AFP – The Palestinian Authority and Christian leaders on Thursday signed an accord to repair the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem on the traditional site of Jesus’s birth.
AFP – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to forge a “historic” peace with the Palestinians Wednesday, injecting cautious hope into US President Barack Obama’s long-odds Middle East talks.
AFP – President Barack Obama steps into Middle East peace efforts on Wednesday in a bid to relaunch direct Palestinian-Israeli negotiations after four Jewish settlers were gunned down in the West Bank.
AFP:
“… The two met on Sunday in a private home in the Jordanian capital, where Barak also held talks with King Abdullah II…”
AFP – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday left Israel for Washington where he is due to restart direct peace talks with the Palestinians after a 20-month hiatus.
AFP – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tried to reassure his right-wing Likud bloc in Israel’s ruling coalition on Monday he would not bow to territorial concessions in peace talks with the Palestinians.
AFP – A UN human rights inquiry into Israel’s deadly raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla started on Monday a probe in Jordan where investigators interviewed four Jordanian activists.
AFP – The Obama administration will relaunch direct Israeli-Palestinian peace talks next week, ready to intervene as needed in what analysts hope will mean unprecedented US engagement and pressure.
AFP reports that Pakistani troops are on a ‘war footing’ in their desperate efforts to save the southern Sindhi city of Thatta from advancing flood waters, as they attempt to repair breaches in levees that have allowed water around the city to rise alarmingly. The 300,000 inhabitants of Thatta have fled, along with 700,000 others in surrounding areas in recent days– that is, a further million is now displaced and homeless, adding to the millions who were already in that situation. The waters are now headed toward the town of Sajawal and have knocked out its electricity plant. Thousands are fleeing.
A string of towns and cities already hit by the floodwaters is sitting empty in the absence of the owners.
Dawn writes that 400,000 of the displaced are gathered in the open in Makli, without shelter, abandoned by the state, and not knowing where their next meal is coming from
The United Nations fears that children are at risk from water-borne diseases, as water-purification processes have broken down with the flooding.
Reuters has video on the crisis:
AFP – Leading lights of the Israeli theatre world have vowed to boycott Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, drawing threats from right-wingers who say the rebels risk losing public funding.
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