The United States is preparing to donate more than $900 million for the reconstruction of Gaza, a U.S. official said Monday, as U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton prepared to attend a donors conference for the war-ravaged territory next week.
Israeli and Palestinian officials said earlier Monday that Clinton will visit Israel and the West Bank during the first week of March for her first trip to the region as America’s top diplomat.
Clinton said during her Asia trip this month that she would attend an international donors conference in Egypt on …

Taleban insurgents in the troubled north-western Swat valley of Pakistan have announced an indefinite ceasefire.
The announcement follows a deal struck last week between a radical cleric and authorities that brings Sharia law in return for an end to the insurgency.
The Taleban have been assessing that deal and Tuesday’s move followed a meeting under the group’s leader in the region, Maulana Fazlullah.
The scenic valley of Swat has long been blighted by militant violence.

Sri Lankan security forces have killed at least 65 Tamil Tigers in a week of intense fighting that further reduced the territory under rebel control, according to the military.
The Tigers have been driven back into just 73 square kilometres (28 square miles) of jungle, military spokesman Udaya Nanayakkara said, having controlled large swathes of the north and the east of the island less than two years ago.
Officials say the rebels are increasingly desperate and may launch more attacks such as the air strike on the capital Colombo on Friday, when …

Binyamin Netanyahu described Iran as the greatest threat that Israel has ever faced and failed to mention stalled talks with the Palestinians after he was asked to be the country’s new Prime Minister today.
In a speech made outside the residence of President Shimon Peres, the Likud leader said that protecting Israel would be his greatest responsibility as leader, and condemned “formidable” challenges posed by the Islamic Republic.
However, he did not once mention the stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace process or a two-state solution throughout his address, omissions that will cause concern within …

South Korea will retaliate if North Korea attacks its naval ships in waters near their disputed maritime border, the defense chief told lawmakers Friday.
The unusually strong warning comes as North Korea steps up its war rhetoric in anger over South Korean President Lee Myung-bak’s tough stance toward the North.
The North Korean military has said it is “fully ready” for war with the South, and state-run media have warned that clashes between the two sides could break out at any time.

A suicide bomber killed at least 28 people today in a town near Pakistan’s tribal areas, the latest in an escalating series of attacks targeting the country’s Shiite Muslim minority.
Several of the most lethal bombings of recent months have apparently been motivated by sectarian strife, rather than the more typical attacks by Islamic militants against government and military installations.
Many analysts believe Pakistan’s Taliban movement is actively fomenting sectarian violence as a means of sowing chaos and further destabilizing Pakistan’s shaky central government.

A Jordanian cleric described by the government as a “significant international terrorist” can be deported despite fears he may be tortured, the country’s highest court decided on Wednesday.
Abu Qatada, linked by Britain to Osama bin Laden’s al Qaeda network, is one of a group of Arab men the government has been trying to deport on national security grounds, while acknowledging it does not have enough evidence to put them on trial.

Israel’s prime minister denied media reports that it is negotiating with the militant group Hamas, which controls Gaza, but said there will be Israeli “consultations” Sunday “regarding the situation in the south.”
“Should a decision of any kind be required, it will be made only via a meeting of the Security Cabinet and after taking into account all of the new political circumstances that have been created in the wake of the recent Israeli elections,” Yanki Galanti, the media adviser for Ehud Olmert, said Saturday night in a statement.