Patrick Anidjar

Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni will on Sunday meet Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in Egypt, the highest-level such contact since radical faction Hamas won a January election. "Mrs Livni and Mr Abbas will meet on Sunday [at a meeting] in which Deputy Prime Minister Shimon Peres will participate," foreign ministry spokesperson Mark Regev said.

Five people were killed and dozens more wounded on Monday in a suicide bomb attack at a shopping mall close to the city of Tel Aviv, Israeli police and medical sources said. The blast, responsibility for which was claimed by Islamic Jihad, went off at around 11.30am at the entrance to the Hasharon shopping centre in the upmarket resort town of Netanya.