* Syria, Israel Keep Pressing for Peace Just a few hours after Syrian President Bashar Assad declared that direct peace negotiations with Israel were imminent.

* Abbas to Mubarak: PA won’t agree to Israel invading Gaza Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas met with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on Tuesday.

* Pope attacks blurring of gender Pope Benedict XVI has said that saving humanity from homosexual or transsexual behaviour is just as important as saving the rainforest from destruction.

* PM: We must advance direct Syria talks As the Syrian track took center stage on Monday, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert spoke in favor of advancing direct peace talks with Damascus.

* Iraqi MPs back foreign troop deal Iraqi MPs have authorised the government to sign agreements allowing British and other non-US troops to stay on in the country after 2008.

* Settlers latch on to tourism as key to holding West Bank From Givat Ahiyah, 857 meters above sea level, one can see thousands of olive trees in the Shilo Valley below.

* Hamas ‘might renew’ truce in Gaza Hamas would consider renewing the expired Gaza truce if Israel respected its initial conditions.

* Tourist discovers trove of 1,300-year-old coins in Jerusalem’s City of David A British tourist working in an archaeological dig in Jerusalem on Sunday unearthed a treasure of 264 gold coins from 1,300 ago.

* Sudan ‘has 6,000 child soldiers’ There are as many as 6,000 child soldiers, some as young as 11 years old, in the war-torn region of Darfur.

* Pope ‘to visit Holy Land in May’ Pope Benedict XVI is to make his first visit to the Holy Land in May.