Palestinian militants in Gaza fired three rockets at Israel early today, despite reports that they had agreed to halt such attacks.

Thousands of Fatah supporters burned cars and fired guns in the air across the Gaza Strip, demanding the resignation of corrupt party officials and insisting on no coalition between their defeated party and victorious Hamas.

The Islamic militant Hamas won a landslide victory in Palestinian parliament elections, winning 76 seats in the 132-member parliament, election officials announced today.

About two dozen masked Palestinian gunmen today took over election offices in the Gaza town of Khan Younis, trying to prevent the ruling Fatah party from registering a new list of candidates for January parliamentary elections.

THE Palestinian Authority will cancel January 25 parliamentary elections if Israel goes ahead with its plan to bar Palestinians from voting in disputed Jerusalem, a senior Palestinian official said yesterday.

The Palestinian Authority will cancel parliamentary elections planed for January 25 if Israel goes ahead with its plan to bar Jerusalem Palestinians from voting.

PRODDED by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Israel and the Palestinians agreed yesterday on details for opening the borders of the Gaza Strip and allowing freer movement for Palestinians elsewhere.

Israel’s prime minister Ariel Sharon lashed out against terrorism and praised the world for taking on Syria and Iran, as rebels in his own party continued moves to force him out of office.

THE White House has denied that US President George W Bush said God told him to invade Iraq and Afghanistan, as a new BBC documentary is expected to reveal.

US president George Bush has said that he was instructed by God to invade Iraq and Afghanistan, according to a new BBC series.

Israel killed four Hamas militants in a missile strike today, and moved artillery cannons to the Gaza border, part of a what it said would be a “crushing” response to the first major Hamas rocket barrage on Israeli towns since Israel’s pullout from Gaza two weeks earlier.

Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas headed to Washington today with a long list of demands for the US president, though privately Palestinian officials said they don’t expect much from George Bush and some even questioned the wisdom of making the trip at all.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas declared today that their people would stop all violent attacks against each other, pledging to break a four year cycle of bloodshed and get peace talks back on track.

Israel will transfer security control over several West Bank towns to the Palestinians in coming days, Israel’s defence minister said today, hours after he met with a Palestinian negotiator to work out the details of Israel’s troop redeployment.

Palestinian and Israeli officials today expressed widely different expectations for an upcoming summit between their leaders, reflecting the sharp differences that remain as the two sides try to end four years of hostilities and resume peace talks.

THE Israeli military is willing to suspend operations against Palestinian militants if they call off attacks, Israeli leaders said yesterday, signalling a shift in position that could help pave the way toward a ceasefire after more than four years of fighting.

Palestinian security forces started deploying in the northern Gaza Strip today in an effort to halt Palestinian rocket attacks on Israeli targets and stave off a threatened Israeli military offensive.

Israel was giving Mahmoud Abbas one last chance to enforce a ceasefire tonight and decided to resume security talks with the Palestinians – holding off a major military offensive.

A top PLO decision-making body yesterday called on Palestinian militants to halt attacks against Israel, charging that the violence gives Israel an excuse to carry out military operations.

Israel’s prime minister Ariel Sharon has cut all contact with newly-elected Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas in a startling U-turn, saying he must halt terror attacks if he wanted peace talks.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon cut all contact with the newly elected Palestinian leader today, promising the silence would continue until Mahmoud Abbas moves to halt militant attacks.

Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath today said the militant group Hamas could be willing to commit to a ceasefire if Israel did the same as part of renewed peace talks between Palestinians and Israelis.

The EU today opens two days of talks with Israel and its Arab neighbours to take stock of fresh chances for Mideast peace less than three weeks after the death of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.

The ruling Fatah movement chose interim Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas as its candidate for January’s presidential election last night, but Fatah rebels said they would challenge the decision.

The leading sponsors of the “road map” peace plan will send top officials to the West Bank next week in a renewed effort to revive the internationally-backed peace plan, Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath said today.

ISRAELI Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said yesterday that Yasser Arafat’s death could be a turning point for peacemaking but he would pursue a plan that would strip Palestinians of some land they want for a state.

The body of Yasser Arafat, revered as the champion of Palestinian statehood and reviled as an opportunistic terrorist, was flown to Egypt tonight as the Middle East attempted to move forward in the search for peace.

Yasser Arafat’s brain is working only partially because of haemorrhaging, and all his organs except for his heart and lungs “are not functioning well”, the Palestinian foreign minister said in Ramallah tonight.

Yasser Arafat will be buried at the battered West Bank headquarters that had been his virtual prison for the last three years, his aides decided after the deeply comatose Palestinian leader suffered another downturn.

A top Islamic cleric was due at Yasser Arafat’s hospital bedside in Paris today after the Palestinian leader’s coma deepened and his caretaker government chose a burial site.

Yasser Arafat hovered on the brink of death in a Paris hospital tonight - being kept alive artificially while a cleric flew from the West Bank to be by his side.

Comatose Yasser Arafat’s condition worsened today as Palestinian officials visited their critically ill leader, ignoring his wife’s angry objections.

YASSER ARAFAT’S wife yesterday accused his top lieutenants of seeking to grab control from her ailing husband, nearly torpedoing a visit by top Palestinian officials in the first sign of an open power struggle.

Senior Palestinian leaders including Ahmed Qureia and Mahmoud Abbas arrived in France tonight in a bid to check on the medical status of Yasser Arafat.

Palestinian leaders flew to France tonight to confront Yasser Arafat’s wife who accused his top lieutenants of seeking to grab control from her ailing husband.

The caretaker Palestinian leadership decided today to travel to Yasser Arafat’s bedside, reversing a decision to call off the trip after being lambasted by the ailing 75-year-old leader’s wife.

Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath has said the caretaker leadership will travel to Paris after all to see ailing leader Yasser Arafat.

Palestinian leaders are to fly to Paris to consult with doctors about Yasser Arafat’s condition, a senior official said tonight.

Yasser Arafat is hovering “between life and death” in a coma, Palestinian and French officials say.

Yasser Arafat clung on to life today and is not brain dead, his spokeswoman said.

An Israeli Cabinet minister said today it was ``clear'' Yasser Arafat was brain dead and was being kept on a life support machine.

Israel’s parliament moved to give generous compensation packages to 8,800 Jewish settlers in the Gaza Strip and West Bank for leaving their homes, in a boost for prime minister Ariel Sharon’s fight to withdraw from Gaza after nearly 40 years of occupation.

AN ailing Yasser Arafat was in the fourth day of emergency treatment yesterday at a French military hospital specialising in blood disorders, but the cause of his precipitous decline in health remained unexplained.

HAVING ruled out leukaemia, French doctors were trying for a third day to determine what was causing the dramatic deterioration in Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s health.