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Israel, Hamas Off to Rocky Start in New Peace Talks

Egyptian and Palestinian sources said Israel had tentatively agreed to allow some supplies into the Gaza Strip.

(CAIRO) - Israel and the Palestinians renewed a truce that had largely tempered a five-week-old war, but the deal got off to a shaky start on Thursday with rockets from Gaza slamming into Israel, and Israel retaliating with air strikes.

Hamas, which denied involvement in firing some of what Israel counted as eight rockets shot just as an earlier truce expired on Wednesday, and accused the Jewish state of violating the new truce by launching air strikes.

Talks to End War in Gaza Difficult Delegates Say

"We are facing difficult negotiations," Hamas' leader in Cairo, Moussa Abu Marzouk, said on Twitter.

(CAIRO) - Talks to end a month-long war between Israel and Gaza militants are "difficult", Palestinian delegates said on Tuesday, while Israeli officials said no progress had been made so far and fighting could soon resume.

As a 72-hour ceasefire held for a second day, Palestinian negotiators held fresh talks with Egyptian intelligence following a meeting on Monday that lasted nine hours.

West Africa`s Ebola Epidemic Becomes International Health Crisis

The declaration of an international emergency will have the effect of raising the level of vigilance on the virus.

(LONDON) - West Africa's Ebola epidemic is an "extraordinary event" and now constitutes an international health risk, the World Health Organization said on Friday.

The Geneva-based U.N. health agency said the possible consequences of a further international spread of the outbreak, which has killed almost 1,000 people in four West African countries, were "particularly serious" in view of the virulence of the virus.

Hamas Launches Rockets at Israel as Peace Talks Breakdown

A military spokesman said on Twitter: "After the 72-hour ceasefire, Hamas resumes indiscriminate rocket fire at Israel.

(JERUSALEM ) - Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip resumed rocket fire into Israel on Friday after Egyptian mediated talks in Cairo failed to extend a 72-hour truce in a nearly month long war.

As police said rocket warning sirens were sounding in southern Israel, the military's "Iron Dome" interceptor system brought down a missile over the southern city of Ashkelon.

West African Ebola Outbreak Death Toll Climbs over 900

WHO experts began a two-day crisis meeting in Geneva to discuss whether the epidemic constitutes a "Public Health Emergency of International Concern".

(MONROVIA) - Health workers in West Africa appealed on Wednesday for urgent help in controlling the world's worst Ebola outbreak as the death toll climbed to 932 and Liberia declared a state of emergency.

The World Health Organization said it would ask medical ethics experts to explore emergency use of experimental treatments to tackle the highly contagious disease after a trial drug was given to two U.S. charity workers infected in Liberia.

Russia Bans Food Imports; UN Fears Ukraine Invasion

The war of economic sanctions has escalated even as fighting has intensified on the ground in eastern Ukraine.

(MOSCOW) - Russia will ban all imports of food from the United States and all fruit and vegetables from Europe, the state news agency reported on Wednesday, a sweeping response to Western sanctions imposed over its support for rebels in Ukraine.

The measures will hit consumers at home who rely on cheap imports, and on farmers in the West for whom Russia is a big market. Moscow is by far the biggest buyer of European fruit and vegetables and the second biggest importer of U.S. poultry.

Israel Says Hamas Will Pay Heavy Price for Soldiers Death

Israel said Palestinians on Saturday launched 86 rockets across the border.

(GAZA CITY) - Israel on Sunday declared dead a soldier feared abducted by Hamas Islamist militants in the Gaza Strip and said it would continue to fight even after the army completes destroying cross-border tunnels used by Palestinian fighters to attack its territory.

As Israeli television showed live footage of some tanks withdrawing from Gaza in an apparent winding down of the 26-day campaign, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Hamas would pay an "intolerable price" if it continued to attack Israel.

50 Palestinians Killed, over 200 Wounded as Ceasefire Falls Apart

The UN condemned Hamas's reported violation of the ceasefire and demanded the release of the soldier.

(JERUSALEM) - Israel declared a Gaza ceasefire over on Friday, saying Hamas militants breached the truce soon after it came into effect and apparently captured an Israeli officer while killing two other soldiers.

Renewed Israeli shelling killed more than 50 Palestinians and wounded some 220, hospital officials said.

Israel and Hamas Agree on 72-Hour Ceasefire

Israel and Palestinian delegations in the meantime will travel to Cairo for separate negotiations to reach a more durable ceasefire.

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) - A three-day ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian militant groups in the Gaza Strip went into effect on Friday, and negotiators were due to travel to Cairo to discuss a longer-term solution.

The 72-hour break, the most ambitious attempt so far to end more than three weeks of fighting, began at 1:00 a.m. EDT. The truce was announced in a joint statement released by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

Israel Agrees to Truce Extension; Hamas Answers by Launching Rockets

Late on Saturday, militants ignored an Israeli announcement that it would extend the truce by four hours and resumed firing rockets into Israel.

(JERUSALEM) - Israel's security cabinet approved extending the humanitarian ceasefire begun early on Saturday until midnight local time 5:00 p.m. on Sunday, an Israeli government official said.

"At the request of the United Nations, the cabinet has approved a humanitarian hiatus until tomorrow -- Sunday -- at 24:00. The IDF (Israel Defence Forces) will act against any breach of the ceasefire," the official, who was not named, said in a statement.