Israel rejects truce offer from militants

JEBALIYA, Gaza Strip -- The Palestinian prime minister said Friday that militants were prepared to stop firing rockets at Israel if it would halt all military action in Palestinian territories. Israel rejected the offer, saying it would respond positively only to a total truce.Similar proposals in the past have failed to curb fighting, and a spokesman for the ruling Hamas group quickly stepped back from the cease-fire talk, which came as fighting between militants and Israeli troops in Gaza claimed the lives of a 10-year-old Palestinian boy and a militant filming the clashes. A third Palestinian died Friday of wounds sustained in earlier violence. Israeli launched a military campaign in Gaza five months ago, in an unsuccessful attempt to curb militant rocket fire on Israeli border communities.

Lebanon's crisis worsens with two-day strike

BEIRUT, Lebanon -- Lebanon's political crisis worsened Friday, with government ministers fearing for their lives after an assassination of one of their own, businesses on strike and all sides ignoring calls for dialogue. Several hundred supporters of pro-Syria Hezbollah burned tires and blocked the road from Beirut to the airport before the Islamic militant group's leader ordered them home, but the U.S.-backed government pressed ahead with an issue that was likely to further anger Hezbollah. The Cabinet was to meet today to give its final approval to a U.N.-created international court to try four pro-Syrian generals suspected in the February 2005 killing of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. Tuesday's assassination of Interior Minister Pierre Gemayelan anti-Syrian Christian leader has reignited anger at Damascus, which dominated Lebanon for nearly three decades but was forced to withdraw its troops last year over accusations it was behind Hariri's killing.

Rwanda breaks ties with France over ruling

PARIS -- Rwanda severed diplomatic ties with France on Friday in response to a French judge's decision to issue international arrest warrants for nine ranking Rwandans suspected of plotting the 1994 killing of the African nation's president. The French Foreign Ministry said it regretted Rwanda's decision and was "taking all necessary arrangements." France's ambassador in Rwanda, Dominique Decherf, will leave the country today and the 29 other embassy personnel in the capital, Kigali, were leaving by Monday evening, embassy security chief Serge Kulmicht said. On Wednesday, a French investigating judge issued arrest warrants for nine ranking Rwandans suspected of plotting the downing of then-President Juvenal Habyarimana's airplane on April 6, 1994 -- an act that sparked the country's genocide. Late Thursday, Rwanda withdrew its ambassador, Emmanuel Ndagijimanam, from Paris for consultations, diplomat Parfait Gahamanyi said. The officials targeted by the French judge are close to Rwanda's current president, Paul Kagame, and the decision has enflamed tensions. Rwandan Justice Minister Tharcisse Karugarama said the move was a response to French "bullying."

U.N. panel cites torture, detentions in Chechnya

GENEVA -- A U.N. anti-torture panel said Friday it had credible reports of unofficial detention centers, abuse and disappearances in Russia's restive southern province of Chechnya. In a 12-page report on Russian compliance with a global ban on prisoner abuse, the U.N. Committee Against Torture said it had "reliable reports of unofficial places of detention in the North Caucasus," where security forces are trying to quell Muslim separatists. The committee, comprised of 10 independent experts, said it had learned of "allegations that those detained in such facilities face torture or cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment." Russian officials have disputed abuse accusations in the past. The U.N. committee's report also highlighted "numerous, ongoing and consistent allegations that abductions and enforced disappearances" in Chechnya were carried out by government officials or with their consent.

-- From wire reports