GAZA – Israeli air strikes killed five Palestinians, including a mother and child, in the Gaza Strip on Thursday as Prime Minister Ehud Olmert vowed to wage a “war” to stop rocket attacks on the Jewish state.

BAGHDAD – A suicide bomber wearing a vest packed with explosives killed eight people near a Shi’ite mosque in the volatile Iraqi city of Baquba on Thursday, police said.

BEIRUT – An Arab mediator brokered a meeting between rival Lebanese leaders on Thursday but a political source said their dispute was unresolved and a breakthrough remained distant.

BEIRUT – The first attack on the United States in Beirut in two decades was a warning shot against its policy in Lebanon, where it backs anti-Syrian leaders against rivals supported by Damascus and Tehran.

RAMALLAH, West Bank – International donors have pledged $7.7 billion in aid to the Palestinians over the next three years, more than initially reported, a Palestinian government minister said on Thursday.

WASHINGTON – Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Thursday denied reports of discontent between Washington and NATO allies over Afghanistan, a day after a newspaper quoted him criticizing NATO’s counterinsurgency skills.

PESHAWAR, PAKISTAN – A bomb exploded in a crowded Shi’ite Muslim prayer hall in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar on Thursday, killing four people and wounding several, a government spokesman said.

BELGRADE – Serbia votes on Sunday in a presidential election pitting a pro-Western liberal against a nationalist in a vote seen as a plebiscite on Belgrade’s place in the world as it prepares for the loss of Kosovo.

UNITED NATIONS – Russia on Wednesday backed its ally Serbia, saying Kosovo will never become a member of the United Nations or other international organizations if the breakaway province unilaterally declares independence.

TEHRAN (FNA) Iran’s deputy Foreign Minister Alireza Sheikh Attar and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez in a meeting in Guatemala City on Thursday conferred about the decisions adopted during OPEC’s recent heads-of-state summit in Saudi Arabia.