ISLAMABAD (AP) — A state rescue official says a suicide bomber has attacked a Shiite Muslim procession near Pakistan's capital, killing 23 people.
Deeba Shahnaz says the bombing occurred around midnight Wednesday in the city of Rawalpindi, located next to the capital Islamabad. At least 62 people were wounded by the blast.
Shahnaz said Thursday that the procession had just left a Shiite place of worship when the attack occurred.
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – U.S. television broadcast networks are taking the first steps to persuade advertisers to pay for commercial viewership that occurs up to seven days after a program airs, a shift that would provide a new revenue stream to help combat ratings erosion.
The networks argue that the rising popularity of digital video recorders is pushing a sizeable number of viewers to delay watching their favorite programs beyond the first three days, the time period most often used for calculating ad payments.
Some advertisers are ready to make the move to a seven-day metric. One of the big four networks, Walt Disney Co’s ABC, earlier this year reached deals with some sponsors that bring in payments for eyeballs counted between days four and seven.
The other broadcasters have begun talks with advertisers and hope to convince them to switch to the longer window in time for the “upfront” selling season that starts early next year, when billions of dollars in ad commitments will be made, according to people familiar with the discussions.
Since 2007, most TV ad time has been bought and sold based on “C3,” a ratings measurement based of the average number of commercial minutes watched during a program either live or within three days of its airing.
TV networks want advertisers to shift to “C7,” which captures commercials watched within seven days.
Advertisers hesitate to pay for the added days, particularly for time-sensitive ads pitching a department store’s one-day sale or the opening of a summer movie blockbuster. Media buyers are pushing for precise measurements of each commercial viewed, rather than an average for an entire program, as well as a tabulation of how many people are watching on mobile devices.
The debate intensified after Nielsen data showed a sharp decline in three-day viewing at the start of the fall TV season compared with last year.
The drop is partly due to “the greater penetration of DVRs and the greater usage of DVRs, which clearly have shifted the rating in the direction of C3, and ultimately, hopefully, C7,” Disney CEO Bob Iger told analysts on a November 8 conference call.
Most viewing of network prime time shows still takes place within three days. But the post-three day viewers are growing and can be significant. Ratings for ABC comedy hit “Modern Family” increased by 5 percent, to 6.5 million viewers age 18 to 49 viewers, when counted by the C7 measurement instead of C3.
The later viewers also are among the most-coveted by advertisers, according to ABC research, which showed people who watched a show after three days were more highly educated and had higher incomes. For days four through seven, “the people who are doing the viewing are some of the most desirable available from an advertiser’s perspective,” said Charles Kennedy, senior vice president of research for ABC and the ABC Family cable network.
Earlier this year, ABC made deals with some sponsors to pay for ad time based on C7 numbers, ABC spokesman Kevin Brockman said. “We expect to do more of them if they make sense for us and our clients,” Brockman said.
At CBS, the flagship network of CBS Corp, CEO Leslie Moonves has been outspoken in pressing for a C7 metric and said it “represents a significant opportunity for us that is still in the very early stages.”
“As we move forward, we will make it a priority to get paid for all of the viewing that is going on across our shows, including DVR viewing beyond C3,” Moonves told analysts on a November 7 conference call.
Advertisers are not ready to commit to the switch and will be looking for something in return if they agree to a longer window. Timing is a big concern for many brands that want to get a message out to large numbers of consumers during a specific time period. Some commercials lose their value for sponsors over a few days.
“In moving to C7, you’ve got to be careful because you are taking away some of the advantage of why clients buy television,” said Sam Armando, director of strategic intelligence for SMGx, a division of media buying agency Starcom MediaVest Group.
Advertisers believe simply adding more days to the current metric fails to adequately capture viewership. Brands are lobbying for a more precise measurement that tracks viewership of each commercial, rather than an average for a program over a time period, they say. They also want information on how many people see their ads on programs watched on computers or Internet-connected mobile devices like phones and tablets.
“If the industry is going to make a move, we need to consider it all before we just make a little baby step to C7,” Armando said.
(Reporting By Lisa Richwine; Edited by Ronald Grover and Andrew Hay)
Gadgets News Headlines – Yahoo! News
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The NBC series "Community" will finish the season without Chevy Chase.
Sony Pictures Television said Wednesday that the actor is leaving the sitcom by mutual agreement with producers.
His immediate departure means he won't be included in the last episode or two of the show's 13-episode season, which is still in production.
Chase had a rocky tenure playing a bored and wealthy man who enrolls in community college. The actor publicly expressed unhappiness at working on a sitcom and feuded last year with the show's creator and former executive producer, Dan Harmon.
The fourth-season premiere of "Community" is Feb. 7, when it makes a delayed return to the 8 p.m. EST Thursday time slot. The show's ensemble cast includes Joel McHale and Donald Glover.
Mammograms have done surprisingly little to catch deadly breast cancers before they spread, a big U.S. study finds. At the same time, more than a million women have been treated for cancers that never would have threatened their lives, researchers estimate.
Up to one-third of breast cancers, or 50,000 to 70,000 cases a year, don't need treatment, the study suggests.
It's the most detailed look yet at overtreatment of breast cancer, and it adds fresh evidence that screening is not as helpful as many women believe. Mammograms are still worthwhile, because they do catch some deadly cancers and save lives, doctors stress. And some of them disagree with conclusions the new study reached.
But it spotlights a reality that is tough for many Americans to accept: Some abnormalities that doctors call "cancer" are not a health threat or truly malignant. There is no good way to tell which ones are, so many women wind up getting treatments like surgery and chemotherapy that they don't really need.
Men have heard a similar message about PSA tests to screen for slow-growing prostate cancer, but it's relatively new to the debate over breast cancer screening.
"We're coming to learn that some cancers — many cancers, depending on the organ — weren't destined to cause death," said Dr. Barnett Kramer, a National Cancer Institute screening expert. However, "once a woman is diagnosed, it's hard to say treatment is not necessary."
He had no role in the study, which was led by Dr. H. Gilbert Welch of Dartmouth Medical School and Dr. Archie Bleyer of St. Charles Health System and Oregon Health & Science University. Results are in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine.
Breast cancer is the leading type of cancer and cause of cancer deaths in women worldwide. Nearly 1.4 million new cases are diagnosed each year. Other countries screen less aggressively than the U.S. does. In Britain, for example, mammograms are usually offered only every three years and a recent review there found similar signs of overtreatment.
The dogma has been that screening finds cancer early, when it's most curable. But screening is only worthwhile if it finds cancers destined to cause death, and if treating them early improves survival versus treating when or if they cause symptoms.
Mammograms also are an imperfect screening tool — they often give false alarms, spurring biopsies and other tests that ultimately show no cancer was present. The new study looks at a different risk: Overdiagnosis, or finding cancer that is present but does not need treatment.
Researchers used federal surveys on mammography and cancer registry statistics from 1976 through 2008 to track how many cancers were found early, while still confined to the breast, versus later, when they had spread to lymph nodes or more widely.
The scientists assumed that the actual amount of disease — how many true cases exist — did not change or grew only a little during those three decades. Yet they found a big difference in the number and stage of cases discovered over time, as mammograms came into wide use.
Mammograms more than doubled the number of early-stage cancers detected — from 112 to 234 cases per 100,000 women. But late-stage cancers dropped just 8 percent, from 102 to 94 cases per 100,000 women.
The imbalance suggests a lot of overdiagnosis from mammograms, which now account for 60 percent of cases that are found, Bleyer said. If screening were working, there should be one less patient diagnosed with late-stage cancer for every additional patient whose cancer was found at an earlier stage, he explained.
"Instead, we're diagnosing a lot of something else — not cancer" in that early stage, Bleyer said. "And the worst cancer is still going on, just like it always was."
Researchers also looked at death rates for breast cancer, which declined 28 percent during that time in women 40 and older — the group targeted for screening. Mortality dropped even more — 41 percent — in women under 40, who presumably were not getting mammograms.
"We are left to conclude, as others have, that the good news in breast cancer — decreasing mortality — must largely be the result of improved treatment, not screening," the authors write.
The study was paid for by the study authors' universities.
"This study is important because what it really highlights is that the biology of the cancer is what we need to understand" in order to know which ones to treat and how, said Dr. Julia A. Smith, director of breast cancer screening at NYU Langone Medical Center in New York. Doctors already are debating whether DCIS, a type of early tumor confined to a milk duct, should even be called cancer, she said.
Another expert, Dr. Linda Vahdat, director of the breast cancer research program at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York, said the study's leaders made many assumptions to reach a conclusion about overdiagnosis that "may or may not be correct."
"I don't think it will change how we view screening mammography," she said.
A government-appointed task force that gives screening advice calls for mammograms every other year starting at age 50 and stopping at 75. The American Cancer Society recommends them every year starting at age 40.
Dr. Len Lichtenfeld, the cancer society's deputy chief medical officer, said the study should not be taken as "a referendum on mammography," and noted that other high-quality studies have affirmed its value. Still, he said overdiagnosis is a problem, and it's not possible to tell an individual woman whether her cancer needs treated.
"Our technology has brought us to the place where we can find a lot of cancer. Our science has to bring us to the point where we can define what treatment people really need," he said.
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Online:
Study: http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1206809
Screening advice: http://www.uspreventiveservicestaskforce.org/uspstf/uspsbrca.htm
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Marilynn Marchione can be followed at http://twitter.com/MMarchioneAP
CAIRO/GAZA (Reuters) - A ceasefire between Israel and Gaza's Hamas rulers took hold on Thursday after eight days of conflict, although deep mistrust on both sides cast doubt on how long the Egyptian-sponsored deal can last.
Even after the ceasefire came into force late on Wednesday, a dozen rockets from the Gaza Strip landed in Israel, all in open areas, a police spokesman said. In Gaza, witnesses reported an explosion shortly after the truce took effect at 9 p.m (14:00 EDT), but there were no casualties and the cause was unclear.
The deal prevented, at least for the moment, an Israeli ground invasion of the Palestinian enclave following bombing and rocket fire which killed five Israelis and 162 Gazans, including 37 children.
But trust was in short supply. The exiled leader of Hamas, Khaled Meshaal, said his Islamist movement would respect the truce if Israel did, but would respond to any violations. "If Israel complies, we are compliant. If it does not comply, our hands are on the trigger," he told a news conference in Cairo.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had agreed to "exhaust this opportunity for an extended truce", but told his people a tougher approach might be required in the future.
Both sides quickly began offering differing interpretations of the ceasefire, brokered by Egypt's new Islamist government and backed by the United States, highlighting the many actual or potential areas of discord.
If it holds, the truce will give 1.7 million Gazans respite from days of ferocious air strikes and halt rocket salvoes from militants that unnerved a million people in southern Israel and reached Tel Aviv and Jerusalem for the first time.
"Allahu akbar, (God is greatest), dear people of Gaza you won," blared mosque loudspeakers in Gaza as the truce took effect. "You have broken the arrogance of the Jews."
Fifteen minutes later, wild celebratory gunfire echoed across the darkened streets, which gradually filled with crowds waving Palestinian flags. Ululating women leaned out of windows and fireworks lit up the sky.
Meshaal thanked Egypt for mediating and praised Iran for providing Gazans with financing and arms. "We have come out of this battle with our heads up high," he said, adding that Israel had been defeated and failed in its "adventure".
Some Israelis staged protests against the deal, notably in the southern town of Kiryat Malachi, where three people were killed by a Gaza rocket during the conflict, army radio said.
Netanyahu said he was willing to give the truce a chance but held open the possibility of reopening the conflict. "I know there are citizens expecting a more severe military action, and perhaps we shall need to do so," he said.
The Israeli leader, who faces a parliamentary election in January, delivered a similar message earlier in a telephone call with U.S. President Barack Obama, his office said.
"AN OPEN PRISON"
According to a text of the agreement seen by Reuters, both sides should halt all hostilities, with Israel desisting from incursions and targeting of individuals, while all Palestinian factions should cease rocket fire and cross-border attacks.
The deal also provides for easing Israeli restrictions on Gaza's residents, who live in what British Prime Minister David Cameron has called an "open prison".
The text said procedures for implementing this would be "dealt with after 24 hours from the start of the ceasefire".
Israeli sources said Israel would not lift a blockade of the enclave it enforced after Hamas, which rejects the Jewish state's right to exist, won a Palestinian election in 2006.
However, Meshaal said the deal covered the opening of all of the territory's border crossings. "The document stipulates the opening of the crossings, all the crossings, and not just Rafah," he said. Israel controls all of Gaza's crossings apart from the Rafah post with Egypt.
Hamas lost its top military commander to an Israeli strike in the conflict and suffered serious hits to its infrastructure and weaponry, but has emerged with its reputation both in the Arab world and at home stronger.
Israel can take comfort from the fact it dealt painful blows to its enemy, which will take many months to recover, and showed that it can defend itself from a barrage of missiles.
"No one is under the illusion that this is going to be an everlasting ceasefire. It is clear to everyone it will only be temporary," said Michael Herzog, a former chief of staff at the Israeli ministry of defence.
"But there is a chance that it could hold for a significant period of time, if all goes well," he told Reuters.
Egypt, an important U.S. ally now under Islamist leadership, took centre stage in diplomacy to halt the bloodshed. Cairo has walked a fine line between its sympathies for Hamas, an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood to which President Mohamed Mursi belongs, and its need to preserve its 1979 peace treaty with Israel and its ties with Washington, its main aid donor.
Announcing the agreement in Cairo, Egyptian Foreign Minister Mohamed Kamel Amr said mediation had "resulted in understandings to cease fire, restore calm and halt the bloodshed".
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, standing beside Amr, thanked Mursi for peace efforts that showed "responsibility, leadership" in the region.
The Gaza conflict erupted in a Middle East already shaken by last year's Arab uprisings that toppled several veteran U.S.-backed leaders, including Egypt's Hosni Mubarak, and by a civil war in Syria, where President Bashar al-Assad is fighting for survival.
In his call with Netanyahu, Obama in turn repeated U.S. commitment to Israel's security and promised to seek funds for a joint missile defence program, the White House said.
BUS BOMBING
The ceasefire was forged despite a bus bomb explosion that wounded 15 Israelis in Tel Aviv earlier in the day and despite more Israeli air strikes that killed 10 Gazans. It was the first serious bombing in Israel's commercial capital since 2006.
Israel, the United States and the European Union all classify Hamas as a terrorist organization. It seized the Gaza Strip from the Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in 2007 in a brief but bloody war with his Fatah movement.
"This is a critical moment for the region," Clinton said. "Egypt's new government is assuming the responsibility and leadership that has long made this country a cornerstone for regional stability and peace."
In Amman, U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon urged both sides to stick to their ceasefire pledges. "There may be challenges implementing this agreement," he said, urging "maximum restraint".
(Additional reporting by Noah Browning in Gaza, Ori Lewis, Allyn Fisher-Ilan and Crispian Balmer in Jerusalem, Yasmine Saleh, Shaimaa Fayed and Tom Perry in Cairo, Suleiman al-Khalidi in Amman and Margaret Chadbourn in Washington; Writing by Alistair Lyon and David Stamp; Editing by Louise Ireland)
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — A man wearing a suicide vest blew himself up near a U.S. base in the Afghan capital early Wednesday, killing at least one person in what looked like a thwarted attempt to attack the American base, police said.
The blast reverberated around the Wazir Akbar Khan neighborhood shortly after 8 a.m. local time. An alarm started going off at the nearby U.S. Embassy, warning staff to take cover. The neighborhood also is home to many high-ranking Afghan officials, international organizations and the headquarters of the international military coalition.
The attacker was on foot and was identified by security forces as he approached Camp Eggers, said Gen. Mohammad Zahir, the chief of the Kabul police criminal investigation department. He said that there was at least one other body on the scene besides that of the attacker. He expected that any dead were the Afghan guards that sit at the outer perimeter of the base, but he could not confirm this.
Two Afghan soldiers who were in a nearby vehicle when the blast occurred were wounded, said Kabul Police Chief Mohammad Ayub Salangi. An international coalition vehicle was damaged in the attack but there were no initial reports of casualties among the foreign forces, said Jamie Graybeal, a spokesman for the allied forces.
The explosion comes just a few days ahead of the Muslim holy day of Ashoura, during which Shiite Muslims commemorate the seventh century death of Imam Hussein, the Prophet Muhammad's grandson.
Afghanistan saw its first major sectarian attack since the fall of the Taliban regime during last year's Ashoura celebrations when a suicide attacker hit a Shiite shrine, killing 56 people and wounding more than 160 others.
We realize there’s only so much time one can spend in a day watching new trailers, viral video clips, and shaky cell phone footage of people arguing on live television. This is why every day The Atlantic Wire highlights the videos that truly earn your five minutes (or less) of attention. Today:
RELATED: What Happens When You Sing ‘All Night Long’ All Night Long
So if you were one of the few people watching the American Music Awards, (which no one watched) you may have seen Eric Stonestreet be a little tipsy. But that isn’t half as enjoyable as watching Eric Stonestreet watching himself be a little tipsy that night. (Also, wow, he’s sort of a bro.)
RELATED: Modern Family Is Scary
RELATED: ‘Seven Psychocats’ and the 50 Best Bond Moments in 007 Minutes
A few days ago we found out that Paul Rudd was in play called Grace on Broadway because … (wait for it) someone in the balcony puked on the audience members during the play. Four days late we can laugh at the whole thing. Mostly because we weren’t barfed on:
RELATED: A ‘Mad Men’ Rickroll and the Man That Destroys Carnival Games
RELATED: A Video to Restore Our Faith in Humanity and a Glacier Tsunami
Here’s how to make some magic. What you’ll need:
(1) Canadian newscaster with chubby fingers
(1) Technology
(1) Drunk piece of technology
Voila:
And finally. Thanksgiving is upon us! Today we’re thankful for squirrels who like to eat plastic:
Wireless News Headlines – Yahoo! News
NEW YORK (AP) — One Direction's "Take Me Home" is the taking the boys to the top of the charts — and to new heights.
The group's sophomore album has sold 540,000 in its first week, according to Nielsen SoundScan. It's the year's third-highest debut behind Taylor Swift's "Red," which sold 1.2 million units its first week earlier this month, and Mumford & Sons' "Babel," which sold more than 600,000 albums in September in its debut week.
"We just want to say a massive thanks to all the fans who have supported us," band member Harry Styles, 18, said in an interview Tuesday from London. "We can send tweets and thank them, but 140 characters is never going be enough to say how much it means."
The album also debuted at No. 1 in the United Kingdom this week. The fivesome's debut, "Up All Night," came in at No. 2 in the United Kingdom last year; it was just released in March in America, where it hit No. 1 and has achieved platinum status.
"We were a little bit nervous about how people were going to take it," 19-year-old Niall Horan said of the new album during tour rehearsals. "Everyone gets that second album syndrome."
They say though they're excited, they won't be celebrating too much: "We're finishing rehearsing soon and we're going home to bed."
One Direction, who placed third on the U.K. version of "The X Factor" in 2010, is managed by Simon Cowell. In just a year, the band has become worldwide sensations, thanks to its feverish fans. They released a book and have a Nickelodeon show and 3-D movie planned. They also made the cut for Barbara Walters' most fascinating people of 2012 list, which includes New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and U.S. gold medalist Gabby Douglas.
One Direction says those experiences have helped the group mature.
"We've been working hard. We're starting to grow up," Horan said. "We're still young, but we've passed the initial teenage years. ...We've grown up quite quick in the job we have to do and we became a lot more independent."
The group — which includes Zayn Malik, Liam Payne and Louis Tomlinson — will launch a worldwide tour in February. They hope to work with Katy Perry and are still trying to adjust to the celebrity and fame that has taken over their lives.
"I can see how it gets to people. I guess it's quite easy to get wrapped up in it all," Styles said. "We do the same things every other lad our age does. We go out, we have fun, we meet girls and stuff like that. Sometimes it gets written about, which, yeah, we think about it and it's absolutely crazy. It's still a bit weird thinking that that's the way it is."
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Online:
http://www.onedirectionmusic.com/us/home/
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Follow Music Mesfin on Twitter at http://twitter.com/MusicMesfin
WASHINGTON (AP) — No prescription or doctor's exam needed: The nation's largest group of obstetricians and gynecologists says birth control pills should be sold over the counter, like condoms.
Tuesday's surprise opinion from these gatekeepers of contraception could boost longtime efforts by women's advocates to make the pill more accessible.
But no one expects the pill to be sold without a prescription any time soon: A company would have to seek government permission first, and it's not clear if any are considering it. Plus there are big questions about what such a move would mean for many women's wallets if it were no longer covered by insurance.
Still, momentum may be building.
Already, anyone 17 or older doesn't need to see a doctor before buying the morning-after pill — a higher-dose version of regular birth control that can prevent pregnancy if taken shortly after unprotected sex. Earlier this year, the Food and Drug Administration held a meeting to gather ideas about how to sell regular oral contraceptives without a prescription, too.
Now the influential American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists is declaring it's safe to sell the pill that way.
Wait, why would doctors who make money from women's yearly visits for a birth-control prescription advocate giving that up?
Half of the nation's pregnancies every year are unintended, a rate that hasn't changed in 20 years — and easier access to birth control pills could help, said Dr. Kavita Nanda, an OB/GYN who co-authored the opinion for the doctors group.
"It's unfortunate that in this country where we have all these contraceptive methods available, unintended pregnancy is still a major public health problem," said Nanda, a scientist with the North Carolina nonprofit FHI 360, formerly known as Family Health International.
Many women have trouble affording a doctor's visit, or getting an appointment in time when their pills are running low — which can lead to skipped doses, Nanda added.
If the pill didn't require a prescription, women could "pick it up in the middle of the night if they run out," she said. "It removes those types of barriers."
Tuesday, the FDA said it was willing to meet with any company interested in making the pill nonprescription, to discuss what if any studies would be needed.
Then there's the price question. The Obama administration's new health care law requires FDA-approved contraceptives to be available without copays for women enrolled in most workplace health plans.
If the pill were sold without a prescription, it wouldn't be covered under that provision, just as condoms aren't, said Health and Human Services spokesman Tait Sye.
ACOG's opinion, published in the journal Obstetrics & Gynecology, says any move toward making the pill nonprescription should address that cost issue. Not all women are eligible for the free birth control provision, it noted, citing a recent survey that found young women and the uninsured pay an average of $16 per month's supply.
The doctors group made clear that:
—Birth control pills are very safe. Blood clots, the main serious side effect, happen very rarely, and are a bigger threat during pregnancy and right after giving birth.
—Women can easily tell if they have risk factors, such as smoking or having a previous clot, and should avoid the pill.
—Other over-the-counter drugs are sold despite rare but serious side effects, such as stomach bleeding from aspirin and liver damage from acetaminophen.
—And there's no need for a Pap smear or pelvic exam before using birth control pills. But women should be told to continue getting check-ups as needed, or if they'd like to discuss other forms of birth control such as implantable contraceptives that do require a physician's involvement.
The group didn't address teen use of contraception. Despite protests from reproductive health specialists, current U.S. policy requires girls younger than 17 to produce a prescription for the morning-after pill, meaning pharmacists must check customers' ages. Presumably regular birth control pills would be treated the same way.
Prescription-only oral contraceptives have long been the rule in the U.S., Canada, Western Europe, Australia and a few other places, but many countries don't require a prescription.
Switching isn't a new idea. In Washington state a few years ago, a pilot project concluded that pharmacists successfully supplied women with a variety of hormonal contraceptives, including birth control pills, without a doctor's involvement. The question was how to pay for it.
Some pharmacies in parts of London have a similar project under way, and a recent report from that country's health officials concluded the program is working well enough that it should be expanded.
And in El Paso, Texas, researchers studied 500 women who regularly crossed the border into Mexico to buy birth control pills, where some U.S. brands sell over the counter for a few dollars a pack. Over nine months, the women who bought in Mexico stuck with their contraception better than another 500 women who received the pill from public clinics in El Paso, possibly because the clinic users had to wait for appointments, said Dr. Dan Grossman of the University of California, San Francisco, and the nonprofit research group Ibis Reproductive Health.
"Being able to easily get the pill when you need it makes a difference," he said.
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Online:
OB/GYN group: http://www.acog.org
JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel and the Hamas militant group edged closer to a cease-fire Tuesday to end a weeklong Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip, but after a day of furious diplomatic efforts involving the U.S. secretary of state, U.N. chief and Egypt's president, a deal remained elusive and fighting raged on both sides of the border.
Israeli tanks and gunboats pummeled targets in Gaza in what appeared to be a last-minute burst of fire, while at least 200 rockets were fired into Israel. As talks dragged on near midnight, Israeli and Hamas officials, communicating through Egyptian mediators, expressed hope that a deal would soon be reached, but cautioned that it was far from certain.
"If there is a possibility of achieving a long-term solution to this problem by diplomatic means, we prefer that. But if not, then I am sure you will understand that Israel will have to take whatever actions are necessary to defend its people," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at a late-night meeting with visiting Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Clinton was hastily dispatched to the region by President Barack Obama to join a high-profile group of world leaders working to halt the violence. Standing alongside the Israeli leader, Clinton indicated it could take some time to iron out an agreement.
"In the days ahead, the United States will work with our partners here in Israel and across the region toward an outcome that bolsters security for the people of Israel, improves conditions for the people of Gaza and moves toward a comprehensive peace for all people of the region," she said.
Clinton expressed sorrow for the heavy loss of life on both sides, but called for the Palestinian rocket attacks on Israel to end and stressed that the American commitment to Israel's security is "rock solid."
"The goal must be a durable outcome that promotes regional stability and advances the security and legitimate aspirations of Israelis and Palestinians alike," she said.
In Washington, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Clinton met with Netanyahu and other Israeli officials for two hours.
"They discussed efforts to de-escalate the situation and bring about a sustainable outcome that protects Israel's security and improves the lives of civilians in Gaza," Nuland said. "They also consulted on her impending stops in Ramallah and Cairo, including Egyptian efforts to advance de-escalation."
Israel launched the offensive on Nov. 14 in a bid to end months of rocket attacks out of the Hamas-run territory, which lies on Israel's southern flank. After assassinating Hamas' military chief, it has carried out a blistering campaign of airstrikes, targeting rocket launchers, storage sites and wanted militants.
The campaign has killed more than 130 Palestinians, including dozens of civilians, and wounded hundreds of others. Five Israelis have been killed by rocket fire, including a soldier and a civilian contractor on Tuesday.
With Israel massing thousands of ground troops on the Gaza border, diplomats raced throughout the region in search of a formula to halt the fighting.
In a meeting with Netanyahu, U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon condemned Palestinian rocket attacks, but urged Israel to show "maximum restraint."
"Further escalation benefits no one," he said.
Israel demands an end to rocket fire from Gaza and a halt to weapons smuggling into Gaza through tunnels under the border with Egypt. It also wants international guarantees that Hamas will not rearm or use Egypt's Sinai region, which abuts both Gaza and southern Israel, to attack Israelis.
Hamas wants Israel to halt all attacks on Gaza and lift tight restrictions on trade and movement in and out of the territory that have been in place since Hamas seized Gaza by force in 2007. Israel has rejected such demands in the past.
Egypt's new Islamist government is expected to play a key role in maintaining a deal.
The crisis has thrust Egypt's president, Mohammed Morsi, into the spotlight as he plays a difficult balancing act.
Morsi belongs to the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas' parent movement, and clearly sympathizes with the Islamic militant group. At the same time, he relies heavily on U.S. aid and is trying to preserve a historic peace agreement with Israel.
Earlier, Morsi raised hopes that a cease-fire was near when he predicted the negotiations would yield "positive results" during the coming hours.
Netanyahu also said his country would be a "willing partner" in a cease-fire agreement.
But as the talks stretched into the evening, it became clear that a deal remained a ways off.
"Most likely the deal will be struck tomorrow. Israel has not responded to some demands, which delayed the deal," Hamas official Izzat Risheq said.
Hamas officials refused to discuss the remaining sticking points.
Israeli media quoted Defense Minister Ehud Barak as telling a closed meeting that Israel wanted a 24-hour test period of no rocket fire to see if Hamas could enforce a truce.
Palestinian officials briefed on the negotiations said Hamas wanted assurances of a comprehensive deal that included new border arrangements — and were resisting Israeli proposals for a phased agreement. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.
Although Israel claims it has inflicted heavy damage on militants' capabilities, its roughly 1,550 airstrikes and shelling attacks have failed to halt the rocket fire.
More than 1,400 rockets have been fired at Israel, including about 200 on Tuesday. A U.S.-financed Israeli rocket-defense system has knocked down roughly 400 of the incoming projectiles.
Violence raged on as the talks continued. An airstrike late Tuesday killed two journalists who work for the Hamas TV station, Al-Aqsa, according to a statement from the channel. A third journalist, from Al Quds Educational Radio, a private station, also was killed.
The Al-Aqsa TV cameramen were in a car hit by an airstrike, Gaza health official Ashraf al-Kidra said. Israel claims that many Hamas journalists are involved in militant activities. Earlier this week it targeted the station's offices, saying they served as a Hamas communications post.
Late Tuesday, a Palestinian rocket hit a house in the central Israeli city of Rishon Lezion, wounding two people and badly damaging the top two floors of the building, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said.
Minutes before Ban's arrival in Jerusalem from Egypt, Palestinian militants fired a rocket toward Jerusalem, just the second time it has targeted the city. The rocket fell in an open area southeast of the city.
Jerusalem had previously been considered beyond the range of Gaza rockets — and an unlikely target because it is home to the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, Islam's third-holiest shrine.
Israeli warplanes dropped leaflets on several Gaza neighborhoods asking residents to evacuate and head toward the center of Gaza City along specific roads. The army "is not targeting any of you, and doesn't want to harm you or your families," the leaflets said. Palestinian militants urged residents to ignore the warnings, calling them "psychological warfare."
Israeli security officials acknowledge they rely on a network of Palestinian informants to identify targets. Masked gunmen publicly shot dead six suspected collaborators with Israel in a large Gaza City intersection Tuesday, witnesses said.
An Associated Press reporter saw a mob surrounding five of the bloodied corpses shortly after the killing, and one of the bodies was dragged through the streets by a motorcycle.
Hamas did not provide any evidence against the alleged collaborators.
Clinton was also scheduled to meet with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank and Egyptian leaders in Cairo on Wednesday. Turkey's foreign minister and a delegation of Arab League foreign ministers traveled to Gaza on a separate truce mission. Airstrikes continued to hit Gaza even as they entered the territory.
"Turkey is standing by you," Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told the Hamas prime minister in Gaza, Ismail Haniyeh. "Our demand is clear. Israel should end its aggression immediately and lift the inhumane blockade imposed on Gaza."
At the United Nations, U.N. ambassadors after hours of closed-door meetings announced the Security Council will hold an open debate on the Gaza crisis Wednesday afternoon if a cease-fire is not called before then. The move comes after the United States blocked adoption of a unanimous press statement from the council because it did not explicitly criticize Hamas' rocket attacks on Israel.
The U.S. considers Hamas, which has killed hundreds of Israelis in suicide and other attacks, to be a terror group and does not meet with its officials. The Obama administration blames Hamas for the latest eruption of violence and says Israel has the right to defend itself. At the same time, it has warned against a ground invasion, saying it could send casualties spiraling.
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Barzak reported from Gaza City, Gaza Strip. Associated Press writers Hamza Hendawi in Cairo, Karin Laub in Gaza City and Ian Deitch in Jerusalem contributed to this report.
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