Kiev, August 23
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Saturday that the standoff over Ukraine could be solved but only if control was tightened over the Ukraine-Russia border across which, the West alleges, Russia has been funnelling arms to help a separatist rebellion.

Merkel was visiting Kiev as a prelude to a meeting next week between the Russian and Ukrainian leaders that diplomats say is the best chance in months of a peace deal in eastern Ukraine, where government forces are fighting pro-Moscow rebels.

But she arrived as tensions flared up again. NATO has alleged Russia's military is active inside Ukraine helping the rebels, and Moscow angered Kiev and its Western allies by sending an aid convoy into Ukraine against Kiev's wishes.

"There must be two sides to be successful. You cannot achieve peace on your own. I hope the talks with Russia will lead to success," said Merkel, looking ahead to a meeting on Tuesday involving Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart Petro Poroshenko.

"The plans are on the table...now actions must follow," the German leader told a news conference after talks with Poroshenko in the Ukrainian capital.

She said a ceasefire was needed, but the main obstacle was the lack of controls along the nearly 2,000 km border. She proposed an agreement between Kiev and Moscow on monitoring of the frontier by the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

Poroshenko suggested he saw scope for accord. "The Ukrainian side and our European partners will do everything possible to bring about peace - but not at the price of sovereignty, territorial integrity and the independence of Ukraine," he said.

Hours before her plane landed in Kiev, there was heavy artillery bombardment in Donetsk, the main separatist stronghold on the east of Ukraine, near the border with Russia. Reuters reporters saw apartments destroyed and puddles of blood, where, according to residents, two civilians were killed.

The unusually intense shelling may be part of a drive by government forces to achieve a breakthrough against the rebels in time for Ukrainian Independence Day, which falls on Sunday.

Diplomats say Merkel has two aims for the visit: primarily to show support for Kiev in its stand-off with Russia, but also to urge Poroshenko to be open to peace proposals when he meets Putin next week.

The conflict in Ukraine has dragged Russian-Western relations to their lowest ebb since the Cold War and sparked a round of trade sanctions that are hurting already-fragile economies in European and Russia. — Reuters

London, August 23
Britain said on Saturday it planned tougher laws to deal with British Islamist militants after Islamic State (IS) fighters in the Middle East released a video showing a suspected Briton beheading US journalist James Foley.

British Muslims and politicians have expressed horror at the apparent involvement of a Briton in the murder, which has fed concerns about the number of Islamist militants from Britain joining conflicts overseas and then returning home radicalised.

Authorities are trying to identify the man with a London accent who has been dubbed "Jihadi John" by media after sources said he was one of three Britons nicknamed the 'Beatles' who guarded hostages in Raqqa, the IS stronghold in eastern Syria.

Home Secretary (interior minister) Theresa May said she was preparing new laws to tackle Islamist militants at home and to stop them going abroad to fight, adding that Britain faced a long struggle against a "deadly extremist ideology".

While details are yet to be confirmed, May said the new powers would be designed to restrict the militants' behaviour, ban involvement in groups preaching violence and require prisons, broadcasters, schools and universities to take a greater role in combating the radicalisation of Muslims.

May said at least 500 British citizens have travelled to fight in Syria and Iraq, where IS has seized large swathes of territory. Some of the fighters are aged as young as 16. — Reuters

• The rise of Islamist militants in Britain has been a growing concern since four Britons, two of whom had been to Al-Qaida training camps in Pakistan, killed 52 persons in suicide bomb attacks in London in July 2005
• The murder last year of an off-duty soldier, Lee Rigby, on a London street by two British Muslim converts exacerbated the concerns
• The government has tightened rules so it can confiscate the passports of people travelling abroad to join conflicts

Islamabad, August 23
A tense standoff continued in Pakistan today as overnight talks between the government and protesters demanding Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's resignation made little headway in breaking the political logjam.

Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chief Imran Khan and cleric Tahirul Qadri are protesting alleged vote rigging in polls last year and demanding Sharif's resignation and holding of fresh polls.

Imran and Qadri had separately launched protests from eastern city of Lahore on August 14 to dislodge the 15-month-old government and have been camping in the capital since last Saturday with thousands of their supporters. The political crisis has paralysed the government and raised questions about Pakistan's democratic stability.

With an aim to end the protests, government officials yesterday met senior members of Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party. The protest leaders had previously rebuffed offers of negotiations from Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-N.

The latest round of talks came at a time when lawmakers from Khan's party have resigned from the National Assembly and the Speaker is yet to accept them.

The government enjoys a majority with ruling PML-N having 190 members in a House of 342. Khan's PTI is the third largest party in the National Assembly.

At the end of second round of talks, the two sides told media that they wouldmeet again today.

A government delegation also met Qadri's team yesterday to discuss the demands of the cleric's Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) movement, but the PAT came away dissatisfied. — PTI

Gaza/Cairo, August 23
Nine Palestinians, including four children, were killed in Israeli air strikes in Gaza today as the war entered its 47th day even as Egypt invited both sides to accept a fresh ceasefire to continue negotiations after the collapse of an earlier truce this week.

Israel and Hamas resumed hostilities on Tuesday, shattering a 10-day lull in violence, following the breakdown of a previous Egyptian-brokered ceasefire and talks aimed at finding a lasting end to the current fighting.

Five members of a Palestinian family were killed in air strikes on a home in central Gaza this morning, as Israel continued to bombard the besieged coastal enclave 47 days since the start of Operation Protective Edge on July 8.

The strike this morning hit the home of the Dahrouj family in al-Zawayda neighbourhood in the central Gaza Strip, killing a couple and their three children.

Spokesman for the Palestinian Ministry of Health, Ashraf al-Qudra, said that the rescue workers were able to recover all the five bodies. A 64-year-old Palestinian man was killed in a separate airstrike south of Gaza City, and in Deir al-Balah a 12-year-old boy and his 38-year-old mother, as well as another 43-year-old woman, were killed, emergency services said.

The Palestinian death toll in Gaza has now reached 2,102, including about 500 children, with more than 10,550 injured, Gaza medics said. In Israel, 68 people have died.

UN agencies have claimed that 70% of those killed in Gaza are civilians, including women and children, amid Israeli claims that the militant factions have been using civilians as "human shields". — PTI