The latest town to come under Hamas control is Beit Hanoun, in the north.

Hamas has been the most powerful force in the current Palestinian uprising - reviled by Israelis for its suicide bomb attacks on them. The ongoing programme of local elections has marked Hamas's entry to mainstream, democratic politics. And last month it won landslide victories in seven out of the nine councils it fought for in Gaza.

Hamas swept aside the traditional Palestinian party of power, the Fatah faction that Yasser Arafat used to lead. Israelis regard Hamas as being among the most deadly of its enemies. Hamas clearly recognises that by going the route of democracy and the ballot box, it might well become an even more powerful player on the Palestinian political stage.

Pope John Paul II's condition has stabilised following overnight medical treatment that included respiratory assistance, the Vatican has said. The 84-year-old pontiff was rushed to Rome's Gemelli hospital with breathing difficulties on Tuesday night after a bout of flu suddenly worsened. The Vatican said in a statement later that the condition of the Pope's heart and lungs were "within normal limits". A spokesman added that he would remain in hospital "for another few days".

John Paul II is now in the 27th year of his pontificate which makes him almost the longest-reigning pope in history. The Pope - the leader of the world's estimated one billion Catholics - has visited more than 100 countries, and is estimated to have effectively circled the globe 27 times.

A 35-year-old woman is reported to be in a critical condition, after being taken hospital in Ho Chi Minh City. The four earlier cases have been fatal. Bird flu swept through Asia last year, killing more than 30 people and leading to culls of poultry in 10 countries.

A World Health Organization (WHO) expert has warned that many more could die if the virus is not contained. "If strong measures are not in place, the epidemic can spread to an unmeasurable extent," Hans Troedsso was quoted as saying at a conference in Hanoi on Thursday.

Pandemic fear: The outbreak in Vietnam was first reported last month, when the authorities said some 4,000 chickens had either died or been culled in the south of the country. More than 100 million birds have died or been killed around Asia last year because of the bird flu virus. The virus has killed 25 people in Vietnam and 12 in Thailand over the last 12 months.

Experts have warned of the risk of a world pandemic if bird flu combines with a human flu virus. The WHO on its website said the recent tsunami that devastated parts of South East Asia may have raised the risk of a pandemic. It said preventative measures need to be taken across the region to ensure the avian influenza is not imported to those areas made vulnerable by the tsunami.

The emergence of China and India as dominant consumers will drive up Asia's weightings in global financial markets and empower their governments, a top official at Baring Asset Management said yesterday.

Percival Stanion, head of multi-asset investment, said Baring's investments in Asia would rise by up to a quarter this year from around $3 billion and jump by five to six times over the next decade as Asia becomes the world's leading consumer.

"Availability of foreign capital and technology, competitive wage rates, favourable demographics and political structures are all coming together at the same time on a huge scale," he told Reuters in an interview.

Settlers in the occupied territories are expected to mount strong resistance. In the latest clash, while trying to evacuate illegal caravans from a settlement near Nablus, hundreds of soldiers and policemen were deployed after settlers fought security men, poured oil on roads and punctured tires on police and army vehicles.

The EU's foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, told BBC Radio 4's Today that the constitution was important for making the EU more efficient. He said he was sure Prime Minister Tony Blair would mount a solid defence of the constitution ahead of the vote. The referendum, which Tories say is flawed, is expected in spring 2006.

North Korea said Saturday that the risk of a nuclear war was mounting on the Korean peninsula as the United States attempts to stifle it by force.

It urged Washington to drop its hostile policy toward the communist state and demanded solidarity among all Koreans in order to drive out US troops stationed in South Korea, calling them the very source of a nuclear war.

The vanguard of a global relief effort converged on the tsunami-ravaged coasts of Indonesia and other stricken nations Friday as millions of survivors grew increasingly desperate and the death toll reached 124,000 from a disaster that cast a shroud over the world's New Year celebrations.

Officials issued a tsunami warning for as far away as Sri Lanka.

The US Geological Survey said the temblor, which occurred at 11:09 pm local time (11:09 am EST), measured a magnitude of 8.2. A later reading put the magnitude at 8.7, said Paul Earle, a USGS research geophysicist.

Tsunami warnings were issued in Thailand, Japan and Sri Lanka, although officials in Thailand later called it off for that country. The only tsunami reported within four hours was a tiny one - less than 4 inches - at the Cocos Islands, 1,400 miles west of Australia, meteorologists in Sydney said.

The worst damage was reported on Nias Island, off the Sumatran coast, close to the epicenter of the earthquake, and dozens may be buried in the rubble, said Agus Mendrofa, deputy district head on the island.

"Hundreds of buildings have been damaged or have collapsed. People who were standing fell over", Mendrofa said. "We're not sure about casualties, but there may be dozens of people buried in the rubble."

UN disaster relief coordinator Jan Egeland said there were unconfirmed reports of deaths. "The hard-hit population of western Sumatra have been again struck by a very large earthquake," Egeland said.

Nias, a renowned surfing spot, was badly hit by the December 26 earthquake and subsequent tsunami that killed at least 175,000 people in 12 Indian Ocean nations and left another 106,000 missing. At least 340 residents of Nias perished and 10,000 were left homeless.

Indonesian officials said the quake's epicenter was 56 miles south of the island of Simeulu, off of Sumatra's western coast, and just north of Nias. It was described by one of the agency's geologists as an aftershock of the devastating December 26 quake.

An aftershock measuring 6.0 was reported in the same region nearly 30 minutes later, the USGS said.

Addressing thousands in St Peter's Square, the pope said people of the 21st Century risked becoming "victims of their intellectual achievements". He decried the "menace" of terrorism, the "humiliation" of worldwide poverty and said pandemics and environmental destruction were dangerous new threats.

The Pope followed in the footsteps of his predecessor who died in April. Thousands of pilgrims, tourists and Romans gathered at a rain-soaked Vatican to hear Pope Benedict speak.

Fairness and wisdom: He urged the crowd not focus entirely on the "immense progress" made in science and technology during the previous millennium. "The men and women in our technical age risk becoming victims of their own intellectual and technical achievements, ending up in spiritual barrenness and emptiness of heart," the Pope said.

His warnings about the series of dangers facing humanity today came ahead of traditional prayer calls for peace and goodwill around the world. He prayed for those working for peace and against conflict in Africa and Asia, and for harmony in Latin America. In the Holy Land, Iraq and Lebanon, the pope said, signs of hope need to be confirmed by action inspired by "fairness and wisdom".

As Christmas began, the head of Iraq's Chaldean Christian church prayed for peace in Iraq and elsewhere. Ceremonies in Baghdad were held before dusk on Saturday in advance of a curfew. "I do not want to make a distinction between Christians and Muslims, we are all Iraqis," said Emmanuel II Delly. "A car bomb kills without distinguishing between Christians and Muslims."

In Bethlehem, revered as the birthplace of Jesus, Latin Patriarch Michel Sabbah, the senior Catholic cleric in the Holy Land, said the region was "thirsting for peace". "God created you not to fear or to kill each other but to love each other, to build and to cooperate together," he told crowds in Bethlehem, where Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas was attending his first Christmas Eve service.

August's Hurricane Katrina in the US alone is expected to cost $45 billion in claims, the world's second-biggest reinsurance company said. This will make it the most expensive ever insured single event.

Total economic losses caused by hurricanes, earthquakes and floods in 2005 reached $225 billion in 2005, it said.

Hurricane Andrew in 1992 was previously the most expensive single catastrophe, causing losses of $22 billion, Swiss Re said.

This was followed by the 11 September 2001 attacks on the US, costing nearly $21 billion.

Two other expensive storms in the US came in the wake of Katrina. Hurricane Rita cost $10 billion in insured losses and Wilma claimed $8 billion.

"The ongoing warm phase that has been measurable since the 1990s and the recent high hurricane frequency inspire little hope of the trend being reversed any time soon," Swiss Re warned.