* ‘Iran could trigger nuclear arms race in Middle East’ If Iran is allowed to pursue a nuclear weapons capability, countries around the world might feel compelled to take the same path.

* Coalition talks: Bibi, Lieberman optimistic Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu and Yisrael Beiteinu Chairman Avigdor Lieberman met Thursday evening in an attempt to advance the formation of a new government.

* Obama to Beef Up PA Army The Obama administration has made plans to strengthen the emerging Palestinian Authority army that is currently being trained at an American-built base in Jordan.

* Optimism in Teheran It isn’t everyday we’re given insight into the strategic thinking of Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. But on Wednesday he addressed the Fourth International Conference for Support of Palestine in Teheran.

* Clinton says U.S. is ‘testing waters’ in outreach to Iran, Syria U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Friday that the Obama administration was “testing the waters” in its diplomatic overtures to Iran and Syria.

* Livni, Turkish FM meet to repair ties In an apparent attempt to patch up Turkish-Israel ties, which had badly deteriorated since Operation Cast Lead, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni met with her Turkish counterpart.

* China to be ‘decisive’ on economy China’s central bank governor, Zhou Xiaochuan, has said China will respond quickly and dynamically to cope with the global economic slowdown.

* Russia building anti-satellite weapons Russia is working to develop anti-satellite weapons to match efforts by other nations.

* Brown claims he is on brink of deal for international banking regulation Gordon Brown will claim today his visit to the US this week has put him on the verge of winning international agreement on principles for banking regulation.

* Gorbachev criticizes Putin’s party In some of his strongest criticism of his successors, Mikhail Gorbachev on Thursday likened Vladimir Putin’s United Russia party to the worst of the communists he once led and helped bring down.

* ‘Israel seriously considering Iran military action’ Israel is seriously considering taking unilateral military action to stop Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.

* Nato to resume Russian contacts Nato ministers have agreed to resume high-level contacts with Russia, making what US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called a “fresh start”.

* Britain considering dialogue with Hizbullah The British government is prepared to engage Hizbullah in light of “more positive developments within Lebanon.”

* Abbas: Iran must stop ‘interfering’ Iran must stop interfering in Palestinian affairs, president Mahmud Abbas said on Wednesday after talks with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

* Russia tops Clinton’s agenda in Europe US secretary of state Hillary Clinton emphasized the importance of putting relations with Russia back on track.

* Iran missiles can reach Israel atom sites Iranian missiles can reach Israeli nuclear sites, a top military commander said on Wednesday.

* Pakistan poses global security worry, says top US official The top US diplomat in Kabul warned ­yesterday that Pakistan posed a bigger security challenge to America and the world than Afghanistan.

* Kerry says Syria prepared to resume talks with Israel Sen. John Kerry said Wednesday that Syrian President Basher Assad told him last month in Damascus that Syria is prepared to resume peace negotiations with Israel.

* China ‘faces most difficult year’ Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao has said the current year will be the most difficult the country has faced this century because of the global economic crisis.

* Likud begins drafting coalition deals The Likud negotiating team met with representatives of Israel Beiteinu on Thursday morning, and began drafting a coalition agreement.

By: AP – Fox News

MOSCOW — If you’re inclined to believe Igor Panarin, and the Kremlin wouldn’t mind if you did, then President Barack Obama will order martial law this year, the U.S. will split into six rump-states before 2011, and Russia and China will become the backbones of a new world order.

Panarin might be easy to ignore but for the fact that he is a dean at the Foreign Ministry’s school for future diplomats and a regular on Russia’s state-guided TV channels. And his predictions fit into the anti-American story line of the Kremlin leadership.

“There is a high probability that the collapse of the United States will occur by 2010,” Panarin told dozens of students, professors and diplomats Tuesday at the Diplomatic Academy — a lecture the ministry pointedly invited The Associated Press and other foreign media to attend.

The prediction from Panarin, a former spokesman for Russia’s Federal Space Agency and reportedly an ex-KGB analyst, meshes with the negative view of the U.S. that has been flowing from the Kremlin in recent years, in particular from Vladimir Putin.

Putin, the former president who is now prime minister, has likened the United States to Nazi Germany’s Third Reich and blames Washington for the global financial crisis that has pounded the Russian economy.

Panarin didn’t give many specifics on what underlies his analysis, mostly citing newspapers, magazines and other open sources.

He also noted he had been predicting the demise of the world’s wealthiest country for more than a decade now.

But he said the recent economic turmoil in the U.S. and other “social and cultural phenomena” led him to nail down a specific timeframe for “The End” — when the United States will break up into six autonomous regions and Alaska will revert to Russian control.

Panarin argued that Americans are in moral decline, saying their great psychological stress is evident from school shootings, the size of the prison population and the number of gay men.

Turning to economic woes, he cited the slide in major stock indexes, the decline in U.S. gross domestic product and Washington’s bailout of banking giant Citigroup as evidence that American dominance of global markets has collapsed.

“I was there recently and things are far from good,” he said. “What’s happened is the collapse of the American dream.”

Panarin insisted he didn’t wish for a U.S. collapse, but he predicted Russia and China would emerge from the economic turmoil stronger and said the two nations should work together, even to create a new currency to replace the U.S. dollar.

Asked for comment on how the Foreign Ministry views Panarin’s theories, a spokesman said all questions had to be submitted in writing and no answers were likely before Wednesday.

It wasn’t clear how persuasive the 20-minute lecture was. One instructor asked Panarin whether his predictions more accurately describe Russia, which is undergoing its worst economic crisis in a decade as well as a demographic collapse that has led some scholars to predict the country’s demise.

Panarin dismissed that idea: “The collapse of Russia will not occur.”

But Alexei Malashenko, a scholar-in-residence at the Carnegie Moscow Center who did not attend the lecture, sided with the skeptical instructor, saying Russia is the country that is on the verge of disintegration.

“I can’t imagine at all how the United States could ever fall apart,” Malashenko told the AP.

* Israel Lays Out Red Lines for U.S. Relationship with Iran Israel and the new U.S. administration appear to be headed on a collision course.

* PM: Israel can’t tolerate nuclear Iran Speaking to journalists before his meeting with Hillary Clinton on Tuesday evening, outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said that like his designated successor Binyamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak, he, too, would raise Israel’s concerns on the Iranian nuclear issue.

* Top Iranian commander: Our missiles can hit Israeli nuclear sites Iranian missiles can reach Israeli nuclear sites, a top military commander said on Wednesday.

* Clinton: Israeli home demolitions in east J’lem ‘unhelpful’ US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Wednesday said that Israel’s demolition of Arab homes in Jerusalem had been “unhelpful” to Middle East peace efforts.

* Russian Scholar Says U.S. Will Collapse Next Year If you’re inclined to believe Igor Panarin, and the Kremlin wouldn’t mind if you did, then President Barack Obama will order martial law this year, the U.S. will split into six rump-states before 2011, and Russia and China will become the backbones of a new world order.

* China to increase defence spending by 15 percent The 14.9 per cent rise to 480.7 billion yuan (£50 billion), up 62.5 billion yuan from 2008, was announced in advance of the annual meeting of the rubber-stamp parliament, the National People’s Congress.

* Asteroid passes close to Earth You had a close encounter with a 40-yard-wide asteroid this week, but the astronomer who first spotted the large rock said it’s nothing to worry about.

* Israel to Invest 6 Million Shekels in Upcoming Visit by Pope The State of Israel plans to invest some 6 million shekels in tourism upgrades and renovations in anticipation of the upcoming visit by Pope Benedict XVI, slated for May.

* Iran urges world Muslim ‘resistance’ against Israel Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called on Wednesday for world Muslims to join the Palestinian “resistance” against Israel as he kicked off a two-day summit in aid of war-torn Gaza.

* ‘Peace integral to Israel-EU upgrade’ The pace of the upgrade in Israeli-EU relations depends on the next government’s plans and outlook toward the peace process.

By: Brenda Gazzar, Herb Keinon and AP – The Jerusalem Post

Palestinian officials from rival factions welcomed pledges of more than $4.4 billion to rebuild the war-torn Gaza Strip that were made at the donors conference held in Sharm e-Sheikh on Monday.

“We appreciate this very much, and we hope it can be transferred into reality in an expeditious fashion so we can see the reconstruction of Gaza begin immediately,” chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat told The Jerusalem Post.

Earlier on Monday, Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum told reporters in Gaza that the group welcomed “any Arab and international effort to rebuild what the occupation destroyed,” calling the reconstruction process “a humane and moral” one.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who arrived in Jerusalem on Monday to consult with Israeli government officials and with Palestinian officials in the West Bank, said the United States was pledging $900 million to the international aid effort for the Gaza Strip.

She gave no breakdown of the funds, but her spokesman, Robert A. Wood, said on Sunday that it included $300m. in humanitarian aid for Gaza and about $600m. in budget and development aid to the Palestinian Authority, which is based in the West Bank.

Clinton conducted a rapid-fire series of one-on-one meetings with Arab and other counterparts attending the conference.

Clinton also met with Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, and she attended a meeting of the so-called Quartet of international mediators – the US, the European Union, the United Nations and Russia – seeking to forge progress toward peace between Israel and its Arab neighbors.

At the Red Sea Resort, Mubarak cautioned that rebuilding Gaza following Israel’s three-week offensive in January would depend on several factors, including a long-term truce and the opening of the area’s border crossings.

Mubarak said the “priority is to reach a truce between Israel and the Palestinians,” and added that Egypt would continue its mediation between the two, including for a more permanent Gaza truce.

“I see a momentum in peace efforts. I [anticipate] that this year will be the year of peaceful settlement between Israelis and Palestinians,” Mubarak said.

He added that Egypt was trying to get Israel to “modify its position on reaching a truce” – referring to Israel’s demand that a truce be linked to the release of kidnapped soldier St.-Sgt. Gilad Schalit.

Mubarak also called on Palestinian factions to work toward reconciliation and forming a unity government to oversee the rebuilding.

Taking the stand, Sarkozy urged “responsible Palestinians” to seek peace with Israel, and said the release of Schalit in exchange for Palestinian prisoners was a priority.

“You must admit that there is no other road to the creation of a Palestinian state but to engage resolutely in searching for a political solution and engage in a dialogue with Israel,” Sarkozy said, in a clear message to Hamas.

Mark Regev, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s spokesman, said Israel supported the international efforts designed to aid the people of Gaza, “but, like other responsible members of the international community, believes that mechanisms have to be established to ensure that the aid reaches the people whom it is supposed to reach, and only them.

“We don’t want to see American dollars, European euros or British pounds go to lend support to Hamas’s extremist regime,” he said.

Regarding sharp criticism of Israel at the conference for not fully opening the border crossings into the Gaza Strip, Regev said that “the crossings are open for humanitarian aid, and 200 trucks go into the Gaza Strip each day.”

Regev said that further opening the crossings beyond humanitarian support “is conditional on the release of Gilad Schalit.” If there is any issue that is a clear humanitarian issue, he said, “it is Schalit, who has been held hostage for three years.”

Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salaam Fayad prepared a 53-page reconstruction plan for the donors, including detailed damage assessments. For example, fixing war damage to infrastructure and homes would cost $501m. according to the plan, which says 4,036 homes were destroyed and 11,514 damaged.

Fayad warned Sunday that reconstruction could only move forward if Gaza’s borders, blockaded since Hamas’s bloody takeover, opened again. He said that with open borders and sufficient aid, reconstruction could begin in six weeks.

Fayad wants most of the aid to be funneled through his West Bank-based government. He already administers huge sums of foreign aid – $7.7b. for 2008-2010 – and has been sending $120m. to Gaza each month for welfare and the salaries of PA President Mahmoud Abbas’s former civil servants. Other aid, such as for rebuilding homes, would go directly to the bank accounts of Gazans.

George Mitchell, the US special envoy for Middle East peace, said that while the situation was difficult between Israel and the Palestinians, he saw opportunity for progress. Mitchell stressed the need to consolidate a cease-fire in Gaza, and he forecast that once Israel created a new governing coalition, it would be in position to improve living conditions in the West Bank.

The Obama administration is casting its Gaza and PA contributions as a calculated effort to ensure that the money does not reach Hamas, which is viewed by Washington as a terrorist organization and not a legitimate governing body.

“We have worked with the Palestinian Authority to install safeguards that will ensure our funding is only used where and for whom it is intended and does not end up in the wrong hands,” Clinton told the conference. She did not explicitly mention Hamas, but alluded to extremist elements.

“It is time to break the cycle of rejection and resistance,” she said, “to cut the strings pulled by those who exploit the suffering of innocent people.”

In her address, Clinton took note of the continuing rocket attacks by Hamas on southern Israel.

“These attacks must stop,” she said.

Clinton stressed that the Obama administration was taking a wide-angle view of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza following weeks of attacks by Israel in response to Hamas rocket fire.

“Our response to today’s crisis in Gaza cannot be separated from our broader efforts to achieve a comprehensive peace,” she said. “Only by acting now can we turn this crisis into an opportunity that moves us closer to our shared goals.”

She added that “by providing humanitarian aid to Gaza, we also aim to foster conditions in which a Palestinian state can be fully realized, a state that is a responsible partner, is at peace with Israel and its Arab neighbors and is accountable to its people.”

Before Clinton spoke, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told the conference he was encouraged by the Obama administration’s approach to the Middle East. He singled out Obama’s decision to appoint Mitchell as special Middle East peace envoy.

By: Sana Abdallah – Middle East Times

AMMAN — The Palestinian factions, Fatah and Hamas, have realized that the time is ripe and regional conditions are appropriate to launch reconciliation talks to end the deep rifts that were threatening their cause for self-determination.

FRIENDS AGAIN — Senior Fatah official Ahmed Qurei and Hamas politburo deputy chief Moussa Abu Marzouk share a laugh during a press conference in Cairo on Feb. 26, in which they announced working committees to forge Palestinian reconciliation and a unity government. (PTS via Newscom)

Egypt managed Thursday to bring together Fatah and Hamas leaders, along with representatives from other Palestinian factions, for badly-needed talks to resolve their differences and pave the way for a unity government that would get international recognition.

After long hours of deliberations, more than a dozen factions late Thursday evening formed five committees tasked with unifying ranks: One committee will be tasked with forming a unity government; one is charged with providing mechanisms for reforming the security services on the basis of merit rather than factional affiliations; and another committee will organize and set a date for legislative and presidential elections.

One group was formed to work on restructuring the Palestine Liberation Organization to allow all factions, including Hamas, to join it as an umbrella organization representing the Palestinians. And a reconciliation committee is tasked with “consolidating the culture of democracy, the principle of mutual respect and forbidding internal fighting.”

In a move to clear the air before the talks kicked off, Islamist Hamas, which controls Gaza, and nationalist Fatah, which runs much of the West Bank, agreed to stop arresting each others’ members and to halt smear campaigns. They also agreed to begin releasing prisoners from the other side, and vowed to end their dispute by the time dialogue ends.

Participants said the committees will begin their detailed negotiations on Mar. 10 and will conclude their work by issuing a comprehensive document before the annual Arab summit convenes in Qatar at the end of March, in order to receive the necessary Arab support – in terms of the reconstruction of Gaza, peace negotiations with Israel, and dealings with the new U.S. administration in this regard.

Some officials hoped that a unity government would be formed by the end of next month, while others were more cautious about raising hopes that high.

Fatah and Hamas leaders in Cairo declared a “new historic phase” in internal Palestinian relations, saying that all parties were determined to forge unity. Their division was consolidated after Hamas ousted the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority (PA) from Gaza in June 2007, only three months after the two sides had formed a coalition government.

Hamas swept the legislative elections in January 2006, but when it formed a government, the West suspended ties with the Palestinians. Gaza came under a severe Western-backed Israeli blockade after Hamas seized control of the impoverished strip, on the grounds that Hamas was blacklisted as a “terrorist” organization.

Some commentators say that conditions have now changed for reconciliation talks to succeed, after they had failed on several occasions before they even kicked off.

These analysts argue the fact that the two key factions announced their commitment to confidence-building-measures – after their loss of trust for each other amid internal fighting and crackdowns against each others’ members – was a positive first step.

Although their attempts to find common ground on which to form a unity government are expected to face many obstacles – considering that Fatah and Hamas have substantial differences over how to deal with Israel – the Israeli election results were ironically one of the conditions that provided an opportunity for the Palestinians to reconcile. With a far right-wing Israeli government-in-the-making, the chances for reviving paralyzed peace talks with President Mahmoud Abbas’s Palestinian Authority are considered to be almost nil.

Add to that the massive destruction from the deadliest war on Gaza in December-January, in which more than 1,300 Palestinians, most of them civilians, were killed and 5,500 others injured, has generated international sympathy to the plight of this downcast territory and its 1.5 million people and plans to support its reconstruction.

Egypt is next week hosting a donors’ conference to rebuild what Israel destroyed in Gaza, so the factions hope to agree on a Western-accepted unified entity that would handle the reconstruction funds, expected to reach $3 billion.

The United States and Britain said they would prefer a “technocrat” government that excludes Hamas. But that is unlikely to happen, considering Hamas was elected freely and controls Gaza on the ground.

Abbas this week indicated that Hamas can no longer be ostracized by the international community if the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and the West Bank is to be resolved. He urged the West to recognize and deal with a unity government that includes the Islamist movement.

Fatah, which seeks a compromise peace settlement with Israel, hopes that Hamas will in turn recognize the previous peace agreements and initiatives. Hamas and its allies insist on the right to armed resistance, but Palestinian officials say they believe that an acceptable text can be worked out in the Cairo talks.

Arab analysts say that the West was slowly, but surely, edging toward accepting Hamas, despite official calls on it to first recognize Israel, accept previous agreements and renounce violence, as well as declaring their preference for a unity government that excludes the Islamist movement. And there are signs that Western leaders might be easing the pressure on Abbas by not making aid conditional to Hamas’s exclusion from the government.

For the first time since Hamas seized power, Western officials have begun to visit Gaza, although they have not made contact with Hamas, whose leaders likewise have not attempted to meet them. A U.S. congressional delegation, led by Senate’s foreign relations committee chief Sen. John Kerry, made a rare visit to Gaza only last week.

European leaders have also started traveling to the strip to ascertain its humanitarian needs and survey the war damage. EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana on Friday toured the Gaza Strip for the first time since Hamas took control.

Also Friday, the EU stated it would pledge 436 million euros in aid to Gaza at the donors’ conference, while reports said the United States would announce $900 million for the strip’s reconstruction.

Another indication that is boosting the chances for successful Palestinian reconciliation is the diplomatic rhetoric that is easing polarization in the region. Iran and Syria, main supporters of Hamas, seem to be edging closer to Washington. And diplomatic efforts are underway for Arab rapprochement between polarized states, such as Syria and Saudi Arabia, which backs the Palestinian Authority.

By: Claude Salhani – Middle East Times

A senior high-ranking foreign diplomat who is well acquainted with the Middle East said Friday in Washington that “a major regional war is not inconceivable.”

A female member of Iran’s Basij militia in military maneuvers called ‘Martyrdom Lovers’ training in riot control, handling firearms and administering first aid at a Revolutionary Guards base outside Tehran on Oct. 8, 2008. It is clear that while the question of Palestine remains at the core of the Middle East’s problems, other sub-conflicts now command equal attention. (Abaca Press via Newscom)

Although war in the Middle East is not imminent, the risk of a generalized regional conflagration nevertheless persists. Among the fuses that could ignite the next fire is the continued lack of progress with the all-but-dead peace talks between Palestinians and Israelis, and what many Arab leaders consider to be Iran’s interference in Arab affairs.

As one Lebanese official who asked not to be named pointed out, Iran is like an octopus with its tentacles touching every aspect of the multitude of problems plaguing the Middle East today.

Indeed, if U.S. President Barack Obama’s administration is unable to revive the Middle East peace talks and to convince the parties concerned to move toward a settlement of the crisis, the ‘natural’ reaction could be another large-scale regional war. A war that could be precipitated by an attack on Iran by Israel, or an attack by Hezbollah on Israel.

Speaking off the record at a conference in Washington last week the diplomat said he feared that stagnation in the peace talks brought about by mounting extremism in the Middle East risks taking the entire region down a rather perilous road. An extremism that is equally visible on the Arab as well as on the Israeli side.

It is clear that while the question of Palestine remains at the core of the Middle East’s problems, other sub-conflicts now command equal attention.

What used to be a single track dispute in the Middle East, basically a dispute over real estate, has evolved into a multiple track conflict and in turn each track, or conflict, has spawned off a number of very complicated sub-conflicts.

Far more worrisome is that the real estate dispute has turned into a conflict driven by religious fervor propelled by the Iranian Islamic revolution. For the first time since its inception 30 years ago the Iranians are finally starting to see some success in their efforts to bridge the Sunni-Shiite schism.

Close cooperation has been established between Iran and Sunni jihadist groups now settled in the Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon, turning Lebanon into a microcosm of the many problems affecting the region today, and which have become inseparable.

For example, solving Lebanon’s internal issues such as the question of Hezbollah maintaining its weapons on the grounds that it is a resistance group fighting occupation will remain unsolvable until Israel withdraws from parts of south Lebanon it continues to occupy.

Israel claims these areas belong to Syria while Syria has not officially commented. Therefore, Lebanon’s internal issues are unlikely to be solved until an Israeli-Syrian peace accord can be reached.

Will that solve the question of Hezbollah’s guns? Not quite.

The Lebanese Shiite group’s Secretary General, Sayyid Hassan Nasrallah, has already stated that once the question of the south is resolved, there is still Jerusalem to liberate. In other words, there can be no resolution to the Lebanese internal question of Hezbollah’s weapons until a peace agreement between Israel and Syria is reached AND a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians is also reached.

That is easier said than done. Iran’s meddling in the Arab-Israeli dispute further complicates an already complex series of conflicts. There used to be one conflict in Palestine, there are now two: one involving Hamas and the other the Palestinian Authority. There used to be one conflict between the Arabs and Israel, there are now several: there is an Israeli-Syrian dispute, an Israeli-Lebanese dispute and an Israeli-Hezbollah dispute. There is now also an Israeli-Iranian dispute.

Can each of these conflicts be solved independently of the others? There are two schools of thought. A number of observers think it would be impossible to try and solve any one of these issues independently. Other observers say, all these different issues need to be addressed simultaneously.

Rendering negotiations even more tedious is that most of the groups in conflict with Israel today refuse to hold direct talks with the Jewish state. Hamas, Syria, Lebanon, Iran and Hezbollah refuse to engage Israel in direct talks, insisting instead on having negotiations with Israel conducted through third parties.

The bottom line here is that the geopolitical landscape of the Middle East has changed – and it would be safe to add, not for the better.

There was quasi unanimity among a number of senior diplomats, current and former U.S. State Department officials and leading experts on Lebanese affairs attending a conference in Washington last week that the new danger posed to the region is now clearly emanating from the Islamic Republic.

What makes this situation so much more volatile today is that all these problems have become intricately interwoven and in many instances, with Lebanon caught in its middle much as a fly in a spider’s web.

What happens in Lebanon in the upcoming June 7 parliamentary elections will in fact be a good litmus test for the rest of the region. At stake in these elections is the very essence of democracy taking hold in the Middle East. Lebanon’s June 7 elections are going to be a major test of Lebanon’s stability and its ability to demonstrate that it can hold on to its democracy, tattered as it might be.

* ‘Obama seeks Russian deal on Iran’ US President Barack Obama suggested to Russian President Dmitri Medvedev that the United States would back off plans for a missile defense system in Eastern Europe in exchange for help stopping Iran from developing long-range weapons.

* US Israel support ‘unshakeable’ US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has restated “unshakeable” support for Israel, whatever type of government emerges from current coalition talks.

* Saudi urges joint Arab strategy on Iran Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal called on Tuesday for a joint Arab strategy to deal with the “Iranian challenge”.

* BGU combats nuclear proliferation Ben-Gurion University of the Negev engineers have developed a practical technique to “denature” plutonium created in large nuclear reactors.

* Vatican hosts Darwin conference The Vatican is sponsoring a five day conference to mark the 150th anniversary of the publication of Charles Darwin’s Origin of Species.

* Gulf TV in Hebrew seeks to educate Israelis on Islam Leaders of the Support Prophet Mohammed Organization, based in the Gulf state Bahrain, stressed on Sunday the need to establish a TV channel in Hebrew to teach Israelis about Islam’s values.

* Russia to deliver armored vehicles to PA Russia’s foreign minister reportedly says Moscow will soon deliver 50 armored vehicles to the Palestinian Authority.

* Clinton: Two-state solution is in Israel’s best interest U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pledged on Tuesday to press hard for Palestinian statehood.

* Southeast Asian countries plan EU-style union by 2015 The leaders of ten Southeast Asian countries have signed a declaration to integrate their economies and construct an economic and political union modelled on that of the European Union by 2015.

* Iraq struggles with spending plan as oil dips Iraqi lawmakers struggled Tuesday to hammer out spending plans that could include additional cuts in reconstruction and military purchases because of falling oil prices.

* Iran’s uranium is enough for a bomb Iran has enough nuclear material to build a bomb, the United States’ most senior military commander has said.

* Mideast envoy Tony Blair visits Gaza Quartet Mideast envoy Tony Blair visited the Gaza Strip on Sunday morning to discuss reconstruction efforts in the territory.

* We cannot afford more setbacks Hillary Clinton called for urgent action to break the cycle of Mideast violence and to move toward peace in the region.

* No money to Gaza until rockets stop Prime Minister-designate Netanyahu voiced serious reservations about money going into the Gaza Strip for reconstruction before the rocket fire on Israel has stopped.

* Next Step After Middle East Talks: A Major War? A senior diplomat said that “a major regional war is not inconceivable.”

* Palestinians Take First New Reconciliation Steps The Palestinian factions realized that the time is ripe to launch reconciliation talks to end the deep rifts that were threatening their cause for self-determination.

* Netanyahu still hoping for broad gov’t Prime Minister-designate Netanyahu told Likud members that he has not yet given up hope of forming a unity government with Labor.

* Islamic banks better in crisis Indonesian President Yudhoyono has called on Islamic banks to take a leadership role in the global economy, amid the financial crisis.

* Israel planning 73,300 new homes in West Bank A report by the Israeli left-wing NGO Peace Now says that the government is planning to build more than 73,300 new housing units in the West Bank.

* No deal in Israel coalition talks Israel’s prime minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu says talks to include the centrist Kadima party in a coalition have ended without agreement.

* Netanyahu: Palestinians should govern their own lives, but not threaten ours Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu says he believes in the Palestinians’ right to self governance.

* Obama outlines Iraq pullout plan President Barack Obama has announced the withdrawal of most US troops in Iraq by the end of August 2010.

* Nasrallah’s deputy: Hizbullah prepared for another conflict with Israel Hizbullah is prepared for the possibility of another armed conflict with Israel.

* East-West divide plagues Europe European leaders are converging on Brussels this weekend for yet another “emergency” economic summit meeting.

* Vatican rejects bishop’s apology The Vatican has rejected an apology by a British bishop who denied the full extent of the Holocaust.

* Russian bomber neared Canada before Obama visit Canadian fighters planes scrambled to intercept an approaching Russian bomber less than 24 hours before U.S. President Barack Obama’s visit to Ottawa last week.

* Clinton: Hamas must recognize Israel Egyptian-brokered efforts to bring about reconciliation between Hamas and Fatah will only work if the Islamic group recognizes Israel.

* US may boycott racism conference The US is likely to boycott a UN racism conference, reports suggest, saying a text drawn up for the event criticises Israel and restricts freedom of speech.

* Russia’s Putin warns against economic protests Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin warned opposition critics on Friday not to use the economic crisis as an excuse to challenge his government and told them to abide by the law.