A teenage girl has been pulled out of the rubble in the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince, a full 15 days after the earthquake struck, rescuers say.

They said she was happy and shocked despite being severely dehydrated and having a leg injury.

Her rescue comes five days after the Haitian government officially ended the search and rescue operation.

Meanwhile President Rene Preval has said parliamentary elections due to be held on 28 February will be postponed.

As many as 200,000 people died in the 12 January earthquake. At least 130 people have been pulled alive from the rubble.

Bath watervivienne westwood necklace

A rescue worker described the discovery of the teenager, two weeks after the quake destroyed the city, as a “miracle”.

HAITI’S REMARKABLE SURVIVORS Darline, 16 - rescued after 15 days Rico Dibrivell, early 30s - rescued after 12 days Wismond Exantus, 24, found after 11 days Emmannuel Buso, 21 - rescued after 10 days Marie Carida, 84 - saved after 10 days Mendji Bahina Sanon, 11 - trapped for eight days Lozama Hotteline, 25 - pulled out after seven days Elisabeth Joassaint, 15 days - buried for seven days, half her life Ena Zizi, 69 - rescued after seven days

“I don’t know how she happened to resist that long,” said rescue worker JP Malaganne.

The 16-year-old girl, who Reuters named as Darline, was found in the rubble of the College St Gerard which one of her relatives said she had just started attending.

Neighbours had been searching in the rubble of their homes in the central Carrefour-Feuilles district when they heard a voice and called rescue teams to help.

After being removed from the wreckage of the school, the girl was immediately covered with a thermal blanket and given oxygen. She has now been taken to hospital.

“She just said ‘Thank you’, she’s very weak, which suggests that she’s been there for 15 days,” said Samuel Bernes, the head of the rescue team that discovered her.

He described her location within the rubble as “in a pocket, surrounded by concrete”.

The BBC’s Karen Allen, in the Haitian capital, said that rescue workers had told her the teenager was trapped in the bathroom when the quake struck and was able to survive by drinking water from a bath.

On Tuesday, rescuers discovered a 31-year-old man who had been trapped for 12 days after being caught in one of the numerous aftershocks that rocked the city after the earthquake.

In announcing the election delay, Mr Preval said he would not seek to remain in office beyond the end of his term in February 2011.

He added: “I don’t think the time is right to hold elections now given the conditions in which people are living.”

Mr Zelaya’s supporters gathered at Tegucigalpa airport to bid him farewell

Deposed Honduran leader Manuel Zelaya has arrived in the Dominican Republic, beginning his exile and ending seven months of turmoil in Honduras.

Hundreds of supporters, many waving flags, watched him leave the airport in the Honduran capital, Tegucigalpa.

His departure marks the end of efforts to return to office after soldiers forced him into exile at gunpoint on 28 June over a constitutional dispute.

Newly-elected President Porfirio Lobo had offered him safe passage. vivienne westwood earrings

Under a deal struck by the two men, Mr Zelaya agreed to fly to exile as a way to avoid prosecution in Honduras on charges that he violated the constitution while in office.

Mr Lobo said the measure - first proposed months ago in failed mediation talks in Costa Rica - was needed as part of a process of reconciliation.

Mr Zelaya travelled to the Dominican Republic on the presidential plane, accompanied by the country’s president, Leonel Fernandez, who attended the swearing-in ceremony for Mr Lobo hours before.

Mr Zelaya’s wife, Xiomara Castro, his two young sons and his political advisor, Rasel Tome, also travelled with him.

Fond farewell

Mr Zelaya was taken to the Tegucigalpa airport in a convoy of around 15 vehicles.

President Lobo promised Mr Zelaya safe passage

“See you later Papa Mel. God bless you,” read one supporter’s placard, using Mr Zelaya’s nickname.

He has spent the past four months sheltering in the Brazilian embassy, after returning in secret in September.

His June ousting provoked international condemnation but diplomatic attempts to persuade the interim government to allow Mr Zelaya to return to office proved futile.

With opinion divided in Honduras and internationally, several nations have refused to recognise the legitimacy of the November election, in which Mr Lobo defeated Mr Zelaya.

Mr Lobo’s first act upon taking office was to sign a decree giving amnesty to the soldiers, politicians and judges who brought about the June ousting.

Mr Zelaya was removed amid a dispute over his plans to hold a vote on whether a constituent assembly should be set up to look at rewriting the constitution.

His critics said the vote, which was ruled illegal by the Supreme Court, aimed to remove the current one-term limit on serving as president and pave the way for his possible re-election.

Mr Zelaya repeatedly said he had no interest in staying in power but wanted to rewrite an outdated constitution to guarantee fairer representation for all Hondurans.

Many Haitians left homeless by the quake still have no shelter

Haiti’s government can lead efforts to rebuild the country in the wake of its devastating earthquake, Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive has said.

But Mr Bellerive told a meeting of world officials in the Canadian city of Montreal that “massive support” from the international community was needed.

The Montreal meeting was held to assess the aid effort and plan the next steps.

The delegates agreed to hold an international donors’ conference at the UN headquarters in New York in March. vivienne westwood earrings

It is believed the 7.0 magnitude quake on 12 January killed as many as 200,000 people. An estimated 1.5 million people have been left homeless.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is attending the conference along with delegates from 20 countries and representatives from the UN and the World Bank.

‘Vital needs’

“The Haitian government is working in precarious conditions but it can provide the leadership that people expect,” Mr Bellerive said.

“The top priority right now is to satisfy the vital needs of victims, like food and water, shelter and health care.”

He added: “Haiti needs the massive support of its partners in the international community in the medium and long term. The extent of the task requires that we do more, that we do better and, without a doubt, that we work differently.”

Canadian Foreign Minister Lawrence Cannon welcomed the US offer to host an international donors’ conference in March. vivienne westwood jewellery

“We now have the beginnings of a road map toward Haiti’s long-term reconstruction and a clear and sustained commitment to follow through,” Mr Cannon was quoted as saying by French news agency AFP.

Mr Cannon said one goal was to “physically get the Haitian government back on its feet”.

The quake destroyed key government buildings, including the National Palace.

‘Vanity parade’

UK-based charity Oxfam has urged the international community to get Haiti’s foreign debts cancelled.

It said about $900m (£557m) owed to donor countries and institutions should be written off.

Many operations are still taking place in makeshift outdoor theatres

The World Bank has already announced that it is waiving Haiti’s debt payments for the next five years.

And the Paris Club of creditor governments - including the US, UK, France and Germany - has called on other nations to follow its lead in cancelling debts to Haiti. Venezuela and Taiwan are the other biggest creditors.

Although aid continues to flow into Haiti, the head of Italy’s civil protection service has strongly criticised the relief effort and the role of thousands of US troops sent there.

Guido Bertolaso described the international aid operation as “a terrible situation that could have been managed much better”.

“When there is an emergency, it triggers a vanity parade. Lots of people go there anxious to show that their country is big and important, showing solidarity,” he said on Sunday.

Mr Bertolaso, an Italian government minister, said it was “commendable” for the US to lead relief efforts, but “too many officers” meant they had not been able to find a capable leader.

Aid workers have also criticised Haitian government plans to relocate hundreds of thousands of people from the capital, Port-au-Prince, to large camps outside the city.

Caroline Gluck, from Oxfam, told the BBC the move could be dangerous for the survivors.

“In the past, experience has told us establishing some huge camps can cause all kinds of security problems, for example, robberies, rapes and kind of gang activities if the camps are kept too big,” she said.

Oxfam was pressing for the camps to be smaller, she added.

President Rajapaksa and Gen Fonseka had a falling out last year

Polls have opened in Sri Lanka for the presidential election which comes after a bitter campaign.

Early voters have been seen queuing up near the capital, Colombo. A few hours ago, people in the northern Tamil city of Jaffna reported hearing four blasts.

The election is the first since the Tamil Tiger rebels were defeated last year after 25 years of war.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa is facing a tough test against his former army chief-turned-rival Gen Sarath Fonseka. vivienne westwood bracelet

More than 14m voters are eligible to vote in 11,000 centres from 0700 local time (0130GMT). Polls will close at 1600 local time.

Counting will begin three hours later and the final results are expected to be announced on Wednesday morning, the election commission has said.

There are 22 candidates standing for the presidency.

If no candidate has 50% plus one vote after the first count, second preferences will be tallied and the candidate with the greatest number of votes wins.

Acrimonious campaignvivienne westwood necklace

About 250,000 Sri Lankan election officials have moved into position throughout the country after collecting polling cards and ballot boxes from central election offices.

Security is tight for the elections

Security is tight amid fears of violence and more than 68,000 police are being deployed to protect the polling stations.

Hours before the polling booths opened at dawn, people in Jaffna reported hearing up to four blasts.

A monitoring group said two bombs were thrown at a ruling party organiser while another account said an opposition MP’s home and two polling booths were targeted, the BBC’s Charles Haviland reports from Colombo.

Police in Jaffna told the BBC they had no information of any trouble.

Mr Rajapaksa vowed on Monday the election would be free and fair.

“The Sri Lanka government calls for a peaceful election and stands committed to taking whatever steps deemed necessary,” his office said in a statement.

The two-month-long campaign, often marked by acrimony, officially closed on Saturday.

Election clashes have so far left four dead and hundreds wounded.

“We had in this election I think a scale of abuse of state resources which had not been registered before,” news agency Reuters quoted Dr Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu, co-convenor of the Centre for Monitoring Election Violence, as saying.

But he added: “If enough Sri Lankan citizens go in large numbers as we have always done in the past and for over six decades… resisting the violence and the intimidation… then we may well get a result that at the end of the day reflects overall the wishes of the people of this country.”

On Sunday, President Rajapaksa suffered a blow when ex-President Chandrika Kumaratunga vowed to back his rival.

Mrs Kumaratunga, a senior member of Mr Rajapaksa’s Sri Lanka Freedom Party, said she was deeply concerned about violence, intimidation and corruption in the fiercely-contested poll.

President Rajapaksa and Gen Fonseka were closely associated with the government’s defeat of the Tamil Tigers last May but the pair fell out bitterly soon after.

Hundreds of Haitians joined open-air church services in the capital

The confirmed death toll from Haiti’s devastating earthquake has risen above 150,000 in the Port-au-Prince area alone, a government minister has said.

Communications Minister Marie-Laurence Jocelyn Lassegue said the count was based on bodies collected in and around the capital by state company CNE.

Many more bodies remain uncounted under rubble in the capital, including the towns of Jacmel and Leogane.

The search for survivors has officially ended and the focus has shifted to aid. vivienne westwood jewellery

But there is disagreement about how well the aid operation is doing, with the head of Italy’s civil protection service making highly critical comments.

Nobody knows how many bodies are buried in the rubble - 200,000, 300,000? Marie-Laurence Jocelyn Lassegue Communications Minister

Guido Bertolaso, who is in Haiti to co-ordinate relief efforts, also criticised what he saw as the presence of too many American soldiers.

He said they had no training in running a civilian relief operation.

“When there is an emergency, it triggers a vanity parade. Lots of people go there anxious to show that their country is big and important, showing solidarity”, he said. vivienne westwood bracelet

He called on the United Nations to establish a procedure to follow when major natural disasters occur.

As the death toll in Haiti has risen, it has become clear the 12 January quake is one of the worst natural disasters to have struck in recent years.

Some say the 7.0-magnitude quake killed as many as 200,000 people, while an estimated 1.5 million people have been left homeless.

Ms Lassegue said that the authorities were still far from knowing the total number of those killed.

“Nobody knows how many bodies are buried in the rubble - 200,000, 300,000? Who knows the overall death toll?” the Associated Press quotes her as saying on Sunday.

Speaking to reporters a day earlier, she said the general hospital had received about 10,000 corpses, which it had handed over to CNE for burial.

At least 75,000 people have been buried in mass graves since the disaster. Relatives have also burnt the bodies of some of the victims.

‘Tremendous need’vivienne westwood necklace

Thousands of people joined open-air church services in Port-au-Prince, Leogane - the epicentre of the earthquake - and elsewhere on Sunday.

A day after the funeral of the capital’s Roman Catholic archbishop, Father Glanda Toussaint celebrated Mass at an altar improvised on a wooden table by the wrecked cathedral.

HAITI’S REMARKABLE SURVIVORS Wismond Exantus, 24 - pulled out alive after 11 days Emmannuel Buso, 21 - rescued after 10 days Marie Carida, 84 - saved after 10 days Mendji Bahina Sanon, 11 - trapped for eight days Lozama Hotteline, 25 - pulled out after seven days Elisabeth Joassaint, 15 days - buried for seven days, half her life Ena Zizi, 69 - rescued after seven days

He told his congregation: “What we are going through is not finished, we must reconstruct the country and reconstruct our faith. As a Haitian, it hurts.”

Haitian-born rapper Wyclef Jean, who set up the charity foundation Yele Haiti, arrived in the capital on Sunday.

He was expected to meet officials and help distribute aid to people left homeless.

He was among a number of high-profile artists to take part in a “Hope for Haiti Now” telethon in the US on Friday which raised more than $57m (£35m) for the aid effort.

Meanwhile, BBC correspondents in Port-au-Prince report a few signs of normal life returning to the city, with street stalls starting to sell fruit and vegetables and some shops and banks re-opening.

Queues to withdraw cash have been long, as prices for what is now on sale have increased dramatically and many Haitians have been without access to money for days.

The UN says more than 130,000 people have now been relocated out of Port-au-Prince by the authorities, easing the pressure on overcrowded camps in the city. Others have left independently.

Foreign ministers will discuss plans for reconstruction at an international donor conference to take place in the Canadian city of Montreal on Monday.

Hours after Haiti’s government declared a formal end to the search for survivors on Saturday, a 24-year-old man was pulled alive from the remains of a hotel in the capital after 11 days under the rubble.

Rescuers described his survival as “a miracle”.

Onlookers cheered as Wismond Exantus - smiling and apparently in a good condition - emerged on a stretcher from what remains of the Napoli Inn Hotel.

He later told reporters that soft drinks and snacks had kept him going. A French medic said he could expect to leave hospital within a day or two.

The BBC’s Orla Guerin in Port-au-Prince says doctors believe he will make a full recovery.

Speaking to the BBC, Mr Exantus appealed for search and rescue efforts to continue so that others could share his chance of rescue.

The US has just missed a deadline to close the prison camp

The American Civil Liberties Union has criticised a recommendation that 47 Guantanamo Bay inmates should be held indefinitely without trial.

Justice department officials said the men were too dangerous to release, but could not be tried as evidence against them would not stand up in a US court.

ACLU executive director Anthony Romero said their detention would reduce the camp’s closure to a “symbolic gesture”.

The White House said the president did not have to accept the recommendation. vivienne westwood jewellery

It came as the deadline President Barack Obama had set himself on his second day in office for closing the prison camp at Guantanamo Bay passed.

‘Not evidence at all’

Earlier on Friday, officials said a task force led by the justice department had recommended that while 35 detainees could be prosecuted through trials or military tribunals, 110 could be released either now or at a later date.vivienne westwood earrings

Just as important as closing the prison quickly is closing it right Anthony Romero American Civil Liberties Union

The other 47 detainees were considered too dangerous to release, but could not be tried because the evidence against them was too flimsy or was extracted from them by coercion, so would not hold up in court, it concluded.

In a statement, the ACLU said it disputed that any significant category of such detainees existed, and renewed its call for the closure of the prison. vivienne westwood earrings

“If there is credible evidence that these prisoners are dangerous, there is no reason why that evidence could not be introduced against them in criminal trials,” said Jameel Jaffer, director of the ACLU National Security Project.

“The criminal laws, and the material support laws in particular, are broad enough to reach anyone who presents a serious threat, and the federal courts are fully capable of affording defendants fair trials while protecting the government’s legitimate interest in protecting information that is properly classified.”

Mr Jaffer said evidence that had been “tainted” according to the task force’s recommendation, was “not evidence at all”. The US justice system, he added, “excludes coerced evidence not only because coercion and torture are illegal, but because coerced evidence is unreliable”.

“Just as important as closing the prison quickly is closing it right, and that means putting an end to the illegal policy of indefinite detention without charge or trial,” said Mr Romero.

‘Dismay’

The BBC’s Adam Brookes in Washington says the outcome will dismay many of Mr Obama’s supporters, who had hoped the president would end the practice of detention without trial.

However, a White House official stressed that this was only a recommendation, which Mr Obama did not have to accept. The task force’s findings will also be subject to review by the National Security Council.

Congress has laid down that only those to be tried can be moved to US soil, so the question of what to do with those who officials want to be detained indefinitely without trial has yet to be resolved.

More than 40 detainees have been transferred out of the prison during Mr Obama’s first year in office.

But diplomatic hurdles and domestic opposition to the government’s plan to house suspects on US soil have hampered his plans to close it down completely.

Plans to move detainees approved for trial to a prison facility in Illinois remain under consideration.

Yemen suspension

The task force recommended that among those cleared for release, 80 detainees, including about 30 Yemenis, could be freed immediately, the Washington Post said.

The panel said the release of another 30 Yemenis should be contingent on an improved situation in Yemen, the newspaper reported.

However, the US recently suspended the repatriation of Yemeni prisoners indefinitely, following an airliner bomb plot that was allegedly planned in Yemen.

Yemenis account for approximately half of the inmates at Guantanamo.

Mr Obama set himself the 22 January closure deadline a year ago, shortly after being sworn in.

He has subsequently said he wants the camp closed this year, without setting a specific deadline.

An 84-year-old woman has been rescued after spending 10 days under rubble following the Haiti quake.

Doctors say the woman has multiple wounds and her condition is grave, but are doing all they can to save her.

And an Israeli search team reported that it had pulled a 22-year-old man alive from the rubble. He is said to be in a stable condition.

The rescues came as the official government death toll from the earthquake rose to 110,000. vivienne westwood jewellery

UN spokeswoman Elizabeth Byrs said some rescue teams were leaving, as they were exhausted and there was now little hope of finding more people alive under the rubble.

Those that remained were “concentrating more and more on humanitarian aid for those who need it”, she said.

A benefit concert featuring more than 100 music and Hollywood stars has been broadcast around the world to raise money for the victims of the earthquake.

Security fearsvivienne westwood jewellery

In Port-au-Prince, life is slowly returning to normal, with shops opening and buses running - although many residents are continuing to leave the devastated capital.

On Thursday, the government announced plans to send 400,000 people to tented cities in the countryside, to try to halt the spread of disease in the makeshift settlements that have sprung up in the capital.

Construction for the temporary centres has already started, the Associated Press news agency says, but it is unclear when they will be populated.

Aid officials say about 200,000 people have already left the city, many to stay with relatives in other parts of the country. vivienne westwood earrings

The 84-year-old woman survivor, rescued on Friday after 10 days in the rubble, is being treated by doctors at the main city hospital with intravenous fluids and drugs.

“I’m trying to find out how I can help her survive,” Dr Ernest Benjamin told AFP news agency.

“It’s worth everything to try to save her.”

Her son told the agency he had heard her cries on Thursday morning and, almost a day later, he dug her out with the help of friends.

Some 122 people have been saved by international search and rescue teams, according to the US government.

At least 75,000 bodies have so far been buried in mass graves, Haiti’s government has said. Many more remain uncollected in the streets.

An estimated 1.5 million people were left homeless by the 7.0-magnitude quake, which some have estimated has killed as many as 200,000 people.

Robbing and looting

Security fears remain in the capital, with local police chief Insp Aristide Rosemont appealing for help to tackle criminals who escaped when the earthquake wrecked the main jail.

He told the BBC a large number of gangs had begun robbing and looting in the Cite Soleil slum area since the prison escape.

But despite problems in Cite Soleil, UN officials say the capital is largely calm, with only sporadic violence.

About 5,000 prisoners broke out of the capital’s main jail after the walls collapsed, some of them hardened offenders belonging to violent criminal gangs.

Some Haitians have tried to flee abroad, but US Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano warned Haitians not to use the earthquake as an excuse to try to enter the US illegally.

She said anyone caught trying to do so would be repatriated.

“Haitians need to be there to help rebuild their country, this is not an opportunity for migration,” she said.

Meanwhile, efforts to rebuild Haiti’s main seaport - seen as vital to the international aid effort - are being stepped up.

The US and the UN World Food Programme insist the distribution of food and water is well under way, but BBC correspondents in Port-au-Prince say many people have still seen no international aid at all.

At least 500,000 people are currently living outdoors in 447 improvised camps in Port-au-Prince, according to the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), with limited shelter and access to water.

Western countries were hoping to boost donations for the aid effort with a multi-network telethon.

Hope for Haiti Now, broadcast from New York, London, Los Angeles and Haiti, featured Madonna, Bruce Springsteen, Beyonce and other major artists.

The concert was shown on all major US TV channels, MTV in the UK and worldwide on YouTube.

Lemurs are among Madagascar’s unique mammals

The ancestors of the current mammals found on the island of Madagascar could have been transported on floating vegetation from Africa, a study says.

Researchers modelled ancient ocean currents and found that favourable conditions existed in the same period as when mammals arrived on the island.

The idea of “rafting” first emerged in 1940, but some argued that a “land bridge” allowed animals to walk there.

The findings have been published online on the Nature website. vivienne westwood necklace

Madagascar, the fourth largest island on the planet, is deemed one of the world’s biological hotspots.

Because of its isolation, most of its mammals, half its birds, and many of its plant species exist nowhere else on Earth.

The first mammals are believed to have appeared on the island about 60 million years ago, 100 million years after the landmass was thought to have separated from Africa.

This led to the emergence of two main hypotheses on how mammals managed to inhabit the island: via a “land bridge” or floating vegetation.

Ticket to ridevivienne westwood jewellery

Using a climate model used by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), co-author Matthew Huber - a palaeoclimate modeller at Purdue University in Indiana, US - adapted it to shed light on the past.

“I had been doing these simulations for some time,” he told BBC News.

“The paper’s lead author (Dr Jason Ali from the University of Hong Kong) asked me to look at the Madagascar region because he thought that the ocean currents were different during that time.

“I looked, and - sure enough - the ocean currents went in the opposite direction than they do today,” he explained.

Biologists and palaentologists say that rafting is the only sensible way for this [dispersal] to have happened Dr Matthew Huber, Purdue University

“The reason is primarily because, in the past, both Madagascar and Africa were 15 degrees further south.

This meant that the 430km (270 mile) Mozambique Channel that separates the two landmasses was located in a different ocean “gyre” (circular ocean current), which had an important impact on the direction and strength of the currents within the channel.

Dr Huber said that the model showed that this provided the right conditions to allow mammals to be transported across the channel.

“What the model suggests is that occasionally - say one month in 100 years - the currents were strong enough to allow a raft, for example a large log, carrying a family of lemurs to make the journey in about three weeks,” he explained.

“Biologists and palaeontologists say that rafting is the only sensible way for this [dispersal] to have happened. But the problem has always been the currents.”

“When you looked at present ocean currents, the journey is impossible. “So scientists have been stuck because when you are faced with impossibilities, what do you do?”

Current thinking

As a result, a number of scientists favoured the theory that a land bridge existed in the past.

But the theory would have required a “radical rethinking of the region’s plate tectonics”, Dr Huber explained.

“What we have done is resolved this conundrum by saying that ocean currents were actually different in the past.

“So it was possible - not probable, but possible.”

The idea of mammals being transported on “rafts” of vegetation was first mooted back in 1940 by US researcher George Simpson.

He developed the “sweepstakes” hypothesis because the biodiversity on Madagascar was unique, lacking “megafauna” such as elephants, lions and zebras.

If the animals had reached Madagascar via a “land bridge” - meaning the landmass was connected to the African continent - Simpson argued that large mammals would have also made the journey.

He added that the match between the currents and the arrival of new mammals on Madagascar was “pretty good”.

It is understood that the common ancestor of present-day lemurs arrived on Madagascar between 60 million and 50 million years ago; tenrecs (such as hedgehogs) appeared 42-25 million years ago, and rodents between 24 million and 20 million years ago.

“About 20 million years ago, the ‘flow’ of species stopped,” Dr Huber observed.

“When I look at my simulations for 20 million years ago, the currents are going the same way as they do today.”

He explained that change in the direction of the current in the Mozambique Channel was a result of the slow northward movement of Africa and Madagascar.

This meant that the influence of the southern oceanic gyre was gradually weakened, causing the “sweepstake” route to be closed.

He said: “The ’switch’ might have turned off gradually between 50 million and 20 million years ago, but by 20 million years ago, the journey was impossible.”

The defeat has come on Mr Obama’s first anniversary in office

US President Barack Obama has warned Democrats not to “jam” healthcare reforms through the Senate after a Republican won a seat in Massachusetts.

Mr Obama told ABC News any vote should wait until Scott Brown had taken up his seat, and lawmakers should seek to “coalesce” around parts they agreed on.

Mr Brown will be Massachusetts’ first Republican senator since 1972. vivienne westwood jewellery

His victory means the Republicans now have enough votes in the Senate to block the Democrats’ healthcare plans.

The BBC’s Paul Adams, in Boston, says it is a humiliating defeat for the Democrats, robbing them of their filibuster-proof 60-seat majority, and a deeply unwelcome anniversary present for President Obama exactly one year after his inauguration.

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Our correspondent adds that it is one of the biggest political upsets in years - in a seat held for almost half a century by Edward Kennedy, a Democratic Party colossus, who died last year.

Senator-elect Brown, 50, told journalists his victory sent the message that “people are tired of business as usual in Washington politics”, and vowed to get to work as soon as possible.

He said he would go to Washington on Thursday with the hope of taking up his seat.

Frustration

Earlier Mr Brown told NBC’s Today show he did not think the vote was a referendum on President Obama’s first year in power.

And he denied he was intent on derailing the reforms.

“I never said I was going to do everything I can to stop healthcare,” he said.

“I believe everybody should have healthcare, it’s just a question of how we do it.”

Asked for his assessment of the Republican victory a year after taking office, President Obama told ABC: “The same thing that swept Scott Brown into office swept me into office.”

“People are angry and they are frustrated. Not just because what has happened in the last year or two years, but what’s happened over the last eight years.”

Mr Obama said he wanted to make clear that any plans by Democrats for a Senate vote on the reform plan before Mr Scott took up his seat were “off the table”.

“The Senate certainly shouldn’t try to jam anything through until Scott Brown is seated,” he added.

“The people of Massachusetts spoke. He has got to be part of that process.”

The president said it was important for Americans to understand that core elements of the bill such as cost containment and insurance reform were vital.

“I would advise that we try to move quickly to coalesce around those elements of the package that people agree on,” he said.

Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid said after a meeting with colleagues that legislators would take a few days to look at their options.

“We’re not going to rush into anything,” Reuters news agency quoted him as saying.

“There are many different things that we can do to move forward on healthcare, but we’re not making any of those decisions now.”

However, the Republican party chairman, Michael Steele, said Americans were breathing a “sigh of relief” over healthcare.

“People across the country are saying: ‘Slow it down,’” he said, quoted by the Associated Press.

Dubbed Senator Beefcake in the US media, Mr Brown is a lawyer and former model who posed almost naked for Cosmopolitan magazine in the 1980s while in law school.

Correspondents say the vote does not bode well for the Democrats ahead of November’s congressional elections.

The result comes amid opinion polls showing nearly half of Americans think President Obama is not delivering on his major campaign promises.

It was the third major loss for Democrats in state-wide elections since he became president: Republicans won governors’ seats in Virginia and New Jersey in November.

Omar al-Bashir faces a presidential election in April

Sudan would accept the south’s secession if southerners were to vote for independence in a referendum next year, President Omar al-Bashir said.

Speaking at a ceremony marking five years since the end of the north-south war, he said his Northern Congress Party did not want the south to secede.

But he said the party would be the first to welcome such a decision. vivienne westwood jewellery

Analysts say Mr Bashir struck an unusually conciliatory tone in the speech, which has been well received.

In recent months tension has been rising between the two sides.

The north and south will continue to be economically and politically connected whatever the choice of the people of Southern Sudan Salva Kiir Southern Sudan president

Southern politicians have accused Mr Bashir and his allies of wanting to fix the referendum to ensure a “no” vote - to try to keep the south’s oil wealth to themselves.

Mr Bashir has denied the allegations. vivienne westwood jewellery

Next year’s referendum was part of the 2005 peace deal which brought to an end more than two decades of civil war.

The agreement also stipulated that a national election must be held. The vote is due in April.

Scepticism remains

In a televised address, Mr Bashir promised that the north would act as “good neighbours” to the south.

“The National Congress Party favours unity,” he said.

“But if the result of the referendum is separation, then we in the NCP will be the first to take note of this decision and to support it.”

The BBC’s Peter Martell, in the south’s capital Juba, says there is a generally positive feeling about Mr Bashir’s comments - people in the crowd were cheering as he delivered his speech.

But he says plenty of people in the south remain sceptical and prefer to wait and see if he will honour his promises.

Mr Bashir is subject to an international arrest warrant for war crimes in the country’s Darfur region.

And many in the south believe he and his allies have been arming rival ethnic groups in the south to destabilise the region.

The election in April will be the first multi-party national election in a generation.

Mr Bashir is standing for president, but the leader of Southern Sudan, Salva Kiir, is not.

Mr Kiir’s SPLM party confirmed last week that he would seek re-election to the post of Southern Sudan president rather than national leader.

The SPLM is instead fielding another candidate for the post of national president, which correspondents says shows that the party’s priority is independence for the south.

Economic connections

During the celebrations to mark the end of the war, Mr Kiir made a plea for southerners to accept the result of the referendum whatever it may be.

“The north and south will continue to be economically and politically connected whatever the choice of the people of Southern Sudan,” he said.

He stressed that oil, which makes up 90% of the south’s wealth, would still be pumped through the north for processing until the south could construct its own facilities.

After years of conflict, Southern Sudan is one of the poorest areas of the world.

Last year, some 2,000 people died in conflicts in the region, which the SPLM say are being stirred up by allies of Mr Bashir in order to destabilise the region ahead of the elections.

Mr Bashir’s National Congress Party has denied the charges.

SUDAN’S STRUGGLING SOUTH Southern Sudan All Sudan Population: 7.5m to 9.7m Population: 42.2m Area: 640,000 sq km Area: 2.5m sq km Maternal mortality: 1,700 deaths per 100,000 births Maternal mortality: 1,107 deaths per 100,000 births Access to clean water: 50% Access to clean water: 70% Life expectancy: 42 years Life expectancy: 58.92 years Sources: CIA, UN, UNFPA