GAZA CITY - ISRAEL rejected world appeals for a truce on Tuesday and warned its deadly assault on Gaza could last for weeks as warplanes pummelled Hamas positions for a fourth day and tanks massed on the border.

Despite the devastating aerial pounding that has now killed at least 363 people, Hamas militants continued to fight back, firing deadly rockets deep inside Israeli territory.

KUALA LUMPUR - MALAYSIA'S government plans to train special mediators to resolve disputes between neighbors of different races in a bid to prevent communal tensions in the ethnically diverse country, officials said on Tuesday.

About 300 volunteer community representatives would undergo mediation courses starting next month as part of the government's efforts to curb racial and religious friction, said Azman Amin Hassan, director general of the National Unity and Integration Department.

THE Ministry Of Education (MOE) will embark on a hiring blitz next year despite the poor state of the economy, and aims to get 7,500 more teachers and teaching assistants on its payroll.

In addition to boosting its ranks, the ministry will also give the economy a fillip by accelerating its scheme to equip each school with an indoor sports hall by 2014 and explore the building of Centres of Excellence in areas such as arts, music and sports.

LONDON/SINGAPORE - GLOBAL growth will be very weak next year, a senior European banker warned on Tuesday, while Japan reportedly considered a US$110 billion (S$158 billion) scheme to buy bad loans from banks, the latest in a series of government moves aimed at fighting the worst downturn since the 1930s.

Japanese stocks finished modestly higher on their last trading day of 2008, capping a grim year which saw the Nikkei index plunge 42 per cent, the biggest loss in its 58-year history, as recession fears battered global markets.