JERUSALEM - Israel handed over a convicted Hezbollah spy to Lebanon on Sunday and in a surprise move the Islamic guerrilla group turned over what it said were the body parts of Israeli soldiers killed in a 2006 war.

The Hezbollah gesture, along with recent comments by its leader, signaled that a larger prisoner exchange could be in the works between the two bitter enemies.

Israel said publicly that Sunday’s exchanges were unrelated to a deal that would include Israel releasing the longest-serving Lebanese prisoner and Hezbollah setting free two soldiers captured in a 2006 cross-border raid that sparked a monthlong war.

But a senior Israeli military official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the talks, said a deal was in the making, even though there was no timetable for completing it.

Israeli authorities released Nasim Nisr, an Israeli of Lebanese descent after he completed a six-year sentence for espionage and drove him from a prison in central Israel to the northern Rosh Hanikra crossing.

Hezbollah official Wafik Safa told the group’s al-Manar TV station that it handed over a brown box containing what it said were the remains of Israeli soldiers killed in the war.

Nasrallah has boasted in the past that he holds the arms and legs of Israeli soldiers.

The Israeli army said the remains would undergo forensic examination.

Helge Kvam, a Red Cross spokesman in Jerusalem, called Hezbollah’s move a "complete surprise," and the Israeli military said the move was not coordinated.

written by Andrew

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - Hillary Rodham Clinton won a lopsided, but largely symbolic victory Sunday in Puerto Rico’s presidential primary, the final act in a weekend of tumult that pushed Barack Obama tantalizingly close to the Democratic presidential nomination.

The former first lady was winning roughly two-thirds of the votes as she continued a strong run through the late primaries.

Before cheering supporters, she predicted she would have more combined votes than her rival when the primaries end Tuesday night, claimed victories in key swing states and said that no contender will command enough delegates to claim the nomination.

"In the final assessment I ask you to consider these questions. Which candidate best represents the will of the people who voted in this historic election?" she said in an appeal to some 200 uncommitted superdelegates who hold the balance of power in the fight for the nomination.

"Which candidate is best able to lead us to victory in November and which candidate is best able to lead our nation as our president in the face of unprecedented challenges at home and abroad?"

Obama and his aides projected confidence, and even in defeat, he gained 17 delegates in Puerto Rico, leaving him 47 short of the 2,118 needed to clinch the nomination.

Contrary to Clinton, they predicted he was on track to gain a delegate majority shortly after the primaries in South Dakota and Montana, and questioned her popular vote claim. Her assertion includes estimates for caucuses in Iowa, Nevada, Maine and Washington state, where no official candidate popular vote is available. It also includes the results from Florida, where no campaigning occurred, as well as Michigan, where Obama did not receive any votes because his name was not on the ballot.

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written by Andrew