Israel and Hamas have launched new attacks in the raging Gaza war, despite each side offering different truces to temporarily halt nearly three weeks of fighting ahead of a major Muslim holiday.

President Barack Obama is within reach of the 270 electoral votes needed to win a second term as Republican challenger Mitt Romney’s path to victory is narrowing, five weeks from US election day.

The Arab League will call on the UN Security Council to pass a resolution creating a joint peacekeeping force for Syria.

BP’s chairman defended his company’s safety record today, and said “a failed piece of equipment” was to blame for a massive oil spill along the Gulf Coast of America.

After signing an accord that ends the long-running civil war in Sudan’s south, the United States expects immediate progress on the crisis in the western region of Darfur, US Secretary of State Colin Powell said today.