U.N. chief Ban sees "heartbreaking" Gaza damage

By Nidal al-Mughrabi and Louis Charbonneau

GAZA (Reuters) – Voicing shock and anger at the "heartbreaking" devastation, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon visited the Gaza Strip on Tuesday to pledge aid for Palestinians after Israeli attacks killed 1,300 and left thousands homeless.

Israel was set to withdraw its remaining troops before the inauguration of Barack Obama as U.S. president, seemingly to avoid clouding the start of a new era in a key alliance. Obama's predecessor George W. Bush endorsed the three-week offensive as a legitimate response to rocket fire by Gaza's ruling Islamists.

Since a ceasefire, though nothing like a peace accord, took hold on Sunday, Hamas has demonstrated it remains in charge in the coastal enclave. It held "victory" rallies to coincide with Ban's visit. Some speakers urged him and Western powers to end their boycott of Hamas, which won the last Palestinian election.

"I have seen only a fraction of the destruction. This is shocking and alarming," Ban said, condemning the "excessive use" of force by Israel as well as militants' rocket salvoes.

"These are heartbreaking scenes I have seen and I am deeply grieved by what I have seen today," he told a news conference held against a backdrop of still smoldering food aid in a U.N. warehouse set ablaze by Israeli gunfire last Thursday.

Ban called the attack "outrageous" and demanded an inquiry and, if need be, the guilty to be held to account. He criticized Hamas for firing rockets but said Israel used "excessive force."

Israel blames Hamas for fighting around civilians and sites run by the United Nations, which supports much of Gaza's population of 1.5 million. Most are families of refugees who fled or were forced from homes in what became the Jewish state of Israel in 1948.

Ban, on a Middle East tour, was the most senior diplomatic figure to visit the territory in years, certainly since Hamas routed secular Fatah forces loyal to Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and seized control of Gaza in June 2007.

BAN CALLS FOR PALESTINIAN UNITY

Although aid agencies said they planned a massive inflow of supplies to Gaza's people through Israeli crossings, help will be complicated by the Western boycott of Hamas as a "terrorist" organization and an Israeli blockade on many items, including building materials, that can be used to make weapons.

So Ban urged the Palestinians to patch up their political differences within Abbas's Palestinian Authority in order to realize their hopes of statehood and make peace with Israel.

"I appeal to Fatah, Hamas, to all Palestinian factions, to reunite within the framework of the legitimate Palestinian Authority," Ban said, urging an end to a schism between Hamas in Gaza and Abbas in the West Bank that has paralyzed peace talks.

Thousands of Hamas supporters, many waving green Islamist banners, marched through Gaza and held a rally outside the compound during Ban's visit. Speakers demanded U.N. recognition.

"The Hamas government was elected by popular vote," one said. "We demand an end to double standards."

The United Nations, with other key mediators in the Middle East, say they will only deal with Hamas if it recognizes Israel, renounces violence and accepts interim peace deals.

In the crowd outside the U.N. headquarters in Gaza, engineer Abu Murad Ghaleb, 40, criticized what many Palestinians see as repeated failure to impose U.N. peace resolutions on Israel.

"He is just an image, not a voice," Ghaleb said. "I am not here to support Hamas but I am here to tell the U.N. there is no power on earth but Israel and we are not going to bow to it."

Israeli leaders hope the devastation wrought on Gaza will undermine Hamas's popularity. There is some sign of impatience.

Also watching the rally outside buildings marked by the latest war, Wael Eid said: "Hamas over-estimated its own strength ... and brought this greater destruction.

"We've been let down by everyone in the world, so now we should seek a peace settlement with Israel."

TROOP WITHDRAWAL

Israeli political sources said Israel planned to complete its troop pullout before Barack Obama's inauguration, scheduled for 1700 GMT. Analysts saw the withdrawal as an effort to avoid any tension with the new U.S. president.

Many Palestinians returned to the rubble of what used to be their homes in Gaza city suburbs that were hard hit during the fighting. They picked through debris, salvaging belongings.

"We've won the war. But we've lost everything," said Nabil Sultan, commenting sardonically on Hamas's V for Victory signs as he surveyed the rubble of his home on the outskirts of the city of Gaza. "This was my house," he shrugged, by a pile of smashed concrete and ripped bedding.

Two children were killed by bombs left behind in Gaza, Hamas officials said. There were scattered and contradictory reports of occasional firing but no clear breach of the ceasefire.

Ban, who met Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert before traveling to Gaza, later visited southern Israel, an area hit by Palestinian rockets during the Gaza war. At Olmert's office, Ban said he wanted to help to make the ceasefire "durable."

Gaza medical officials said the Palestinian dead included at least 700 civilians. Israel says hundreds of militants died.

The United Nations has estimated some $330 million is needed for urgent aid. Reconstruction, if it can be launched in light of the frost between Hamas and the West, may cost close to $2 billion, according to Palestinian and international estimates.

Israel said it hoped to more than treble the number of trucks delivering supplies to about 500 a day.

Obama takes office, saying choose 'hope over fear'

By TERENCE HUNT, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON – Stepping into history, Barack Hussein Obama grasped the reins of power as America's first black president on Tuesday, saying the nation must choose "hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord" to overcome the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.

In frigid temperatures, an exuberant crowd of more than a million packed the National Mall and parade route to celebrate Obama's inauguration in a high-noon ceremony. They filled the National Mall, stretching from the inaugural platform at the U.S. Capitol to the Lincoln Memorial in the distance.

With 11 million Americans out of work and trillions of dollars lost in the stock market's tumble, Obama emphasized that his biggest challenge is to repair the tattered economy left behind by outgoing President George W. Bush.

"Our time of standing pat, of protecting narrow interests and putting off unpleasant decisions — that time has surely passed," Obama said in an undisguised shot at Bush administration policies. "Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off and begin the work of remaking America."

The dawn of the new Democratic era — with Obama allies in charge of both houses of Congress — ends eight years of Republican control of the White House by Bush, who leaves Washington as one of the nation's most unpopular and divisive presidents, the architect of two unfinished wars and the man in charge at a time of economic calamity that swept away many Americans' jobs, savings and homes.

Obama's election was cheered around the world as a sign that America will be more embracing, more open to change. "To the Muslim world," Obama said, "we seek a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect."

Still, he bluntly warned, "To those leaders around the globe who seek to sow conflict, or blame their society's ills on the West — know that your people will judge you on what you can build, not what you destroy."

"To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history, but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist."

Two years after beginning his improbable quest as a little-known, first-term Illinois senator with a foreign-sounding name, Obama moved into the Oval Office as the nation's fourth youngest president, at 47, and the first African-American, a barrier-breaking achievement believed impossible by generations of minorities.

He said it was a moment to recall "that all are equal, all are free and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness."

Obama called for a political truce in Washington to end "the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn-out dogmas, that for far too long have strangled our politics."

He said that all Americans have roles in rebuilding the nation by renewing the traditions of hard work, honesty and fair play, tolerance, loyalty and patriotism.

"What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility, a recognition, on the part of every American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation and the world, duties that we do not grudgingly accept but rather seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character, than giving our all to a difficult task."

With the economy in a long and deepening recession, Obama said it was time for swift and bold action to create new jobs and lay a foundation for growth. Congressional Democrats have readied an $825 billion stimulus plan of tax cuts and spending for roads, bridges, schools, electric grids and other projects.

"The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works," the new president said.

A mighty chorus of cheers erupted as Obama stepped to the inaugural platform, a midday sun warming the crowd that had waited for hours in the cold. There were some boos when Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney came onto the platform.

In his remarks, Obama took stock of the nation's sobering problems.

"That we are in the midst of crisis is now well understood," he said.

"Our nation is at war, against a far-reaching network of violence and hatred. Our economy is badly weakened, a consequence of greed and irresponsibility on the part of some, but also our collective failure to make hard choices and prepare the nation for a new age," Obama said. "Homes have been lost, jobs shed, businesses shuttered. Our health care is too costly, our schools fail too many, and each day brings further evidence that the ways we use energy strengthen our adversaries and threaten our planet."

It was the first change of administrations since the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Crowds filled the Mall for a distant glimpse of the proceedings or just, in the words of many, simply "to be here." Washington's subway system was jammed and two downtown stations were closed when a woman was struck by a subway train.

Bush — following tradition — left a note for Obama in the top drawer of his desk in the Oval Office.

White House press secretary Dana Perino said the theme of the message — which Bush wrote on Monday — was similar to what he has said since election night: that Obama is about to begin a "fabulous new chapter" in the United States, and that he wishes him well.

The unfinished business of the Bush administration thrusts an enormous burden onto the new administration, though polls show Americans are confident Obama is on track to succeed. He has cautioned that improvements will take time and that things will get worse before they get better.

Culminating four days of celebration, the nation's 56th inauguration day began for Obama and Vice President-elect Joe Biden with a traditional morning worship service at St. John's Episcopal Church, across Lafayette Park from the White House. Bells pealed from the historic church's tower as Obama and his wife, Michelle, arrived five minutes behind schedule.

The festivities won't end until well after midnight, with dancing and partying at 10 inaugural balls.

By custom, Obama and his wife, and Biden and his wife, Jill, went directly from church to the White House for coffee with Bush and his wife, Laura. Michelle Obama brought a gift for the outgoing first lady in a white box decorated with a red ribbon.

Shortly before 11 a.m., Obama and Bush climbed into a heavily armored Cadillac limousine to share a ride to the Capitol for the transfer of power, an event flashed around the world in television and radio broadcasts, podcasts and Internet streaming. On Monday, Vice President Dick Cheney pulled a muscle in his back, leaving him in a wheelchair for the inauguration.

Just after noon, Obama stepped forward on the West Front of the Capitol to lay his left hand on the same Bible that President Abraham Lincoln used at his first inauguration in 1861. The 35-word oath of office, administered by Chief Justice John Roberts, has been uttered by every president since George Washington. Obama was one of 22 Democratic senators to vote against Roberts' confirmation to the Supreme Court in 2005.

The son of a white, Kansas-born mother and a black, Kenya-born father, Obama decided to use his full name in the swearing-in ceremony.

To the dismay of liberals, Obama invited conservative evangelical pastor Rick Warren — an opponent of gay rights — to give the inaugural invocation.

About a dozen members of Obama's Cabinet and top appointees were ready for Senate confirmation Tuesday, provided no objections were raised. But Republican Sen. John Cornyn of Texas indicated he would block a move to immediately confirm Secretary of State-designate Hillary Rodham Clinton. Still, she is expected to be approved in a roll call vote Wednesday.

More than 10,000 people from all 50 states — including bands and military units — were assembled to follow Obama and Biden from the Capitol on the 1.5-mile inaugural parade route on Pennsylvania Avenue, concluding at a bulletproof reviewing stand in front of the White House. Security was unprecedented. Most bridges into Washington and about 3.5 square miles of downtown were closed.

Among the VIPs at the Capitol was pilot Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger, the hero of last week's US Airways crash into the Hudson River.

Obama's inauguration represents a time of renewal and optimism for a nation gripped by fear and anxiety. Stark numbers tell the story of an economic debacle unrivaled since the 1930s:

_Eleven million people have lost their jobs, pushing the unemployment rate to 7.2 percent, a 16-year high.

_One in 10 U.S. homeowners is delinquent on mortgage payments or in arrears.

_The Dow Jones industrial average fell by 33.8 percent in 2008, the worst decline since 1931, and stocks lost $10 trillion in value between October 2007 and November 2008.

Obama and congressional Democrats are working on an $825 billion economic recovery bill that would provide an enormous infusion of public spending and tax cuts. Obama also will have at his disposal the remaining $350 billion in the federal financial bailout fund. His goal is to save or create 3 million jobs and put banks back in the job of lending to customers.

In an appeal for bipartisanship, Obama honored defeated Republican presidential rival John McCain at a dinner Monday night. "There are few Americans who understand this need for common purpose and common effort better than John McCain," Obama said.

Young and untested, Obama is a man of enormous confidence and electrifying oratorical skills. Hopes for Obama are extremely high, suggesting that Americans are willing to give him a long honeymoon to strengthen the economy and lift the financial gloom.

On Wednesday, his first working day in office, Obama is expected to redeem his campaign promise to begin the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq under a 16-month timetable. Aides said he would summon the Joint Chiefs of Staff to the Oval Office and order that the pullout commence.

Obama to step into history as 1st black president

By TERENCE HUNT, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON – Stepping into history, Barack Hussein Obama grasps the reins of power as America's first black president in a high-noon inauguration amid grave economic worries and high expectations.

Braving icy temperatures and possible snow flurries, hundreds of thousands of people descended on the heavily guarded capital city Tuesday for the first change of administrations since the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

The capital city, a quick starter on even the most ordinary of days, took on the kind of frenetic predawn life rarely seen. The streets were becoming populated well before daybreak, and competition for space on the Metro subway system was fierce. Several suburban parking lots for subway riders were filled to capacity well before 6 a.m.

Two years after beginning his improbable quest as a little-known, first-term Illinois senator with a foreign-sounding name, Obama moves into the Oval Office as the nation's fourth youngest president, at 47, and the first African-American, a racial barrier-breaking achievement believed impossible by generations of minorities.

Around the world, Obama's election electrified millions with the hope that America will be more embracing, more open to change.

The dawn of the new Democratic era — with Obama allies in charge of both houses of Congress — ends eight years of Republican control of the White House by George W. Bush. He leaves Washington as one of the nation's most unpopular and divisive presidents, the architect of two unfinished wars and the man in charge at a time of economic calamity that swept away many Americans' jobs, savings, homes and dreams — leaving behind a sickening feeling of insecurity.

Bush — following tradition — is leaving a note for Obama in the top drawer of his desk in the Oval Office.

White House press secretary Dana Perino said the theme of the message — which Bush wrote on Monday — is similar to what he has said since election night about how Obama is about to start a "fabulous new chapter" in the United States, and that he wishes him well.

The unfinished business of the Bush administration thrusts an enormous burden onto Obama's shoulders. Pre-inauguration polls show Americans believe Obama is on track to succeed and are confident he can turn the economy around. He has cautioned that improvements will take time and that things will get worse before they get better.

Culminating four days of celebration, the script for Obama and Vice President-elect Joe Biden at the nation's 56th inauguration was to begin with a traditional morning worship service at St. John's Episcopal Church, across Lafayette Park from the White House, and end with dancing and partying at 10 inaugural balls lasting deep into the night.

By custom, Obama and his wife, Michelle, were invited to the White House for coffee with Bush and his wife, Laura, followed by a shared ride in a sleek, heavily armored Cadillac limousine to the U.S. Capitol for the transfer of power, an event flashed around the world in television and radio broadcasts, podcasts and Internet streaming. On Monday, Vice President Dick Cheney pulled a muscle in his back, leaving him in a wheelchair for the inauguration.

Before noon, Obama steps forward on the West Front of the Capitol to lay his left hand on the same Bible that President Abraham Lincoln used at his first inauguration in 1861. The 35-word oath of office, administered by Chief Justice John Roberts, has been uttered by every president since George Washington. Obama was one of 22 Democratic senators to vote against Roberts' confirmation to the Supreme Court in 2005.

The son of a Kansas-born mother and Kenya-born father, Obama decided to use his full name in the swearing-in ceremony.

The Constitution says the clock — not the pomp, ceremony and oaths — signals the transfer of the office from the old president to the new one.

The 20th Amendment to the Constitution specifies that the terms of office of the president and vice president "shall end at noon on the 20th day of January ... and the terms of their successors shall then begin."

To the dismay of liberals, Obama invited conservative evangelical pastor Rick Warren — an opponent of gay rights — to give the inaugural invocation.

About a dozen members of Obama's Cabinet and top appointees — including Secretary of State-designate Hillary Rodham Clinton — were ready for Senate confirmation Tuesday, provided no objections were raised.

More than 10,000 people from all 50 states — including bands and military units — were assembled to follow Obama and Biden from the Capitol on the 1.5-mile inaugural parade route on Pennsylvania Avenue, concluding at a bulletproof reviewing stand in front of the White House. Security was unprecedented. Most bridges into Washington and about 3.5 square miles of downtown were closed.

Obama's inauguration represents a time of renewal and optimism for a nation gripped by fear and anxiety. Stark numbers tell the story of an economic debacle unrivaled since the 1930s:

_Eleven million people have lost their jobs, pushing the unemployment rate to 7.2 percent, a 16-year high.

_One in 10 U.S. homeowners is delinquent on mortgage payments or in arrears.

_The Dow Jones industrial average fell by 33.8 percent in 2008, the worst decline since 1931, and stocks lost $10 trillion in value between October 2007 and November 2008.

Obama and congressional Democrats are working on an $825 billion economic recovery bill that would provide an enormous infusion of public spending and tax cuts. Obama also will have at his disposal the remaining $350 billion in the federal financial bailout fund. His goal is to save or create 3 million jobs and put banks back in the job of lending to customers.

In an appeal for bipartisanship, Obama honored defeated Republican presidential rival John McCain at a dinner Monday night. "There are few Americans who understand this need for common purpose and common effort better than John McCain," Obama said.

Young and untested, Obama is a man of enormous confidence and electrifying oratorical skills. Hopes for Obama are extremely high, suggesting that Americans are willing to give him a long honeymoon to strengthen the economy and lift the financial gloom.

On Wednesday, his first working day in office, Obama is expected to redeem his campaign promise to begin the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq under a 16-month timetable. Aides said he would summon the Joint Chiefs of Staff to the Oval Office and order that the pullout commence.

For Obama, change begins in minutes

Carrie Budoff Brown

Since the time of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, presidents have been judged on their First 100 Days.

But as Barack Obama takes part in one of the nation’s oldest rituals Tuesday, changes will come in the First 100 Minutes – in policy, politics and personalities – that will set a course for a presidency already rich in history and expectations.

As president, he’ll move swiftly, signing documents to formally nominate his Cabinet and appoint interim agency heads, one official said.

His other early moves have been closely guarded, although aides have signaled Obama will wait until later in the week to act on more controversial items, such as ordering the closing of the U.S. prison camp at Guantanamo Bay. Obama also hinted he’ll wait for Congress to overturn the federal ban on embryonic stem cell research, rather than do it by executive order.

Yet even as Obama gives his inaugural address, vehicles will carry some of his aides to take up positions in the new White House – the vanguard of a new Obama administration, in a peaceful takeover of cubicles and office space held by the opposition for eight years.

Far from the pageantry, another ritual takes place with equal precision – the transformation of the White House residence from one president to the next, so quickly that in Bush’s case, pictures of his own inauguration were already on the walls within hours of the ceremony in 2001.

The two First Families will meet at 10 a.m. – and as soon as the Bushes and Obamas leave around 11 a.m. for the Inauguration ceremony, the clock on the changeover from one administration to the next begins its final countdown. The White House residence staff has about six hours until the new occupants return from the parade about 5 p.m.

“At that point, the White House residence staff goes into what I call organized chaos,” said Gary J. Walters, the chief White House usher from 1986 to 2006.

Moving vans do pull into the driveway. Any remaining Bush items are carried out, the Obamas’ belongings moved in. For the next six hours, the staff will do “whatever the Obamas have directed the chief usher to do to make the house their home,” Walters said.

It means placing the right stuffed animals on the daughters’ beds, and stocking the refrigerator with their favorite breakfast foods. Even if Obama forgoes a complete redecoration of the Oval Office, the staff will switch out paintings, busts and photographs to give it a personal touch.

“There is a transition in the Oval Office,” Walters said. “The Oval Office helps set the tenor for each president and what he wants to do.”

Kaki Hockersmith, a close friend of the Clintons who helped redecorate the White House, said she attended the inauguration ceremony in 1993, but an Air Force colonel whisked her to the residence moments after it concluded, driving her down an empty Washington street along the parade route.

Hockersmith spent the afternoon directing an overhaul. Workers installed new draperies, changed bedspreads and shams, cleaned bathrooms, and hung chandeliers. Hockersmith’s daughter unpacked Chelsea Clinton’s clothes and placed them in the closets and dressers.

Amid a beehive of activity, the usher received notice that the First Family was leaving the parade viewing stand and heading to the White House.

“The word went out all over the White House,” Hockersmith said. “All the volunteers and staff disappear. All the people were out of sight.”

Hockersmith joined Walters at the North Portico to greet the new First Family, unaware of the frenzied hours that preceded their arrival.

This year, a skeleton staff will remain in the working part of the White House through the day, an aide said, as the rest of the staff plans to start Wednesday – which Obama’s team dubbed “Day One.” They’re promising a fast-out-of-the-gate first few days.

Senior adviser David Axelrod said on his first full day in office, Obama will order military leaders to begin planning a pullout of U.S. combat troops from Iraq in 16 months. Obama is also scheduled to meet with his economic team to discuss the stimulus package, even though congressional Democrats’ hope of giving him something to sign on Jan. 20 fell away weeks ago. The new target date is Feb. 13.

Lifting the federal stem-cell research ban could take longer, particularly if Obama waits for a congressional vote. Obama’s team also has been careful to avoid getting pinned down on a closing date for the military’s terror prison at Guantanamo Bay, even if he signs the order this week.

Social conservatives expect Obama, at some early point, to reverse an order Bush signed in 2001 blocking U.S. funding of international family planning groups that provide abortion or abortion counseling. Ronald Reagan instituted the policy. Clinton signed an executive order overturning it on January 22, 1993, the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion. And George W. Bush reinstated the “global gag rule” as one of his earliest acts.

For Bush, he heads to Andrews Air Force Base immediately after the inauguration ceremony. He will appear at a departure ceremony before stopping first in Midland, Texas, and then to his ranch in Crawford.

Bush spokesman Scott Stanzel said he’ll be on the clock until noon, he said.

What happens at 12:01 p.m.?

“Not a whole lot, other than I will stop getting paid,” Stanzel said.

US reaches deal on Afghan supply routes to troops

By NAHAL TOOSI, Associated Press Writer

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – The U.S. has struck deals with Russia and neighboring countries allowing it to transport supplies to American troops in Afghanistan through their territory, the head of U.S. Central Command said Tuesday.

Currently, most supplies for U.S. and NATO troops must first pass through northern Pakistan via the Arabian Sea port of Karachi, a treacherous route sometimes closed due to attacks by Islamist militants.

Opening up supply lines in the north is seen as especially important now because the United States is expected to nearly double its number of troops in Afghanistan to 60,000 over the coming year to battle a growing Taliban insurgency.

"It is very important as we increase the effort in Afghanistan that we have multiple routes that go into the country," U.S. Gen. David Petraeus, who oversees the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, told reporters in Pakistan.

Petraeus said he had reached transit deals with Russia and several other Central Asian states on a recent tour of the region. He gave very few details, but NATO and U.S. officials have often said they were in talks with those countries to open up supply lines.

Afghan-based U.S. and NATO forces get up to 75 percent of their supplies via routes that traverse Pakistan, a volatile, nuclear-armed country believed to be a possible home of al-Qaida's top leaders.

Analysts say the dependence on Pakistan presents a problem for Washington because it means it cannot push Islamabad too hard on issues of bilateral concern, such as terrorism.

Petraeus met with Pakistan's army chief, prime minister and president on the trip.

Washington and other Western allies are trying to keep Pakistan focused on the al-Qaida threat as well as defuse tensions with neighboring India over the November terror attacks in Mumbai.

Also Tuesday, police said suspected Taliban militants killed six alleged U.S. spies in a lawless region of northwest Pakistan where American missile attacks have reportedly killed several al-Qaida leaders in recent months.

Analysts speculate Pakistan and Washington have a secret deal allowing the missile strikes, but Pakistan routinely issues public protests against them, saying they inflame anti-American sentiment and violate Pakistani sovereignty.

A tribal police official, Sharif Ullah, said the bodies of the six accused spies were found at two militant strongholds in the North Waziristan tribal region near the Afghan border early Tuesday.

Five Pakistani men were shot to death in the town of Miran Shah, while the sixth man — an Afghan national — had been hanged from a tree in the town Mir Ali, he said.

Ullah said notes pinned to the bodies accused them of passing on information to Americans in exchange for money and threatened other informers with the same fate.

Militants in North Waziristan have killed at least 19 people they accused of spying for the U.S. since mid-December, including the new victims. Ullah said killings of accused spies were growing in scope.

Also Tuesday, a bomb wounded five police officers in Peshawar, the capital of North West Frontier Province bordering Afghanistan.

Police official Mohammed Ashraf said the blast hit a police vehicle when it stopped on a road in Peshawar.

Unidentified assailants planted the bomb in a section of gas pipeline under construction, he said, adding the possibility of a gas explosion had been ruled out.

Russia restarts gas supplies to Europe via Ukraine

By DMITRY VLASOV, Associated Press Writer

PISAREVKA, Russia – Russian natural gas began flowing into Europe on Tuesday after a nearly two-week cutoff that left large parts of the continent shivering and underscored its vulnerability and dependence on Russia's energy.

But a higher price Ukraine now has to pay for the Russian gas will further cripple an economy badly hurt by the financial crisis and could set the stage for another gas dispute with Russia. The office of Ukraine's president has already criticized the deal, saying it hurt the nation's interests.

Russia's gas monopoly Gazprom began pumping gas into Ukraine at around 10:30 a.m. Moscow time (0730GMT), spokesman Boris Sapozhnikov said by telephone from the Sudzha metering station on the border with Ukraine. Ukraine's Naftogaz state gas company confirmed gas flowed through Sudzha, Pisarevka and other gas metering stations on the border.

Several hours later, Slovak Economics Minister Lubomir Jahnatek said his country started receiving the Russian gas through the Velke Kapusany station on the border with Ukraine.

It could take longer for other European customers to begin receiving the Russian gas via Ukraine, which is the size of France, and reach European customers. Europe gets about a fifth of its natural gas from Russia.

Russia halted the supplies on Jan. 7 as it argued with Ukraine over 2009 gas prices and allegations that Ukraine was stealing gas destined for Europe.

More than 15 nations in the Balkans and Eastern Europe were left scrambling for alternative energy sources; factories shut and millions of people shivered in unheated homes. Bulgaria and Slovakia, in particular, rely almost entirely on Russia for gas.

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso hailed the resumption of supplies, but added that "it is difficult to welcome something that should not have happened in the first place."

"It was utterly unacceptable that European gas consumers were held hostage to this dispute between Russia and Ukraine," he said. "We must not allow ourselves to be placed in this position in future. New Year is for fireworks and celebration, not gas crises."

Barroso said that Europe must learn the lessons of the dispute and diversify its energy sources and supply routes. "This painful episode is a sharp reminder that the EU needs to take energy security seriously," he said in a statement.

The gas dispute had been complicated by geopolitical struggles over Ukraine's future and over lucrative export routes for the energy riches of the former Soviet Union.

The new agreement, brokered by Russia's Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart Yulia Tymoshenko, calls for Ukraine to receive gas at a 20 percent discount from this year's average European price, which Russia says is $450 per 1,000 cubic meters.

Gazprom said Ukraine will pay $360 per 1,000 cubic meters of Russian gas in the first quarter — compared with last year's price of $179.5 — and prices will be revised on a quarterly basis.

European gas prices are expected to fall sharply this year, due to the reduction in oil prices. By midsummer, Ukraine could be paying as little as $150 for 1,000 cubic meters, said Ronald Smith, a strategist at Moscow's Alfa Bank.

Ukraine's presidential energy adviser, Bohdan Sokolovsky, predicted Ukraine would end up paying an average 2009 price of $235-$240.

The higher prices will be a challenge for Ukraine, which needs a huge amount of Russian gas to run its outdated, energy-hungry factories and heating systems. Ukraine was struggling to pay for Russian gas at last year's price as it faced a currency collapse, falling exports and a shaken banking sector.

Monday's deal also allows Gazprom to demand Ukraine pay for gas in advance if it delays payments on just one occasion, Gazprom's chief Alexei Miller said. The company says Ukraine still owes it $600 million in fines for slow payments late last year.

"There is no reason to believe that the situation with payments will improve after a significant price rise," Miller said during a televised meeting with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.

Russia will not have to pay higher transit prices to use Ukraine's pipelines this year. Putin said Ukraine would have to pay full price for Russian gas in 2010, and Russia would pay market prices for transit.

Tymoshenko said the deal would save Ukraine billions of dollars. But there was no celebration in the camp of her political rival President Viktor Yushchenko.

Sokolovsky, Yushchenko's adviser, said Ukraine was giving more than it was getting out of the deal, and would face major economic difficulties as a result of the price increase.

Because Russia will continue to pay last year's transit fee of $1.70 per 100 kilometers (62 miles), it would get a 60 percent discount — as opposed to a 20 percent reduction for Ukraine, he said.

Yushchenko's chief of staff Viktor Baloha said Tuesday that Ukraine got a worse deal than many European countries. Another aide to Yushchenko later said that despite its drawbacks, Yushchenko will not challenge the deal.

Bush leaves note for Obama in Oval Office

By DEB RIECHMANN, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON – Continuing a White House ritual, President George W. Bush left a note in the Oval Office for President-elect Barack Obama, wishing him well as he takes the reins of the executive branch.

The White House on Tuesday declined to provide intimate details of the message the two-term Republican left for the incoming Democrat, saying only that Bush wrote it on Monday and left it in the top drawer of his desk.

"The theme is similar to what he's said since election night about the fabulous new chapter President-elect Obama is about to start, and that he wishes him the very best," White House press secretary Dana Perino said Tuesday.

During his last moments in the Oval Office, former President Ronald Reagan scribbled a note for his successor on a notepad with a turkey insignia that said "Don't let the turkeys get you down." He, too, slipped the note in the presidential desk for his successor, President George H.W. Bush.

Four years after that, the elder Bush left a note for President Bill Clinton. And eight years after that, Clinton wrote a note for Bush, and included a copy of the message he had received from Bush's father.

Bush's final half-day as president includes a goodbye to Washington and a hello from fellow Texans.

On Tuesday morning, the president and first lady Laura Bush will welcome Obama and his wife, Michelle, to the White House. The Bushes, the Obamas, Vice President-elect Joe Biden, his wife, Jill, and leaders of the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies will have coffee in the Blue Room.

After the swearing-in ceremony for Obama at the Capitol, Bush will take a helicopter to Andrews Air Force Base, where he'll make private remarks inside a hangar.

The Bushes then will fly to Midland, Texas, on the familiar blue-and-white presidential aircraft, although it will be called Special Air Mission 28000 instead of Air Force One because Bush will no longer be president.

While the inauguration frenzy continues in Washington, thousands of well-wishers are expected to greet the Bushes at Centennial Plaza in Midland — the same place the president stopped on his way to the nation's capital for his own inauguration in 2001. While Bush was born in New Haven, Conn., he spent his childhood in Midland. He returned there as an adult in the 1970s and met the future first lady.

After the rally, the Bushes are flying to Waco, Texas, on their way to their 1,600-acre ranch in nearby Crawford.

Hamas holds victory rallies as UN chief tours Gaza

By BEN HUBBARD and ALFRED de MONTESQUOIU, Associated Press Writers

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – The U.N. chief toured Gaza on Tuesday to inspect the devastation wrought by Israel's onslaught — including the smoldering U.N. headquarters — as the territory's militant Hamas rulers, triumphant at having survived, held victory rallies amid the ruins.

Thousands of Hamas supporters thronged a square outside the remains of the parliament building in Gaza City, which was heavily damaged in an Israeli airstrike at the outset of the war. Two men hoisted a sign in carefully scripted Hebrew reading, "The resistance will be victorious, Israel has been defeated."

Israel and Hamas both ceased fire on Sunday, after an offensive that claimed the lives of some 1,300 Palestinians, according to Gaza health officials, and 13 Israelis. The last of Israel's ground troops were expected to pull out of Gaza on Tuesday if the quiet holds, defense officials said.

Israel mounted an air and ground offensive against Hamas on Dec. 27 in an effort to force Gaza militants to halt their rocket fire on southern Israel and to cripple arms-smuggling operations. The fighting stopped before Israel achieved those aims.

Ban was due to visit three U.N. facilities that became battlegrounds during the war, including a school where nearly 40 Palestinians who had sought refuge from the fighting were killed in an Israeli shelling. He stopped at the U.N.'s Gaza headquarters, which was heavily damaged by Israeli fire. The building was still smoldering during his visit.

In a ceremony at the burnt-out U.N. headquarters, Ban asked the crowd to observe a moment of silence for victims of the offensive.

"It has been especially troubling and heartbreaking for me as secretary-general that I couldn't end this faster," he said. He warned the truce is fragile, and called on Israel and Hamas to "exercise maximum restraint and nurture the cease-fire."

The U.N. chief personally intervened during the war to try to stop the violence, and said over the weekend that he was sending a team to assess the humanitarian needs so the United Nations could issue an emergency appeal for funds.

The first estimates by independent surveyors said Gaza lost nearly $2 billion in assets, including 4,100 homes, about 1,500 factories and workshops, 20 mosques, 31 security compounds, and 10 water or sewage lines. Shattered glass and mounds of rubble littered city streets.

Homeowners digging through the debris in Gaza City, the territory's largest city, carried off vases, refrigerators, dishes and baby beds, some loading their goods into cars and trucks. Utility crews began planning repairs to electrical and sewage and water systems. A senior technician, Mofid Awad, said 80 percent of the electricity grid in Gaza City was damaged.

Before setting off for Gaza, Ban met with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who told him Hamas could not be allowed to lead the reconstruction process in Gaza and thereby gain some measure of legitimacy, Olmert's office said in a statement.

The U.N. and international organizations must lead the reconstruction in conjunction with the Palestinian Authority and Egypt, which has been mediating between Israel and Hamas, Olmert said.

Ban said his discussions with Olmert focused on withdrawing all Israeli troops from Gaza and how to open Gaza's border crossings.

Ban is the most senior international official to visit Gaza since Hamas militants seized power in June 2007. The Hamas government is not internationally recognized, and Ban was not scheduled to meet with the group, which is regarded by Western powers and Israel as a terrorist organization.

After visiting Gaza, Ban was scheduled to travel to the rocket-scarred Israeli town of Sderot. A false alarm of an incoming rocket in southern Israel earlier in the day set off fears that the shaky truce hadn't even lasted two full days. The military reported that a mortar was fired later, but apparently fell short of Israeli territory.

Palestinians and human rights workers reported that Israeli troops have shot to death two Gaza farmers since the truce took hold, including a 20-year-old man killed in northern Gaza on Tuesday. The military had no comment on that report.

As Ban marshaled a global response to the suffering in Gaza, Hamas was busy planning nine victory rallies across Gaza.

Although Israel scored a decisive battleground victory, Hamas claims its own victory because it managed to withstand the intense Israeli assault and fired hundreds of rockets into the Jewish state throughout the fighting.

In a sign the militant group remained in control in Gaza, Hamas security teams in uniforms patrolled Gaza City.

"With full trust and full confidence I say the Palestinian people and the heroic resistance have won this battle," Mushir al-Masri, a Hamas official, said Monday. "Hamas today is stronger than any time before. ... The loser is the occupation."

Thousands of Hamas supporters turned out to celebrate in the southern Gaza town of Khan Younis, raising their forefingers in the air as a sign of their loyalty to the militant group, and waving the movement's iconic green flag. Bearded organizers in yellow vests kept the crowd in order and pro-Hamas music blared from loudspeakers.

Around 800 people showed up for a pro-Hamas demonstration in the northern Gazan town of Beit Lahiya, the site of heavy fighting.

"For us, this was a victory," said Mohammed Abu Awad, 24, a university student.

But the owner of a coffee stand located near the Gaza City rally criticized the festivities, given the steep Palestinian death toll.

"We can't talk about real victory because there were thousands of martyrs and we didn't liberate anything," said Jawdat Abu Nahel. "It's no time for a parade."

Hamas fighters seek to restore order in Gaza Strip

By IBRAHIM BARZAK and CHRISTOPHER TORCHIA, Associated Press Writers

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – Uniformed Hamas security teams emerged on Gaza City's streets Monday as leaders of the Islamic militant group vowed to restore order in the shattered Palestinian territory after a three-week pummeling by the Israeli military.

Hamas proclaimed it won a great victory over the Jewish state — a view that appeared greatly exaggerated — and the task of reconstruction faced deep uncertainty because of the fear of renewed fighting and Israel's control over border crossings.

Cars and pedestrians again clogged streets. Donkey carts hauled produce and firewood past rubble and broken glass. The parliament building and other targets of Israeli attacks were piles of debris, while orange and olive groves on the edge of town were flattened.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon planned to travel to Gaza on Tuesday to inspect damage and visit U.N. facilities hit in the fighting. Ban did not scheduled meetings with officials from Hamas, whose government is not internationally recognized.

Israelis hope Gaza's civilians, who suffered heavily in the fighting that ended Sunday, will blame their militant rulers for provoking the Israeli assault with rocket attacks on southern Israel. Hamas, however, raced to capitalize on anger toward Israel and sought to show it remains unbowed and firmly in command of the Mediterranean coastal strip.

"We are still ready and capable of firing more rockets. We are developing the range of our rockets and the enemy will face more, and our rockets will hit new targets, God willing," said Abu Obeida, the spokesman for Hamas' military wing.

Despite the defiance, Gaza's Iran-backed leadership is likely to focus for now on assisting a traumatized population rather than re-igniting a full-blown conflict that could bring more misery to the area's 1.4 million people.

The high visibility of uniformed Hamas police stood in contrast to the furtive movements of Hamas fighters in civilian clothing who confronted or tried to evade the Israeli onslaught that began Dec. 27. Some have suspected the Islamic group was in disarray, but even some Israeli observers have acknowledged that the tightly knit organization remains largely intact.

"We've had orders to be back, make sure everything goes well," said a Hamas police officer who gave only his first name, Mahmoud.

In a sign of lingering tension, Israeli warships off the northern Gaza coast fired sporadic rounds of heavy bullets at beaches through the afternoon. An Israeli, meanwhile, was critically wounded in a shooting attack near a West Bank settlement blamed by police on "terrorists."

Israel and Hamas declared separate cease-fires Sunday.

Israeli officials said they hoped to pull all troops out of the Gaza Strip by the time Barack Obama was inaugurated as U.S. president Tuesday. The withdrawal would avoid subjecting Obama to a vexing Mideast problem on his first day in office, and also give Israeli politicians time to prepare for elections next month.

But Tuesday's deadline would not be met if militants resumed fire, government officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to discuss troop movements.

"We reserve the right to act in Gaza," Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni told Israeli television. "If they lift up their heads and shoot, we will return with great force because that is what you do against terror organizations."

Israel hopes its Gaza offensive will serve as a long-term deterrent to further militant rocket attacks on its territory. But the Jewish state ended the war without achieving guarantees that Hamas will halt missile fire or stop smuggling weapons into Gaza.

Hamas' demand that Israel open Gaza's blockaded border crossings also was not met.

Israel and Egypt virtually sealed the crossings after Hamas staged a violent takeover of the strip in 2007, a closure that deepened poverty there and trapped its residents. The Israeli army has allowed humanitarian supplies in, and Welfare Minister Isaac Herzog said Israel would cooperate in "helping and easing up the pressure of the people of Gaza."

With aid groups calling for an expanded flow of shipments, Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor indicated that goods and equipment transported across the border from Israel must be closely scrutinized.

"One needs to make sure that nothing that can be used as weapon will reach Hamas and that is clearly in the interest of all parties," he said.

Hamas' interior minister, Said Siam, was among those killed in the war. But a spokesman for the ministry, Ihab Ghussein, said that Hamas remained in firm control of Gaza and that civil servants were surveying the damage.

"We are working despite damage done to communication, to our vehicles and the destruction of our compounds. We are on the ground and our people can feel that," Ghussein said.

Palestinian surveyors estimate the war caused at least $1.4 billion worth of destruction to buildings, roads and power lines.

On Monday, Saudi Arabia pledged $1 billion to the reconstruction project.

However, a top European Union official said Europe wouldn't help to rebuild until Gaza was governed by rulers acceptable to the EU. The European bloc considers Hamas a terrorist organization.

EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner suggested international help in rebuilding Gaza could come if the Fatah Party of moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas returned to Gaza. Hamas seized control from Fatah, and reconciliation efforts have failed.

U.N. humanitarian chief John Holmes said told reporters at U.N. headquarters Monday that hundreds of millions of dollars in humanitarian aid will be needed immediately to help Gaza's people and billions of dollars will be required to rebuild its shattered buildings and infrastructure.

At least 1,259 Palestinians were killed in Israel's assault, more than half of them civilians, according to the United Nations, Gaza health officials and rights groups. Thirteen Israelis died, including 10 soldiers.

Hamas spokesman Abu Obeida said 48 of the group's fighters died, a figure far below the hundreds of militants that Israel says it killed. Hamas also said 165 policemen were killed. Smaller militant groups reported an additional 104 fighters dead.

On Monday, Gaza City residents picked through the ruins. Electricity cables dangled all over the city. Those who could afford expensive fuel relied on generators, but donkey carts piled with tree branches and split logs plied the streets, providing the city's most impoverished with wood for cooking and heating.

In the northern town of Beit Lahiya, several teenagers stood around eight simple, unmarked graves in a graveyard that they said belonged to a Hamas leader and members of his family killed in an Israeli airstrike.

"People said that Hamas had given up resistance, but they were the ones who fought the Israelis when they came, so all of Gaza supports Hamas," said 15-year-old Eimad Abul Maeza.

France, Britain, Germany, Spain and Italy have sought to consolidate the truce by offering technical help to prevent Hamas' arms smuggling and humanitarian relief to ease the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza.

European Union officials announced plans for talks on Wednesday with Israel's foreign minister and on Sunday with the foreign ministers of Egypt, Jordan, Turkey and the Palestinian Authority to discuss prospects for a permanent peace agreement.

French officials said it is time to push beyond the truce and quickly hold an international conference on resolving the underlying conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.