Four Palestinian militants were killed and five others wounded on Thursday night in two separate airstrikes carried out by Israeli army aircraft in northern Gaza Strip, medics and eyewitnesses reported.

Lebanon's acting Interior Minister Ahmad Fatfat condemned on Thursday a rifle grenade attack that targeted a police barracks in Beirut on Wednesday, saying it was intended to create chaos in the country.

A visiting Iranian security official said here Thursday that his country is ready to offer Syria the required techniques and equipment in the field of security, the official SANA news agency reported.

A Dutch court ruled against navigation systems company TomTom on Thursday in a patent infringement lawsuit against rival navigation device maker Garmin from the United States, Dutch media reported on Thursday.

French President Jacques Chirac expressed to his Iraqi counterpart Jalal Talabani France's support for Iraq's national reconciliation and reconstruction, the French Presidential office announced on Thursday after the one-hour talk between the two presidents.

Cyprus promised Thursday its continued efforts for the Finnish initiative on Nicosia-Ankara ties after the rotating EU presidency decided to call off consultations with all parties concerned with a view to avert any crisis in EU-Turkish relations.

French President Jacques Chirac on Thursday told his Iraqi counterpart Jalal Talabani that it was important to fix a prospect of foreign forces' withdrawal from Iraq, the French leader's spokesman Jerome Bonnafont told the press. "Regarding the international troop's presence in Iraq, he (President Chirac) said that in the eyes of France, it is important to fix a prospect of withdrawal," Bonnafont said.

Romania's Minister of Justice Monica Macovei sent a letter on Thursday to head of the U.S. Justice Department Alberto Gonzales, asking for support for Mohammad Munaf to be heard by the Romanian courts before being transferred to Iraqi authorities.

Hezbollah on Thursday accused the United States of interfering Lebanese national unity, saying that Washington is using Lebanon to wage "war" against Syria and Iran.

Over 300 million youths are living below poverty line globally, said a report released here on Thursday by the International Labor Organization (ILO).