Manama, Bahrain  - Bahraini police on Thursday broke up a protest calling for a halt to the ongoing Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip.

Protesters set the US flag on fire before disbanding.

No immediate clarification was given as to why police dispersed this protest, after allowing almost daily protests on the Gulf island nation since the Israeli offensive began.

Havana  - Cuban President Raul Castro expressed confidence in building stronger ties with Iran, after a meeting with a special envoy of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, local media reported Thursday.

Iranian Industry and Mining Minister Ali Akbar Mezharabian met Castro late Wednesday and delivered a message from Ahmadinejad for the Cuban president and his brother Fidel, Cuban Communist Party daily Granma reported.

Berlin  - The German government agreed Thursday to take a 25 per cent stake in the country's second biggest bank, Commerzbank, in return for providing a fresh infusion of capital.

Commerzbank said the state rescue fund for the banking sector, Soffin, would make available 10 billion euros (13.56 billion dollars) in addition to the 8.2 billion euros it provided in November.

New York  - Western nations and high-ranking Arab government officials held closed-door discussions at United Nations headquarters Thursday to try and reach a consensus on the text of a ceasefire to end the Israel-Hamas conflict.

The two sides remained divided on a technical procedure: Western governments preferred a statement from the UN Security Council's French president, while the Arab governments called for the adoption of a formal and binding resolution to end the fighting in the Gaza Strip.

New York  - United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Thursday condemned the Israeli Defense Force for firing on a relief convoy and killing two UN workers while injuring another in the Gaza Strip.

The deaths brought to four the number of UN relief workers killed in the Israel-Hamas conflict, which entered a 13th day on Thursday.

Moscow - President Dmitry Medvedev told his counterpart in Bulgaria, which is almost entirely reliant on Russian gas, Moscow was ready to reopen gas flow to Europe via Ukraine as soon as a new contracts with Kiev for gas in 2009, the Kremlin said Thursday.

"The president underlined that Russia is ready to carry out its obligations and renew transits of gas after the conclusion of the necessary contract with Ukraine," the Kremlin said in a statement posted on its website after Medvedev and Bulgarian President Georgi Purvanov spoke by phone.