He will meet with Abbas on Sunday, probably for the last time before Kadima party members go to the polls in less than three weeks to elect his replacement. The international community's role would be that of advisors, but would give it large media exposure in attempts to divide the city and make it a shared capital of both Israel and a new Arab country. Leaders of the European Union (EU) and other Western countries have suggested that Jews not have exclusive sovereignty over its holy sites in the city.

Possible international monitors under consideration are Jordan, THE VATICAN, Egypt and the Quartet, which includes Russia, the United Nations, the United States AND THE EU.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown on Sunday said he would press fellow European Union leaders to review ties to Russia in retaliation for Moscow's decision to sent troops to Georgia and recognise two Georgian breakaway regions. But underlining the differences in approach inside the 27-member EU, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier took a softer line, saying isolating Russia would harm the interests of the bloc.

"Russia does not want confrontation with any country. Russia does not plan to isolate itself. Russia will develop, as far as possible, its relations with Europe, with the United States of America, and with other countries," Medvedev said in an interview with Russia's three main television stations. But he added: "Everyone should understand that if someone launches an aggressive sortie, he will receive a response." He said Russian law allowed the Kremlin to impose sanctions on other states, though it preferred not to go down that path.

Defying Western condemnation of his decision to recognise Georgia's breakaway Abkhazia and South Ossetia as independent, Medvedev said that move was "irrevocable." He also said there were parts of the globe where Russia had "privileged interests" - a clear warning that the Kremlin will not accept NATO expansion into Russia's traditional sphere of influence.

As of midday Saturday, slightly more than THREE-FOURTHS OF THE GULF'S OIL PRODUCTION AND NEARLY 40 PERCENT OF ITS NATURAL GAS OUTPUT HAD BEEN SHUT DOWN, according to the U.S. Minerals Management Service, which oversees offshore activity. Shell said it was on schedule to complete the evacuation of more than 1,300 workers from 20 production platforms and other facilities. The task took four days and involved 17 helicopters.

Both oil giants said production was being completely shut off - a process that can involve closing safety valves in thousands of feet of water to prevent the release of oil or natural gas. Analysts say prolonged supply disruptions could cause a sudden price uptick for gasoline and other petroleum products. Gasoline prices rose this week for the first time in more than a month, and they continued upward Saturday. A gallon of regular gasoline jumped more than a penny overnight to a national average of $3.682, according to auto club AAA.

THE U.S. GULF COAST ACCOUNTS FOR ABOUT 25 PERCENT OF DOMESTIC OIL PRODUCTION AND 15 PERCENT OF NATURAL GAS OUTPUT, according to the MMS. The Gulf Coast also is home to nearly half the nation's refining capacity.

US intelligence fears the Kremlin will supply the sophisticated S-300 system to Tehran if Washington pushes through Nato membership for its pro-Western neighbours Georgia and Ukraine. The proposed deal is causing huge alarm in the US and Israel as the S-300 can track 100 targets at once and fire on planes up to 75 miles away.

That would make it a "game-changer", greatly improving Iranian defences against any air strike on its nuclear sites, according to Pentagon adviser Dan Goure. "This is a system that scares every Western air force," he said. Senior US intelligence operatives believe that Russia is planning to use a stand-off over the S-300 to create a foreign policy showdown that would test the mettle of a new US president.

"The message from Moscow is very clear," said George Friedman, director of Stratfor, a leading US private intelligence agency. "They are saying if you don't stop meddling in our sphere of influence, this is what we are going to do. Back Georgia and Ukraine for Nato membership and you'll see the S-300 go to Iran. It is a very powerful bargaining chip and a major deterrent to US actions in the region. Moscow is playing very strategically on America's obsession with Iran."

Critics of the Large Hadron Collider - a £4.4 billion machine due to be switched on in ten days time - have lodged a lawsuit at the European Court for Human Rights against the 20 countries, including the UK, that fund the project. The device is designed to replicate conditions that existed just a fraction of a second after the Big Bang, and its creators hope it will unlock the secrets of how the universe began.

However, opponents fear the machine, which will smash pieces of atoms together at high speed and generate temperatures of more than a trillion degrees centigrade, MAY CREATE A MINI-BLACK HOLE THAT COULD TEAR THE EARTH APART. Scientists involved in the project have dismissed the fears as "absurd" and insist that extensive safety assessments on the 17 mile long particle accelerator have demonstrated that it is safe.

The legal battle comes as the European Nuclear Research Centre (CERN), in Geneva, prepares to send the first beam of particles around the machine at the official switch on, on September 10, although it will be several weeks before the first particles are collided together.

Professor Otto Rössler, a German chemist at the Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen who is one of the most vocal opponents of the LHC and was one of the scientists who submitted the complaint to the court, said: "CERN ITSELF HAS ADMITTED THAT MINI BLACK HOLES COULD BE CREATED WHEN THE PARTICLES COLLIDE, BUT THEY DON'T CONSIDER THIS A RISK."

"My own calculations have shown that it is quite plausible that these little black holes survive and will grow exponentially and eat the planet from the inside. I have been calling for CERN to hold a safety conference to prove my conclusions wrong but they have not been willing. We submitted this application to the European Court of Human Rights as WE DO NOT BELIEVE THE SCIENTISTS AT CERN ARE TAKING ALL THE PRECAUTIONS THEY SHOULD BE IN ORDER TO PROTECT HUMAN LIFE."

Demonstrators filled the capital's historic Zocalo Square, holding candles and pictures of kidnap victims and bearing signs that read, "Enough Is Enough". People marched in cities throughout the country, including along the U.S.-Mexico border where increasingly brazen drug gangs are battling each other for control of smuggling routes. MORE THAN 2,300 PEOPLE HAVE BEEN KILLED IN DRUG MURDERS THIS YEAR.

Long used to violent crime, Mexicans were nevertheless outraged by the kidnapping and murder of Fernando Marti, 14, whose body was found in a car trunk in Mexico City on August 1, even though his businessman father had paid a ransom. Mexico is one of the worst countries in the world for abductions, along with conflict zones like Iraq and Colombia.

Protester Manuel Ramirez, 50, who has not seen his daughter Monica since she was kidnapped in 2004, complained that criminals were becoming bolder. "They are more bloodthirsty, they make their victims disappear, they mutilate them, they cut their ears off just as in the case of my daughter. We do not know where she is," Ramirez said.

The epicenter of Saturday's quake, which struck around 4:30 p.m. (3:30 a.m. EDT), was about 20 miles southeast of Panzhihua, near Sichuan's border with Yunnan, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The quake was about 6 miles deep.

The U.S. Geological Survey put the magnitude of the quake at 5.7, while China's official Xinhua news agency said it measured 6.1. Xinhua said the quake had injured 192 people, and three more were missing. It added that 656 schools had also been damaged and that heavy rain and difficult terrain were hampering rescue efforts, with mobile telephone communications patchy.

Parts of Sichuan province were devastated by an earthquake that killed about 70,000 people in May. The province, known for its pandas and fiery cuisine, has struggled to rebuild after the disaster, which left 10 million people homeless.

The market was set to reopen Tuesday after the Labor Day holiday, COMMENCING WHAT IS TRADITIONALLY A TREACHEROUS MONTH. "Many investors believe October is the worst month for equity market returns. This can be partly attributable to the fact some large one-day declines have occurred in October," said David Templeton of the financial website Seeking Alpha.

"While economic growth seems to be in the minds of everybody, I still worry about inflation," he said. "The trend is clearly upwards and will continue to remain on that path if the Federal Reserve continues to be as irresponsible as it has been until now." Corporate profits will be squeezed by the combination of soft growth and high inflation, the economist argued.

"How long can a business keep prices constant when facing an almost 10 percent increase in the price of its inputs?" he asked.

Mayor Ray Nagin gave the mandatory order late Saturday, but all day residents took to buses, trains, planes and cars - clogging roadways leading away from New Orleans, still reeling three years after Hurricane Katrina flooded 80 percent of the city and killed about 1,600 across the region. The evacuation of New Orleans becomes mandatory at 8 a.m. Sunday along the vulnerable west bank of the Mississippi River, and at noon on the east bank. Nagin called Gustav the "mother of all storms" and told residents to "get out of town. This is not the one to play with."

Gustav had already killed more than 80 people in the Caribbean, and if current forecasts hold up, it would make landfall Monday afternoon somewhere between East Texas and western Mississippi. Forecasters warned it was too soon to say whether New Orleans would take another direct hit, but residents weren't taking any chances judging by the bumper-to-bumper traffic pouring from the city. Gas stations along interstate highways were running out of fuel, and phone circuits were jammed.

Forecasters at the National Hurricane Center said they were surprised at how quickly Gustav gained strength as it slammed into Cuba's tobacco-growing western tip. It went from a tropical storm to a Category 4 hurricane in about 24 hours, and was likely to become a Category 5 - with sustained winds of 156 mph or more - by Sunday. "That puts a different light on our evacuations and hopefully that will send a very clear message to the people in the Gulf Coast to really pay attention," said Federal Emergency Management Agency chief David Paulison.

Update:- JR/News - NEW ORLEANS — Police with bullhorns plan to go street to street this weekend with a tough message about getting out ahead of Hurricane Gustav: This time there will be no shelter of last resort. The doors to the Superdome will be locked. Those who stay will be on their own.

The water in the basin, which irrigates Australia's food bowl, has been over-allocated. Farmers all along the Murray-Darling have purchased and were promised water allocations that the river system simply can no longer sustain. A 20% reduction in rainfall leads to a 70% reduction in stream flow.

Since the Murray-Darling runs through four states - New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria and South Australia - each one has fought hard for its share of the water, often at the expense of the needs of neighbouring states. Naked self-interest has often reigned. It was not until 2007 that the Howard government decided to take national charge of the river system.

"It's been a disaster," according to the global warming activist and best-selling author, Professor Tim Flannery. "We managed to unify the railways shortly after federation but it's taken us a century to do anything about water. And it's still extremely difficult because the water in those river systems is over-allocated, it's a 130% allocation, and that was in a good year. So when we're facing a really serious water deficit, there just isn't any water any more."

Father Larry Snyder said this in response to statistics released Tuesday by the United States Census Bureau, which revealed that 800,000 more people are living in poverty in the United States this year. "IT IS UNACCEPTABLE THAT IN A NATION THAT IS AS PROSPEROUS AS OURS THAT 37.3 MILLION PEOPLE, INCLUDING 13.3 MILLION CHILDREN, CONTINUE TO LIVE IN POVERTY," Father Snyder said. "At 12.5%, the poverty rate indicates that reducing poverty is not a priority for this nation."

The priest said his organization and its member agencies serve nearly 8 million needy people a year. "The poverty rate is not just another economic statistic," he said. "This unacceptable figure represents the millions of families we see each and every day who are struggling just to make ends meet." FATHER SNYDER AFFIRMED THAT THE DOWNTURN IN THE U.S. ECONOMY HAS WORSENED THE SITUATION.

Since the onset of the credit crunch last year, Merrill has suffered after-tax losses of more than $14bn as its balance sheet has been savaged by almost $52bn in writedowns and credit-related losses.

A few of them wear the black kneesocks and tasseled tie belt of the Belzer Hassidic sect, while others are American youths, students from the Mir Yeshiva. Occasionally they are joined by Gerer Hassidim, and of course national-religious Jews, with their crocheted skullcaps. Only after a thorough check of the worshipers' bags, to make sure they contain no prayer books, prayer shawls or phylacteries, do the police allow them to enter the Temple Mount compound.

This unusual "coalition," which has been visiting the mount at least once a week for years, is defined in the ultra-Orthodox world as somewhere between eccentric and untouchable, BUT PRIMARILY AS REBELLING AGAINST A HALAKHIC PROHIBITION STATING THAT TODAY THERE IS THEORETICALLY NO GREATER SIN THAN ENTERING THE TEMPLE MOUNT; that anyone who violates this ruling is doomed to an untimely death.

In recent years the circle of those rebelling against that ruling is growing. Last month Rabbi Moshe Tendler, the son-in-law of the late Rabbi Moshe Feinstein, considered the greatest "decider" (posek) of halakha (Jewish law) among American Jewry in the last generation, visited the Temple Mount accompanied by members of the Temple Mount Institute. Tendler expressed his solidarity with the ultra-Orthodox group, which does not heed the ruling, but rather believes, like many national-religious halakhists, that certain parts of the mount are permissible to Jews today; areas that are not part of the original Temple Mount, and which the Temple did not occupy.

In the ultra-Orthodox world there is absolutely no tolerance for anyone who violates the prohibition against visiting the Temple Mount. Tendler, who openly visited the mount, has been roundly censured. About 20 years ago the Belz Hassidic Elboim family, which founded the Movement for Establishing the Temple faced similar responses, but continues to visit the Temple Mount every week.

Maariv's veteran political reporter Ben Caspit stops short of detailing the precise solution Israel will implement to put an end to Iran's nuclear program, but writes, "PREPARATIONS FOR AN ISRAELI MILITARY OPTION INTENDED TO STOP IRAN'S NUCLEAR PROGRAM ARE UNDERWAY."

The results of the series of highest-level discussions are thus clear: "The debate between those who believe in doing everything, including a military operation, to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear bomb, and those who think we can live with Iranian nukes, has been settled." Not only that, but "if the ayatollahs' regime does not fall in the next year, if the Americans do not strike militarily, and if the international sanctions do not break the Iranian nuclear plan, ISRAEL WILL HAVE TO ACT FORCEFULLY."

The specter of Gustav and the danger it poses to the Gulf Coast grows this weekend as the nation marked the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina Friday, regarded as one of the most destructive natural disasters in U.S. history. As Expert Senior Meteorologist John Kocet explained, "This storm will be destructive. Where it goes will determine whether it knocks down trees and floods bayous, or whether it destroys communities."

In addition to the potential destruction on land, Gustav will have a major impact on oil and natural gas operations in the Gulf, as well as refining operations along the Gulf Coast. Shell and BP are working toward a full evacuation of assets in the Gulf. ExxonMobil has initiated evacuation of nonessential personnel and is "prepared to evacuate remaining personnel from offshore facilities safely in advance of the storm." Fears of Gustav have caused hikes in global crude prices and wholesale gasoline prices in the Gulf region. Analysts say the storm could send pump prices back over $4 a gallon.

According to Bloomberg News, GULF COAST STATES CONTAIN 56 OPERABLE REFINERIES THAT ACCOUNT FOR ALMOST HALF OF THE U.S. REFINING CAPACITY. There is strong potential that Hanna will move around the bottom of a high pressure area currently over the East, through the Straits of Florida and into the Gulf of Mexico, where it could become another major hurricane later next week.

UPDATE:-THE MAYOR OF NEW ORLEANS HAS ISSUED A MANDATORY EVACUATION ORDER FOR THE ENTIRE CITY, as Hurricane Gustav bears down on the US Gulf Coast. Ray Nagin said residents of the city's West Bank should begin moving out at 0800 (1300 GMT) on Sunday, with the East Bank leaving at midday (1700 GMT).
He called it "the storm of the century" and added: "You need to be scared". Gustav, which is forecast to strengthen to a CATEGORY 5 STORM over the Gulf, powered through western Cuba overnight. "ANYONE WHO'S THINKING OF STAYING - RETHINK IT, GET OUT OF TOWN"

HURRICANE CATEGORIES
•FIVE: Winds over 155mph (249km/h). Storm surge more than 18ft (5.4m) above normal. Only three such US landfall hurricanes - Labour Day 1935, Camille 1969 and Andrew 1992
•FOUR: Winds 131-155mph. Storm surge 13-18ft
•THREE: Winds 111-130mph. Storm surge 9-12ft. Katrina hit New Orleans as a three.
•TWO: Winds 96-110mph. Storm surge 6-8ft
•ONE: Winds 74-95mph. Storm surge 4-5ft