Bangkok- Thailand's largest political party on Thursday nominated ousted prime minister Samak Sundaravej to retake the premiership after he was sacked just days ago by a court ruling.

Samak, 73, has accepted the nomination, meaning that the end of Thailand's political crisis is nowhere in sight, according to analysts.

Washington, Sept. 11 : American Government officials handling billions of dollars in oil royalties reportedly engaged in illicit sex with employees of energy companies they were dealing with and received numerous gifts from them, federal investigators said Wednesday.

According to CBS and the New York Times, at least 13 government employees in Denver and Washington are involved in the sex for oil scandal that surfaced in the US Interior Department.

The paper and the channel quoted an Inspector General for the Interior Department as saying that these employees rigged contracts, engaged in illegal moonlighting, drugs, sex and gift-taking from oil company representatives.

Washington  - The top US military officer acknowledged Wednesday that the mission in Afghanistan is not succeeding and said a broader international approach was needed to stabilize the war- torn country.

"I'm not convinced we're winning it in Afghanistan," Admiral Michael Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told a House committee. "I am convinced we can."

Tel Aviv  - Israel has for the past year been cracking down on Gazans living or staying temporarily in the West Bank, in some cases forcibly expelling them back to the salient, an Israeli human rights group said Wednesday.

The move is part of an Israeli policy of separating the Palestinian populations of the Gaza Strip and West Bank, B'Tselem said in a position paper.

Abuja  - The European Commission will spend 580 million euros (814 million dollars) on Nigeria's power sector in the next five years, European Union Commissioner for Energy Andris Piebalgs, said in Abuja on Wednesday.

Piebalgs said the EU was committing to the projects because 20 per cent of the oil and 80 per cent of the gas produced in Nigeria goes to European countries.

"Energy has become the key issue for Nigeria's development," he said.

Paris  - The European aerospace concern EADS said Wednesday it was disappointed at the decision by the US Defence Department to cancel a 35-billion-dollar competition to build the next generation of Air Force tanker refuellers.

EADS had won the contract in partnership with US aviation concern Northrop-Grumman only to see it put on ice after a congressional oversight agency upheld a protest by rival bidder Boeing.

"We have a contract and we are striving for an appropriate fulfilment of this contract, EADS chief Louis Gallois said.