RAMALLAH — No mobile phones, no international calls, no fuel coupons and no “excessive” hospitality for senior employees. Hamas is tightening the purse strings.

WASHINGTON — If there ever was a question that the Bush administration and the Israeli government are of one mind on Mideast peacemaking and Iran’s nuclear programmes it is fading during talks Israel’s foreign minister is holding here.

ANKARA — The decision by northern Iraq’s Kurdish leaders to ban the national flag and hoist their own has increased disquiet in Turkey about the prospect of a de facto Kurdish statelet on its doorstep, diplomats and analysts here say.