AP - President Barack Obama warned Mahmoud Abbas in a letter that U.S.-Palestinian relations might suffer if the Palestinian leader refuses to resume direct peace talks with Israel, a senior PLO official said Saturday.

AFP - A rocket fired by Gaza militants slammed into southern Israel on Saturday night for the second time in less than 36 hours, causing damages but no casualties, the military said.

AFP - US websites that allow employers to transfer money to far-flung employees may have been used to secretly finance the assassination of a Hamas leader in Dubai, a US newspaper reported Saturday.

AFP - US President Barack Obama has warned Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas that failure to resume direct peace talks with Israel could undermine US-Palestinian ties, Palestinian officials said on Saturday.

Reuters - An Israeli air strike has killed a Hamas military commander and rocket-maker in the Gaza Strip, the Islamist group that rules the Palestinian territory said on Saturday.

AFP - Qatar's emir on Saturday made a high-profile visit to south Lebanon, a Hezbollah stronghold destroyed in a 2006 war with Israel and whose rebuilding the emirate is helping finance.

Reuters - Israel carried out air strikes on targets in the Gaza Strip on Friday after a rocket fired from the Palestinian territory exploded in the city of Ashkelon, witnesses said.

Reuters - Saudi King Abdullah and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad met Lebanon's rival leaders on Friday to stave off a crisis over a tribunal that may indict Hezbollah members in the killing of Lebanese statesman Rafik al-Hariri.