You may have noticed that the orkut logo looked a little different when you signed in today -- and if the four candles on the cake didn't give it away already, it's our fourth birthday. That's right, 2/5ths of a decade ago, orkut launched. It has grown up pretty fast, with many more features, communities, friends and photos since it first opened as an invite-only community. Whether you've been with us for years or days, thank you for being a part of the orkut community!
 There have been a series of meetings since the Annapolis talks |
These include the status of Jerusalem, the borders of a Palestinian state, Jewish settlements in the West Bank, refugees, security and water resources.
The talks are being led by Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and former Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei.
Three Palestinian militants died in an Israeli strike in Gaza on Sunday.
The vehicle in which the men were travelling through the Shati refugee camp near Gaza City was struck by an Israeli Air Force missile.
Mahmoud Abbas
Palestinian Authority President
The raid had targeted militants involved in attacks on Israel, the Israeli military said.
One of the men has been named as Nidal Amudi, who was a senior member of the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, a militant group linked to the Fatah movement of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
Another was identified as Mahir Mabhuh, who belonged to another group, while the identity of the third militant was unknown.
'Final agreement'
During a speech in the West Bank city of Ramallah on Sunday, Mr Abbas said the Israeli and Palestinian negotiating teams would begin discussion of the core "final stage issues" in the peace process at their meeting on Monday.
"If we reach an agreement on all these issues, then we can say that we have reached a final agreement," he said, adding that any peace treaty would have to resolve the disputes over all issues.
The talks come in the wake of an Israeli air strike in Gaza
Mr Abbas added that both sides would at the same time have to implement the first phase of the "road map" formulated by the Middle East Quartet in 2003, which suggests how a final settlement might be approached, and resolve economic and security issues in the West Bank.
The first phase of the road map requires:
A spokesman for the Israeli government, Mark Regev, also confirmed the negotiating teams would meet on Monday, and that they had received a mandate to discuss the core issues.
Hamas offer
Prospects for a comprehensive settlement were given fresh impetus by the US peace conference at Annapolis, Maryland, in November, after which Mr Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert agreed to restart talks after seven years.
OBSTACLES TO PEACE 
US President George W Bush, who visited Israel and the West Bank last week, has said Israel and the Palestinians could sign a peace treaty within a year.
"I believe it's going to happen, that there will be a signed peace treaty by the time I leave office," he told reporters in Ramallah on Thursday.
In his speech, Mr Abbas said he had warned the president that the Palestinians could not move ahead in the negotiations while Jewish settlements continued to be built in the West Bank.
"We can't have negotiations while they are building houses all over," he added.
The Palestinian leader also said he was willing to restart talks with the Islamist movement, Hamas, if it relinquished control of the Gaza Strip.
Hamas ousted Mr Abbas's Fatah movement from the coastal territory in June following a week of violent clashes.
"I am ready to negotiate with Hamas even if the United States does not accept it," he said. "Such a dialogue is very important."
 Gatlin won the 100m title at the Athens Olympics in 2004 |
The United States Anti-Doping Agency (Usada) confirmed an arbitration panel had voted 2-1 to a four-year ban.
The 25-year-old was originally given an eight-year ban instead of a lifetime sanction after agreeing to help Usada's anti-doping campaign but appealed.
Gatlin, who also failed a test in 2001, will not be able to race until 24 May 2010, but may decide to appeal again.
The American, who had expected to be able to defend his Olympic crown in Beijing, has accepted testing positive, but claims he never knowingly used banned substances.
Gatlin, the 2005 world 100m and 200m champion, and his solicitor have not yet commented on the verdict or whether the athlete will against the decision to the Court of Arbritration for Sport (Cas).
However, Gatlin's mother says her son is still hoping to compete again.
Given his cooperation and the circumstances relating to Mr Gatlin's first offence, the four-year penalty issued by the arbitration panel is a fair and just outcome
Usada chief executive officer Travis Tygart
"There is no doubt about that," she said. "We will be talking to his lawyer. I think everybody is blindsided by this decision."
Gatlin gave a positive test for testosterone at the low-level Kansas Relays in April 2006.
It was his second failed drugs test and, under the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) code, he should have been given a lifetime suspension.
But Usada, in exchange for Gatlin agreeing to cooperate with its anti-doping campaign and in recognition of the exceptional circumstances of his first failure, imposed an eight-year ban, although the athlete decided to appeal against the length of the suspension.
Usada chief executive officer Travis Tygart said on Tuesday: "Mr Gatlin should be commended for his decision to cooperate with authorities following his positive test.
"However, these efforts do not completely remove his responsibility for his second doping offence.
"Given his cooperation and the circumstances relating to Mr Gatlin's first offence, the four-year penalty issued by the arbitration panel is a fair and just outcome."
He failed his first test in 2001 when amphetamines were found in his samples at the USA Junior Championships.
But it was accepted that medicine he had been taking for 10 years to control attention-deficit disorder was the reason for the failed test.
Gatlin started his appeal against the eight-year ban last summer and has now been given the minimum sanction recommended by world governing body the IAAF back in 2006.
The Washington Post reported that two out of the three arbitration panel members said they could not give less than a four-year ban because of the previous positive test.
Gatlin has not competed since winning the 100m at the US national championships in June 2006.
 |  Elections were two weeks away when Bhutto was killed  |
On Tuesday it said holding the polls as planned looked "impossible", in the wake of clashes following the killing of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto.
A commission official said the decision on the parliamentary poll would be made after consulting the political parties.
The main opposition parties want the poll to go ahead as planned.
The commission's spokesman, Kanwar Dilshad, said violent protests had directly affected the organisation of the poll.
Thirteen polling offices were burnt in Ms Bhutto's home province of Sindh as protests and violent clashes broke out after her assassination last Thursday, he said. PPP TOP LEADERS 
Asif Ali Zardari Benazir's widower and former political ally, has faced corruption and other charges Bilawal Bhutto (pictured) Benazir's son, a 19-year-old Oxford University student, considered too young by some PPP members Makhdoom Amin Fahim Senior PPP figure and top aide to Benazir
But opposition parties have condemned any delay as a desperate measure to avoid defeat by President Pervez Musharraf's ruling party.
"There are no grounds whatsoever for delaying the elections," said Raza Rabbani, deputy secretary general of Ms Bhutto's party, the PPP.
"It is being done only at the behest of the PML-Q as they are seeing their defeat," he said.
The other main opposition leader, former PM Nawaz Sharif, vowed his party would "agitate" against a delay.
The ruling PML-Q party has said the 8 January vote should be delayed for several weeks, on the grounds that the vote would "lose credibility" if held under current conditions.
The BBC's Chris Morris in Islamabad says the PPP wants elections as soon as possible, in order to take advantage of what could be a big sympathy vote.
Dossier on 'rigging'
On Tuesday, one of Ms Bhutto's aides said that the day the PPP leader was killed, she had been planning to give two visiting US lawmakers a 160-page dossier setting out how she thought the vote would be rigged.
The aide said it documented how Pakistan's ISI intelligence service and the election commission planned to use intimidation and fake ballots to ensure a ruling party victory.
President Pervez Musharraf's spokesman dismissed the claims as "ridiculous".
"Take it from me, it's going to be perhaps the best election that Pakistan has ever had," said Rashid Qureshi.
The electoral commission has asked each of Pakistan's four provincial governments to compile reports on their readiness for an election.
The commission says in many districts ballot boxes and voting screens have been destroyed and the printing of ballot papers - and their delivery around the country - has also been disrupted.
Clashes
At least 47 people have been killed in violence since Ms Bhutto's death.
The authorities have accused pro-Taleban militant leader Baitullah Mehsud of being behind her killing.
On Wednesday, the military said troops had killed about 25 militants in the tribal region of South Waziristan where Baitullah Mehsud is based.
|  Riot police are on patrol after fresh clashes in Nairobi's slums |
At least 250 people have been killed, including 30 in western Kenya burned to death while sheltering in a church.
Many Kenyans have been taking refuge from armed mobs and looters as fears mount of further attacks and reprisals.
The African Union chairman is due in Kenya, as the US and UK add their voices to AU calls to end the violence.
Mwai Kibaki, who was officially re-elected president in Thursday's vote, and opposition leader Raila Odinga, who says he was robbed of victory by fraud, have both called for an end to the killing.
A government spokesman told the BBC that Mr Odinga's supporters are "engaging in ethnic cleansing" in an "organised, calculated manner". 
Mr Odinga has countered in an interview with the Associated Press that Mr Kibaki's government was "guilty, directly, of genocide".
The majority of those killed in the church were Kikuyu, the same tribe as Mr Kibaki, and there have been reports of people being targeted on the basis of their ethnicity.
Abbass Gullet, secretary general for Kenya's Red Cross, told AFP that only those from "the right ethnic group" had been allowed through barricades in some places.
Correspondents say that although the election was more about economic and political issues than tribal ones, there is a danger that as the violence escalates it will take on more of an ethnic dimension.
Diplomatic push
Aid agencies are warning of a "humanitarian catastrophe" if the crisis is not defused.
African Union chairman John Kufuor is due to meet with Mr Kibaki on Wednesday amid growing international pressure to find a solution to the crisis.
The visit comes as US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and UK Foreign Minister David Miliband issued a joint statement pointing to reports of "serious irregularities" in the vote count.
"The immediate priority is to combine a sustained call from Kenya's political leaders for the cessation of violence by their followers with an intensive political and legal process that can build a united and peaceful future for Kenya," the statement said.
Fear and looting
President Kibaki, who was swiftly sworn in on Sunday following Thursday's vote, said political parties should meet immediately and publicly called for calm.
But Mr Odinga said he would only hold talks once the re-installed president "publicly owns up that he was not elected".
Commuters travel by foot after police blocked roads to traffic
Those killed in the church in Eldoret were among hundreds believed to be sheltering there.
Witnesses said that a mob angry about the election result doused the church with petrol before setting it alight.
Residents of the town who have contacted the BBC have described an atmosphere of fear, with people sheltering as homes are set on fire and gangs of armed youths loot properties.
One woman told the BBC that she was locked in an orphanage in Eldoret.
"The older children have been told that they need to arm themselves just in case we might have to protect ourselves, so they've got batons, they've got anything they can find," she said.
Also on Tuesday there were reports of new street battles breaking out in Nairobi slums.
The Kenyan Red Cross has said that in the Rift Valley, at least 70,000 people have been displaced as a result of the unrest, describing it as "a national disaster".
Ugandan officials also reported hundreds of Kikuyu tribes people crossing the border from Kenya, AFP reported.
Commission 'pressured'
Mr Kibaki was declared the winner on Sunday after a controversial three-day counting process.
On Tuesday, election commission chairman Samuel Kivuitu said he had been under pressure to make the election results public from Mr Kibaki's Party of National Unity and a minor opposition party that recently split from Mr Odinga's Orange Democratic Movement.
"I was being pushed by PNU and ODM-Kenya to announce the results immediately," he said.
EU observers said the poll "fell short of international standards", and four Kenyan election commissioners have joined calls for an independent judicial body to re-examine the process.
But Finance Minister Amos Kimunya denied the fraud allegations.
He told: "I have no evidence that they were rigged. Anyone who has any information that they were rigged in one constituency or the other, or overall, let them subject it through the legal process."
Ms Bhutto was being driven in a convoy through crowded streets from Karachi airport to a rally to mark her homecoming after eight years in exile.
Ms Bhutto was not among the casualties and has been driven to safety.
Hundreds of thousands of people had turned out to greet the former PM, amid a huge security presence.
Several Islamist groups including pro-Taleban militants have made threats against Ms Bhutto.
The motorcade is now said to be at a standstill, and police have cordoned off the scene of the blasts.
The area around a stage where she was due to give a speech to supporters has been evacuated.
Police say the bombings may have been suicide attacks.
Rushed away
The first explosion was relatively small but was followed by a much larger blast close to the front of Ms Bhutto's truck, which broke its windows and door.
Police vehicles took the main force of the blasts.
It is not clear whether the bomber was in a car or on foot, although police said an unregistered small white car pulled up near a police escort immediately before the explosions.
Witnesses said body parts were strewn across Ms Bhutto's truck. The death toll is expected to rise.
Most of the dead were members of her Pakistan People's Party (PPP). One cameraman for a local TV station was killed.
Correspondents say Ms Bhutto may have been shielded from the blast by an overhang because she was sitting on top of the truck at the time.
The former prime minister was immediately rushed from the scene to her Karachi residency, according to contingency plans.
Power-sharing deal
Ms Bhutto flew in from Dubai earlier on Thursday, accompanied on the flight by about 100 PPP members.
At least 200,000 people turned out to greet her in what correspondents described as a carnival atmosphere, but the crowds slowed the progress of her convoy.
Ms Bhutto had been planning to make a speech at the tomb of Pakistan's founding father, Mohammed Ali Jinnah.
The BBC's Damian Grammaticas in Karachi says that despite being away for eight years, Ms Bhutto is still enormously popular as a scion of Pakistan's pre-eminent political dynasty.
Ms Bhutto left the country soon after Gen Musharraf seized power in a coup, but returned under a power-sharing deal with the president which could see her becoming prime minister again.
The US has backed the deal, amid concerns about the military's inability to defeat Islamist militants and Gen Musharraf's rising unpopularity.
In an interview due to be published on Friday, the striker, 29, says morale has plummeted since Jose Mourinho left.
"I want to leave Chelsea. Something is broken with Chelsea," Drogba said. "The damage is big in the dressing room."
But Chelsea said: "Didier signed a new four-year contract last year. As a top professional we're sure he is committed to Chelsea and intends to honour it."
France Football is a well-established magazine in France that awards the Ballon d'Or for the European Footballer of the Year.
Drogba joined Chelsea from Marseille for £24m in July 2004 and has been the subject of regular speculation since then despite a prolific record with the Blues.
He signed his new deal last November but told the BBC the following month that he had considered leaving the previous summer in the wake of Chelsea's second successive league title.
In the interview, Drogba is quoted as saying he wanted an even earlier exit and will not change his mind even if the club make high-profile signings next summer.
"Nothing can stop me from leaving now," he said.
Drogba says Barcelona, Real Madrid, AC Milan or Inter Milan would be his preferred destination.
"Since the day I arrived, I wanted to leave Chelsea and then again every summer," he said.
"I know that Ronaldinho and Kaka are linked to come next season but even that won't change my mind."
The British number one has been in sensational form this week, beating Radek Stepanek and Juan Ignacio Chela for the loss of just nine games.
Top seed and defending champion Roger Federer thrashed Guillermo Canas 6-0 6-3 to advance to the quarter-finals.
Meanwhile, third seed Novak Djokovic beat Juan Carlos Ferrero 6-3 2-6 6-4.
The Serb will face Mario Ancic in the next round after the Croat eased past France's Paul-Henri Mathieu 6-4 6-3.
Last year's losing finalist Fernando Gonzalez, the fifth seed from Chile, had an emphatic 6-4 6-2 victory over Argentine Juan Monaco.
Murray, meanwhile, will be seeking to join them in the last eight and admits that he will have to serve well to overcome the Spanish star.
Nadal won their only previous meeting, a dramatic five-setter at the Australian Open in January.
"That was one of the best matches I've played on the tour," said Murray. "Probably in a Grand Slam the best match I've played. I was a little bit unlucky in part of the fifth set, had a lot of chances but I didn't take them.
"But indoors, if I serve like I have been, I have a good chance against him.
"I will not be the favourite going into the match, but I feel if I play like I have done in the last couple of matches it's going to be tough to beat me."
Nadal set up the tie by beating Marcos Baghdatis 6-4 6-4 in the second round - his first competitive match since going out of the US Open at the start of September.
The Spaniard believes Murray, ranked 17th in the world, could have been in the top six had it not been for the wrist injury he suffered in Hamburg in May.
Murray was kept out of action for three months and Nadal said: "In my opinion, if he did not have the problem in Hamburg he might have been at this moment the number two, three, four, five, six in the world.
"It was disappointing for him but now he is fighting for a good end to the season. He has played very well in the last two tournaments."
England captain John Terry is unlikely to play in Wednesday's Euro 2008 qualifier against Russia in Moscow.
The Chelsea defender took part in training on Tuesday at the Luzhniki stadium but was unable to complete the session after his knee locked.
Terry had been expected to play despite suffering a broken toe, fractured cheekbone as well as the knee injury.
Head coach Steve McClaren said: "John Terry is almost certainly ruled out - he could not complete the session."
The England captain took part in a warm-up and practice match on Tuesday but broke down after the players split into groups for the final 25 minutes of the session.
Sol Campbell deputised for Terry in Saturday's 3-0 win over Estonia at Wembley and the Portsmouth defender is expected to replace the Chelsea player again.
Even had Terry played against Russia he would have required a minor knee operation to remove some floating bone on his return to England.
The Chelsea defender expects to be back playing a week after having the operation.
England will reach the finals in Austria and Switzerland if they beat Russia. A draw would leave them needing a point from their final game against Croatia at Wembley on 21 November.
McClaren's squad arrived in a chilly Moscow late on Monday. The city had its first snow of the winter at the weekend but the forecast for Wednesday is cloudy, with temperatures of 9C.
A sell-out 80,000 crowd is expected at the Luzhniki Stadium, where the match will be played on an artificial surface. England trained on a similar pitch in Cheshire on Monday.
Barham Saleh told the BBC such action could destabilise the region and prompt other neighbouring states to step in.
Turkey has said its patience has run out over the handling of Kurdish rebels based in northern Iraq.
It is seeking parliamentary permission for a cross-border operation to pursue Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) members.
Ankara argues the group is a terrorist organisation responsible for the deaths of at least 15 Turkish soldiers in the past two weeks, and says the Kurdish separatists enjoy freedom of movement in northern Iraq.
Baghdad has called for "urgent negotiations" over Turkey's threat and has dispatched Iraqi Vice-President Tareq Hashemi to Ankara for talks with Turkish leaders.
Iraq alarmed
Mr Saleh warned that any cross-border operation could have destabilising effects.
"Any unilateral action by the Turkish military in violation of Iraqi border will be a terrible precedent for everybody," he said in the BBC interview.
"If Turkey as a neighbour of Iraq allows itself the right to intervene militarily in Iraq, what is there to prevent other neighbours from intervening?"
Meanwhile, the head of the UN refugee agency said he was deeply concerned that the Turkish action could lead to big displacements of people.
UNHCR chief Antonio Guterres said the "relatively stable" area had until now acted as a haven for Iraqis displaced from other parts of the country.
Mr Erdogan's AK Party, which has a parliamentary majority, is expected to vote in favour of the motion on Wednesday.
If passed, the vote will authorise cross-border operations for one year with the government deciding on the timing, scope and frequency of any incursions.
The Turkish province of Sirnak is at the heart of the 23-year-old conflict between the military and Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) guerrillas.
Turkey hopes it will not be forced to resort to military action, even if its motion gained approval in parliament, Mr Erdogan said on Tuesday.
"I sincerely wish that this motion will never be applied," he said in televised comments.
"Passage of this motion does not mean an immediate incursion will follow."
Mr Erdogan called on Iraq's government and the regional administration in the country's north to crack down on the rebels, saying they should "build a thick wall between themselves and terrorist organisations".
He added that any military operation would respect Iraq's territorial integrity and only target the rebels.
Kurdish protests
Jamal Abdallah, a spokesman for the government of Iraqi Kurdistan, told the BBC there was no co-operation with the PKK.
"We have not helped the PKK and we are not helping it," he said.
"Their bases are not under the control of the Kurdistan regional authorities."
Iraq signed a counter-terrorism pact with Turkey last month, but opposes any military incursion into its territory.
The US has also warned Ankara against ordering any incursions into Iraq.
Earlier, the two presidents attended a summit of heads of countries in the Caspian Sea area.
Iran's nuclear programme is topping the agenda, with the BBC's Jon Leyne in Tehran saying Iran is seeking Russian help in fending off new UN sanctions.
The visit went ahead despite Kremlin warnings of an assassination threat.
The alleged plot to kill the Russian president prompted Mr Putin's staff to cast doubt on the trip, only for the president to announce that he was not deterred.
The Iranian government played down the threat.
Iran's refusal to end uranium enrichment has led to the US and other Western countries pressing for a new round of UN sanctions.
Washington is convinced that Tehran is pursuing nuclear weapons - a charge Iran denies - and has refused to rule out the use of force to resolve the issue.
At the meeting of the five states bordering the Caspian Sea - Russia, Iran, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan - the countries' leaders signed a declaration agreeing to never allow their territory to be used for an attack on another littoral state.
"The parties emphasise that in no circumstances will they allow their territory to be used by a third country to commit aggression or other military action against one of the parties," AFP news agency quoted the text as saying.
Mr Putin used the meeting to warn against any military attack on Iran and to support its right to nuclear energy.
He told a press conference after the meeting that the five countries had "expressed the idea that peaceful nuclear activities must be allowed".
"Russia is the only country helping Iran to construct a nuclear power station for peaceful ends," he added, in reference to Iran's still unfinished first nuclear energy plant in Bushehr.
As well as meeting President Ahmadinejad, Mr Putin will hold talks with Iran's powerful spiritual leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Building plan
Our correspondent in Tehran says that the talks are crucial for the Iranians. Until now Moscow has been blocking any new UN sanctions, saying it wants to enable the UN's nuclear watchdog, the IAEA, to work with Iran on clearing up outstanding issues.
As well as wanting to secure diplomatic help in preventing sanctions, Iran also wants to ensure continued Russian technical assistance.
The government hopes Mr Putin will confirm that Moscow will complete the Bushehr nuclear reactor being built by Russian engineers.
The programme has been dogged by delays, with Moscow saying Tehran is behind with its payments and Iran accusing Russia of dragging its feet for political reasons, our correspondent says.
It is not clear quite how much support Mr Putin is prepared to give Iran in its showdown with the West.
Mr Putin will certainly be calling for more flexibility from the Iranian government over the nuclear issue and no-one should forget the deep legacy of suspicion that exists between Russia and Iran, our correspondent says.
Moscow has called for a peaceful resolution of the dispute, urging the international community to show patience.
"It is futile to frighten Iran and its people - they are not scared," Mr Putin said before the visit.
Suicide bomb threat
Mr Putin travelled to Tehran from Germany where he met Chancellor Angela Merkel for talks somewhat overshadowed by the alleged assassination plot.
Russian media had quoted unnamed security sources as saying suicide bombers and kidnappers were plotting to kill Mr Putin in Tehran.
Mr Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the BBC that such reports were "very serious".
But the Russian president dismissed the claims, telling reporters: "Of course I am going to Iran.
"If I listened to what the security services said, I would never leave my home."
"The principle guiding my decisions on troop levels in Iraq is: return on success,"
"defeat those who threaten its future and also threaten ours."
"And we are ready to begin building that relationship in a way that protects our interests in the region and requires many fewer American troops."
Bush said."The way forward I have described tonight makes it possible, for the first time in years, for people who have been on opposite sides of this difficult debate to come together,"
