The Associated Press news agency quoted a Saudi official as saying that the Canada-based Research in Motion (RIM) would under the deal allow the Saudi government access to its encrypted data.

Telecom authorities in Saudi Arabia had earlier threatened to block Blackberry messaging service in the kingdom from Friday, saying the service ”in its present state does not meet regulatory requirements”.

It had ordered the kingdom’s three mobile phone providers on Tuesday to block the service by August 6 or face a $1.3m fine.

Saturday’s reported deal comes after week-long negotiations with RIM in a bid to have the device conform to Saudi laws.

Saudi Arabia is RIM’s biggest Middle East market with about 700,000 users.

Security concerns

Though the Blackberry ban was supposed to be enforced from Friday, users said they only experiended disruptions for about four hours during the day.

The brief Saudi shutdown came five days after the United Arab Emirates announced it would block Blackberry email, web browsing and messaging services in October if RIM did not comply with “local laws”.

Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, announced earlier the US will engage in technical discussions with the UAE to avoid a Blackberry ban.

India, Lebanon, Algeria and Indonesia have all raised similar national security concerns about their lack of access to Blackberry data.

Blackberry information, such as emails and text messages, are stored in encrypted form on servers in Canada, where the manufacturer RIM is based.

Philip Victor, a data security advocate, told Al Jazeera that RIM and the foreign governments concerned need to find a way to rework the balance between privacy and accessibility.

“How do we ensure the bad guys aren’t using it for purposes that could harm the country?” he said.

RIM shares rose 3.5 per cent to $54.93 on Saturday after the Saudi deadline to shut off its messaging service lapsed, Bloomberg reported.

Shares in the company made a rebound after they slipped on Thursday by $1.2, or 2.2 per cent, to $52.2, on the Nasdaq Stock Market.

In a video address to journalists from an undisclosed location on Monday, Nasrallah said he had evidence to prove Israel’s complicity in al-Hariri’s assassination in Beirut, the Lebanese capital.

“He has not provided undisputed, solid proof that implicates Israel,” Al Jazeera’s Rula Amin reporting from Beirut said.

The Hezbollah leader, however, said that “there is enough evidence pointing to Israel,” our correspondent said.

Al-Hariri and 22 others were killed on the Beirut seafront on February 14, 2005.

The assassination sparked an international outcry and led to the withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon.

The murder has been widely blamed on Syria, but Damascus has routinely denied involvement.

Blaming Israel

Fawaz Gerges, a Middle East analyst, told Al Jazeera that Nasrallah “talked about who has the most to benefit from the assassination … [by trying to] provide a very complex case by drawing a historical link between Israel” and the killing.

Nasrallah said Israel used spying and covert operations to attempt to drive a wedge between Hezbollah and the Lebanese government.

Among the material presented was what he described as Israeli reconaissance footage intercepted by Hezbollah of areas frequented by al-Hariri.

Israel denied the “ridiculous” accusations.

“Everyone in the world knows, even the Lebanese, that  Nasrallah’s accusations are ridiculous,” AFP news agency quotes a senior Israeli  official as saying.

It was clear that the allegations were “coming from the pressure on [Nasrallah] over the international community’s suspicions about Hezbollah’s involvement in Hariri’s murder,” the unnamed official said.

Aaron Klein, a political commentator in Jerusalem, told Al Jazeera that the contents of Nasrallah’s rare speech were not surprising.

“This is exactly what everybody in Israel was expecting, which was to use the Jewish state as a scapegoat because he is up against a rock and a hard place,” Klein said.

UN probe

A UN court probing the assassination of al-Haririis planning to charge Hezbollah members in the killing, Nasrallah said in July.

Nasrallah criticised the UN investigation because it “does not look into the possibility that Israel is implicated, we believe it is biased”.

Our correspondent said that Hezbollah considers the tribunal “an Israeli project to create strife in Lebanon”.

Impending charges from the international body had pushed Lebanon into a “very sensitive phase”,  Klein said.

Hezbollah fought a devestating war with Israel in 2006.

Klein said that a UN verdict against Hezbollah would be “devastating for them in terms of the internal politics” as it could spark anger among other sectors of Lebanese society.

Rula Amin said that ”Hezbollah is trying to dismiss the findings of international investigations. They want to discredit the basic information that investigators had depended on in making their conclusions”.

“He is trying to say that the findings are not credible and politically motivated … he is trying to do is build a case in which he says Israel is a legitimate suspect,” our correspondent said.

Bloodsuckers again ruled the Teen Choice Awards. “The Twilight Saga” commanded Sunday’s ceremony with 11 wins, including choice movie fantasy, villain and chemistry.

Meanwhile, the CW’s “The Vampire Diaries” sucked up seven surfboard-shaped trophies at the taped ceremony, which is scheduled to air Monday at 8 p.m. EDT on Fox.

The freewheeling ceremony was punctuated with several silly moments, including George Lopez appearing in drag as an older Kardashian sister, Betty White interrupting Sandra Bullock’s acceptance speech for choice movie drama actress and host Katy Perry reliving high school days by dressing up as cheerleader, geek, hippie, prom queen and goth.

We witnessed hundreds of thousands of people on the move in Punjab province, stopping just briefly to regain strength, before continuing on along a straight road, followed by encroaching waters. It was like a flock of sheep without a Sheppard. There was no one at hand to guide these people to safer places.

Punjab’s Muzzafargarh district is home to at least three thermal power units that produce much needed electricity in a country already suffering its worst energy crisis. At least one such power unit at Lal Pir has been shut down and it said to be under several feet of water. The unit in Kot Addu is surrounded by water, while the town itself is inundated.

But that’s not all – Pakistan’s largest oil refinery, which Pak Arab Refinery Company (PARCO) built with help from the United Arab Emirates, is now under threat. The refinery has been shut down to prevent any damage in case of flooding and many dykes have been breached to help divert the water from entering this vital facility.

The shutdown has led to hundreds of trucks being stranded on the main road from Muzafargarh to Multan. That city saw long queues as people rushed to buy dwindling supplies of fuel – a scene Pakistan’s prime minister must have witnessed as he visited Multan, his hometown.

Back in Muzafargarh, the breaching of riverbanks has caused the evacuation of the district’s main city. Many people who have been on the move had stopped briefly, hoping they were safe, but were also told to leave this city. Just before the waters entered the city, Banks and the National Registration Authority moved both documents and valuables to the city of Multan.

After covering Muzaffargarh, we drove to the adjoining district of Layyah, where the waters had wrought havoc. Despite the fact that the water was now receding, large swathes of territory were still submerged. In some cases, entire villages had vanished without out a trace.

Some of the residents who opted to stay back to protect their homes and belongings endured an ordeal, the likes of which they had never seen. Nazar Hussain said at first, things seemed normal. He said when he and his family slept, everything was as expected, but when they woke up, they were surrounded by water.

“I called a boat owner and begged him to save my family; I could hear the cries of people [calling] for help and saw dead bodies and animals being carried by raging waters.”

When help arrived, he sent his children and wife to safety. “I told them I will see you if I am still alive,” he said, wiping his tears.

We rented a local boat to travel into the flood waters. It was eerily quite and the heat and humidity were unbearable. Everything was surreal about this place.

Ducking and bending to avoid the branches of trees, we traveled through what were once populated villages. Now it was all gone.

The Panamanian-registered MSC Chitra has been leaking fuel into the sea off India’s financial capital since the collision on Saturday, raising environmental fears about its impact on the coastline.

The ship was lying at a sharp 60-degree angle to its port side about five nautical miles off shore, with containers and other cargo falling into the murky water.

Oil had spread around the ship and was drifting towards the shore.

Defence ministry spokesman Captain M. Nambiar told AFP that the vessel’s position was “precarious”, adding: “It’s difficult to get on board to locate the point of leakage.”

Broken patches of oil have already been cleared around Elephanta Island, a World Heritage Site and tourist attraction in Mumbai Harbour, the defence ministry said in a statement on Sunday.

But environmental emergency teams put on alert since the collision said on Monday that oil had been discovered on beaches on the mainland across the Arabian Sea from the landmark Gateway of India monument.

Deepak Apte, a senior scientist at the Bombay Natural History Society, said some oil patches were up to 15 centimetres (six inches) in length.

“We are taking samples for analysis,” he was quoted as saying by the domestic Press Trust of India news agency. “This may be only a beginning of finding the on-shore oil spill.”

Locals, however, said that tar balls from oil rigs and refineries located in the stretch of water approaching Mumbai’s port were often found on beaches during the annual monsoon rains.

Six coastguard ships were working to minimise the impact of the spill from the MSC Chitra, while a coastguard helicopter dropped oil-dispersal spray on the slick.

Hundreds of containers have fallen from the ship and are being collected.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh called for a report from the shipping ministry into the spill, while environment minister Jairam Ramesh told parliament that legal action had been launched against the owners of the two cargo ships.

The announcements came as opposition lawmakers in parliament demanded that any fishermen suffering loss of income from the oil spill be compensated.

The MSC Chitra was leaving Mumbai when it was in a collision with the MV Khalijia-III, another Panamanian-registered ship, which was manoeuvring into port.

Both ships developed cracks following the collision and 33 crew members were rescued. But police said one of its officers drowned after he fell off a four-man speedboat patrolling the area around the stricken ship.

“The other three constables also could not rescue him as none of them, including the victim, knew swimming,” a police spokesman said.

People staged pro-freedom demonstrations and held congregational Zuhar, Asar and Magrib prayers on roads in Safapora, Naid Khai, Islamabad, Pulwama, Kakpora, Pampore, Tral, Shopian, Baramulla and Bandipora areas.

In Shopian, after every prayer people marched through the streets of the town amid pro-freedom and anti-India slogans. Indian troops and police personnel subjected the demonstrators to baton charge and teargas shelling at several places.

Protests were also staged in Nowpora, Khanyar, Rainawari and Shalteng areas of Srinagar against the killing of a youth, Fida Nabi, who was injured in the firing of troops on protesters on August 03 and succumbed to his injuries on Sunday evening.

On the other hand, massive protests rocked Alachizab area of Kupwara after the body of a youth, Muhammad Ashraf Lone, who had gone missing on Sunday evening, was recovered from Sogam area of Lolab.

Residents of the area told mediamen that Ashraf, a fruit seller by profession, had gone missing after he went to Kupwara town to sell the fruit.

“The prime minister said Israel would not cooperate with any commission that would ask to question soldiers,” Nir Hefetz told military radio.

“Before Israel gave the green light to its participation in the panel we had discreet negotiations in order to ensure that this commission would not harm the vital interests of Israel,” he added.

The remarks came after UN chief Ban Ki-moon denied he had struck an agreement with Israel that would bar the UN panel from interviewing Israeli military personal about the bloody commando raid on the activist aid fleet.

“There was no such agreement behind the scene,” Ban told a press conference in New York on Monday in a response to a question as to whether he had reached an understanding with Israel on the matter.

Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon said earlier this month that investigators would have access to an Israeli military examination of the incident but would not be allowed to question the commandos, whom he claimed acted in a “very professional, very measured” manner and “prevented a real fiasco.”

“This is very serious…but so far we have not raised this much money as we did for Swat (last year during the country’s anti-militant campaign) and I am concerned that perhaps people think that it is just another one of the endless tragedies that Pakistan endures,” Holbrooke told journalists at the State Department.

“It is a major international humanitarian crisis. The world must rally too just as we did for Pakistan in Swat last year and the earthquake five years ago (in 2005),” he said.

Holbrooke and Ambassador to the US Husain Haqqani earlier discussed collaborative flood relief and recovery efforts, the envoy said. Haqqani is in contact now with Pentagon and the White House, he added.

“We are looking for ways to give additional helicopter support,” Holbrooke said as Washington led the international assistance efforts for Pakistan.

He said the Obama administration officials are in the process of extended meetings to mobilise the business community.

“We are focused right now on doing everything we can for Pakistan. And I stress to all of you that the water is still rising, it is still raining, the dams are in danger. This is not over. An earthquake happens then you start rebuilding. This thing is still developing. And it is on top of the agenda of the secretary of state (Hillary Clinton) and USAID chief Raj Shah and I and our colleagues and the Pentagon we are focused on,” he stated.

Holbrooke urged Americans to donate to the relief effort by texting the word ‘SWAT’ from their cell phones to the number 50555. By saying yes on prompting each caller would be contributing $10 the relief money, which is to be administered to the flood victims by UN High Commission for Refugees.

He may review the conditions in flood-stricken areas soon, officials hoped. Meanwhile, president sopped over Syria while returning from London on Monday. The stopover may have been made for superstitious reasons, as the Middle Eastern country is known for the holy places it houses.

However, media managers in the presidency said he had met Syrian President Bashar Al Assad, but did not visit any of the holy places in the country, which was believed to be the main objective of the stopover.

“The president landed at the Bassel Al Assad International Airport for a technical stopover on his way back home from the United Kingdom,” presidential spokesman Sohail Ahmed said. How a technical stopover resulted in a presidential meeting remained unexplained.

Syria is visited by devoted Muslims for its many shrines. The famous shrine of Hazrat Bibi Zainab in Damascus, known as Zainabia, is visited by hundreds of thousands of people.

President Zardari arrived at Karachi Airport from Damascus on Tuesday morning and will leave for Islamabad sometime afternoon.

Officials said it is hoped that President visits flood-ridden areas to review the fragile conditions inflicted by worst ever floods.

According to the proposal, Internet service providers would not be able to block producers of online content or offer them a paid “fast lane.” It says the Federal Communications Commission should have the authority to stop or fine any rule-breakers.

The proposal, however, carves out exceptions for Internet access over cellphone networks, and for potential new services that broadband providers could offer. In a joint blog post, the companies said these could include things like health care monitoring, “advanced educational services, or new entertainment and gaming options.”

The two companies are hoping to influence regulators and lawmakers in the debate over a principle known as net neutrality, which holds that Internet users should have equal access to all types of information online.

This principle is crucial for consumers and for fostering innovation among Internet entrepreneurs, Eric E Schmidt, Google’s chief executive, said in a call with reporters. “The next two people in a garage really do need an open Internet,” he said.

But some proponents of net neutrality say that by excluding wireless and other online services, Google and Verizon are creating a loophole that could allow carriers to circumvent regulation meant to ensure openness.

The plan “creates an Internet for the haves and an Internet for the have-nots,” said Andrew Jay Schwartzman, senior vice president and policy director at the Media Access Project, an advocacy group in Washington and a member, along with Google, of the Open Internet Coalition. “It may make some services unaffordable for consumers and access to those services unavailable to new start-ups.”

Ivan Seidenberg, chief executive of Verizon, said the proposal excluded cellphone networks because the companies were “concerned about the imposition of too many rules” that could slow the growth of the wireless Web.

The proposal also excludes services that broadband providers may create. These services, the companies said, would have to be “distinguishable from traditional broadband Internet access services and are not designed to circumvent the rules.”