"U.S. investigators are piecing together details of an audacious new trend in drug smuggling: South American gangs are buying old jets, stuffing them full of cocaine and flying them across the Atlantic to feed Europe's growing coke habit.

"Egyptian security forces in the Sinai Peninsula recently seized a large store of weapons and explosives that were to be smuggled into the Gaza Strip, Palestinian news agency Ma'an reported Tuesday.

"Egypt is building surveillance towers along the border with the Gaza Strip as part of its measures to step up restrictions on the besieged coastal enclave.

"No particular enthusiasm was noted in the Gaza Strip on Monday, a day after Israel declared an easing of the blockade. As no serious shortage was felt prior to the step, virtually no product that was sold Monday was not in the market the previous day.

"Security at Cairo's international airport on Wednesday stopped an Egyptian man trying to smuggle eight live foxes and 50 chameleons in a huge suitcase out of the country.

"While still insisting that its blockade of Gaza is essential to its security, the Israeli government is now shifting its position, "exploring new ways" of allowing goods to reach the coastal enclave, an Israeli official said Thursday.

"With Reuters correspondents perennially focused on the Israel-Palestinian conflict and violent incidents on the border between Gaza and Israel, it is sometimes easy to forget that Gaza also shares a border (and wall) with Egypt and that that border can be just as dangerous.

Palestinian militants have smuggled nearly 70 tonnes of explosives and bomb-making materials and other weapons into Gaza since Israel ended an offensive meant to choke off the arms flow, a senior Israeli defence official said Sunday.

Guatemalan security forces have discovered a camp run by Mexico's most violent drug gang where traffickers trained dozens of gunmen, police said on Friday.

"Iran is responsible for an attempt last week to funnel millions of dollars to Hamas in the Gaza Strip by way of Egypt, the Egyptian paper Al-Ahram reported on Saturday.

"Israel is closely tracking an Iranian freighter believed to be carrying weaponry for Hamas that is currently docked in the Red Sea outside the Suez Canal, after Egypt refused to permit it to cross the waterway to the Mediterranean.

The Gaza Strip's tunnel smugglers are back in business, pumping gasoline and dragging cartons of cigarettes under the Egyptian border through dozens of passages that survived Israel's three-week military offensive.

Israel is at the center of international trade in the drug ecstasy, including distribution to North America from Europe, according to a document published last week by the U.S. State Department.

Two Palestinian bombers attempted a mass killing in Israel today; one detonated his bomb, killing at least 1 woman and wounding 38 others. The second was wounded before he could trigger his device. He tried to set the bomb off with medics and anyone else nearby.

''Mor, commander of special anti- unit Magen, which operates on the , said he heard about the attack on his police radio. "I did a U-turn and went straight for Dimona", he told reporters.