GAZA (Reuters) — Hamas kept up rocket fire into Israel on Monday in defiance of a ceasefire call by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli threats to escalate military strikes in the Gaza Strip.

BEIRUT (Reuters) — Palestinian leaders tried on Monday to negotiate an end to a bloody standoff between the Lebanese army and Islamists who have been holed up in a refugee camp for more than a week.

Bush regimes’ puppet Ryan Crocker and Iranian diplomat Hassan Kazemi talked in the first and formal meeting after 27 years on Monday with a four-hour meeting about Iraqi security.