Israel rounded up more than 30 Hamas leaders in the West Bank including a Cabinet minister, taking its conflict with Hamas over daily Palestinian rocket fire from Gaza to a new level.

Bangladesh’s national polls, delayed amid deadly violence over allegations the ballot was rigged, will not be held in next 18 months, the top election official said today.

Israel pressed ahead with its incursion into the southern Gaza Strip today as airstrikes killed five Palestinians, including a mother and her two children, and tanks rolled to the edge of Rafah, officials said.

PRESIDENT Mary McAleese paid tribute to a human rights champion at a reception in Dublin yesterday - as he languished in a Sudan prison after being arrested on his way to Ireland.