(Reuters) – Israeli forces pushed deeper into Gaza city Thursday and unleashed their heaviest shelling of its crowded neighborhoods in three weeks of war, stepping up pressure on Hamas as the Islamist group weighed a ceasefire. The Palestinian death toll topped 1,050, including many civilians. More than 4,000 have been …

GAZA (Reuters) – An explosion blasted a tower block in the city of Gaza that houses the offices of Reuters and other media organizations on Thursday, forcing an evacuation and disrupting coverage of increasingly fierce fighting. Colleagues said a journalist for the Abu Dhabi television channel had been wounded. Reuters …

GAZA (Reuters) – Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak apologized to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon Thursday after Israeli forces shelled the main U.N. aid compound in the city of Gaza, Ban told reporters. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) said its compound, where up to 700 Palestinians were being …

MOSCOW/KIEV (Reuters) – The Russian and Ukrainian prime ministers will meet on Saturday to try to resolve a gas row that has cut back supplies to a freezing Europe. German Chancellor Angela Merkel reiterated European calls for a quick to the two countries’ arguments over gas debts and prices, saying …

KARACHI (Reuters) – Pakistani police arrested more than a dozen Islamist militants in the southern city of Karachi Thursday after a gun battle following a pre-dawn raid on their hideout, officials said. Two policemen were killed and nine wounded before the militants’ resistance was broken after several hours of shooting. …

TEHRAN (FNA)- An earthquake measuring 5.3 on the Richter scale jolted Iran’s southeastern province of Kerman on Wednesday. There are yet no reports on the number of possible casualties or damage to properties by the quake. Iran is criss-crossed with fault lines and is regularly hit by earthquakes, experiencing at …

TEHRAN (FNA)- Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Saeed Jalili arrived in Doha on Wednesday to deliver a message from President Ahmadinejad to Qatari Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani on the current conditions in the Gaza Strip. During his stay in the Qatari capital, Jalili is …

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani attended a meeting with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to discuss the Gaza crisis. Larijani arrived in Turkey on Tuesday to attend an emergency meeting of the Islamic Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), which will be held in Istanbul later today. At the meeting, …

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki called for further expansion of relations between Iran and Switzerland. Mottaki made the remarks in a meeting with Switzerland’s new ambassador to Tehran Livia Leu Agoati after he received the diplomat’s credentials. He described Tehran-Bern relations as centuries-old, saying that an expansion in …

TEHRAN (FNA)- The Iranian envoy to Russia said delays in completion of Iran’s first nuclear plant in the southern city of Bushehr are not only Russia’s fault. Mahmoud Reza Sajjadi stressed that Russia is committed to complete the plant, despite the pressure on Moscow to halt the project, the Islamic …