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Lebanon hails militants freed in prisoner swap

BEIRUT, Lebanon (CNN) — Five Lebanese militants, including a convicted murderer, received heroes’ welcomes Wednesday as they returned to Beirut from Israel as part of a prisoner swap.

Once in Beirut, convicted murderer Samir Kuntar — who was the longest-held Lebanese prisoner in Israel — told a crowd of thousands he’d continue to fight for the liberation of the Palestinian territories.

I return today from Palestine, but believe me, I return to Lebanon only in order to return to Palestine, Kuntar said.

Kuntar — convicted of killing a man and a girl in Israel in 1979 — and the other four were released by Israel and crossed into southern Lebanon to cheers. They then were flown to Beirut, where Lebanese President Michel Suleiman called them our dear liberated heroes.

The other four are Lebanese militants captured during the Hezbollah-Israel war two years ago. Israel on Wednesday also released the remains of 199 fighters from Lebanon.

Earlier Wednesday, Hezbollah released to Israel the bodies of two Israeli soldiers who had been abducted in 2006, the Israel Defense Forces said.

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, making his first public appearance since September 2006, also greeted the five militants before cheering throngs of thousands of Hezbollah supporters in Beirut.

I’m here to congratulate all of you, Nasrallah said. As we said in the year 2000, the time of defeat is done and now it is a time of victories. Because of security concerns, Nasrallah typically does not appear in public.

Suleiman said Lebanon feels very proud as we welcome back the heroic resistance fighters who were released from the Israeli occupation.

We also feel proud of the martyrs whose bodies were returned here today, Suleiman said.

Upon their arrival in southern Lebanon, the five released militants changed into military garb and were greeted by the handshakes and embraces of dignitaries and officials before crowds of Hezbollah supporters. Watch Kuntar smile as he enters Lebanon

They then were taken by two Lebanese Army helicopters and a U.N. Interim Forces in Lebanon helicopter from Naqoura in southern Lebanon to Beirut International Airport, where they were met on the red carpet by Suleiman and other government officials, including Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, and were reunited with their families at an airport reception area.

After that reunion, they were driven to al Raya stadium in the southern suburbs of Beirut, a Hezbollah stronghold, for Hezbollah celebrations.

Kuntar is widely reviled in Israel, where Prime Minister Ehud Olmert denounced the celebrations in Lebanon.

Woe to the nation that celebrates in these hours the release of a bestial person who smashed the head of a 4-year-old child, Olmert said in a statement. Watch happy Hezbollah supporters

A member of the Palestine Liberation Front, Kuntar led a group of four men who entered Israel from Lebanon by boat in 1979. They killed a police officer who came across them. Then they took a 28-year-old man and his 4-year-old daughter hostage.

Kuntar shot the father dead at close range in front of his daughter and tossed his body in the sea. He then smashed the girl’s head, killing her. In addition, a 2-year-old girl from the same family suffocated as her mother tried to stop her from crying while they hid during the violence.

Kuntar was sentenced to 542 years in prison.

Israel refused to release him during a previous prisoner exchange. Because of the stiff sentence for Kuntar, Lebanese reports indicate that the news of his release stunned many people.

As part of Wednesday’s exchange, Israel received the bodies of 1st Sgt. Ehud Udi Goldwasser and Sgt. 1st Class Eldad Regev.

The bodies were positively identified by representatives of the IDF Military Rabbinate, the Medical Corps and other forensic experts at the Rosh Hanikra crossing, the IDF said.

Their funerals will take place Thursday. Goldwasser’s will be in Nahariya and Regev’s in Kryat Motzkin. Watch Goldwasser’s father describe his feelings about the swap

The whole of the Israeli nation embraces today the families of Regev and Goldwasser in their mourning, Olmert said.

Also as part of the exchange, the IDF said, Hezbollah has just relayed a coffin containing body parts of IDF soldiers who were killed in the Second Lebanon War, a reference to the 2006 conflict.

These are separate from the remains of Regev and Goldwasser, whose bodies were said to be in poor condition when they were returned to Israel.

Another element of the swap was a report by Hezbollah on the status of Ron Arad, a long-missing Israeli navigator.

Israel was displeased with the report but didn’t provide details on why officials considered it deficient. Despite Olmert’s calling the report absolutely unsatisfactory, the Israeli Cabinet approved the swap in a 22-3 vote Tuesday.

Olmert said Wednesday is a day where doubts are removed regarding the fate of Udi and Eldad, may they rest in peace, but also to the moral strength of the Israeli people, Olmert said.

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Oil price slides as sell-off continues

NEW YORK (AP) — Oil prices tumbled Wednesday, extending a steep and unusually volatile slide into a second day, after the government reported a surprising spike in U.S. crude and gasoline supplies.

Light, sweet crude for August delivery dropped $4.50 to $134.24 a barrel in morning trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices fell $6.44 Tuesday in the biggest one-day drop in dollar terms since the Gulf War.

The two-day slide marks a dramatic turnaround in crude prices, which as recently as Friday traded at record highs above $147 a barrel. But even with this week’s sell-off, prices remain about 80 percent above where they were a year ago and up about 40 percent from the start of the year.

Perhaps just as significant as the declines is the sudden increase in volatility. Prices whipsawed by more than $10 Tuesday and by more than $7 Wednesday.

I think anyone you talk to would have to be surprised by the magnitude of these huge price swings. This is extreme price volatility that no one can predict, said Jim Ritterbusch, president of energy consultancy Ritterbusch and Associates.

Extended two-sided volatility like this is indicative of an impending price top, he added. People wanting to get out are just as enthusiastic as people trying to get in.

Sharply increased crude and gasoline supplies were the immediate cause of Wednesday’s decline.

The Energy Information Administration reported that U.S. crude oil supplies rose by 3 million barrels, or 1 percent, last week. That is the opposite of the 3 million barrel draw analysts surveyed by energy research firm Platts expected. Gasoline supplies also leapt unexpectedly.

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Anglicans meet amid gay bishop row

CANTERBURY, England (CNN) — Controversy over gay clergy and female bishops is likely to dominate the Anglican church’s once-a-decade conference, which begins Wednesday.

The Lambeth Conference in Canterbury, southern England, brings together archbishops and bishops from the Anglican church around the world.

But many invited bishops are boycotting the event, angry that the church allowed the consecration of a gay bishop in the United States in 2003.

The head of the Anglican Church, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, now faces possible mutiny.

Williams did not invite the gay bishop at the center of the debate, the Rev. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire, in a bid to quell controversy — but many conservative bishops have still refused to attend.

Although not invited, Robinson still plans to be in Canterbury during the conference.

I’m here to go to the Lambeth Conference to talk to anyone who wants the experience of talking with someone who is both unashamedly gay and unashamedly Christian, Robinson said.

Robinson is a member of the 2.4-million-member Episcopal Church, the U.S. branch of the 80-million-member worldwide Anglican Communion, which has historic ties to the Church of England.

Conservative Anglican bishops decided last month to form their own movement, The Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans, to counter what they see as the liberalization of the church. Many of the bishops are based in Africa, with several others also from England, the United States and Australia.

The row has triggered speculation about a split in the Anglican Church, the third-largest church in the world after the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church.

We can’t change Christian truth, said Archbishop Greg Venables, one of the leaders of the new conservative movement. What God has said about marriage, for example — male, female, for life — we can’t change that just because the culture is changing.

Venables says the church is already divided over the issue of gay clergy and that a split between liberal and conservative members is inevitable.

We don’t agree. We can’t work together. (So) let’s work out a way to provide two different ways of being Anglican, he told CNN.

Many conservative Anglicans are also upset at a decision last week by the Church of England to move a step closer to ordaining women as bishops. Queen Elizabeth, as reigning monarch, is the Supreme Governor of the church, although the role is largely symbolic.

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China: Olympic sailing site cleared of algae

SHANGHAI, China (AP) — The site of the Olympic sailing competition is basically free of the bright-green algae bloom that recently carpeted the sea off the Chinese city of Qingdao, an official said Tuesday.

The sea-blanketing algae bloom, which officials blamed on natural causes, had disrupted practice for the more than 30 Olympic sailing teams already there.

The Chinese government had set a goal of clearing the sailing area by Tuesday.

Now it’s totally different from several days ago. It’s hard to find the green algae, especially in the Olympics sailing site, Wang Haitao, vice president of the sailing committee for China’s games organizing committee, told The Associated Press by telephone.

In an extreme effort to save the site for next month’s Olympics, the Chinese government in past weeks called on thousands of soldiers, volunteers and fishing boats to help remove the algae.

While the site of the Olympic competition is clear, the cleanup continues outside the barrier of fishnets and canvas being used to keep the algae out of the competition area.

Yesterday, we sent out 1,700 fishing boats to search for algae over the whole sea area in Qingdao, but they only got 10,000 tons, Wang said. Compared with days before, that’s big progress.

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U.S. diplomat will talk nukes with Iran

WASHINGTON (AP) — In a break with past Bush administration policy, a top U.S. diplomat will for the first time join colleagues from other world powers at a meeting with Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator, The Associated Press has learned.

William Burns, America’s third highest-ranking diplomat, will attend talks with the Iranian envoy, Saeed Jalili, in Switzerland on Saturday aimed at persuading Iran to halt activities that could lead to the development of atomic weapons, a senior U.S. official told the AP on Tuesday.

Official contacts between Iran and the United States are extremely rare and although Washington is part of a six-nation effort to get Iran to stop enriching and reprocessing uranium, the administration has shunned contacts with Tehran on the matter.

The senior U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity ahead of a formal announcement of Burns’ plans expected on Wednesday, acknowledged a shift in the administration’s approach but stressed that Burns would not meet Jalili separately and would not negotiate with him.

This is a one-time event and he will be there to listen, not negotiate, the official said.

U.S. contact with Iran has recently been limited only to discussions about the security situation in Iraq, where Washington accuses Iran of supporting insurgents. The two countries have not had diplomatic relations since the hostage crisis at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran after the 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran.

Saturday’s meeting comes at a time of acutely heightened tensions between the United States and Iran, particularly after Iranian missile tests last week prompted President Bush’s top aides to warn that the United States would defend its friends and interests in the Middle East.

The gathering in Geneva will be led by European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana, who is seeking a definitive answer from the Iranians to an offer of incentives that the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council and Germany presented last month.

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