GAZA CITY (AFP)–At least two Palestinians were killed Wednesday when an explosion collapsed a tunnel running under the border between the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip and Egypt, local medics and witnesses said.

Over the past two decades of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, deadlines for peace agreements have come and gone with precious few treaties. Now, amid low expectations for an agreement before the expiration of the Bush administration’s target for an accord by the end of 2008, voices are growing on both sides advocating …

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – Israeli President Shimon Peres cast strong doubt on Tuesday over whether Israel and the Palestinians could reach a peace deal by the end of the year as hoped.

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia said on Tuesday it had no intention of unilaterally redrawing its borders in the Arctic to give it a larger chunk of the region’s mineral wealth.

RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) – Chief Palestinian negotiator Ahmed Qurie won an assurance from Israeli prime minister-designate Tzipi Livni on Tuesday that peace talks will not stall while she tries to form a new coalition government.

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – An Islamist group that claimed responsibility for bombing the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad had not previously been heard of, but Pakistani intelligence eavesdroppers heard al Qaeda operatives celebrating the attack.

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia’s Defense Ministry on Tuesday denied a claim by Georgia it had shot down an unmanned Russian spy drone over its territory.

TBILISI (Reuters) – Georgia said on Tuesday it had shot down a small Russian reconnaissance drone over Georgian territory just south of the breakaway region of South Ossetia.

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – Pakistani security guard Shabnam Jamshed seemed distracted when she left her Islamabad home for work last Saturday.

The Sudanese authorities say they have pinpointed the location at which 11 foreign tourists and their eight Egyptian guides are being held.