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Deutsche Welle

Israeli caretaker Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is set to convene the security cabinet this Friday to discuss the response to the United Nations Security Council resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. The cabinet will decide whether to accept the resolution or expand its Gaza offensive by sending ground troops deeper into populated areas. The Palestinian Islamist group Hamas has been quoted as saying it is not bound by the resolution as it was not involved in the negotiations. Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad al-Malki demanded that Israel implement the resolution immediately. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon welcomed the resolution, saying it could enable the UN to re-enter Gaza. Fourteen member nations voted for the proposal sponsored by Britain, while the US abstained. However, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said that Washington supports the resolution despite the abstention. 

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier says he is heading to the Middle East in support of the UN Security Council's resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza for talks with both sides of the conflict. Steinmeier said he would fly later this Friday for meetings with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the Egyptian city of Sharm el-Sheik on Saturday. He is scheduled to travel later to Israel to meet with officials there. Steinmeier called Thursday's UN resolution ''an important step'' that points to how a lasting ceasefire can be achieved. 

Israel is pushing ahead with its offensive in the Gaza Strip, ignoring a UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire to the 14-day-old conflict. Overnight, Israeli warplanes bombed the outskirts of Gaza City. Despite News agencies say seven Palestinians including children were killed. Earlier, a United Nations aid agency said it had suspended its operations in Gaza after Israeli soldiers fired on a convoy, killing a driver. The International Committee of the Red Cross is also restricting operations after one of its vehicles was hit by gunfire. Meanwhile the UN cited witness reports that Israeli forces evacuated about 110 Palestinians into a house, then shelled it 24 hours later, killing about 30 people. At least 770 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces so far, while ten Israeli soldiers have been killed. Hamas rocket fire has killed four Israeli civilians.

The European Union says that gas supplies should restart soon, after it struck a deal with Russia on supervising the flow of gas through Ukraine. Russia cut off the natural gas it sends to Europe through Ukraine on Wednesday when a payment dispute escalated. Russia claims Ukraine siphoned off gas for its own use. Ukraine denies this. EU monitors will go to Ukraine on Friday but it is unclear when Russia would start pumping gas again. The gas takes up to 36 hours to travel across Ukraine to the EU borders. Record-breaking below zero temperatures across much of Europe in the past week put increased pressure on negotiators to resolve the dispute.

US President-elect Barack Obama has mapped out his economic stimulus plan for the country. Speaking at the George Mason University in Fairfax, near Washington on Thursday, Obama cautioned that the US could lose a generation of potential and promise unless action is taken. Obama, who assumes office on January 20, predicted that unemployment could reach double-digit figures in the near future. He also pledged to offer working families a 1,000-dollar tax cut and to improve energy efficiency in millions of American homes, a move he hopes will create three million jobs and boost the economy. The recovery plan would extend jobless aid and healthcare coverage for the unemployed and include proposals to double production of alternative energy in the next three years.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has accused the US-led military coalition in his country of killing 17 civilians in an operation against militants in the eastern Laghman province. Karzai also condemned the insurgents for deliberately using civilians as "human shields".The US military says only Taliban fighters had been killed in the operation, which it says was aimed at the insurgency's roadside bomb network. In a separate incident, three civilians were killed and nine others injured in a suicide bomb attack that targeted a NATO-led convoy in the southern Kandahar province.

The newspaper Washington Post reports that an unnamed US counterterrorism official has said a senior member of the terrorist network al Qaeda has been killed in Pakistan. Operations chief in Pakistan Usama al-Kini, who is thought to be responsible for the truck bombing of a Marriott hotel in Islamabad that killed 55 people in September, and a top lieutenant are believed to be dead. The report says the two were killed by a missile fired by an unmanned drone aircraft. No further details on how they allegedly died have been released.

Shares in Germany's second biggest bank Commerzbank plummeted more than 14 percent in early trading on Friday after the government said it was part nationalizing the bank to help shore up its finances amid the global economic crisis. The Frankfurt-based bank's shares have come under pressure in recent weeks with the government's announcement that it was planning to hold a 25-percent-plus-one-share stake in the bank. As part of the government bailout, Commerzbank is to receive a 10-billion-euro capital injection from the bank rescue fund set up by Berlin to help the nation's financial sector. Commerzbank chief Martin Blessing said the money would also help finalize its over 5-billion-euro takeover of Dresdner Bank.