Israel sets up Gaza offensive

JERUSALEM -- Gaza's ruling Hamas on Monday ordered militants to hold their fire for 24 hours and said a truce with Israel could be restored, but as rockets continued to fall, Israel signaled it was preparing for a possible offensive.

In an interview with Israel's Channel 10 TV, Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar indicated that Hamas is interested in renewing the truce with Israel.

"The price is the lives of the Palestinian people," he said, demanding regular food and electricity supplies from Israel along with stopping Israeli military actions in the West Bank as well as Gaza.

Israel did not agree to halt operations in the West Bank under the truce, which expired Friday, and Israeli officials refused to comment on the interview.

Hamas said militants were told Monday to halt rocket fire for 24 hours to see if Israel would allow vital supplies to be shipped into Gaza.

Belgium looks to form new government

BRUSSELS, Belgium -- Belgium on Monday turned to a veteran politician to broker a new government after a scandal over the botched bailout of the Fortis bank forced the ruling coalition to resign.

King Albert II accepted the government's resignation after three days of negotiations with Belgium's political leaders failed to keep the coalition intact.

In a bid to avoid early elections, he asked former Premier Wilfried Martens to act as a go-between to broker a new coalition.

"It is an exploratory task to try and seek agreement," Martens said.

Martens, an eight-time prime minister who led coalition governments during the 1980s, is not expected to lead the new coalition. Instead, the elder statesman will try to seek common ground between the six major parties and quickly form a new coalition to deal with the global financial crisis.

The government of outgoing Prime Minister Yves Leterme has been accused of trying to influence an appeals court as the state tries to sell most of Fortis, once the country's largest bank, to France's BNP Paribas. Thousands of jobs are at risk and many Belgian shareholders have seen their stakes become nearly worthless.

The scandal led to the resignation of the country's justice minister on Friday, followed by Leterme's offer to have the government resign.

Mexico honors soldiers beheaded by cartels

CHILPANCINGO, Mexico -- The decapitated bodies of the soldiers lined a major boulevard, accompanied by a sign: "For every one of mine that you kill, I will kill 10." A bag of their heads, some still gagged with tape, was found nearby.

The discovery in Chilpancingo, an hour north of the resort of Acapulco in southern Mexico, marked the most gruesome attack yet against the Mexican army in its half-century battle against drug gangs.

The government honored the dead Monday in a high-profile ceremony aimed at reassuring the nation that it won't surrender, despite escalating violence that has killed 5,300 people this year and the betrayal of more than a dozen top law enforcement officials accused of accepting money to protect cartels.

The beheadings also came as Mexico prepares to use $400 million in U.S. aid to fortify its war on traffickers.

British ex-royal servant jailed in child sex cases

LONDON -- A former butler to Queen Elizabeth II was sentenced Monday to at least six years in prison after admitting he molested three children, including one who accompanied him to a royal Christmas party.

One of Paul Kidd's victims contacted police after reading a newspaper interview with the ex-butler on last year's 10th anniversary of the death of Princess Diana. The victim, now in his 40s, said he had been indecently assaulted by Kidd at the butler's home in the early 1980s.

Kidd pleaded guilty in October to nine counts of indecent assault and six counts of sexual activity with a child. He also pleaded guilty to causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity, 11 charges of making indecent images of a child and two counts of possessing indecent images of children.

At a hearing at Manchester Crown Court, in northern England, Judge Mushtaq Khokar said Kidd still poses a risk to young people.

Kidd, 55, was a butler to the queen from 1977 to 1979, then was senior footman to the late Queen Mother Elizabeth until 1984. A number of offenses dated from his time in royal service.

Alleged arms dealer tries to evade handover to U.S.

BANGKOK, Thailand -- A Russian businessman dubbed the "Merchant of Death" for allegedly arming dictators and guerrillas sought Monday to prevent his extradition to the U.S., telling a Thai court he was not involved in a scheme to sell weapons to Colombian rebels.

Viktor Bout, a former Soviet air force officer, has long been linked to some of Africa's most notorious conflicts, allegedly supplying arms to former Liberian dictator Charles Taylor and Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi.

He has repeatedly denied any involvement in illicit activities and has never been prosecuted, despite being the subject of U.N. sanctions and a travel ban.

The U.S. is seeking Bout's extradition on charges he conspired to sell millions of dollars worth of weapons, including 100 surface-to-air missiles and armor-piercing rockets to leftist rebels.

The 41-year-old Russian -- who was purportedly the model for the arms dealer portrayed by Nicolas Cage in the 2005 movie, "Lord of War" -- was arrested in March during a sting operation in which undercover U.S. agents posed as rebels from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known by its Spanish acronym, FARC.

Afghan leader presses US military on strategy

KABUL, Afghanistan -- President Hamid Karzai pressed America's top military leader Monday on the U.S. strategy in Afghanistan and preparations to pour up to 30,000 more forces into the country, reflecting Karzai's concerns over civilian casualties and operations in villages.

Karzai asked Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, what kinds of operations the newly deployed troops would carry out and told him that the Afghan government should be consulted about those missions.

The Afghan president, stinging from a series of civilian casualties in U.S. military operations in recent years, said he doubts that sending more American forces into Afghan villages will tamp down the insurgency, and he has questioned a U.S. plan to deploy 3,500 U.S. forces in two provinces on Kabul's doorstep next month.

Karzai told Mullen that U.S. troops must take more care during operations in Afghan villages and stop searching Afghan homes. He asked the chairman to investigate allegations that U.S. forces killed three civilians in a raid last week in Khost province, a reflection of increasing concern about civilian casualties. The U.S. says three militants were killed.

Karzai wants more forces deployed along the Afghan border to combat insurgents infiltrating from Pakistan, where suspected U.S. missile strikes Monday killed eight people in a region where al-Qaida and Taliban leaders are believed hiding.

Britain, US step up pressure on Zimbabwe's Mugabe

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -- Britain and the United States increased pressure on Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe to step down, accusing him of presiding over the country's economic collapse blamed for a cholera outbreak that has killed more than 1,000.

But the calls are more likely to harden the stance of Mugabe, who does not want to be seen as bowing to demands from white Westerners.

Britain's Africa Minister Mark Malloch Brown said Monday that Mugabe must retire for a power-sharing government to succeed in the former British colony facing a mounting economic and humanitarian crisis.

He told BBC radio that Mugabe was incapable of making good on a deal reached in September to govern alongside opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai.

"Power-sharing isn't dead but Mugabe has become an absolute impossible obstacle to achieving it," Malloch Brown said. "He's so distrusted by all sides that I think the Americans are absolutely right -- he's going to have to step aside."

The remarks came a day after the top U.S. diplomat for Africa, Jendayi Frazer, said Washington can no longer support a Zimbabwean deal that leaves Mugabe in office as president. Also stepping up pressure, the Roman Catholic Bishops Conference of Southern Africa called for Africans and especially regional giant South Africa "to isolate Mugabe completely."