On Iran, he said he hoped to see progress by the end of the year, through "tough, direct diplomacy". But he said rather than imposing its values on other countries the US should act as a role model. Speaking to BBC North America Editor Justin Webb, Mr Obama said he believed the US was "GOING TO BE ABLE TO GET SERIOUS NEGOTIATIONS BACK ON TRACK" between Israel and the Palestinians.

"Not only is it in the interest of the Palestinian people to have a state, it's in the interest of the Israeli people to stabilise the situation there," he said. "And it's in the interest of the United States that we've got two states living side by side in peace and security."

Asked about Israel's rejection of his call for a halt to Jewish settlements in the West Bank, the president urged patience, saying it was early in the conversation. "DIPLOMACY IS ALWAYS A MATTER OF A LONG HARD SLOG. IT'S NEVER A MATTER OF QUICK RESULTS," he said. However, Mr Obama said he had not needed convincing by Israel of the need to address Iran's programme of nuclear development.

Mr Obama is due to arrive in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday in the first stage of his tour of the Middle East and Europe. He will travel to Egypt on 4 June, where he is set to give a key speech on US ties with the region, before carrying on to Europe to attend D-Day commemoration events.

The Israeli rabbi says Arabs should find another place to build their homes. "This territory is Jewish territory," AFP quoted Savir as saying, making a sweeping gesture towards the nearby hilltops to show that he means the entire West Bank which Israel occupied in 1967. He stressed that Israel's right-wing government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should not even consider bulldozing Jewish settlements in the occupied lands under international pressure.

"JEWISH PEOPLE LIVE HERE BY BIBLICAL RIGHT," the Israeli rabbi said. "Arabs," he adds "should find another place to live."

Some 280,000 Jews live in 120 West Bank settlements which Israel considers legal and also wildcat outposts, which unlike full-scale settlements, are not authorized by the Israeli government. "WE MUST SETTLE HERE, GOD HAS ORDERED US TO LIVE ON THIS LAND," says Daniel Landesberg, 20, as he and a group of teenagers spread out cement being poured out of a large concrete mixer truck to form the base of a new house.

The premier also ruled out the possibility of lifting the crippling blockade on the Gaza Strip, saying there are other issues that should be dealt with in the coastal sliver. "We are being asked to ease the living conditions of the population and allow goods and equipment in, but we have other priorities in the Gaza Strip," he added.

"We do not want to strengthen Hamas, not by allowing them to rebuild their defenses," Netanyahu said. He made the remarks on the same day that the Israeli military launched a large-scale manoeuvre which hints that another war in the region is imminent.

The Israeli premier added that "we need to find a balance between easing the conditions of the (Gaza) population and easing on Hamas' ability to acquire more weapons."

Both Hamas men and the homeowner died in the shootout, along with three policemen. Dozens of bullet holes in walls and furniture in the home attested to the ferocity of the fighting. It was the bloodiest internal Palestinian clash in the occupied West Bank since the Western-backed Abbas launched a security drive and revived peace talks with Israel in 2007 after breaking with Hamas over its takeover of the Gaza Strip.

Samman and Yasin had ignored calls to surrender, witnesses said. Palestinian security forces spokesman Adnan Damiri said police had tried to negotiate a peaceful end to the standoff. "Thousands of shots were fired at the security forces," Damiri said, adding that large quantities of explosives were discovered in the Hamas hideout.

After the raid, Hamas threatened to call off Egyptian-sponsored reconciliation talks with Fatah that had been scheduled to resume in Cairo in July. Fawzhi Barhoum, a Hamas spokesman in the Gaza Strip said: "We in Hamas have come closer than ever to taking a decision to suspend our participation in the dialogue."

Reports say a majority of bondholders have now agreed to a deal giving them at least a 10% stake in what is likely to emerge as a much smaller company. President Barack Obama is due to give full details at a news conference. The BBC's Jonathan Beale, in Detroit, says Mr Obama is expected to announce $30bn (£18.5bn) in new funding for GM.

GM's sales have been hit hard by the financial crisis and the firm has received $20bn in state aid. In return for more cash the federal government is reported to be receiving a stake of 60% in a new, leaner company due to be re-launched within 90 days. Senior executives at General Motors have been making final preparations for completely restructuring what was once the world's largest car company, under judicial supervision.

A Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing by GM would rank as the third largest bankruptcy in US history following Lehman Brothers' collapse and the failure of telecoms giant WorldCom.

True, the situation has been well prepared on and off for the past century, especially the past twenty years. The initial testing grounds was conducted upon our Holy Russia and a bloody test it was. But we Russians would not just roll over and give up our freedoms and our souls, no matter how much money Wall Street poured into the fists of the Marxists. Those lessons were taken and used to properly prepare the American populace for the surrender of their freedoms and souls, to the whims of their elites and betters.

FIRST, THE POPULATION WAS DUMBED DOWN through a politicized and substandard education system based on pop culture, rather then the classics. Americans know more about their favorite TV dramas then the drama in DC that directly affects their lives. They care more for their "right" to choke down a McDonalds burger or a BurgerKing burger than for their constitutional rights. Then they turn around and lecture us about our rights and about our "democracy". Pride blind the foolish.

THEN THEIR FAITH IN GOD WAS DESTROYED, until their churches, all tens of thousands of different "branches and denominations" were for the most part little more then Sunday circuses and their televangelists and top protestant mega preachers were more than happy to sell out their souls and flocks to be on the "winning" side of one pseudo Marxist politician or another. Their flocks may complain, but when explained that they would be on the "winning" side, their flocks were ever so quick to reject Christ in hopes for earthly power. Even our Holy Orthodox churches are scandalously liberalized in America.

THE FINAL COLLAPSE HAS COME WITH THE ELECTION OF BARACK OBAMA. His speed in the past three months has been truly impressive. His spending and money printing has been record setting, not just in America's short history but in the world. If this keeps up for more than another year, and there is no sign that it will not, AMERICA AT BEST WILL RESEMBLE THE WIEMAR REPUBLIC AND AT WORST ZIMBABWE.

These past two weeks have been the most breath taking of all. First came the announcement of a planned redesign of the American Byzantine tax system, by the very thieves who used it to bankroll their thefts, loses and swindles of hundreds of billions of dollars. These make our Russian oligarchs look little more then ordinary street thugs, in comparison. Yes, the Americans have beat our own thieves in the sheer volumes. Should we congratulate them?

Prime Minister Putin, less than two months ago, warned Obama and UK's Blair, not to follow the path to Marxism, it only leads to disaster. Apparently, even though we suffered 70 years of this Western sponsored horror show, we know nothing, as foolish, drunken Russians, so let our "wise" Anglo-Saxon fools find out the folly of their own pride. Again, the American public has taken this with barely a whimper... but a "freeman" whimper.

The Russian owners of American companies and industries should look thoughtfully at this and the option of closing their facilities down and fleeing the land of the Red as fast as possible. In other words, divest while there is still value left. The proud American will go down into his slavery without a fight, beating his chest and proclaiming to the world, how free he really is. The world will only snicker.

A top Chinese army official attending the meeting in Singapore called on Pyongyang to move to denuclearisation. Earlier, the US said activity in the North could indicate plans for a new long-range missile test. Vehicle movements resembled the build-up to a test last month, the US said.

Speaking in Singapore, Mr Gates made it clear the US would take an extremely dim view of more nuclear or missile testing by North Korea. "The truth of the matter is if they continue on the path they are on, I think the consequences for stability in the region are significant."

"We will not stand idly by as North Korea builds the capability to wreak destruction on any target in the region or on us," Mr Gates added. But he insisted the next step in negating Pyongyang's ambitions would be political, not military. The Pentagon chief also argued for bolstering diplomatic relations with China, and cited common challenges facing regional Asian powers: counterterrorism, piracy, energy security and disaster relief.

"It is essential for the United States and China to find opportunities to co-operate wherever possible," he said. The BBC's Asia correspondent, Jonathan Head, says Mr Gates' speech is probably intended to reassure countries in this region that the new administration in Washington is committed to supporting its allies.

Since The Daily Telegraph began exposing their claims, 12 MPs have said they will step down in response to public anger at their behaviour. Others are expected to follow in the weeks ahead. Despite effectively admitting their actions have been unacceptable to the public, none of the MPs is stepping down immediately. Instead, they intend to remain in their jobs until the next general election, which must be called by June next year at the latest. More than one million people could now miss out on proper representation because they live in seats held by MPs with no hope of re-election.

The prospect of generous rewards for so many lame-duck MPs will add to the pressure on Gordon Brown to call a general election this year instead of waiting until 2010. By staying in the Commons for another year, shamed MPs stand to make significant financial gains. In addition to their £64,766 salaries, they will still accrue pension rights and then, on stepping down, be able to claim thousands of pounds in new allowances.

MPs who leave the Commons at a general election can claim a "resettlement grant" worth as much as a whole year's salary. The first £30,000 of the grant is tax free. Significantly, the grant may not be claimed during a parliament, meaning that MPs who step down before a general election are not eligible for the payment.

"I am 100 percent sure that the US will go into hyperinflation," Faber said. "The problem with government debt growing so much is that when the time will come and the Fed should increase interest rates, they will be very reluctant to do so and so inflation will start to accelerate."

Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia President Charles Plosser said on May 21 inflation may rise to 2.5 percent in 2011. That exceeds the central bank officials' long-run preferred range of 1.7 percent to 2 percent and contrasts with the concerns of some officials and economists that the economic slump may provoke a broad decline in prices.

"There are some concerns of a risk from inflation from all the liquidity injected into the banking system but it's not an immediate threat right now given all the excess capacity in the US economy," said David Cohen, head of Asian economic forecasting at Action Economics in Singapore.

Faber, who said he's adding to his gold investments, advised buying the precious metal at the start of its eight-year rally, when it traded for less than $300 an ounce. The metal topped $1,000 last year and traded at $949.85 an ounce at 12:50pm Hong Kong time. He also told investors to bail out of US stocks a week before the so-called Black Monday crash in 1987, according to his Web site.

"I still expect that economic growth in the US is going to be negative through Q4, and that we'll see positive growth in Q1," Roubini told Reuters in an interview on the sidelines of the Seoul Digital Forum.

Roubini stood by a recent article in which he mentioned the possibility of a "PERFECT STORM" IN 2010. "There is even a risk of a double dip, a W-shaped recession at the end of next year," he said, A COMBINATION OF RISING OIL PRICES, RISING PUBLIC DEBT AND INCREASES IN REAL INTEREST RATES, RISING CONCERNS ABOUT INFLATION AND THE EXPIRATION OF A NUMBER OF TAX CUTS IN THE UNITED STATES."

The magnitude 7.1 quake struck at 2:24am (4:24am EDT; 0824 GMT) off the Caribbean coast of Honduras, 80 miles (130 kilometers) northeast of the beach town of La Ceiba, according to the US Geological Survey in Golden, Colorado.

Democracy Bridge, which spans the country's largest river, the Ulua, collapsed in the town of El Progreso, Cordero said. The bridge is one of two connecting the northern city of San Pedro Sula, Honduras' second-largest, with the rest of the country. Officials closed the other bridge for inspection. "The central part of the bridge fell into the river," Cordero said.

San Pedro Sula is scheduled to host a summit of foreign ministers of the Organization of American States next week. There was no immediate indication that the event would be affected. In all, at least 24 houses collapsed along Honduras' Caribbean coast, according to Carlos Gonzalez, deputy director of the Permanent Emergency Commission. At least five wooden houses on stilts collapsed in three Belizean coastal towns, while Belize City residents ran into the street as glasses and framed pictures crashed off of shelves. A water tower toppled in the town of Independence and electricity was out all the way to the Mexican border, local officials said.

"I want to speak generally about some reports I've witnessed over the past few years in the British media. And in some ways, I'm surprised it filtered down," Gibbs began. "Let's just say if I wanted to look up – if I wanted to read a writeup today of how Manchester United fared last night in the Champion's League cup, I might open up a British newspaper."

"If I was looking for something that bordered on truthful news, I'm not entirely sure it'd be in the first pack of clips I'd pick up. You're not going to find very many of these newspapers and truth within 25 words of each other," Gibbs continued.

The announcement was the clearest indication yet that GM, the No 1 US automaker, is close to filing for bankruptcy under the direction of the Obama administration. It would be the biggest-ever bankruptcy for a US industrial company.

Under the proposed deal, which is supported by major institutional creditors holding about a fifth of its debt, bondholders representing $27 billion in debt would be offered 10 percent of a reorganized GM - the same stake they had been offered previously.

In a sweetener, bondholders would also receive warrants to acquire another 15 percent of the equity in the new company, provided they support a quick Treasury-backed sale process similar to one now being used for rival Chrysler.

The US delinquency rate jumped to a seasonally adjusted 9.12 percent from 7.88 percent, the biggest-ever increase, and the share of loans entering foreclosure rose to 1.37 percent, the Mortgage Bankers Association said today. Both figures are the highest in records going back to 1972. Fixed rates rose to 4.91 percent, Freddie Mac said, and an increase in bond yields earlier this week shows rates may continue rising.

The three-year housing decline is proving resistant to efforts by the Federal Reserve and the Obama administration to keep homeowners current on mortgages by allowing them to refinance or sell to buyers enticed by affordable terms. Prime fixed-rate home loans to the most creditworthy borrowers accounted for the biggest share of new foreclosures at 29 percent, MBA said, a sign job losses are hurting homeowners.

"If people don't have a paycheck they can't support a mortgage," Jay Brinkmann, the MBA's chief economist, said in an interview. "The longer the recession lasts the more people run through their savings reserves, leading to higher delinquencies and higher foreclosures."

Mr Sarkozy, 54, is the son of an 81-year-old Hungarian aristocrat who, a few months after D-Day in 1944, fled to Germany from the family home near Budapest as Russian troops advanced. After years of appeasing Hitler, the Hungarian government had entered the war against the Western allies in 1941.

As for his wife Carla Bruni, 41, she was raised by her stepfather, Alberto Bruni Tedeschi, whose family firm had close links with Benito Mussolini's murderous regime during the Second World War.