to get its own tax system in order instead of paying millions for stolen data."

A US official confirmed launching a strike against "suspected terrorists". The US bombed the area a year ago and residents say it was the same plane. Six people were killed in the air strikes on Dhoble town and 20 wounded. Somalia's Islamist insurgents seized the town last week and one of their leaders Hassan Turki was reportedly in the area over the weekend.

Islamist spokesman Sheikh Mukhtar Robow said the US was trying to hit Islamist hideouts in the area. "The Americans bombed the town and hit civilian targets, thinking that they were Islamist hideouts. They used an AC-130 plane," he told the AFP news agency.

The US accused the Somali Islamists of harbouring those responsible for the 1998 attacks on its embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. The Islamists denied this, as well as reports they had links to al-Qaeda. Somalia has not had an effective national government since 1991.

BUT ITS ANNUAL PROFITS STILL ROSE 10% TO $24.2BN (£12.2BN), UP FROM $22.08BN THE YEAR BEFORE. The write-down is the largest of the big-five UK banks because HSBC has large operations in the US. The bank said the global financial system had come under "extraordinary strain" in 2007. "The outlook for the rest of 2008 is uncertain," said HSBC chairman Stephen Green.

HSBC has a branch network in the US, where business, it says, is "challenging". Profitability is declining because of the decline in the housing market and increasing unemployment. The bank said it was actively trying to mitigate losses in the US, where defaults on mortgages and credit card payments are increasing. It has restructured its US operation, closing about 400 branches, and has reduced the amount of credit it extends.

HSBC shares rose in early trading - one of the few companies to see its shares rise in a falling market. By 0945 GMT its shares were up 1p at 767p. "HSBC has fared better than many of its competitors in shedding just 14% of its share price in the last year," said Richard Hunter from stockbrokers Hargreaves Lansdown. "However, it continues to be held back by the spectre of POTENTIAL FURTHER WRITE-DOWNS WITH, IN PARTICULAR, ITS EXPOSURE TO THE US MARKET HAVING UNNERVED MANY INVESTORS," he said.