AP – Israelis and Palestinians have already handed President Barack Obama his first international challenge.

AFP – The last Israeli soldier withdrew from the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, the fourth day of a ceasefire that ended a 22-day blitz on the Islamist Hamas movement in which 1,300 Palestinians were killed.

AP – Israel withdrew the last of its troops from the Gaza Strip before dawn Wednesday, the military said, and pursued diplomatic efforts to stanch the flow of arms into the Hamas-ruled territory.

AP – With Israel in a fragile cease-fire with Hamas in Gaza to the south, the army of this tiny country bordering Israel’s north is for the first time getting some serious military muscle, including its first fighter jets in decades.

Reuters – Israel said it completed a troop pullout from the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip on Wednesday, starting its relationship with U.S. President Barack Obama by quitting Palestinian land devastated by its 22-day offensive.

AP – An atomic energy deal between the U.S. and the United Arab Emirates, signed in the waning days of the Bush administration, could give Mideast nations a significant boost toward acquiring nuclear technology if Iran pushes ahead with its own ambitions.