Israeli settlement plans give Obama little room to maneuver
(McClatchy Newspapers)
McClatchy Newspapers - JERUSALEM — President Barack Obama faces what may be the biggest test to date of his credibility in the Middle East after Israel greeted Vice President Joe Biden's with an announcement that it will construct 1,600 new homes in disputed East Jerusalem, diplomats and analysts said Wednesday.
Deforestation conference to turn plans to action
(AP)
AP - French President Nicolas Sarkozy will open a daylong conference Thursday of some 40 nations to start turning plans into action to save the world's forests and help rein in the noxious gases blamed for climate change.
AP - An open diplomatic row during the visit of Vice President Joe Biden has shined a spotlight on the U.S. failure to rein in Israeli settlement ambitions and deepened Palestinian suspicions that the United States is too weak to broker a deal.
AFP - Pope Benedict XVI on Wednesday denounced the "atrocious" bloodshed in Nigeria after a massacre of Christian villagers, as police said 49 people would be charged over the killings.
Canada Parliament eats seal to defy "ignorant" EU
(Reuters)
Reuters - Canadian parliamentarians tucked into a meal of seal meat on Wednesday to defy both animal right activists and the European Union, which has banned imports of seal products.
Nigeria: More Mass Graves Dug in Jos
(OneWorld.net)
OneWorld.net - ABUJA,
Mar 8 (IRIN) - Hundreds of people in the city of Jos, 350km
northeast of Nigeria's capital, Abuja, have been buried in mass graves
after machete-wielding intruders attacked residents at 3 a.m. (local
time) on 7 March.
Press group: 8 reporters kidnapped in Mexican city
(AP)
AP - Eight journalists have been kidnapped in a Mexican border city in a two-week span in a wave of abductions unprecedented in the Western Hemisphere, the Inter-American Press Association said Wednesday.
Biden Israel Trip: Apology for Timing of Settlement News
(Time.com)
Time.com - Vice President Joe Biden was publicly humiliated by the Israeli announcement of a controversial settlement project, and said it undermined trust in a new U.S. peace effort. But Israel has no plans to shelve the project