Islamabad: Acknowledging that the dossier on Mumbai attacks given by India contained “leads and good clues,” Pakistan on Saturday promised a fair investigation and said its results will be shared with New Delhi first.
Pakistan said it wanted to have an approach of “cooperative engagement” with India as war was no solution to the problem of terrorism which was a global phenomenon. “Quite a lot of material” was provided by India and the Pakistani investigators would work to convert this into “evidence that could stand up to judicial scrutiny,” Interior Ministry …

JERUSALEM — Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of Israel announced late Saturday night that the Israeli military would begin a unilateral cease-fire in Gaza within hours while negotiations continued on how to stop the resupply of Hamas through smuggling from Egypt.
Mr. Olmert, who said all Israeli objectives for the war had been reached, said Israel was responding positively to a call by President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt earlier in the day for an immediate cease-fire, in a clearly orchestrated move by two countries that both see the Hamas movement in …

MOSCOW (AFP) — Russia and Ukraine were set for a new round of talks Saturday in a bid to resolve their gas dispute that has Europe struggling through winter without crucial gas supplies from the ex-Soviet giants.
Russia pushed Friday for greater international involvement in resolving its dispute with Ukraine as Kiev sought to retake some of the diplomatic initiative, hosting officials from three of its European neighbors for talks on the gas crisis.
It was unclear exactly what was to take place in Moscow on Saturday, although the Kremlin accredited …

GAZA CITY (AFP) — Israel was poised on Saturday to call a unilateral halt to its three-week-old offensive on Gaza after winning pledges from the United States and Egypt to help prevent arms smuggling into the Hamas-run enclave.
A senior government official said Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s security cabinet is expected to vote in favour of a proposal at a meeting Saturday night under which Israel would silence its guns even without a reciprocal agreement from the Palestinian group which has controlled Gaza since mid 2007.
Under the terms of the …

ANKARA, Turkey – Israel should be barred from the United Nations while it ignores the organization’s calls to stop fighting in Gaza, Turkey’s prime minister said Friday, urging the world not to turn a blind eye to Israel’s “savagery.”
“How is such a country, which totally ignores and does not implement resolutions of the U.N. Security Council, allowed to enter through the gates of the U.N.?” Recep Tayyip Erdogan said.
Erdogan spoke before U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon arrived in Ankara. Erdogan’s comments reflected growing anger in Turkey, Israel’s best friend in the …

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) — A top Israeli envoy delivered his country’s stance on a cease-fire agreement in Gaza to Egyptian mediators trying to seal a truce on Thursday. The Iranian president said the fighting showed Israel’s continued existence in the region is “not feasible.”
The development came as the U.N. secretary-general pressed Israel and Gulf leaders gathered in Saudi Arabia to discuss the conflict.
The diplomatic push gained momentum despite competing agendas among Arab and Islamic governments, which are openly disagreeing about how to resolve — or even discuss — the conflict …

Rockets fired from Lebanon struck Israel on Wednesday for the second time in a week while its Gaza offensive ground on, but there was no immediate sign the incident would escalate into wider violence.
There was no initial claim of responsibility for the attack, which triggered warning sirens in parts of northern Israel, and police said no one was hurt.
On Thursday, a similar salvo hit northern Israel but Lebanese and Israeli officials were quick to play down that incident, blaming not the Iranian-backed Hezbollah movement, an ally of Gaza’s Hamas, but …

NEW DELHI (AFP) — The head of India’s army on Wednesday confirmed that Pakistan has redeployed troops along the two countries’ tense border but said his forces were ready for all eventualities.
“The aspect of some (Pakistani) troops coming towards the east… we are aware of it. That has happened. They have come to the eastern border of Pakistan with India,” General Deepak Kapoor told a news conference.
“However having known this fact, let me assure you that the Indian army has factored this in its planning,” he added. “That is not …

Iran’s top leader has issued a religious opinion, or fatwa, declaring the purchase of any Israeli goods or trade with Israeli companies to be forbidden.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme political and religious authority, is urging Muslims throughout the world to avoid the purchase of any products that would profit Israelis.
A fatwa is a religious opinion that Muslims only obey if they revere the person issuing it, which in the case of Khamenei would be restricted largely to Iranian Shi’ites.

Israel and Hamas vowed to keep fighting on Sunday, ignoring international calls to stop the Gaza conflict which entered a 16th day with heavy clashes between Israeli troops and Palestinian guerrillas.
Hamas’s leader in exile, Khaled Meshaal, said his Islamist group would not consider a truce until Israel ended its military offensive and lifted a blockade of the Gaza Strip.
Israel sent tanks deeper into the Hamas-ruled coastal enclave and threatened to intensify its air and ground assaults against militants who fired more rockets into the Jewish state.