Wearing blue camouflage fatigues and crooning about Islamic holy war, the five members of Hamas’s Protectors of the Homeland police band are trying to boost morale in Gaza with an arsenal of anti-Israel numbers.

Turkey’s prime minister denied on Wednesday carrying out aerial strikes this week against Kurdish rebel targets in northern Iraq, but the government reaffirmed its readiness for a cross-border operation if deemed necessary.

Georgia will lift its state of emergency in two days, Parliament Speaker Nino Burjanadze said on Wednesday, but a court order looked set to keep the main opposition television station off the air.