GAZA CITY, Gaza (AP) -- Israeli mortar shells struck outside a U.N. school where hundreds of Palestinians had sought refuge on Tuesday, killing at least 30 people - many of them children whose parents wailed in grief at a hospital filled with dead and wounded....

BAGHDAD (AP) -- Gunmen have killed a member of Iraqi President Jalal Talabani's political party in a drive-by shooting in the northern city of Kirkuk, Iraqi police officials said Tuesday....

BRUSSELS (AFP) - Gas shortages spread across Europe reaching France and Italy on Tuesday as cuts in Russian supplies through Ukrainian pipelines escalated an increasingly bitter crisis in the depths of winter.

GAZA CITY (AFP) - Israeli tanks and troops blazed into towns across the Gaza Strip on Tuesday striking Hamas targets, but hits on three UN-run schools killed at least 48 people and sparked urgent new ceasefire calls.

GAZA (Reuters) - Israeli shelling killed more than 40 Palestinians Tuesday at a U.N. school where civilians had taken shelter, medical officials said, in carnage likely to boost international pressure on Israel to halt a Gaza offensive.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia sharply cut gas flows to Europe via Ukraine on Tuesday in a dramatic worsening of a pricing dispute with Kiev that threatened to disrupt supplies as far west as Italy and Germany.

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) -- France's president sought Syrian help Tuesday to bring a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip, while Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice headed to the United Nations for meetings with Arab and European leaders....

BEIJING (AP) -- The year ahead will challenge Chinese security officials increasingly nervous about social stability, the nation's top police officer said Tuesday, amid concerns about gang violence, separatism and dissident plans to mark the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square protests....

At least 30 people are killed and 55 injured as Israeli artillery shells land by a United Nations-run school in Gaza, UN officials say.

RAFAH, Egypt (AP) -- Greek anesthesiologist Dimitrios Mognie and another doctor arrived at this border crossing loaded with medical supplies to help Gazans wounded in the Israeli offensive. Instead, they have waited at the border for days....

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Thousands of Iraqi Shi'ites flocked to holy sites on Tuesday to observe a religious rite amid tight security, days after a bomber killed at least 35 pilgrims.

VIENNA, Austria (AP) -- The Russia-Ukraine natural gas dispute hit Europe with the force of a winter storm Tuesday, cutting or limiting supplies to at least a dozen nations. Tens of thousands of people were left without heat and governments scrambled to find alternate energy sources....

GOMA, DR Congo (AFP) - Laurent Nkunda is still in charge of DR Congo's rebel movement and a rival who challenged his authority will be charged with "high treason", a spokesman said Tuesday as splits emerged in the rebel camp.

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) -- Turkey was holding a suspicious shipment bound for Venezuela from Iran because it contained lab equipment capable of producing explosives, a customs official said Tuesday....

The new US Congress opens amid a row over the man chosen to fill Barack Obama's vacant Senate seat.

PARIS (AP) -- Government officials and Jewish leaders are concerned the conflict in Gaza may spill over into violence in Europe, with attacks reported against Jews and synagogues in France, Sweden and Britain....

DHAKA (AFP) - Sheikh Hasina Wajed was sworn in for her second spell as Bangladesh's prime minister Tuesday, restoring democracy to the impoverished country after almost two years of rule by an army-backed regime.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - US officials on Tuesday refused to allow the man chosen by Illinois's scandal-tainted governor to replace president-elect Barack Obama to be sworn in at the start of a new Senate session.

Bulgaria's president suggests that a nuclear reactor deemed unsafe by the EU could help cover gas shortages.

The BBC's Richard Lister reports on President-elect Barack Obama's unwillingness to comment on Israel's invasion of Gaza.