The Arab League (AL) on Saturday strongly condemned the Israeli offensive in northern Gaza Strip, calling on the United Nations to shoulder its responsibilities and pressurize Israel to halt such military operations at once.

A Kuwaiti company intends to set up a financing fund in Syria with a capital of 500 million U.S. dollars, Syria's official SANA news agency reported on Saturday.

Five people were killed and 17 others wounded when mortar rounds landed on a northern Baghdad neighborhood on Saturday night, a police source said.

U.S. President George W. Bush vowed on Saturday that the United States will not retreat from Iraq although the Iraq war has cost the lives of more than 2800 American servicemen.

Russia on Friday asked for a major revision of the UN Security Council draft resolution that seeks sanctions against Iran for its nuclear ambitions, diplomatic sources said.

Heads of states and governments attending the 16th Ibero-American Summit, starting here on Friday, are to rebuke the United States for its plan to build a fence along the Mexican border to keep out illegal immigrants .

Thailand's Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives (BAAC) and the European Commission (EU) are cooperating to help tsunami victims in southern Thailand, with the EU allocating 3.53 million Euros (about 4.46 million U.S. dollars) with an added 10 percent contributed by Thailand's government-owned BAAC.

U.S. Representative Bob Ney, a Republican from Ohio, resigned from Congress on Friday, three weeks after he pleaded guilty to a corruption scandal and four days before the midterm legislative elections.

A mail letter containing white powder was found in the New York offices of U.S. Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer, police said on Friday.

The Spanish government criticized the United States for trying to halt illegal immigration, through the building of new fencing along its border with Mexico, the Spanish foreign minister said here on Friday.