ISRAEL

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on a visit to Germany on Thursday that one lesson Israel drew from the Holocaust was that threats to its existence could not go unchallenged and must be nipped in the bud.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday he was seeking a formula to enable renewed talks with the Palestinians while permitting Jewish settlers to live normal lives.

An international airport for a future state of Palestine, national institutions and new rail links were listed by the Palestinian prime minister on Tuesday in a government program needing foreign funding.

Israeli aircraft bombed a tunnel under the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt on Tuesday, killing three Palestinians inside, medical workers said.

Iran has not expanded the number of centrifuges enriching uranium at its Natanz nuclear site since the end of May after increasing capacity steadily over the previous three years, diplomats said.

Faced with an economy starting to emerge from recession and stubborn prices pressures, Israel's central bank on Monday raised short-term borrowing costs by a quarter-point to 0.75 percent on Monday to rein in inflation.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expects no breakthroughs at a meeting this week with a U.S. peace envoy, but hopes talks with the Palestinians can resume within two months, a spokesman said on Monday.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has refrained from initiating new housing projects in Israeli settlements in the West Bank, hoping to reach common ground with Washington, a government minister said on Tuesday.

U.S. President Barack Obama, said Tuesday he saw encouraging signs of a softening of Israel's resistance to his call for a freeze on settlement-building in the occupied West Bank.

U.S. President Barack Obama, looking to jump-start the stalled Middle East peace process, will hold talks Tuesday with Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak, who Washington hopes can help to get things moving.

Telephone operator Cellcom Israel Ltd said it posted a forecast-beating rise in second-quarter net profit as an increase in content and value-added services offset a decline in roaming revenue from tourism.

Israel's Oil Refineries (ORL.TA: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) on Monday swung to a year-on-year second-quarter loss, hurt by a near doubling of crude oil prices and lower end-product prices.

Palestinian Islamists Hamas struck back at an al-Qaeda challenge to their grip on the Gaza Strip by storming a mosque in overnight battles that left the leader of the Warriors of God splinter group among up to 28 dead.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday rejected a complaint by former prime minister Ahmed Qurie that he had lost his seat on the executive of Fatah in an unsound party election.

Hutchison Telecommunications International Ltd agreed the $1.38 billion sale of a stake in Israeli telecom operator Partner on Wednesday as it offloads certain overseas units to offset losses elsewhere.

Scailex Corp said on Wednesday it had signed a deal to buy Hutchison Telecommunications stake in Israeli mobile phone operator Partner Communications for $1.38 billion.

Israel will hold Lebanon responsible for any future Hezbollah attack should the Iranian- and Syrian-backed militia be brought into Beirut's incoming government, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday.

Partner Communications, Israel's second largest mobile operator, posted a 2.1 percent rise in quarterly profit but said the launch of Apple's latest iPhone would hurt cash generation in the second half.

Reformists kept up pressure for leadership change in the dominant Palestinian party Fatah on Thursday, and Saudi Arabia said no Palestinian state could emerge unless such internal divisions were healed.

Iraq is considering blocking websites deemed pornographic or that incite violence or crime, triggering fears of a return to Saddam Hussein-style state censorship and government propaganda.

Australian police arrested four men they said were linked to a Somali militant group on Tuesday, accusing them of planning a suicide attack on an army base and raising fears the al Qaeda-linked rebels were seeking targets outside Africa.