Bin Laden Attacks West Over Israel

Goldman now forecasts West Texas Intermediate, the benchmark crude grade traded in New York, will average $141 a barrel in the second half of the year, up from its previous forecast of $107. Prices will rise further in 2009, averaging $148 a barrel, Bloomberg reported the bank as saying. "Tight supply conditions continue to be the primary catalyst for higher crude prices," the bank said in its latest research note. "The near-term outlook for oil prices continues to be bullish."

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Bowing to pressure from Congress, the Energy Department said Friday that it would temporarily suspend a program to fill the U.S. strategic oil stocks. But the move, which some analysts and politicians had hoped would help break the rally in oil prices, failed to sway the market.

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The Bush administration, bowing to intense political pressure, said Friday that it would cancel oil shipments into the Strategic Petroleum Reserve starting in July. The move comes two days after Congress voted overwhelmingly to suspend filling the reserve.

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The world's top oil exporter, Saudi Arabia, has announced a modest increase in oil production after an appeal from U.S...They also agreed on cooperation in atomic energy and infrastructure...Saudi Arabia is spending $90 billion on boosting output capacity at home and abroad.

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Saudi leaders told President Bush on Friday they are doing all they can to increase oil production, gently turning aside the president's efforts to bring down prices more rapidly. After a meeting with Bush and his advisers Friday afternoon, Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi announced that the kingdom decided last week to increase production by about 300,000 barrels a day to meet increased demand from customers for June.

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Bush flies to Egypt on Saturday for talks with Palestinian leaders who will be looking for signs they will not be neglected after he lavished praise on Israel during a visit to the Jewish state. Heading for the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh for the final stop of his Middle East tour, Bush faces growing skepticism over his chances of securing an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal before he leaves office in January.

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The leader of al-Qaida Osama bin Laden has vowed to keep fighting against the Jewish state and its Western allies on the occasion of Israel's 60th anniversary in an audio released on an Islamist website Friday. "We will continue the fight against the Israelis and their allies ... and will not give up a single inch of Palestine as long as there is one sincere Muslim on earth," bin Laden said in his latest message. "The participation of Western leaders with the Jews in this celebration confirms

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Bush on calling the Israelis the “chosen people.” “There are rights here and rights there. What is required is equality in dealings ... and not selectiveness in dealings,” Prince Saud said, at a news conference on Friday. The Saudi minister objected to Bush's outspoken support for Israel during his speech to the Israeli Knesset, in which he referred to the Israelis as “chosen people,” saying that the Palestinians were entitled to rights as well.

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Whatever the case, there is no doubt that his successor will encounter many of the same problems he did on taking office eight years ago, and face others that have emerged since then. Bush, who ends a regional tour tomorrow at a conference in Egypt hosting several regional leaders, summed up his views earlier this week in an interview w ith Egypt's privately owned Dream TV.

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Every Friday for more than three years, schoolteacher Abdullah Abu Rahma has grabbed a bullhorn and a Palestinian flag and marched a few hundred yards from his West Bank village to a 10-foot-tall mesh fence and an inevitable confrontation with the Israeli army.

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