SYDNEY — Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard is heading for a shock defeat at elections on August 21, a new opinion poll showed Saturday, as government infighting and damaging cabinet leaks threatened to derail her campaign.

BILOXI — BP Plc said on Friday it could seal its ruptured Gulf of Mexico oil well by next week as the US House of Representatives voted to toughen regulation of offshore energy drilling.

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GAZA — An Israeli air strike has killed a Hamas military commander and rocket maker in the Gaza Strip, the Islamist group that rules the Palestinian territory said yesterday.

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WASHINGTON — US officials are worried about what other secret US documents the whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks may possess and have tried to contact the group without success to avoid their release, the State Department said on Friday.

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BEIRUT — Saudi King Abdullah and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad met Lebanon’s rival leaders on Friday to stave off a crisis over a tribunal that may indict Hezbollah members in the killing of Lebanese statesman Rafik al-Hariri.
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WASHINGTON — A second senior US Democratic lawmaker intends to fight congressional ethics charges, a source said early Saturday, complicating the party’s efforts to retain control of the House in the November elections.

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AMSTERDAM — Pushing an austerity agenda, two right-leaning Dutch parties agreed on Friday to have talks to form a minority government with support from an anti-Islam party five months after the last government collapsed.
 
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HAVANA — Former Cuban leader Fidel Castro on Friday stepped up criticism of the United States over its treatment of five Cuban agents imprisoned for more than a decade for spying and said one of them was in a cell so small it amounted to torture.
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CARACAS — Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Friday said he deployed military units to repel a possible attack after Colombia claimed last week his country harbored leftist rebels, but said he hoped to mend ties soon.
                                                                — Reuters

ROME - Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has taken a calculated gamble in breaking with his estranged former ally Gianfranco Fini and is likely to be taking the country towards an early election.

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