Bucharest - Peace negotiations with Israel will likely only resume after completion of Israeli elections in February, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Monday in Romania.

He also repeated his assertion that any peace agreement will not be completed by the end of 2008, as envisaged at the Annapolis conference in November 2007.

Abbas made his comments while visiting with Romanian President Traian Basescu. During the meeting, Basescu ruled Romania out as a possible mediator in any Palestinian-Israeli negotiations.

Cairo - Egyptian police shot dead a Sudanese man on Monday south of Rafah near the Egyptian-Israeli border, security sources said.

Gaza - A ship loaded with international pro-Palestinian activists intent on breaking Israel's blockade of the coastal salient docked in Gaza Wednesday morning, despite a vow by Israeli officials not to let the vessel enter the enclave's territorial waters.

"The Dignity", with 27 people on board, including Western human- rights activists, peace activists, journalists, and European and Palestinian lawmakers, moored at 8 am 
(0600 GMT), officials in naval police force of Hamas, who control the territory, said.

The boat left Cyprus on Tuesday and the activists plan to remain in the Strip for four days, Jamal al-Khodary, the head of Gaza-based Popular Committee Against the Siege, said.

Ramallah/Tel Aviv - Israeli soldiers shot dead an elderly Palestinian Wednesday morning in the village of Yamoun, near the northern West Bank city of Jenin, Voice of Palestine Radio reported.

It said the soldiers entered the village and surprised Muhammad Abahreh, who emerged from his house to check on a commotion he heard outside. According to his family, Abahreh used a torch and discovered the noise was made by the soldiers, who opened fire at him.

The radio said Abahreh, in his late 60s, was shot in the abdomen and left to bleed for two hours until the soldiers ended their patrol and allowed a Palestinian ambulance to pick him up.

Amman - Arab stock markets plummeted across the board on Wednesday on reports of a nearing global recession and ambiguity regarding the extent to which regional businesses were involved in the world financial crisis, financial analysts said.

The Tadawul All Share Index (TASI) of the Saudi stock exchange, the Arab world's largest bourse, fell 3.69 per cent, led by the Saudi Basic Industries Corp. (SABIC) and the banking sector.

The dropg brought to more than 10 per cent the decline in the Saudi market this week, a loss that wiped out last week's gains.

Ramallah - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has sacked his chief of intelligence, Tawfiq Tirawi, officials at his office confirmed Wednesday.

Abbas issued a presidential decree, appointing Tirawi, 61, a security advisor to the president with the rank of minister, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to speak to the media.

Tirawi will also continue to serve as director of the Jericho- based security academy he helped set up with European assistance two years ago