Madrid - Almost two years after the collapse of peace negotiations with the Spanish government, the militant Basque separatist group ETA is deeply divided, according to police intelligence.

The suspected ETA chief Francisco Javier Lopez Pena, alias Thierry, who was arrested in France in May, had been ostracized by the group, the Madrid-based El Pais newspaper reported Sunday.

The newspaper, quoting a police report, said his exclusion had been enforced by hardliners who wanted to punish the 49-year-old for being against further terrorist attacks.

Dhaka  - Authorities in Bangladesh Sunday claimed that Myanmar has suspended oil and gas exploration in the disputed Bay of Bengal as a result of Dhaka's efforts to defuse tension between the two countries.

"Diplomatic endeavours and a strong presence by the Bangladesh navy resulted in the suspension of exploration by Myanmar in the disputed waters," a statement issued by the Inter-Service Public Relations office of the country's Defence Ministry said.

Islamabad - Jets from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization on Sunday bombed hills in Pakistan's Khyber tribal district, killing at least five people, Pakistani authorities quoting locals said.

The attack took place in Morga area in the remote Tirah valley, located close to the volatile Afghan border.

"The airstrike killed at least five people from the Qambar Khel tribe, while four or five more were wounded," an official in the area told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa on condition of anonymity.

Gaza - Hamas will not implement a long-term truce with Israel for the time being, a senior official of the Islamist organization said Sunday.

The offer "was not cancelled," Mahmoud al-Zahar said, but added that there was "no room to implement it for the time being" since "there is no one to talk about this proposal with on the other (Israeli) side."

He said a long-term truce was "a project that can be developed when there are intentions."

Berlin - Riot police clashed with 700 protesters Sunday in the north of Germany as the anti-nuclear movement tried to disrupt a shipment of spent radioactive fuel to a long-term storage site.

Elsewhere, wiring and signal gear along German railway lines was set on fire. Though most of the attacks were anonymous, police said it was likely the sabotage was the work of anti-nuclear militants.

As during 10 previous shipments of waste to Gorleben, a small town south of Hamburg, protesters aimed to obstruct the freight train carrying the waste.

New Delhi - More than 6,000 high-ranking Muslim scholars and clerics from across India have put their name to a joint religious opinion, or fatwa, against terrorism issued by one of the world's most important centres of Islamic teaching, it emerged on Sunday.

The Darul Uloom in Deoband, north of Delhi, issued a fatwa on May 31 sharply condemning terrorist violence. Since then 6,000 scholars and clerics have endorsed the fatwa.