* Obama mulling Iran sanctions by January The Obama administration is looking to early January as the time to press for a new round of United Nations sanctions against Iran.

* Iran: We need 20 enrichment plants for nuclear program Iran needs 20 uranium enrichment plants to produce enough fuel for its nuclear power plants.

* Internal security minister: We won’t go easy on settlers Security forces in the West Bank will not go easy on lawbreaking settlers protesting the settlement construction freeze.

* Copenhagen Climate Talks Representatives of 192 nations will gather in Copenhagen from Dec. 7 to Dec. 18, 2009, to seek a consensus on an international strategy for fighting global warming.

* Iran warns Switzerland over minaret ban Iran warned Switzerland on Saturday of “consequences” over a referendum banning the building of new mosque minarets and urged Bern not to enforce the ban.

* ‘Turkey to step in again as mediator’ The Egyptian Al Ahram newspaper reported Saturday that Israeli-Syrian peace talks would resume in the first half of 2010 with Turkish mediation.

* PA promotes Swedish initiative The Palestinians are aiming to convince European states to endorse a Swedish initiative calling for the recognition of a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital in line with the 1967 borders.

* Netanyahu forms task force to monitor settlement freeze Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed with Defense Minister Ehud Barak on Friday to assemble a task force to monitor the implementation of a construction freeze in West Bank settlements.

* UN hits back at climate sceptics amid e-mails row The UN’s official panel on climate change has hit back at sceptics’ claims that the case for human influence on global warming has been exaggerated.

* US, Russia agree to maintain nuke pact The United States and Russia said Friday that they had agreed to maintain the provisions of a major nuclear arms control treaty hours before it is set to expire.