Most of the world's 1,2-billion Muslims celebrated the start of the holy month of Ramadan on Thursday as Indonesians prayed for the victims of a massive earthquake that rocked Sumatra island a day earlier. The start of Ramadan, the holiest month of the Muslim calendar, is traditionally determined by the sighting of a new crescent moon.
Israeli officials prepared a plan on Wednesday to cut power supplies to the Gaza Strip amid violence that killed two Palestinian boys after a rocket salvo damaged an apartment building in the Jewish state. The United Nations has told Israel it must not inflict collective punishment by cutting vital supplies and services.
The battle over the agenda of a conference on Palestinian statehood offers United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice a glimpse of the gruelling process that awaits if and when the two sides enter formal negotiations. Four days of shuttle diplomacy by Rice this week were not enough to close the gaps.
Hamas paid Gaza security officials on Friday by dishing out cash from suitcases rather than using banks, as Israel tightened a clampdown on the Palestinian territory. An official said the group planned to circumvent banks by paying salaries to about 20 000 security forces and civil servants in cash.
Iran's president accused Israel on Friday of using the Holocaust as a pretext for "genocide" against Palestinians. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who outraged the West in 2005 by calling Israel a "tumour" to be wiped off the map, said the truth should be told about World War II and the Holocaust.
Israeli and Palestinian leaders held a new round of talks on Wednesday, meeting for the first time with their negotiating teams to try to bridge gaping differences ahead of a United States-sponsored peace summit. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas met one-on-one for the fourth time in less than two months.
Egypt abruptly allowed about 100 Palestinians who had been stranded in Egypt since Hamas seized the Gaza Strip in mid-June to return home before dawn on Sunday, witnesses said. Most were supporters of the Islamic militant Hamas or gunmen from other factions wanted by Israel, they said.
An Israeli missile strike killed a Palestinian militant in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, medical workers and witnesses said, a day after 11 Palestinians were killed during an Israeli raid into the coastal territory. Residents said the missile attack killed one gunman and wounded two others from the Islamic Jihad militant group.
Israel declared the Gaza Strip an "enemy entity" on Wednesday and said it would reduce its fuel and power supplies to the Hamas-run territory in response to rocket attacks by Palestinian militants. Hamas described the move as a declaration of war.
A rocket fired by Gaza militants smashed into an Israeli army base early Tuesday, wounding dozens of sleeping conscripts and heightening pressure on the government to hit the Hamas-ruled territory. At least 69 soldiers sleeping in tents were wounded when the homemade rocket crashed into the Zikim base.
Hamas security officers beat protesters, hurled stun grenades and fired in the air to disperse open-air prayers the rival Fatah faction held in the Gaza Strip on Friday in defiance of the territory's Islamist rulers. Palestinian medical officials said at least 20 people, some with gunshot wounds, were taken to hospital for treatment.
Syria accused Israel on Thursday of bombing its territory and warned it could respond, but Israel Radio carried a denial there had been an air strike. The official Syrian news agency said there were no casualties or damage and that Syrian air defences fired on the incoming planes shortly after midnight.
Norway will reduce its direct aid to Ethiopia by about one-third after Addis Ababa expelled six Norwegian diplomats, Development Aid Minister Erik Solheim said on Tuesday, though he said it was for purely logistical reasons. "We want to have a good relationship with Ethiopia," Solheim told foreign correspondents in Oslo.
