Region

An Israeli government official said on Tuesday that his country would be willing to begin new peace talks with the 1967 Green Line as a basis for negotiations on the condition that the Palestinians drop their United Nations membership bid. The assumption is that if this process succeeds, the Palestinians will withdraw their proposal for unilateral action at the UN.

‘Pakistan’s government should immediately end widespread disappearances of suspected militants and activists by the military, intelligence agencies, and the paramilitary Frontier Corps in the southwestern province of Balochistan.’

While millions in East Africa are caught in the cobweb of a devastating drought that has spread its tentacles across Somalia, Kenya and Ethiopia, the government in Addis Ababa is snatching some of Ethiopia’s most productive farmland from local tribes and leasing it to foreign companies to grow and export food.

Extremists would have the best chance to take possession of Pakistani nuclear weapons following the breakdown of the South Asian state’s government, the U.S. Congressional Research Service concluded in a report in July, 2011.

The so-called international community must be either bored or out of this planet. Otherwise it would not have wasted years and years in expensive meetings and lengthy discussions before ending up, twelve months ago, with an indisputable and undisputed finding—that safe water and sanitation is a ‘human right’!

Yesterday’s discovery of the body of Yolanda Ordaz de la Cruz, a crime reporter and columnist for the regional daily Notiver in the east-coast port city of Veracruz, adds her name to the long list of journalists who have been murdered or have disappeared in Mexico. A total of 77 have been killed since 2000 and 23 have gone missing since 2003.

House Speaker John Boehner has delayed a vote on his debt-ceiling plan after failing to gather enough Republican support. Boehner pulled his measure late Thursday night after it became clear hard-line Republicans refused to abandon their demands for even deeper budget cuts. The bill would slash government spending by $917 billion over the next decade.

The Palestine Liberation Organization Negotiations Affairs Department released a report, Road for Palestine Statehood – Recognition and Admission, says that Palestine has met all the conditions for forming an independent state according to the 1933 Montevideo Convention, which states the rights and duties of countries.

Heavy clashes have erupted in the Somali capital of Mogadishu after African Union troops launched operations against the militant group, al-Shabab. The AU says it is trying to protect famine relief efforts from al-Shabab, which has reportedly tried to block the delivery of aid after initially denying that a famine is taking place. At least 6 people were killed in the violence

The head of the Libyan rebels’ military operations against Col. Muammar Gaddafi has been killed in a targeted assassination. Abdel Fattah Younes was shot dead on Thursday as he headed to appear before a rebel-organized judicial committee.

According to United Nations, there have been no progress in Libya talks until now.