A succession of top US officials have travelled to the West Bank in recent weeks to meet with Mahmoud Abbas in the hope the 88-year-old – a spectator in the war between Israel and Hamas – can overhaul his unpopular Palestinian Authority enough to run Gaza after the conflict.

Last December, it took nearly 65pc stake in NDTV

Vladimir Putin will run for president again as an independent candidate with a wide support base but not on a party ticket, Russian news agencies reported on Saturday, citing his supporters

The three hostages killed by Israeli soldiers in Gaza were shot even as they carried a white flag and cried for help in Hebrew, an army official said on Saturday

The emir of oil-rich Kuwait, Sheikh Nawaf al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, died on Saturday, the royal court said, after three years in power

Dozens of Palestinians were killed in Gaza on Saturday in air strikes by Israel, said Palestinian media, after the US urged Israel to scale down its military campaign and narrowly target Hamas leaders

Sri Lanka's economy grew in the September quarter, the central bank said Saturday, its first expansion since a foreign exchange shortage forced a debt default last year

Israel said its troops had killed three Gaza hostages after mistaking them for a threat, with the armed forces expressing "deep remorse" over a "tragic incident" that sparked protests in Tel Aviv

An Israeli attack killed an Al Jazeera journalist and wounded his colleague in the Gaza Strip on Friday, the Qatari network reported

Israeli forces and Hamas fought fierce battles throughout Gaza yesterday, witnesses said, suggesting Israel’s ground offensive was meeting stiffer resistance as the US nudged its ally to change a strategy that has inflicted a huge civilian death toll.

Fighting between the Sudanese army and paramilitaries on the outskirts of Wad Madani sent already displaced families fleeing again yesterday, an AFP correspondent reported, as a civil war entered its ninth month.

A Pakistan court has banned media from reporting on proceedings in a closed-door trial of jailed former prime minister Imran Khan on charges of leaking state secrets, raising concerns about transparency ahead of national elections in February.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban vetoed a major European Union aid package for Ukraine yesterday and warned he could still halt Kyiv’s accession to the bloc after membership talks won EU approval.

A UK judge ruled yesterday that Prince Harry was a victim of phone hacking by journalists working for Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN), and awarded the royal £140,600 ($179,600) in damages.

Jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has been removed from a prison near Moscow and taken to an undisclosed location, his spokeswoman said yesterday, citing a court representative.

Hunger and desperation are driving people to seize humanitarian aid being delivered to the Gaza Strip, the United Nations said Thursday, warning of a “breakdown of civil order”.

Israel's ambassador to the UK said that Israel has no plans to allow the Palestinians to form an independent state. Her comments came amid growing international pressure on Israel for a ceasefire in Gaza. Watch Star Newsbytes to learn more

Israeli and Hamas forces battled throughout Gaza on Friday, witnesses said, suggesting Israel's ground offensive was meeting stiffer resistance as the US pushed its ally to alter a war strategy that has inflicted a huge civilian death toll

Western nations and the European Union Friday urged Israel to "take concrete steps to halt unprecedented violence by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank," in a joint statement published by France's foreign ministry

11 Iran police killed in jihadist-claimed attack.AFP, Tehran, Iran.At least 11 Iranian police officers were killed in a jihadist-claimed attack overnight on a police station in the southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchistan, an official told state television on Friday