Gaza  - Hamas fighters battling Israeli troops in the Gaza Strip would soon see victory, the movement's leader Ismail Haniya said Monday night.

Speaking in a pre-recorded televised speech carried on Hamas' al- Aqsa television, an exhausted-looking Haniya said Hamas had an "appointment to meet soon with victory against an enemy which has shown no mercy to stones, trees and humans."

Tehran  - Iran's former president Mohammad Khatami indicated Monday he could still take part in next June's presidential election, ISNA news agency reported.

"I swear to God that my hesitance and thorough evaluations to run in the election does not mean that I am running away from responsibility or consider my own expediency," Khatami said in a speech in Ilam, western Iran.

"The main issue is solely how to serve the people best," he said.

Copiapo, Chile  - Spanish leader Carlos Sainz on Monday closed in on Buenos Aires and victory in the Dakar rally as he picked up his fifth stage win of the race.

There was was further good news for Sainz's VW team as Touareg team-mates Mark Miller and Giniel de Villiers finished the 537 kilometre ninth stage from the Chilean towns of La Serena to Copiapo in second and third place.

Athens/Nicosia  - Rival leaders seeking a solution to reunify the divided Mediterranean island of Cyprus will soon embark upon the complex legal issue of settlement and property disputes, where thousands of individuals stake a claim on property seized decades ago, UN officials said Monday

Greek Cypriot leader Dimitris Chistofias and Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat discussed relations between a federal government and the constituent states during peace talks on Monday.

Cairo  - A Hamas delegation and a senior Turkish foreign policy advisor returned to Cairo from Damascus Monday, airport sources told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

Ahmet Davotoglu, chief foreign policy advisor to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, was in Damascus for talks with Hamas in Damascus and with the Syrian authorities. He returned to Cairo Monday evening by private plane, airport sources said.

London  - The husband of drug-and alcohol-afflicted British soul singer Amy Winehouse confirmed Monday that he is seeking a divorce from the talented star on the grounds of adultery after a marriage that lasted less than two years.

Solicitor Henri Brandman, who is representing 26-year-old Blake Fielder-Civil, said in a statement: "I can confirm that I have been instructed to commence divorce proceedings on the grounds of Amy's adultery."

Lawyers for the 25-year-old singer Monday acknowledged receipt of the divorce papers.