Israeli settlers warn Netanyahu of ‘day of judgment’

Israeli settlers warned on Wednesday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will face his day of judgment if he caves in to pressure to further limit settlement construction in the West Bank. This is not a time to mince words as this is literally a day of judgment for our prime minister and government, said Naftali Bennett, head of Yesha, the main association of settlers in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territory.
Yesha warned in a letter to Netanyahu of serious diplomatic and political implications if he reneges on his promise to resume issuing building permits for settler homes when a partial, 10-month moratorium ends on September 26.The issue of settlements is one of the thorniest in the Middle East peace process and is expected to figure prominently at the new round of direct Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations starting in Washington on September 2. The Palestinians initially insisted they would not sit at the negotiating table without guarantees the moratorium on building permits be extended. But no such guarantee has been made public in statements from the US administration and the Middle East peace Quartet when they announced the new round of negotiations. Netanyahu faces Palestinian and international calls for a freeze on settlement construction.But the leader of a centre-right ruling coalition is also under strong pressure, including from within his own Likud party, to clear the way for construction of more settler homes in the West Bank.

Australia beats England by 42 runs

LONDON: Australia bowled England out for 235 to win the fifth one-day international by 42 runs at Lord’s on Saturday with 21 balls to spare.

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Australia beats England by 42 runs

Protests, police at Japan opening of The Cove

TOKYO: Shouts, a scuffle and flag-waving protesters greeted the Japanese opening of The Cove, a controversial Oscar-winning documentary about a grisly annual dolphin hunt.

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Protests, police at Japan opening of The Cove

Romantic movies? Not Helen Mirren cup of tea

LOS ANGELES: Twilight is likely not very high on Helen Mirren’s movie list.

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Romantic movies? Not Helen Mirren cup of tea

Al-Qaida Ties Obstacle to Afghan Peace

Afghan President Hamid Karzai is using old friends and new allies to try to bring some of the fiercest Taliban to the negotiating table, although their links to al-Qaida might scuttle any deal.

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Al-Qaida Ties Obstacle to Afghan Peace

North Korea can’t be accepted as nuclear power: Hillary Clinton

The United States will never have normal, sanctions-free ties with a nuclear-armed North Korea, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said, rebuffing Pyongyang’s hopes to be accepted as a nuclear state.

While repeating the U.S. readiness for bilateral talks with North Korea, Clinton said in a speech the United States would not relax its sanctions on Pyongyang until it takes verifiable, irreversible steps toward complete denuclearization. “Current sanctions will not be relaxed until Pyongyang takes verifiable, irreversible steps toward complete denuclearization,” Clinton said in a speech hosted by the United States Institute for Peace think tank. “Its leaders should be under no illusion that the United States will ever have normal, sanctions-free relations with a nuclear-armed North Korea,” she added. “We are prepared to meet bilaterally with North Korea. But North Korea’s return to the negotiating table is not enough.” The United States hopes a bilateral dialogue may bring North Korea, which carried out its second nuclear test in May, back to wider talks on abandoning its nuclear programs. Clinton also said Iran must take quick action to carry out a plan under which it would send most of its low-enriched uranium (LEU) reserve to Russia and France for conversion into fuel for a nuclear medicine facility in Tehran. “The door is open for a better future with Iran. But the process of engagement cannot be open ended. We are not prepared to talk just for the sake of talking,” she said.

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North Korea can’t be accepted as nuclear power: Hillary Clinton was first posted on October 22, 2009 at 12:13 pm.

Israel Has Lacking Of Political Will: Egypt

UNITED NATIONS: Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit on Saturday accused Israel of lacking the political will to enter “serious and credible” peace talks with the Palestinians.

“Throughout this year, Israel has shown lack of the necessary political will to engage in serious and credible negotiations that aim at reaching a final settlement to the conflict,” he told the 192-member UN General Assembly.

Abul Gheit outlined Egyptian proposals urging the international community to put forward “the formula for the final settlement” and stressing the need “to ensure Israel’s commitment to halt all settlement activity in the occupied Palestinian Territory, including east Jerusalem.”

The freeze on Israeli settlement activity “should go simultaneously and in parallel with the negotiating track in order to reinforce the Palestinian confidence in Israeli intentions,” he added.

“Israel’s engagement in a serious, credible, clear and time-bound negotiating process would restore the situation on many other issues to the same way they had been in the 1990s in terms of the Arab interaction with Israel,” Abul Gheit said.

Egypt has been Israel’s main Arab interlocutor since the two signed a peace treaty in 1979, but the neighbors remain at odds over the peace process.

Cairo has also acted as a mediator in talks between Hamas and Israel on a possible deal to end the crippling blockade of the Gaza strip and free Gilad Shalit, the Israeli soldier captured by Palestinian militants more than three years ago.

Tuesday US President Barack Obama held inconclusive three-way talks in New York with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas. He told them to stop stalling and open talks on a comprehensive deal to halt an “endless cycle” of conflict and suffering.

Final status issues include the fate of Jewish settlements in the West Bank, the borders of an eventual Palestinian state, the status of Jerusalem and the right of return of Palestinian refugees.

Netanyahu has rejected a total freeze on all settlement construction in the occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem ahead of the renewal of peace talks, insisting on the need to guarantee “normal life” in settlements which are home to 500,000 Israelis.

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Israel Has Lacking Of Political Will: Egypt was first posted on September 27, 2009 at 1:42 pm.
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