Crude Oil Futures opened more than 4 percent higher on Monday after the Hamas attack on Israel during the weekend.

Gaza City/Cairo - Rival Palestinian factions of Hamas and Fatah began a fourth round of Egyptian-brokered unity talks in Cairo Monday. The latest round of talks comes amid renewed US efforts to revive the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and US special envoy George Mitchell recently completed diplomatic tours of the region, and US President Barack Obama last week met with Jordan's King Abdallah in Washington.

Gaza City - A senior Hamas leader hinted Thursday that the radical Islamist movement would extend its term in the Palestinian parliament if no agreement was reached with the rival Fatah party.

If an agreement was reached before January 2010, when the term of the current Hamas-dominated parliament expires, the elections would take place that month, "but if the agreement is not reached before January 25, then we will communicate with the factions to endorse a new period," said Mahmoud Zahar, a Hamas leader based in the Gaza Strip.

Cairo/Rafah - Egyptian police shot dead a Bedouin in the northern Sinai on Saturday, with the man found to be driving a truck loaded with munitions and heading for Gaza, a security official told the German Press Agency dpa. Both sides exchanged fire in the incident some 40 kilometres west of the city of Arish.

In a separate development, security sources disclosed that security forces have arrested five people with five million Egyptian pounds (some 1 million dollars) which they were planning to smuggle to Gaza through tunnels in Rafah.

Gaza - Hamas authorities in the Gaza Strip will begin removing the debris and rubble from December-January's 22-day conflict with Israel next week, the movement's public works minister said on Saturday.

"Next week will witness the beginning of removal of the debris of the houses that were demolished during the aggression," said Yousef al-Manssi, Hamas' public works minister. "The government will rebuild the houses with new designs."

"The government opens the door for anyone who wants to help," he added.

Gaza  - Palestinian medics on Saturday confirmed that two fighters were killed during armed clashes with Israeli forces in the northeast of the Gaza Strip.

The Israeli army also confirmed that its forces killed two militants said to have been planting bombs near the security fence that separates between Israeli and Palestinian territories in the east of Jabaliya refugee camp.

Earlier, the medical sources were unable to confirm reports that the two fighters had died.