This portfolio has been allocated to Natan Sharansky leader of the Russian immigrants' Yisrael B'aliyah party

This portfolio has been allocated to Natan Sharansky, leader of the Russian immigrants' Yisrael B'aliyah party.Mr Barak's main partner from the centre-left will be Meretz, which won 10 seats Its leader, Yossi Sarid, will serve as Education Minister.. The only way to avert bankruptcy was to be in government, with access to state funds. Rabbi Yosef bowed to a left-wing ultimatum and jettisoned the party's charismatic political leader, Aryeh Deri, who was sentenced to four years in prison for bribe-taking and fraud.Shas also relinquished the key Interior Ministry, which it had controlled for most of the past two decades. Shas was Mr Barak's most contentious candidate, but its spiritual leader, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, was desperate to take the party into the coalition.He admitted in a broadcast sermon that Shas's educational network, the basis of its appeal to its constituency, was deep in debt. On the diplomatic front he will enjoy the support of 10 Arab party MPs.Despite differences between them, the former army chief of staff will have a solid base for completing the peace process with the Palestinians and the Syrians, enabling him to fulfil his pledge to get Israeli troops out of Lebanon within a year.The religious parties have had to swallow the kind of compromises - on settlements, military service for yeshiva seminarists and the distribution of portfolios - that they would never have accepted during Mr Netanyahu's rule.They no longer have the power to bring down the government if it adopts policies they do not like. In the best circumstances he will be supported by eight parties, five from the secular left and centre.

Two smaller religious parties, United Torah Judaism and the National Religious Party, have also joined, although all three of them campaigned for Mr Netanyahu in the election. Some egos remain to be massaged but Mr Barak may command a majority as big as 77 out of 120 seats. Six weeks after his landslide victory over Benjamin Netanyahu, the Labour leader is ready to present the broad Israeli government for which he has been aiming. The Sephardi ultra-Orthodox Shas, the third-biggest party, with 17 seats, came on board after weeks of on-again, off-again bargaining. THE LAST piece fell into place last night in Ehud Barak's coalition jigsaw. It wasn't the end of Bill Clinton's life and I personally don't find it to be a very bad thing."Opposition politicians jumped on the remarks, which were also denounced by religious leaders.However, Mr Mbeki did call Mr Mahlangu's remarks "fundamentally wrong" and noted he had apologised for making a "grievous error" (AP). He was selected by Mr Mbeki's African National Congress to run Mpumalanga province, east of Johannesburg, which has a reputation for corruption. Mr Mahlangu had told reporters: "Many politicians publicly deny they did certain things but then later admit to them It is accepted and is not unusual anywhere in the world.

PRESIDENT THABO Mbeki of South Africa is standing by a provincial leader who said it was all right for politicians to lie. Mr Mbeki, who succeeded Nelson Mandela on 16 June and campaigned on a platform of clean government, chastised critics of Ndaweni Mahlangu yesterday for showing "no compassion". Under Turkish law, an act of parliament is required to send a man to the gallows.Ocalan's lawyers announced they would not wait for a Turkish appeals court's ruling before they took the case to the European Court of Human Rights.While Turks continued to rejoice, there was little sign of the feared PKK backlash.In the Kurdish-dominated south-east, however, it was violence as usual.. "We neither have authority to interfere with the judicial rulings, nor will we accept such advice or interference from other countries," he said.But political meetings were already under way, as parties prepared for a vote in parliament that will make the decision on Ocalan's fate unequivocally political.

The President will not comment.It was left to Sermet Atacanli, a Foreign Ministry spokesman, to vent Turkey's rage at once again being lectured by Europe on human rights. In the face of growing international pressure not to hang Ocalan, it is maintaining a wall of silence. The city is a hotbed of support for the PKK, and locals watched the demonstration in silence. Questions are bound to arise over where the demonstrators emerged from in the rebellious city, where even the mayor is on trial for PKK links. Witnesses claimed the men were Turkish soldiers in civilian clothes, and that this was a carefully staged parade.Military officials were unable to comment.Officially, the government is leaving celebrations to private citizens.