International Breaking News

Air strikes across the Gaza Strip killed 18 people on Monday, raising the Palestinian death toll to 95 on the sixth day of a relentless Israeli aerial campaign.
In the latest incident, one person was killed and two were wounded when a missile struck a car just north of Gaza City, medics said. There were no immediate details on identity of the victims.
Medics also said 22-year-old Ramadan Mahmud died of injuries suffered in Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza on Sunday.

Another three people also succumbed to injuries sustained in the violence, but the health ministry could not immediately provide details on their identities.
Elsewhere, a missile hit a motorcycle east of Khan Yunis in southern Gaza, killing two men and critically wounding a child who was with them, Gaza's ambulance service said.
The two were named as Abdullah Abu Khater, 30, and Mahmud Abu Khater, 32, but their relationship was not immediately clear.
An earlier strike on Qarara in the same area killed two farmers -- Ibrahim al-Astal and Obama al-Astal, medics said.
In a strike on southern Gaza City, a car was hit, killing one man and injuring another three, officials said, naming him as 23-year-old Mohammed Shamalah.
Shortly before that, three people were killed in a strike on a car in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza, all of them from the same family: Amir Bashir, Tamal Bashir and Salah Bashir.
Early in the day, two women and a child were among four killed in a strike on Gaza City's eastern Zeitun neighbourhood -- Nisma Abu Zorr, 23, Mohammed Abu Zorr, five, Saha Abu Zorr, 20 and Ahid al-Qatati, 35.
And medics said another man had been found dead in the northern town of Beit Lahiya, naming him as Abdel Rahman al-Atar, a 50-year-old farmer.
Italy, Qatar urge immediate ceasefire in GazaItalian Prime Minister Mario Monti and his Qatari counterpart urged an immediate ceasefire in Gaza on Monday.
"We are very worried about the escalating violence," Monti said at a joint news conference in Doha with Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem al-Thani.
"A ceasefire must quickly be reached to allow the peace process to begin as soon as possible," he told reporters according to an official translation.
The Qatari prime minister described the events in the Gaza Strip as "unacceptable" and echoed his counterpart by calling both sides to commit to a ceasefire.
"We are for a return of calm. But this must happen clearly and no side must be allowed to continue to assassinate or initiate side battles," said Sheikh Hamad. "A truce must be observed from both sides."
As fighting continued on Monday, ceasefire efforts gathered steam, with senior Hamas officials in Cairo saying Egyptian-led talks on Sunday with Israel were "positive" but now focused on the need to guarantee the terms of any truce.
Monti said his government was in contact with "Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the Palestinian Authority, as well as Qatar's emir and its prime minister".
The Qatari premier also called for "lifting the oppressive blockade on Gaza."
In October, Qatar's emir was the first head of state to visit Gaza since the Palestinian group Hamas seized it from forces loyal to Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas in 2007.