ISRAEL - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is hoping the offensive in the Gaza Strip wins his Likud party more votes in January's election. But the move is extremely risky. Skirmishes could escalate into a full-blown war that might weaken Hamas but shift Palestinian support behind even more radical groups. On Wednesday evening, he addressed the Israeli people with direct, aggressive words. "Today, we relayed a clear message to the Hamas organization and other terrorist organizations," he said. "If there is a need, the military is prepared to expand the operation." Defense Minister Ehud Barak also addressed reporters, saying that Hamas' "consistent provocation in recent weeks … forced our hand into acting with both precision and decisiveness."

ISRASEL - Barely one day into the fighting in Hamas-run Gaza, the locals are hard at work playing the victim for the world's press. Footage from the BBC captured by watchdog group Honest Reporting shows a heavy man lying on the ground and being carried away by residents, apparently after being injured by an Israeli attack. Moments later, that same man again fills the frame, except he is walking about and obviously unhurt. The widespread staging of such victim situations is a favored tactic of Arabs fighting Israel and has come to be known as "Pallywood." Because Israel is stronger militarily, the Arabs cling to the underdog image of poor refugees under occupation and siege by evil Israelis, thus eliciting sympathy.

ISRAEL - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said the country's military is prepared to extend its operation against Palestinian Islamist group Hamas in the Gaza Strip. His comments came after the head of the military wing of Hamas, Ahmed Said Khalil al-Jabari, was killed during Israeli air strikes on the territory. These followed a wave of rocket attacks against Israel from Gaza. "We've sent a clear message to Hamas and to other terrorist organisations," Mr Netanyahu said in a televised address on Wednesday evening. "And if there is a need, the Israeli Defence Forces are prepared to widen the operation. We will continue to do everything to defend our citizens."

ISRAEL - Hamas fired dozens of rockets into southern Israel on Thursday, killing three people, and Israel launched numerous air strikes across the Gaza Strip, threatening a wider offensive to halt repeated Palestinian salvoes. Israeli police said the three died when a Palestinian rocket hit a four-story building in the town of Kiryat Malachi, some 25 km (15 miles) north of Gaza. They were the first Israeli fatalities of the latest conflict to hit the coastal region. The UN Security Council held an emergency meeting late on Wednesday to discuss the Israeli assault. It called for a halt to the violence, but took no action.

ISRAEL - For the first time since the waves of suicide bombings in Israeli cities during the Palestinian uprising, Hamas could target Tel Aviv; such an attack could also jeopardize the political capital accrued by the prime minister and his defense minister. Tel Aviv is holding its breath. This war is the same war, fought for years far to the south, out of sight and firmly out of mind. But abruptly, without warning, it threatens to become Tel Aviv's war.

EUROPE - The eurozone has fallen into a double dip recession, as the debt crisis even manages to slow Germany's powerhouse economy to a virtual standstill. The 17-country region - which generates a fifth of global output - shrank by 0.1 per cent in the July-September period and by 0.2 per cent in the previous three months.

EUROPE - Demonstrations turned violent in Spain and Portugal after millions took part in a mostly peaceful general strike on Wednesday in organized labor's biggest Europe-wide challenge to austerity policies since the debt crisis began three years ago.

CHINA - Xi Jinping has been confirmed as the man chosen to lead China for the next decade. Mr Xi led the new Politburo Standing Committee onto the stage at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, signalling his elevation to the top of China's ruling Communist Party. The party faced great challenges, he said, and corruption had to be tackled. The new leaders, he said, would work "to live up to the expectations of both history and the people". Xi Jinping replaces Hu Jintao, under whose administration China has seen a decade of extraordinary growth. The move marks the official passing of power from one generation to the next.

CHINA - The new faces contain no surprises - as all of them are from the list of favourite names widely mentioned by the media. The new line-up shows that 86-year old former leader Jiang Zemin still has important influence, because at least four out of seven new members are widely seen as his allies. Meanwhile the outgoing leader Hu Jintao's three allies - Li Yuanchao, Liu Yuandong and Wang Yang - did not make it into the Standing Committee. Mr Hu has also given up his post as the chairman of the Central Military Commission, indicating he will fully retire from his political posts and stay away from political life too. The prospect of political reform now looks more unlikely as most of the new leaders are regarded as political conservatives.

ISRAEL - Hamas says that it is now in a state of "open war" indefinitely with Israel after the killing of the Hamas commander Ahmed Jabari by an Israeli airstrike. The assassination has "opened the gates of hell," the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, were quoted by AFP as saying. They vowed to "continue the path of resistance."

GERMANY - Beyond the banking world, a parallel universe of shadow banks has grown in the form of hedge funds and money market funds. They're outside the reach of conventional financial regulation, prompting authorities to plan introducing new rules to prevent the obscure sector from triggering a new financial crisis. But in doing so they risk drying up an important source of funding to banks and firms. Within a few years, the volume of financial transactions in the world of shadow banks grew from $27 trillion to $60 trillion today. Now regulators finally want to clamp down and set up a regulatory framework that has so far been conspicuous by its absence for this sector.

EUROPE - Workers across the European Union are staging a series of protests and strikes against rising unemployment and austerity measures. General strikes in Spain and Portugal halted transport, businesses and schools and led to clashes between police and protesters in Madrid. Smaller strikes were reported in Greece, Italy and Belgium, and rallies were planned in other countries.

UK - Travellers flying into and out of the UK were facing disruption today as workers across Europe prepared to stage a series of strikes against rising unemployment and austerity measures. The ETUC said in a statement: ''The ETUC strongly opposes the austerity measures which are plunging Europe into economic stagnation, recession, and dismantling the European social model. These measures, far from restoring confidence, are only aggravating imbalances and creating injustices.''

BRUSSELS, EUROPE - Eurozone leaders met for the umpteenth time in October in their latest attempt to shore up the faltering economies of Europe and restore confidence in the euro. Since the onset of the financial crisis in 2008, there has been an almost constant string of meetings among top policymakers in a concerted effort to resolve the debt crisis that has decimated the Greek economy and dragged the eurozone to the brink of its second recession in three years.

GERMANY/FRANCE - Given their self-appointed role as the European Union’s austerity enforcers, German leaders aren’t exactly troubled by being among the least popular figures within the crisis-rocked euro zone. That’s doubly good, given the German penchant of wrapping tough love within even tougher language — a combo now raising hackles in France after months of it ticking off the debt-laden nations of southern Europe.