WASHINGTON — After winning the backing of an influential Texas televangelist, presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain today abruptly rejected the pastor’s endorsement after more of his controversial remarks became public — including a sermon in which he says the Nazis “operated on God’s behalf” to drive Jews from Europe to Israel.

McCain had distanced himself from the Rev. John Hagee’s anti-Catholic remarks describing the church as a “great whore,” a statement for which Hagee apologized earlier this month. But the Arizona senator, who wanted Hagee’s support to shore up his uncertain standing among evangelical conservatives, had not repudiated the endorsement until today.

“Obviously, I find these remarks and others deeply offensive and indefensible, and I repudiate them,” McCain said in a statement today. “I did not know of them before Reverend Hagee’s endorsement, and I feel I must reject his endorsement as well.”

The controversy is the latest intersection of faith and politics in this year’s presidential race.
Democratic front-runner Barack Obama’s association with the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., the former pastor at his home church in Chicago, threatened to derail his candidacy after videos surfaced of Wright making a series of remarks that many viewed as anti-American and racially divisive. Among them, Wright condemned the country for past racism, said the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks were the fruit of unjust US foreign policies and suggested he agrees with rumors that the US government had developed and used the AIDS virus as an act of genocide against black people.After rejecting Wright’s remarks but likening the fiery minister to family, Obama formally cut his ties to Wright last month — after Wright defended himself in a lengthy TV interview and two defiant, high-profile appearances.

McCain has said he is sure that Obama does not share Wright’s views, but scolded Obama for not severing his long ties with the minister. But in his statement today, McCain distinguished his relationship with Hagee from Obama’s with Wright, saying, “let me also be clear, Reverend Hagee was not and is not my pastor or spiritual advisor, and I did not attend his church for twenty years.”

Soon after McCain’s rejection, Hagee withdrew his support and said he would sit out the 2008 campaign.

“Ever since I endorsed John McCain for president, people seeking to attack Senator McCain have combed my records for statements they can use for political gain,” Hagee said in a statement. “They have had no qualms about grossly misrepresenting my position on issues most near and dear to my heart if it serves their political ambitions. I am tired of these baseless attacks and fear that they have become a distraction in what should be a national debate about important issues.”

McCain’s strongly-worded rebuff, however, could hurt him among some evangelical voters, whose support he needs in November, said John C. Green, a senior fellow at the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life.

But McCain, Green added, had little choice because Hagee had become a political liability.
“There’s only so many controversial statements that someone who has endorsed a candidate can make,” Green said. Hagee’s anti-Catholic comments were one thing, Green added, but “the second set [about Jews] creates big problems.”

The leader of the 19,000-member, non-demonimational Cornerstone Church in San Antonio, Tex., Hagee also runs a substantial communications empire with national reach. His televised sermons are well known among evangelicals — as are his controversial views on homosexuality, the Roman Catholic Church, and his fundamentalist interpretations of the Bible.

In sermons and in statements, Hagee has called Catholicism a “false cult system.” The minister also has suggested that Hitler’s anti-Semitism was shaped by the church, and said the devastation of Hurricane Katrina was God’s response to homosexual sin.

Nevertheless, McCain — along with other GOP presidential rivals — sought Hagee’s endorsement and the voters he could bring with him. McCain accepted his endorsement at a news conference Feb. 27 in San Antonio, shortly before he won the Texas presidential primary and clinched the nomination.

Though McCain did not disavow Hagee after his anti-Catholic statements surfaced, the remarks on Judaism and Hitler were too much to ignore. In a late 1990s sermon, disclosed online today by the Huffington Post and others, Hagee quoted the Bible and said that “the Nazis had operated on God’s behalf to chase the Jews from Europe and shepherd them to Palestine,” the promised land.

Green said the political uproars over Hagee and Wright “just reveals how controversial religion can be when it comes into the political arena” and is taken out of the church.

The Rev. C. Welton Gaddy, a Baptist minister who is president of the Interfaith Alliance, which called for McCain to repudiate McCain, agreed. “While I’m happy Sen. McCain is disassociating himself from Pastor Hagee, this action should have come much sooner and not simply because of public outcry,” he said in a statement. “Any time that religious leaders and politicians attempt to use each other, both of them get hurt.”

NEW YORK –Americans getting an early start on the Memorial Day weekend found that gasoline prices again sprinted to a new record high overnight, reaching a national average above $3.83 a gallon. Some analysts predict gas will break past $4 as early as next week.

Oil prices, meanwhile, fell Thursday after setting a new trading record of $135.09 overnight. A stronger dollar gave some investors reason to sell oil futures to lock in profits from crude’s record run. But concerns about falling supplies and rising demand are expected to keep propelling prices higher in the days and weeks to come.

Oil’s surge is contributing directly to the pain consumers feel every time they fill up. At the pump, the average national price of a gallon of regular gas rose 2.4 cents overnight to $3.831, according to a survey of stations by AAA and the Oil Price Information Service. Prices are 61 cents higher than a year ago.

Unlike last year, oil prices are setting new record highs on a daily basis. That’s pushing gas prices higher, and analysts see no reason for gas not to follow.

“We’re going to blast past $4,” said James Cordier, president of Tampa, Fla.-based trading firms Liberty Trading Group and OptionSellers.com.

Prices may rise as high as $3.90 on a national basis by this weekend, he said. Prices are already above $4 a gallon at many stations around the country, and are averaging more than $4 in California, New York and Illinois, among other states.

Oil prices rose to $135.09 a barrel in overnight electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange before retreating to settle down $2.36 at $130.81 a barrel by afternoon in New York.
Analysts said oil futures are caught between the supply and demand concerns that boosted crude to its latest record, and a desire by some investors to cash in some profits. The dollar, one of the factors that has fed oil’s rally from about $65 a year ago, strengthened against the euro Thursday. When the greenback gains ground, commodities such as oil lose their value as hedges against inflation. Also, a stronger dollar makes oil more expensive to investors overseas.

At times in a price runup that’s added nearly $9 to a price of crude this week, and almost $16 over the past month, investors will sell to take profits, analysts said. Crude rose $4.19 a barrel on Wednesday alone.

The Paris-based International Energy Agency on Thursday said it is worried about whether there is enough oil to meet global demand, and is working on a review of the world’s 400 largest oil fields that could lead to a major revision in its closely-watched forecasts.

“The market is really structurally tight … oil demand is not growing that fast but supply is constrained,” said Victor Shum, an energy analyst with Purvin & Gertz in Singapore.

Some analysts say crude has been boosted in recent days by especially strong demand for diesel in China, where power plants in some areas are running desperately short of coal after last week’s earthquake, Kevin Norrish, an analyst with Barclays Capital PLC, said new data from China shows demand for diesel was already rising quickly before the disaster. Chinese diesel imports rose 9.2 percent in April compared to last year, Norrish wrote.

Still, many analysts argue that oil prices have risen far beyond levels that can be justified by supply and demand. This school of thought believes the dollar’s decline has attracted speculators to oil and other commodities, artificially inflating prices. Some analysts see signs in the prices differences between the current July crude contract and contracts for delivery in future months that could mean oil prices are set to decline in coming months.

In other Nymex trading Thursday, June heating oil futures rose 4.59 cents to settle at a record $3.9543 a gallon after earlier rising to a trading record of $4.0153. Heating oil, which is closely related to diesel, is often traded as a proxy for diesel.

June gasoline futures fell 6.68 cents to settle at $3.3297 a gallon after rising earlier to their own trading record of $3.438. June natural gas futures rose 5.7 cents to settle at $11.697 per 1,000 cubic feet. The Energy Department said natural gas inventories rose last week by 85 billion cubic feet, in line with analyst estimates.

In London, July Brent crude futures fell $2.19 to settle at $130.51 a barrel on the ICE Futures Exchange.

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Associated Press Writer Pablo Gorondi in Budapest and AP Business Writer Thomas Hogue in Bangkok, Thailand, contributed to this report.

Rome—World rice prices that have tripled in Asia over the course of the year may come down but overall food prices will remain high for years to come, leaving millions more hungry, a U.N. food agency warned Thursday.

High oil prices, growing demand, flawed trade policies, panic buying and speculation have sent food prices soaring worldwide, trigging protests from Africa to Asia and raising fears that millions more suffer malnutrition.

On Thursday, tens of thousands of workers in Senegal — from teachers to tax officials, fishery and port workers — stayed home as part of a strike staged by unions to protest the spiraling cost of rice, fuel and other basic goods.

Surging food prices have also sparked riots in Haiti and fed worries about supplies in the Philippines.

The Food and Agriculture Organization said it had some good news: The world prices of most agriculture commodities have started to drop.

The bad news: The prices are unlikely to fall back to pre-2007 levels, the agency said in a report Thursday.

“We are facing the risk that the number of hungry will increase by many more millions of people,” said Hafez Ghanem, assistant director-general of the FAO.

Conditions on the global rice market could ease as new crops are harvested around the world. But price pressures will remain high until at least October or November, when the bulk of this year’s paddy crops reach the market, the report said.

“Stock levels are low and you need several good seasons to replenish them,” Ghanem said. “There will be some improvement, but we don’t expect a major change.”

Internationally, rice prices skyrocketed by about 76 percent from December to April while overall food prices have risen 83 percent in three years, according to the World Bank.

In Asia, rice prices have tripled this year, with the regional benchmark hitting $1,038 a ton Wednesday for Thai 100 percent grade B white rice.

The FAO said the price pressure could ease further if producing countries such as India relax export restrictions on rice.

Recent natural disasters such as the cyclone in Myanmar and the earthquake in China are likely to have a domestic impact, rather than on international markets, FAO experts said.
In Geneva, the U.N. Human Rights Council debated a Cuban resolution expressing “grave concern at the worsening of the world food crisis.”

The resolution, co-signed by most members of the 47-nation council, said nations “have a primary obligation to make their best efforts to meet the vital food needs of their population.”
The international community, meanwhile, must provide poorer nations with food aid and assistance so that farmers can increase food production and improve “food crop rehabilitation,” the draft resolution says.

In Japan, a government official announced Thursday that his nation would release some of its huge stockpile of rice to help ease the crisis, sending some 20,000 tons to five African nations in coming weeks.

That step is part of a $50 million emergency food aid plan to be endorsed by Japan’s Cabinet on Friday, said Shigeru Kondo, a Foreign Ministry aid official.

The total aid package — which includes grains, beans and other foods in addition to rice — will be distributed in 12 countries, including Afghanistan, by international relief agencies such as the World Food Program.

Thailand’s prime minister assured the Philippines during a visit there Thursday that his government was willing to increase Manila’s rice inventories, an official said.

The FAO is forecasting an increase of 3.8 percent in this year’s cereal production compared with last year, assuming favorable weather. Tight wheat supply is likely to improve the most, the agency said. Global milk, sugar and meat production are also expected to grow.

Recently, FAO said rice production is expected to hit a new record of 666 million tons worldwide, a global increase of 2.3 percent.

Production in Asia is forecast to rise to 605 million tons from 600 million tons, with particularly large increases in Bangladesh, China, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam, the agency has said.
African production is forecast to grow nearly 4 percent to 23.2 million tons and in Latin America by 7.4 percent to 26 million tons, while production is expected to be down in Australia, the United States and Europe.

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Associated Press writers Bradley S. Klapper in Geneva, Switzerland, and Sadibou Marone in Senegal, Dakar, contributed to this report

IOCC will provide cash support to its ecumenical partners who are on the ground and evaluating the damage throughout the affected areas. IOCC’s cash grant will help provide emergency relief supplies for the survivors.

Contributions to IOCC’s China Emergency Appeal can be made online (www.iocc.org), by calling IOCC’s donation hotline toll-free at 1-877-803-4622, or by mailing a check or money order payable to “IOCC” (include “China Earthquake” in memo line) to: IOCC, P.O. Box 630225, Baltimore, Md. 21263-0225.