GAZA (Reuters) – Hamas would consider renewing a lapsed truce with Israel in the Gaza Strip, but wants guarantees the Jewish state will halt incursions and keep border crossings open for supplies of aid and fuel, a spokesman said on Tuesday. Gaza’s Islamist leaders had initially ruled out extending the …

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Monitors from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe can only patrol in Georgia next year if their mandate is changed to take account of Moscow’s concerns, Russia’s foreign minister said on Tuesday. The OSCE said on Monday it would start shutting down its mission in …

NEW DELHI (Reuters) – India asked Pakistan on Tuesday to avoid “war hysteria” and simply act to dismantle the terrorist infrastructure operating in its country. “The issue is not war, the issue is terror and territory in Pakistan being used to promote, aid and abet this terror,” Prime Minister Manmohan …

MERDARE, Kosovo (Reuters) – Kosovo threatened on Tuesday to ban products coming from Serbia if Belgrade does not reverse its policy of blocking goods that carry a customs stamp from its former province. Since early December, Serbia has refused to allow in products with labels reading “Customs of Kosovo” because …

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Iraq’s parliament approved a measure on Tuesday that clears the way for troops from Britain, Australia and a handful of other nations to remain in Iraq after a U.N. mandate expires at year’s end, a senior lawmaker said. “We authorize the government to take all necessary steps …

ATHENS (Reuters) – Hundreds of anarchists marched through Athens on Tuesday hours after a gunman opened fire at a riot police bus, in a third week of anti-government protests since police shot dead a teenager. Police said the unidentified gunman shot at the bus carrying 19 officers when it stopped …

SRINAGAR, India (Reuters) – Indian police said on Tuesday they had arrested three militants, one of them a Pakistani soldier, for allegedly planning a suicide attack in Indian-controlled Kashmir. Pakistan’s army, however, denied the arrested man was a serving soldier. The arrests came as India deployed thousands of troops in …

MOSCOW (Reuters) – A test launch of Russia’s new submarine-based missile Bulava has failed, Interfax news agency said on Tuesday, quoting a source in the military-industrial complex. Russia plans next year to equip some of its nuclear-powered submarines with Bulava, capable of carrying up to 10 warheads to the distances …

TEHRAN (FNA)- A delegation of Iranian Oil Ministry officials and experts is due to visit Ashgabat to discuss and reach an agreement over the price of Turkmen gas supplies to Iran in 2009. Northern Iran, which is far from the national grid, meets a major part of its needs through …

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iran and Malaysia are planning to work together in Islamic banking to step up the sector’s global presence and to expand business relations between the two countries. Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said Mellat Bank, a leading Iranian financial institution, was keen to establish an offshore branch …