BERLIN – German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said on Thursday that Israel should freeze the building of settlements if it wanted to achieve peace with the Palestinians.

OTTAWA – Canada’s foreign ministry has put the United States and Israel on a watch list of countries where prisoners risk being tortured and also classifies some U.S. interrogation techniques as torture, according to a document obtained by Reuters on Thursday.

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.