Washington  - The US Senate began the first of a series of confirmation hearings on Thursday for president-elect Barack Obama's cabinet nominees.

The Senate committee for healthcare took up former senator Tom Daschle's nomination to become secretary of the Health and Human Services Department.

Obama has pledged to broadly reform healthcare and to extend coverage to Americans who cannot afford or currently do not have a medical insurance plan.

Abu Dhabi - Deputy Prime Minister and the Chairman of the United Arab Emirates Red Crescent Authority pledged Thursday to reconstruct the United Nation schools in Gaza bombed by Israel.

Sheikh Hamdan bin Zayed al-Nahayyan said that reconstruction includes the school run by the UN's agency for Palestinian refugees (UNWRA), the al-Fakhoura school in the Jabaliya refugee camp, north of Gaza City.

The school was shelled by Israel last Tuesday leaving at least 46 Palestinian civilians dead and 150 injured, mostly children.

Wellington  - Two Australian brothers died when they were crushed under an estimated 100 tons of falling ice as they took photographs on New Zealand's Fox Glacier on Thursday.

The men, in their early 20s, were with their parents and extended family on a vacation trip to New Zealand.

A 30-metre wall of ice collapsed on top of them after they crossed safety barriers to get a closer look at the terminal face of the 14- kilometre long glacier.

New Yor

Bratislava  - Slovakia Thursday faced a blackout owing to Russia's move to shut down natural gas supplies arriving to western Europe via Ukraine, Prime Minister Robert Fico said.

Speaking after meeting his Czech, Hungarian and Polish counterparts and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, Fico said that Slovakia was worst-hit in central Europe.

He said that the country had gas supplies for 10 days and was facing a blackout as part of its electricity came from gas.

Washington  - The US Congress confirmed Thursday that Barack Obama won the presidential election, clearing the final hurdle to certify the election before Obama is sworn in on January 20.

In a joint session of the Senate and House of Representatives, Congress declared that Obama defeated Republican Senator John McCain in the Electoral College by a
365-to-173 tally, and that Joe Biden will become the next vice president.