The Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the Hamas Movement, has released a recording of captured zionist serviceman Gilad Shalit asking his government to accept his captors’ demands and to set free Palestinian prisoners in return for his freedom.

Ishmael Haniya, premier of the PA caretaker government, on Tuesday affirmed that the Israeli policy of Premier Ehud Olmert aimed at driving a wedge in Palestinian national lines.

At least 10 people have died and thousands have fled their homes as a powerful tropical cyclone brought torrential rains and high winds to Pakistan’s Arabian sea coast.