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MIDDLE EAST: The Israeli government yesterday declared the Gaza Strip a "hostile entity" and threatened further cuts to fuel and electricity supplies if militants continue to fire Qassam rockets at Israel, a decision backed by the US.

MIDDLE EAST: A car bomb killed an anti-Syrian lawmaker and at least seven other people in Beirut yesterday, less than a week before Lebanon's parliament was due to elect a new president.

US: The judge in the Phil Spector murder trial said yesterday he would not instruct the deadlocked jury to consider a reduced charge of manslaughter against the music producer.

BURMA: More than 2,000 Buddhist monks took to the streets of Burma again yesterday in the most sustained and widespread protest against the military junta for more than 10 years.

TURKEY: The ban on women wearing headscarves on the campuses of Turkey's state universities should be lifted as part of a proposed constitution, its prime minister has insisted.

MIDDLE EAST: The US military has introduced "religious enlightenment" and other education programmes for Iraqi detainees, some of whom are as young as 11, Maj Gen Douglas Stone, the commander of US detention facilities in Iraq, said on Tuesday.

US: The US and Iraqi governments were yesterday planning to announce a joint investigation into Sunday's shooting of eight civilians in Baghdad that led to the suspension of the private US security firm Blackwater.

Actions by Australia's central bank hint that the recent credit crunch problems could be easing.

United Arab Emirates: Istithmar, a Dubai World company, today announced plans to invest USD 150 million in developing a new luxury resort in Zanzibar, following a major strategic agreement between the company and the Zanzibar government. [AMEInfo.com]

Comments by Deutsche Bank boss Josef Ackermann in a TV interview hit the bank's shares in Frankfurt.