Ex-IAF chief Tipnis blames Nehru for defeat in 1962 China war

NEW DELHI: A former IAF Chief Air Chief Marshal (retd) A Y Tipnis has sought to blame former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru for India's defeat in the 1962 war with China, amid a continuing debate on why air power was not used during the conflict.

Speaking at a seminar 'India and China: After five decades of 1962 war' here, Tipnis also alleged that Nehru had surrendered national security interests to realise his "ambition" to be a world leader.

"It was more or less universally accepted perhaps grudgingly not openly in some Indian quarters that to serve the dubious purpose of political survival that Pandit Nehru with his grandiose vision of a conflict free non-alligned world surrendered vital national security interest to the ambition of being a world leader," he said.

The remarks made yesterday came against the backdrop of the recent comments by the current Indian Air Force Chief Air Chief Marshal N A K Browne that the outcome of the 1962 war with China would have been different had the IAF been used in an offensive role.

Asked to expand on his remarks, Tipnis today said Nehru was the "major contributor" for India's debacle.

72-year-old Tipnis, who had a three-year tenure as IAF Chief from December 31, 1998 was commissioned as a fighter pilot in 1960, two years before the hostilities broke out between India and China.

Tipnis said he had also seen an Army Chief in those days being "ticked off" like a school-boy by Prime Minister Nehru for his alleged petulance.

The issue of IAF not being used in the 1962 hostilities is still debated by military historians and experts and there is no clarity as to why the air force was not used.

Browne had said the IAF was not allowed to be used in an offensive role and confined only to provide transport support to the Army. "These are open and glaring lessons we should have imbibed," he added.

For the first time in last 50 years, India celebrated the anniversary of the 1962 war with China on October 20 where Defence Minister A K Antony along with the three Services chiefs laid wreaths on the Amar Jawan Jyoti to pay tributes to the martyrs and participants of the war.

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New push for most in US to get at least 1 HIV test

WASHINGTON (AP) — There's a new push to make testing for the AIDS virus as common as cholesterol checks.

Americans ages 15 to 64 should get an HIV test at least once — not just people considered at high risk for the virus, an independent panel that sets screening guidelines proposed Monday.

The draft guidelines from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force are the latest recommendations that aim to make HIV screening simply a routine part of a check-up, something a doctor can order with as little fuss as a cholesterol test or a mammogram. Since 2006, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also has pushed for widespread, routine HIV screening.

Yet not nearly enough people have heeded that call: Of the more than 1.1 million Americans living with HIV, nearly 1 in 5 — almost 240,000 people — don't know it. Not only is their own health at risk without treatment, they could unwittingly be spreading the virus to others.

The updated guidelines will bring this long-simmering issue before doctors and their patients again — emphasizing that public health experts agree on how important it is to test even people who don't think they're at risk, because they could be.

"It allows you to say, 'This is a recommended test that we believe everybody should have. We're not singling you out in any way,'" said task force member Dr. Douglas Owens of Stanford University and the Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System.

And if finalized, the task force guidelines could extend the number of people eligible for an HIV screening without a copay in their doctor's office, as part of free preventive care under the Obama administration's health care law. Under the task force's previous guidelines, only people at increased risk for HIV — which includes gay and bisexual men and injecting drug users — were eligible for that no-copay screening.

There are a number of ways to get tested. If you're having blood drawn for other exams, the doctor can merely add HIV to the list, no extra pokes or swabs needed. Today's rapid tests can cost less than $20 and require just rubbing a swab over the gums, with results ready in as little as 20 minutes. Last summer, the government approved a do-it-yourself at-home version that's selling for about $40.

Free testing is available through various community programs around the country, including a CDC pilot program in drugstores in 24 cities and rural sites.

Monday's proposal also recommends:

—Testing people older and younger than 15-64 if they are at increased risk of HIV infection,

—People at very high risk for HIV infection should be tested at least annually.

—It's not clear how often to retest people at somewhat increased risk, but perhaps every three to five years.

—Women should be tested during each pregnancy, something the task force has long recommended.

The draft guidelines are open for public comment through Dec. 17.

Most of the 50,000 new HIV infections in the U.S. every year are among gay and bisexual men, followed by heterosexual black women.

"We are not doing as well in America with HIV testing as we would like," Dr. Jonathan Mermin, CDC's HIV prevention chief, said Monday.

The CDC recommends at least one routine test for everyone ages 13 to 64, starting two years younger than the task force recommended. That small difference aside, CDC data suggests fewer than half of adults under 65 have been tested.

"It can sometimes be awkward to ask your doctor for an HIV test," Mermin said — the reason that making it routine during any health care encounter could help.

But even though nearly three-fourths of gay and bisexual men with undiagnosed HIV had visited some sort of health provider in the previous year, 48 percent weren't tested for HIV, a recent CDC survey found. Emergency rooms are considered a good spot to catch the undiagnosed, after their illnesses and injuries have been treated, but Mermin said only about 2 percent of ER patients known to be at increased risk were tested while there.

Mermin calls that "a tragedy. It's a missed opportunity."

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Clinton Heading to Middle East to Meet With Leaders

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is headed to the Middle East with the hope that she can help bring an end to the escalating violence that has gripped the region for the last week.

Clinton is scheduled to arrive in Jerusalem later tonight to meet with Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes. Clinton will also meet with Palestinian officials in Ramallah before heading to Cairo to meet with leaders in Egypt.

A senior Israeli government official told ABC News that Netanyahu has decided to hold off on a ground invasion for a "limited time" in favor of a diplomatic solution.

Overnight, Israeli jets hit more than 100 targets, killing five people. Gaza militants blasted more than 60 rockets in retaliation, with one of them hitting a bus in southern Israel.

Click HERE for Photos from Airstrikes and Rocket Attacks in the Middle East

An Israeli man armed with an axe and knife stabbed a guard at the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv. The guard was wounded in the attack, but expected to live. Police apprehended the man at the scene, police said.

The man, in his early 40s, attacked the guard outside the embassy gates, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told The Associated Press. He said the man's motive was unknown, but political motives were not suspected and the incident had nothing to do with Israel's battle with Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip.

Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: Families Pray for Ceasefire Watch Video

Middle East on the Brink: Israel Prepared to Invade Gaza Watch Video

Gaza Violence: More Missiles Fired, Death Toll Rises Watch Video

"It's in nobody's interest to see this escalate," Rhodes said at a press conference in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, where President Obama is attending the East Asia Summit.

Clinton, who was with Obama on his trip to Southeast Asia, hastily departed from Cambodia for the Middle East following the announcement.

A State Department official tells ABC News that Clinton's visit "will build on American engagement with regional leaders over the past days."

A White House official said they believe face-to-face diplomacy could help, but no concrete details were offered.

President Obama was on the phone until 2:30 a.m. local time with leaders in the region trying to de-escalate the violence, Rhodes told reporters. The president spoke with Netanyahu and Egyptian President Morsi on Monday as well.

"To date, we're encouraged by the cooperation and the consultation we've had with the Egyptian leadership. We want to see that, again, support a process that can de-escalate the situation," Rhodes said. "But again, the bottom line still remains that Hamas has to stop this rocket fire."

Rhodes insisted that Palestinian officials need to be a part of the discussions to end the violence and rocket fire coming out of the Hamas-ruled territory.

"The Palestinian Authority, as the elected leaders of the Palestinian people, need to be a part of this discussion," Rhodes said. "And they're clearly going to play a role in the future of the Palestinian people—a leading role."

With the death toll rising, Egypt accelerated efforts to broker a cease-fire Monday. Anger boiled over in Gaza as the death toll passed 100 and the civilian casualties mounted. Volleys of Palestinian militant rockets flew into Israel as Israeli drones buzzed endlessly overhead and warplanes streaked through the air to unleash missile strikes.

An Israeli strike on a Gaza City high-rise Monday killed Ramez Harb, one of the top militant leaders of Islamic Jihad, the Palestinian militant group said.

It is also the second high profile commander taken out in the Israeli offensive, which began seven days ago with a missile strike that killed Ahmed Jibari, Hamas' top military commander.

ABC News' Reena Ninan, Dana Hughes, Mary Bruce and Matt Gutman contributed to this report.

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Israel says prefers diplomacy but ready to invade Gaza

GAZA/JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel bombed dozens of targets in Gaza on Monday and said that while it was prepared to step up its offensive by sending in troops, it preferred a diplomatic solution that would end Palestinian rocket fire from the enclave.

Mediator Egypt said a deal for a truce to end the fighting could be close. The leader of Hamas said it was up to Israel to end the new conflict it had started. Israel says its strikes are to halt Palestinian missile attacks.

Twelve Palestinian civilians and four fighters were killed in the air strikes, bringing the Gaza death toll since fighting began on Wednesday to 90, more than half of them non-combatants, local officials said. Three Israeli civilians have been killed.

After an overnight lull, militants in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip fired 45 rockets at southern Israel, causing no casualties, police said. One damaged a school, but it was closed at the time.

Among targets struck in Gaza on Monday, Israeli missiles blasted a tower block housing international media for the second straight day. One person was killed there, described by a source in militant groups Islamic Jihad as one of its fighters.

Khaled Meshaal, exiled leader of Hamas, the Islamist group that rules the coastal strip, said Israel had failed to achieve its objectives. A truce was possible, but Hamas would not accept Israeli demands. Israel must first halt its strikes and lift its blockade of the enclave, he said.

"The weapons of the resistance have caught the enemy off guard," he told a news conference in Cairo [ID:nL5E8MJEI0]

"Whoever started the war must end it," he said, adding Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had asked for a truce, an assertion that a senior Israeli official dismissed as untrue.

Although 84 percent of Israelis supported the current Gaza assault, according to a Haaretz poll, only 30 percent wanted an invasion, while 19 percent wanted their government to work on securing a truce soon.

Thousands turned out on Gaza's streets to mourn four children and five women, among 11 people killed in an Israeli strike that flattened a three-storey home the previous day.

The bodies were wrapped in Palestinian and Hamas flags. Echoes of explosions mixed with cries of grief and defiant chants of "God is greatest".

The deaths of the 11 in an air strike drew more international calls for an end to six days of hostilities and could test Western support for an offensive Israel billed as self-defense after years of cross-border rocket attacks.

Israel said it was investigating its air strike that brought the home crashing down on the al-Dalu family, where the dead spanned four generations. Some Israeli newspapers said the wrong house may have been mistakenly targeted.

DIPLOMATS SEEK TRUCE

Egypt, where newly-elected President Mohamed Mursi has his roots in the Muslim Brotherhood seen as mentors to Hamas, is acting as a mediator in the biggest test yet of Cairo's 1979 peace treaty with Israel since the fall of Hosni Mubarak.

Egyptian negotiators could be close to achieving a deal between Israel and the Palestinians to stop the fighting, said Mursi's Prime Minister Hisham Kandil, who visited Gaza on Friday in a show of support for its people.

"I think we are close, but the nature of this kind of negotiation, (means) it is very difficult to predict," Kandil said in an interview in Cairo for the Reuters Middle East Investment Summit. Egypt has been hosting leaders of both Hamas and Islamic Jihad, a smaller armed faction.

Israeli media said a delegation from Israel had also been to Cairo for truce talks. A spokesman for Netanyahu's government declined comment on the matter.

"Israel is prepared and has taken steps, and is ready for a ground incursion which will deal severely with the Hamas military machine," a senior official close to Netanyahu told Reuters.

"We would prefer to see a diplomatic solution that would guarantee the peace for Israel's population in the south. If that is possible, then a ground operation would no longer be required. If diplomacy fails, we may well have no alternative but to send in ground forces," he added.

That language echoed that of U.S. President Barack Obama, who said on Sunday it would be "preferable" to avoid a move into Gaza, but that Israel had a right to self-defense and no country would tolerate missiles raining down on its citizens.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was also due to arrive in Cairo to weigh in on ceasefire efforts. Egypt's foreign minister is expected to visit Gaza on Tuesday with a delegation of Arab ministers.

In scenes recalling Israel's 2008-2009 winter invasion of Gaza, tanks, artillery and infantry have massed in field encampments along the sandy, fenced-off Gaza border and military convoys moved on roads in the area.

Israel has also authorized the call-up of 75,000 military reservists, so far mobilizing around half that number.

WORLD CONCERN

The Gaza fighting adds to worries of world powers watching an already combustible region, where several Arab autocrats have been toppled in popular revolts for the past two years and a civil war in Syria threatens to spread beyond its borders.

In the absence of any prospect of permanent peace between Israel and Islamist factions such as Hamas, mediated deals for each to hold fire unilaterally have been the only formula for stemming bloodshed in the past.

Izzat Risheq, aide to Meshaal, wrote on Facebook that Hamas would enter a truce only after Israel "stops its aggression, ends its policy of targeted assassinations and lifts the blockade of Gaza".

Listing Israel's terms, Vice Prime Minister Moshe Yaalon wrote on Twitter: "If there is quiet in the south and no rockets and missiles are fired at Israel's citizens, nor terrorist attacks engineered from the Gaza Strip, we will not attack."

Yaalon also said Israel wanted an end to Gaza guerrilla activity in the neighboring Egyptian Sinai peninsula.

Israel bombed some 80 sites in Gaza overnight, the military said, adding in a statement that targets included "underground rocket launching sites, terror tunnels and training bases" as well as "buildings owned by senior terrorist operatives".

Netanyahu has said he assured world leaders Israel was doing its utmost to avoid causing civilian casualties. At least 22 of the Gaza fatalities have been children, medical officials said.

A big rocket strike could be enough for Netanyahu to give a green light for a Gaza invasion, despite the political risks before a January vote that is expected to see him re-elected.

Israel's declared goal is to deplete Gaza arsenals and force Hamas to stop rocket fire that has hit Israeli border towns for years. The rockets now have greater range: several projectiles have targeted Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. None hit the two cities. Some were shot down by Israel's Iron Dome interceptor system.

Hamas and other groups in Gaza are sworn enemies of the Jewish state which they refuse to recognize and seek to eradicate, claiming all Israeli territory as rightfully theirs.

Hamas won legislative elections in the Palestinian Territories in 2006 but a year later, after the collapse of a unity government under President Mahmoud Abbas, the Islamist group seized Gaza in a brief civil war with Abbas's forces.

(Writing by Jeffrey Heller, Dan Williams and Peter Graff)

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US existing home sales jump as supply tightens

WASHINGTON: US existing home sales picked up in October despite the market in the northeast being shut down in the last days of the month by Hurricane Sandy, a realtors group said on Monday.

Existing home sales rose 2.1 percent over September, hitting an annual pace of 4.79 million units, pulled up by a 4.4 percent rise in the West, according to the National Association of Realtors.

Sales in the South gained 2.1 percent, and the Midwest 1.8 percent, while the Northeast saw a 1.7 percent decline, in part due to the superstorm which wreaked havoc on the densely populated eastern New York-New Jersey region in the final days of the month.

Year-on-year sales nationally were up 10.9 percent from a year earlier, and the national median price, $178,600, was 11.1 percent higher.

"Home sales continue to trend up and most October transactions were completed by the time the storm hit, but the growing demand with limited inventory is pressuring home prices in much of the country," said NAR economist Lawrence Yun.

"We expect an impact on northeastern home sales in the coming months from a pause and delays in storm-impacted regions."

Around one-quarter of all sales were "distressed" sales: homes forced on the market by lender foreclosures and short sales, reflecting the still deep impact of the crash of the housing market six years ago, according to NAR.

The inventory of homes available for sale continued to tighten. Inventory dropped to a 5.4-month supply, at current sales rates, to its lowest level since February 2006, and down from 7.6 months of supply a year ago.

- AFP/de

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International co-operation necessary to track corruption and recover assets: CBI special director

KOLKATA: The need of the hour is to build international co-operation among law enforcement agencies to battle global corruption and recover assets, V K Gupta, special director, CBI said at the 2nd Interpol Global Programme on Anti Corruption and Asset Recovery in New Delhi on Monday. The theme of the programme is "Corruption - A Multi Jurisdictional Investigation". It is being attended by over 29 participants from the Maldives, Malaysia, Fiji, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Bhutan, Nepal and India. Senior Interpol officers are also participating in the programme.

Gupta inaugurated the conference and said that corruption has taken centrestage in many countries and emerged as the most important issue concerning polity and public life. According to him, the battle against global corruption has to be fought at many levels. "The design of any government's development programme should provide more transparency and accountability. Systems and procedures which are opaque, complicated, centralized and discretionary are a fertile breeding ground for the evil of corruption. Countries need to engage with each at different levels to effectively block all physical escape routes for fugitives who are blatantly indulging in corrupt practices," the special director said.

CBI special director K Saleem Ali said that asset recovery and impounding of proceeds of corruption is extremely important. According to him, this is one factor that really hits those indulging in corrupt activities. "An 'ethical ambience' is required in society which promotes transparency, accountability and equitable distribution of powers to combat the menace of corruption," he said.

Additional director R K Dutta said that new sophisticated and ingenuous methods are being adopted by those indulging in corruption, to transfer proceeds of crime to various countries through dubious channels. He said that there is a need for law enforcement agencies to equip themselves with updated knowledge, skills and techniques to fight corruption.

The five-day Interpol Global programme, being organized by the CBI, will have over 14 sessions to be addressed by experts from Interpol, CBI, NIA, FBI, World Bank, Europol, CFSL and other law enforcement organizations. Some of the issues to be dealt with include Role of international Organizations in Asset Recovery, Active Vs Passive Bribery, Intelligence Collection in Anti-Corruption Cases & Asset Recovery, Detection, Investigation and Prosecution of Corruption in Exploitation of Natural Resources, Computer Forensics, and issues in mutual legal assistance and extradition in asset tracking and recovery.

The CBI, the Interpol's National Central Bureau in India, had organized the first such Interpol Global programme in February, 2012.

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EU drug regulator OKs Novartis' meningitis B shot

LONDON (AP) — Europe's top drug regulator has recommended approval for the first vaccine against meningitis B, made by Novartis AG.

There are five types of bacterial meningitis. While vaccines exist to protect against the other four, none has previously been licensed for type B meningitis. In Europe, type B is the most common, causing 3,000 to 5,000 cases every year.

Meningitis mainly affects infants and children. It kills about 8 percent of patients and leaves others with lifelong consequences such as brain damage.

In a statement on Friday, Andrin Oswald of Novartis said he is "proud of the major advance" the company has made in developing its vaccine Bexsero. It is aimed at children over two months of age, and Novartis is hoping countries will include the shot among the routine ones for childhood diseases such as measles.

Novartis said the immunization has had side effects such as fever and redness at the injection site.

Recommendations from the European Medicines Agency are usually adopted by the European Commission. Novartis also is seeking to test the vaccine in the U.S.

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Friend Says Broadwell Regrets Damage of Affair

A family friend of Paula Broadwell, the author who carried on an affair with former CIA Director David Petraeus, tells ABC News that Broadwell "deeply regrets the damage that's been done to her family" from the dalliance.

The person close to Broadwell also told ABC News Sunday night, that Broadwell is devastated by the fallout, which led to Petraeus' resignation from the CIA. The friend spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly.

Broadwell, her husband, Scott, and their two young sons, drove back to their home in Charlotte, N.C., Sunday, according to the friend. The family was greeted by more than 25 supportive friends and neighbors upon their arrival.

Broadwell didn't react to reporters gathered outside the home, but her husband said "no comment at this time" and a possible statement would be coming soon, according to ABC News affiliate WSOC.

The 40-year-old author, who wrote the biography on Gen. Petraeus, "All In," spent more than a week at her brother's Washington, D.C., home after news broke of the affair. The friend says Broadwell is now trying to "focus on her family."

Broadwell faces a critical decision from prosecutors who must decide whether to charge her with mishandling classified information for allegedly taking secret files from secure government buildings. That's a potential violation of federal law, but authorities may allow the military to discipline her.

Petraeus' Closed Door Benghazi Attack Testimony Watch Video

David Petraeus to Testify on Benghazi Attack Watch Video

The case is complicated by the fact that, as an intelligence officer in the U.S. Military Reserve, Broadwell had security clearance to review the documents.

"The whole thought or idea that you have classified information on your personal computer at home, I'm sure violates some Army regulations if nothing else," said former FBI agent and ABC News consultant Brad Garrett.

Petraeus hired a top Washington D.C. lawyer over the weekend to help him navigate the fallout from the career-ending affair. The lawyer, Robert Barnett, of Williams & Connolly, is known for negotiating book deals for the political elite, from President Barack Obama to one-time vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin.

On Friday, Petraeus spent almost four hours in closed-door hearings before the House and Senate intelligence committees to testify about what he learned first-hand about the Sept. 11 attack in the U.S. consulate in Benghazi.

He expressed regret for his affair during his opening statements before the Senate, but the committee was more interested in finding out what Petraeus learned from his trip to Libya in the days after the killings.

Meanwhile, the rest of the characters caught in this widening sex scandal struggled under the hot glare of constant media attention.

Jill Kelley, the Florida socialite who sparked an FBI investigation into the affair, sought to keep a low profile as a close friend defended her to ABC News.

"Jill Kelley is a good friend. The best kind of a friend. The one that would keep a secret. The friend that you could trust," Don Phillips said.

Still, that didn't stop "Saturday Night Live" from opening their show with actress Cecilia Strong playing Broadwell, reading excerpts of her biography on Petraeus with an erotic twist that sounded more like "Fifty Shades of Grey."

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Israel, Gaza fighting rages on as Egypt seeks truce

GAZA/JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel bombed Palestinian militant targets in the Gaza Strip from air and sea for a fifth straight day on Sunday, preparing for a possible ground invasion while also spelling out its conditions for a truce.

Palestinians launched dozens of rockets into Israel and targeted its commercial capital, Tel Aviv, for a fourth day. The "Iron Dome" missile shield shot down two of the rockets fired toward Israel's biggest city but falling debris from the interception hit a car, which caught fire. Its driver was not hurt.

In scenes recalling Israel's 2008-2009 winter invasion of the Gaza Strip, tanks, artillery and infantry massed in field encampments along the sandy border. Military convoys moved on roads in the area newly closed to civilian traffic.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel was ready to widen its offensive.

"We are exacting a heavy price from Hamas and the terrorist organizations and the Israel Defence Forces are prepared for a significant expansion of the operation," Netanyahu said at a cabinet meeting, giving no further details.

Palestinian officials said 56 Palestinians, most of them civilians, including 16 children, have been killed in small, densely populated Gaza since the Israeli offensive began, with hundreds wounded. More than 500 rockets fired from Gaza have hit Israel, killing three civilians and wounding dozens.

Israel unleashed intensive air strikes on Wednesday, killing the military commander of the Islamist Hamas movement that governs Gaza and spurns peace with the Jewish state.

Israel's declared goal is to deplete Gaza arsenals and press Hamas into stopping cross-border rocket fire that has bedeviled Israeli border towns for years and is now displaying greater range, putting Tel Aviv and Jerusalem in the crosshairs.

AIR STRIKE ON MEDIA CENTRES

In air raids on Sunday, two Gaza City media buildings were hit, witnesses said. Eight journalists were wounded and facilities belonging to Hamas's Al-Aqsa TV as well as Britain's Sky News were damaged.

An employee of Beirut-based al Quds television station lost his leg in the attack, local medics said.

The Israeli military said the strike targeted a rooftop "transmission antenna used by Hamas to carry out terror activity", and that journalists in the building had effectively been used as human shields by the group.

Three other attacks killed three children and wounded 14 other people, medical officials said, with heavy detonations regularly jolting the Mediterranean coastal enclave.

Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi said in Cairo, as his security deputies sought to broker a truce with Hamas leaders, that "there are some indications that there is a possibility of a ceasefire soon, but we do not yet have firm guarantees".

Egypt has mediated previous ceasefire deals between Israel and Hamas, the latest of which unraveled with recent violence.

A Palestinian official told Reuters the truce discussions would continue in Cairo on Sunday, saying "there is hope", but that it was too early to say whether the efforts would succeed.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will be in Egypt on Monday for talks with Mursi, the foreign ministry in Cairo said. U.N. diplomats earlier said Ban was expected in Israel and Egypt this week to push for an end to the fighting.

Asked on Israel Radio about progress in the Cairo talks, Silvan Shalom, one of Netanyahu's deputies, said: "There are contacts, but they are currently far from being concluded."

Listing Israel's terms for ceasing fire, Moshe Yaalon, another deputy to the prime minister, wrote on Twitter: "If there is quiet in the south and no rockets and missiles are fired at Israel's citizens, nor terrorist attacks engineered from the Gaza Strip, we will not attack."

SYRIAN FRONT

Israel's military also saw action along the northern frontier, firing into Syria on Saturday in what it said was a response to shooting aimed at its troops in the occupied Golan Heights. Israel's chief military spokesman, citing Arab media, said it appeared Syrian soldiers were killed in the incident.

There were no reported casualties on the Israeli side from the shootings, the third case this month of violence that has been seen as a spillover of battles between Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's forces and rebels trying to overthrow him.

Israel's operation in the Gaza Strip has so far drawn Western support for what U.S. and European leaders have called its right to self-defense, but there was also a growing number of appeals from them to seek an end to the hostilities.

British Foreign Minister William Hague said on Sky News that he and Prime Minister David Cameron "stressed to our Israeli counterparts that a ground invasion of Gaza would lose Israel a lot of the international support and sympathy that they have in this situation".

Israel's cabinet decided on Friday to double the current reserve troop quota set for the Gaza campaign to 75,000. Some 31,000 soldiers have already been called up, the military said.

Netanyahu, in his comments at Sunday's cabinet session, said he had emphasized in telephone conversations with world leaders "the effort Israel is making to avoid harming civilians, while Hamas and the terrorist organizations are making every effort to hit civilian targets in Israel".

Israel withdrew settlers from Gaza in 2005 and two years later Hamas took control of the slender, impoverished territory, which the Israelis have kept under blockade.

NETANYAHU IN RE-ELECTION BID

Ben Rhodes, a deputy national security adviser to President Barack Obama, said the United States would like to see the conflict resolved through "de-escalation" and diplomacy, but also believed Israel had the right to self-defense.

A possible sweep into the Gaza Strip and the risk of major casualties it brings would be a significant gamble for Netanyahu, favored to win a January election.

The last Gaza war, a three-week Israeli blitz and invasion four years ago, killed 1,400 Palestinians, mostly civilians. Thirteen Israelis died in the conflict.

The current flare-up around Gaza has fanned the fires of a Middle East ignited by a series of Arab uprisings and a civil war in Syria that threatens to spread beyond its borders.

One significant change has been the election of an Islamist government in Cairo that is allied with Hamas, which may narrow Israel's maneuvering room in confronting the Palestinian group. Israel and Egypt made peace in 1979.

On Saturday, Israeli aircraft bombed Hamas government buildings in Gaza, including the offices of Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh and a police headquarters.

Israel's Iron Dome missile interceptor system has destroyed more than 200 incoming rockets from Gaza in mid-air since Wednesday, saving Israeli towns and cities from potentially significant damage.

However, one rocket salvo unleashed on Sunday evaded Iron Dome and wounded two people when it hit a house in the coastal city of Ashkelon, police said.

(Additional reporting by Maayan Lubell in Jerusalem and London bureau, Writing by Jeffrey Heller)

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Football: Singapore Lions get new team kit

SINGAPORE: The Singapore Lions will get a new look with the launch of a new national team kit.

The signature red kit will make its debut at next week's ASEAN Football Federation's Suzuki Cup, where the Lions are gunning for a record fourth win.

But they will have to first get past arch-rivals and defending champions Malaysia.

The Lions are raring - with Safuwan Baharudin relishing the challenge of Malaysian star striker Safee Sali.

The 21-year-old defender admitted it is important to win their friendly against Pakistan on Monday.

Mr Baharudin said: "We are hoping to get our first win. I think we haven't been winning quite a number of matches, so it'll be great to get our first win before we go to the Malaysia game."

- CNA/xq

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