Netanyahu : Israel to keep some settlements

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that several Jewish settlement blocs in the West Bank would always remain part of Israel. His comment upset the Palestinians and undermines US efforts to restart talks aimed at eventually establishing a Palestinian state.

Netanyahu’s remarks came hours after the visit of US envoy George Mitchell who is on a mission to restart negotiations between Israel and Palestinians that have been stalled for over a year.

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MPs reject many of Karzai’s new nominees

More than half of Hamid Karzai’s new nominees for cabinet posts have been rejected by the Afghan parliament. In this new vote, 10 of 17 new nominees were rejected (photo, from bbc.co.uk). This vote came two weeks after MPs turned down most of Karzai’s first choices.

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Obama : no US troops in Yemen or Somalia

President Obama told People magazine that he has “no intention” of sending US troops to Yemen or Somalia (map) in order to combat militant groups there.

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Karzai submits new list of ministers to parliament

Afghan president Hamid Karzai, has presented a new list of cabinet ministers to parliament (photo, from aljazeera.net). A week ago, legislators rejected two-thirds of the president’s nominees.

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