Prime Minister

JERUSALEM -- Ehud Barak, the former Israeli prime minister ousted by voters six years ago, recaptured leadership of the Labor Party yesterday. Barak's victory, by a margin of 53 percent to 47 percent over lawmaker Ami Ayalon in a party runoff, represents a remarkable political rebirth for the ambitious and strong-willed leader who lost in 2001 to the hawkish Ariel Sharon. "Today begins the journey toward restoration," Barak told supporters early today during a brief victory speech at party headquarters in Tel Aviv.

To Javaid Manzoor, former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was more than the dynamic populist he believed was capable of propelling Pakistan toward true democracy. She was also a friend. When Manzoor's mother died in October, Bhutto visited her friend's Potomac home to offer condolences, making it her first stop upon arriving in Washington for a busy political trip. Manzoor, who had worked closely with Bhutto as president of the Washington chapter of her Pakistan People's Party, was stunned and distraught yesterday to learn of his hero's assassination.

ROME -- Stung by a bruising foreign policy defeat, embattled Prime Minister Romano Prodi resigned yesterday, his center-left government collapsing after just nine months in power. Prodi failed to win parliamentary endorsement of his decision to maintain Italian troops in Afghanistan, a loss attributed in part to desertions by members of his coalition who oppose continued cooperation with the U.S. military in Italy and abroad. Chants of "quit, quit!" filled the Italian Senate as opposition politicians in business suits jumped up and down and pumped their fists upon realizing Prodi had lost the vote.

LORD WILLIAM DEEDES, 94 Journalist and politician Lord William Deedes, a vaunted British journalist and former politician and close friend of former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, died Friday, the Telegraph Media Group said. His friend, author Evelyn Waugh, used him as the inspiration for William Boot, the naive reporter in the novel Scoop. Lord Deedes edited the Daily Telegraph newspaper for 12 years and served as a Conservative lawmaker for 24 years. He was still writing regular columns up until his death, which followed a short illness.

PARIS -- Former Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, one of France's most powerful men over the past decade, was accused by investigating magistrates yesterday of using intelligence operatives to try to smear President Nicolas Sarkozy when the two were presidential contenders. After questioning Villepin, the two judges formally named him as a suspect in a case involving a fabricated list of political personalities who were said to have received kickbacks. Villepin could face charges including complicity in slander and complicity in using false documents.

BAGHDAD -- Iraq's Kurdish president and Shiite Muslim prime minister hailed a governing alliance forged yesterday as a major stride toward reuniting the country's ethnically fractured leadership. But with Sunni Arabs still refusing to take part in the coalition, it remained doubtful that significant progress in Iraq would come soon. The political maneuvering came as teams in northern Iraq tallied the grim figures from the deadliest wave of suicide attacks of the war and - in a rare moment of joy since Tuesday's devastation - pulled four children alive from the rubble, the Associated Press reported.

BAGHDAD -- Despite the possibility of being kidnapped and killed and the dangers of flying into the capital, or even driving, most of Iraq's national soccer team returned to celebrate with fans yesterday after winning the country's first Asian Cup championship. Details of the visit were kept secret, but about 1,000 people flocked to the airport anyway, risking a drive on one of Baghdad's most dangerous roads for a glimpse of their heroes. They were rewarded when they spotted 16 of the 23 players arriving from Amman, Jordan, young men in track suits weeping at the sight of so many countrymen united by their 1-0 victory over Saudi Arabia on July 29. "There is no happier moment," goalkeeper Noor Sabri told Iraqiya state television.

MOSCOW -- During a bitter political standoff, Ukraine's President Viktor A. Yushchenko issued a decree yesterday transferring control of Interior Ministry troops into his own hands and away from a minister loyal to his longtime rival, Prime Minister Viktor F. Yanukovich. The prime minister said the president's action was unconstitutional. Parliament, which is controlled by the prime minister's allies, passed a resolution declaring the decree legally void. It appeared, however, that Yushchenko had succeeded in firming up his authority over security forces, because the direct commander of the Interior Ministry troops, Gen. Oleksandr Kikhtenko, is considered his ally.

MOSCOW -- President Vladimir V. Putin dissolved his government yesterday and chose an obscure Cabinet official as the new prime minister, a move widely seen as the Russian leader's first steps in engineering a carefully controlled handover of power. Analysts differed on whether Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov is Putin's surprise choice to succeed him as president when Putin steps down next spring or a caretaker figure, but they agreed that the Kremlin's shake-up marks the initial phase in a leadership change that is likely to be decided long before the election.

Amid all the pressure of yesterday's Annapolis peace conference, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert could count on seeing at least one friendly face: Gov. Martin O'Malley. Maryland and Israel have long fostered economic and civic ties, but the bond these days is a little more personal. The governor and the prime minister first became acquainted at a 2001 meeting about CitiStat when they were mayors, of Baltimore and Jerusalem, respectively. In 2005, after dinner in Jerusalem, Olmert clapped then-Mayor O'Malley on the shoulder and said he hoped he would be able to visit him soon in the Maryland governor's mansion.

Car bomb kills at least 27 in crowded Iraq market BAGHDAD - A car bomb exploded in a crowded outdoor market in the northern city of Kirkuk on Tuesday, killing at least 27 people, police said, a deadly reminder of the challenges facing the Iraqi government even as it celebrated the withdrawal of U.S. combat troops from cities. The bombing marred what had otherwise been a festive day as Iraqis commemorated the newly declared National Sovereignty Day. It also came hours after four U.S. soldiers were killed in combat Monday in Baghdad.

LONDON -British military operations in Iraq ended Thursday, a month ahead of schedule, closing a six-year mission that cost the lives of 179 British soldiers and was unpopular in Britain. "Today Iraq is a success story. We owe much of that to the efforts of British troops," British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said at a joint press conference with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki at his 10 Downing St. offices Thursday morning. "Our mission has not always been an easy one, many have said that we would fail," Brown said.

JERUSALEM -Israeli voters delivered a split decision in national elections yesterday, sparking competing claims by backers of opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni over who will be the next prime minister. Voters appeared to give Livni's Kadima Party, which favors negotiations with the Palestinians, a slight and unexpected edge over Netanyahu's Likud, which has been critical of peace talks, according to nearly complete returns and exit polls. But the overall shift in Israel's parliament, the Knesset, was sharply to the right.

With provincial elections scheduled for the end of January, Iraq's political troubles seem closer to Shakespearean drama than to nascent democracy. There is talk of a coup to oust the prime minister. The speaker of the parliament has abruptly resigned, making angry accusations on his way out the door. And there have been sweeping arrests of people believed to be conspiring against the government, both in Baghdad and Diyala province. Beneath the swirl of accusations and rumors is a power play in which different factions within the government - and some outside it - are struggling to gain ground as American influence in the country wanes and elections approach that could begin to reshape the political landscape in Iraq.

Hubble repair mission delayed until May The long-delayed launch of an 11-day shuttle mission to repair and upgrade the Hubble Space Telescope has been delayed again - this time from late winter until no earlier than May 12. NASA officials in Houston said yesterday that they need more time to prepare an 18-year-old space science data computer for flight. Astronauts are scheduled to install the device during one of five spacewalks. Scientists at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore and around the world are counting on astronauts to restore two failed instruments on the telescope, install two new instruments and replace key hardware needed to extend the observatory's lifetime by at least five years.

BANGKOK - Thailand's embattled Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat declared a state of emergency yesterday around two Bangkok airports occupied by protesters but insisted he wanted a peaceful resolution. "I do not have any intention to hurt any members of the public," he said in announcing the targeted restrictions on civil liberties aimed at reopening the country's main international airport. Under a state of emergency, the government can suspend civil liberties, ban public gatherings and take other measures to restore order without imposing broader restrictions that many Thais have feared.

In Israel, some people want to know if Barack Obama will visit Jerusalem on his way to Tehran. It's shorthand for concerns about the president-elect's interest in engaging Iran rather than continuing to isolate the Islamic Republic. In the Arab world, some might well complain that Mr. Obama doesn't need to stop in Jerusalem; he's been there. That telegraphs a different concern, that as president, Mr. Obama will favor the Jewish state over the Palestinians, as did his predecessors in the White House.

Fears stir that Congo violence will spread GOMA, Congo: Congo's warring rivals traded accusations yesterday that Angola, Zimbabwe and Rwanda are mobilizing forces to fight in Congo, and the prime minister flew into this besieged city to assess weeks of fighting that have displaced a quarter-million people. The accusations of foreign involvement, reminiscent of a disastrous 1998-2002 war that drew in eight African nations, stoked fears of a wider conflict in this mineral-rich nation. Prime Minister Adolphe Muzito arrived in Goma just before dusk yesterday with half his Cabinet and met with U.N. envoy Alan Doss and U.N. peacekeeping chief Alain Le Roy as well as local officials.

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa - Bitter rivals reached a power-sharing deal yesterday that leaves Robert G. Mugabe president of Zimbabwe and in control of its armed forces but gives his opponents hopes for enough power to rescue the shattered country. The complicated agreement makes Mugabe's rival, Morgan Tsvangirai of the Movement for Democratic Change, prime minister and creates a government whose ministers meet twice in parallel structures - once with the prime minister in charge and once under the president.

Anger grows over rescue efforts in Cairo CAIRO, Egypt: Hopes diminished yesterday for finding survivors among hundreds of people believed trapped beneath massive boulders that destroyed an impoverished neighborhood on Cairo's outskirts, killing at least 32 people, including whole extended families. Anger and resentment mounted as authorities failed for a second day to get heavy machinery into the devastated shantytown to try to clear the large slabs that split away from the Muqattam cliffs early Saturday.