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JERUSALEM -- A senior Hamas official was caught yesterday trying to smuggle more than $800,000 in cash into the Gaza Strip, underscoring the desperate financial situation facing the Hamas-led government and deepening tensions between the Islamist group and the Palestinian executive branch. Forces loyal to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas confiscated 635,000 euros, or $809,000, from Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri at the Rafah border crossing from Egypt, officials from both sides said.

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Gov. Martin O'Malley departed Friday night on a trade mission to India — the first by a Maryland governor to the world's second-most-populous nation — with a stop along the way in the Persian Gulf nation of Qatar. The governor is heading a delegation of more than 100 state officials, business leaders and educators on a trip that will include stops in Hyderabad, Mumbai and New Delhi. On the way, the governor will stop in Doha, Qatar, where he is scheduled to discuss investment opportunities.

PARAMUS, N.J. -- Toys "R" Us Inc. said it will open 115 new company-owned stores and expand into the Middle East with franchised stores in 1994 as part of the largest expansion program in the company's history.In addition, the toy company said that it will make an investment of another sort by repurchasing $1 billion of its common stock.The world's largest children's specialty retailing chain recently created a franchising division to enable it to accelerate the expansion of the Toys "R" Us concept throughout the world.

PARIS -- Airlines gave a major lift to the order book for the next generation Airbus A350 yesterday, announcing contracts for 114 of the planes on the first day of the Paris Air Show. The vote of confidence puts the late-to-the-gate program on more solid footing, although it is still well behind Boeing's rival jet. The A350 orders, worth more than $27 billion, were part of a total haul of 219 firm orders and 120 provisional ones - including 13 for the much-delayed A380 superjumbo - with a combined value of $45.7 billion at list prices.

MOSCOW - A court in the Persian Gulf nation of Qatar convicted two Russian intelligence agents yesterday for the assassination of an exiled Chechen separatist leader and sentenced them to life imprisonment. The Feb. 13 murder of Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev, a leader of the Chechen rebels in 1996 and 1997, and the arrest of the Russians were widely seen as signs of Russia's willingness to target its enemies even outside the country's borders. Yandarbiyev, who was living in exile in Qatar, died after his car exploded.

CAIRO, Egypt - Arab leaders are debating whether to call on Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to peacefully step aside but are deeply divided and fear it could establish a precedent that would threaten their authority, say analysts in the region. In the latest sign of Arab ambivalence, six Persian Gulf states allied with the United States declined yesterday to endorse a proposal that called on Hussein to relinquish power as a means of averting war. Three of the countries, Kuwait, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates, were on record as supporting the idea, and the others are opponents of Hussein.

NEW YORK -- Crude oil rose for a fourth straight day yesterday, trading above $60 a barrel on speculation that OPEC members will agree at a meeting this week to cut production because of a 20 percent drop in prices over the past three months. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries will meet Thursday to discuss reducing output by 1 million barrels a day, oil ministers including Qatar's Abdullah bin Hamad al-Attiyah said. Oil prices fell last week to a 2006 low as U.S. supplies rose to 14 percent above the five-year average.

WASHINGTON - Amid strains in American ties with Saudi Arabia, the United States has significantly expanded its strategic relationship with the smaller emirates and monarchies of the oil-rich Persian Gulf, which could play a key role as bases for U.S. troops and equipment in the event of an American attack on Iraq. The U.S. military presence in Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman and the United Arab Emirates has been growing since the Persian Gulf war in 1991. But the growth has accelerated as U.S. forces launched military action against the Taliban and al-Qaida in Afghanistan and began preparing for a possible invasion of Iraq.