GAZA (Reuters) – Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah group said Hamas forces arrested dozens of its activists in the GazaStrip on Thursday, undermining Egyptian efforts to reconcile the rival factions.

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – Causing death through “cyber terrorism” will be punishable by death in Pakistan, according to a decree issued by President Asif Ali Zardari on Thursday.

KABUL (Reuters) – Afghan President Hamid Karzai opened a new, Japanese-built $37 million terminal at Kabul airport on Thursday, but said he hoped it would survive undamaged for at least one year now that it is in Afghan hands.

MINGORA, Pakistan (Reuters) – Pakistani Taliban militants have released unharmed a group of schoolboys they abducted on suspicion of spying for the security forces, police said on Thursday.

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian President Dmitry Medvedev could resign from his post in 2009 to pave the way for Vladimir Putin to return to the Kremlin, Vedomosti newspaper reported on Thursday, citing an unidentified source close to the Kremlin.

Four people have been killed in twin bomb attacks at a checkpoint in a Sunni area of Baghdad, Iraqi police say.

The Iraqi government says it is confident that US President-elect Barack Obama will not jeopardise the country’s improving security by hastening the withdrawal of American troops.

TEHRAN (FNA)- A delegation of six presidents of American universities will visit Iran later this month with the goal of encouraging academic exchange, particularly in the sciences, between Iran and the US.

TEHRAN (FNA)- Sebastian Straten, a entrepreneurial Dutchman, is preparing for the day when tourists flock to Iran.

TEHRAN (FNA)- Pakistan foresees the possibility of a breakthrough with India on the Kashmir dispute in the next few months.