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Arabs agree to Israel-Palestinian talks
07/29 | 15:43 GMT
©AFP / Khaled Desouki
Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas arrives for a meeting with the Arab Peace Initiative committee in Cairo. Arab officials have agreed in principle to the holding of direct Middle East peace negotiations and left it up to Abbas to decide when to start talks with Israel.
©AFP / Khaled Desouki
Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas is under pressure to resume peace talks with Israel
CAIRO (AFP) - Arab officials agreed in principle on Thursday to the holding of direct Middle East peace negotiations and left it up to Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas to decide when to start talks with Israel.
Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have been under pressure from Washington to move forward, and the announcement prompted Netanyahu to express openness to starting talks "in the next few days."
Qatari prime minister and foreign minister Hamad bin Jassem bin Jabr al-Thani made the announcement after chairing a meeting of foreign ministers and representatives in Cairo.
He spoke in response to a question about whether they had given Abbas a green light to start talks.
"I'll be clear. There is an agreement but with the understanding of what will be discussed and how the direct negotiations will be conducted. And we will leave the assessment of the position to the Palestinian president as to when the conditions allow the beginning of such negotiations," he said.
Sheikh Hamad said the meeting agreed to send a letter to US President Barack Obama that outlined "our understanding to any peace process or direct negotiations.¨
©afp.com
VIDEO: Arabs meet on Palestinian peace talks with Israel. duration: 00:28
It discussed placing a schedule on the talks and "fixed principles" relating to a near agreement during talks between former Israeli premier Ehud Barak and the late Palestinian president Yasser Arafat.
Arab League chief Amr Mussa said written guarantees were required for direct talks.
There "must be written guarantees ... and the negotiations should be serious and final status talks," he said.
In Jerusalem, a statement from Netanyahu's office said: "In response to the Arab League decision, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that he is ready to start, already in the next few days, direct and frank talks with the Palestinian Authority.
"The prime minister added that through direct negotiations it is possible to reach a peace agreement between the two nations in the near future."
The meeting had been expected to back Abbas's condition that Israel guarantee a Palestinian state based on pre-1967 war borders between the Jewish state and east Jerusalem and the West Bank.
Abbas also wants an end to settlement construction in east Jerusalem and the West Bank. Israel acceded to US pressure to limit settlement building in the West Bank until September, when a moratorium ends.
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©AFP iactiv
Israel: the Zionist state and its Palestinian neighbours
The Palestinian leader repeated his conditions on the eve of the meeting in an interview with Egyptian newspaper editors, the official Egyptian MENA news agency reported on Thursday.
Abbas said he would tell the meeting that if there was "no serious vision relating to the 1967 borders and an end to settlements then I cannot enter direct negotiations.
"When I receive the demanded guarantees which are the acceptance of the 1967 borders and an end to settlements ... I will immediately enter negotiations," MENA quoted Abbas as saying.
He said he was facing "pressures I have never faced before in my life from the American administration and the European Union and the secretary general of the United Nations," and added he would step down if he saw "matters are not going well."
Netanyahu has said he is willing to meet Abbas to discuss all the core issues of the decades-old conflict, and has accused the Palestinians of avoiding engaging in direct talks.
©AFP / Khaled Desouki
The Arab League have called for written guarantees before the start of the peace talks with Israel
Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erakat told an Arab newspaper this week that Obama told the Palestinians in a letter that he will help found a Palestinian state only if they begin direct talks with Israel.
Abbas suspended direct negotiations with Israel after its offensive on the Islamist Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip in December 2008 in response to rocket fire.
He has demanded that the talks pick up from where he left off with then prime minister Ehud Olmert, a condition rejected by Netanyahu's government.
The Palestinians say Netanyahu has yet to respond to the proposal, and the prime minister has previously said Israeli forces must remain in the strategic Jordan Valley after any peace deal to prevent weapons smuggling.
In an indication of the domestic pressure Abbas faces, his own Fatah party on Thursday told him not to join direct talks with Netanyahu's right-wing government without showing progress in the US-brokered indirect talks.
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Morgan sparks England revival in cricket Test
07/29 | 14:58 GMT
©AFP / Ian Kington
Mohammad Aamer of Pakistan (left) reacts after dismissing England captain Andrew Strauss at Trent Bridge in Nottingham. Eoin Morgan led England to 190 for four at tea after Pakistan took two wickets in quick succession on the first day of the first Test at Trent Bridge.
©AFP / Ian Kington
Aamer took two wickets for 19 runs in eight overs
NOTTINGHAM, England (AFP) - Eoin Morgan led England to 190 for four at tea after Pakistan took two wickets in quick succession on the first day of the first Test at Trent Bridge here on Thursday.
England, who won the toss, were in trouble at 118 for four shortly after lunch, with Kevin Pietersen out for nine in his first match since injuring his thigh in a one-day international against Australia at Lord's on July 3.
But former Ireland left-hander Morgan hit back with 44 not out featuring nine boundaries and together with Paul Collingwood (27 not out) had so far shared an unbroken stand of 72.
In a series where the Decision Review System (DRS) was being used in England for the first time, Pakistan wasted both their two permitted unsuccessful challenges on appeals by Mohammad Asif for lbw and caught behind against Pietersen on one and five.
But Asif then bowled Pietersen, leaving a gap between bat and pad, off the inside edge.
England's other South Africa-born batsman, Jonathan Trott, had added just three to his lunchtime 35 when he padded up to an inswinger from Aamer.
Trott, succcessful with a previous referral, asked for New Zealand umpire Tony Hill's lbw verdict to be reviewed.
But replays suggested the ball was clipping the top of the stumps and Trott was out, with England 118 for four.
And there was a fresh flashpoint when wicketkeeper Kamran Akmal appealed for a catch against Morgan, on five, off the bowling of left-arm fast bowler Mohammad Aamer.
But even before the third umpire ruled in Morgan's favour, crowd jeers were ringing round Trent Bridge as replays on the giant screen showed the ball had clearly bounced into Kamran Akmal's gloves.
It took Collingwood 30 balls to score his first four but then two came in as many Umar Gul deliveries, courtesy of a couple of square cuts.
©AFP / Ian Kington
Strauss (R) was caught behind for 45
Morgan then cover-drove and glanced off-spinner Shoaib Malik for fours.
Both batsmen cashed in against Pakistan's slow bowlers and Morgan made it six boundaries for England in 12 deliveries with a trademark reverse sweep off leg-spinner Danish Kaneria.
Before lunch Aamer, who took seven wickets in Pakistan's dramatic three-wicket second Test win over Australia at Headingley last week, had Alastair Cook caught at first slip and had England captain Andrew Strauss caught behind for 45.
Earlier, Strauss had a huge reprieve when, on 15, he edged an outswinger from the 18-year-old Aamer only for Kamran Akmal to drop the routine chance.
Cook struggled in overcast conditions similar to those in which Pakistan bowled Australia out for just 88 in the first innings at Headingley and on eight edged Aamer to first slip Imran Farhat.
Trott then became the first batsman to use DRS in England when, on 13, he given out, lbw to Kaneria, by de Silva. As replays showed Trott had got an inside edge, de Silva reversed his original verdict.
But Aamer did have Strauss, playing loosely outside off-stump, eventually caught behind by Kamran Akmal to end a second-wicket stand of 51.
Pakistan players wore black armbands in memory of the 152 people killed in after an airplane crashed near the capital city of Islamabad on Wednesday.
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Morgan sparks England revival in cricket ...Greenpeace makes fresh Indonesia allegations
07/29 | 15:41 GMT
©AFP
VIDEO: Greenpeace accuses Indonesian paper and palm oil giant Sinar Mas. Duration: 01:05
©AFP
Greenpeace made fresh allegations that units of Indonesian paper and palm oil giant Sinar Mas are clearing high conservation-value forests including habitats of endangered orangutans.
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Greenpeace makes fresh Indonesia ...Churchill's false teeth go on sale
07/29 | 14:46 GMT
©Churchill Archives Centre
A set of dentures made for Britain's war-time prime minister Winston Churchill went under the hammer on Thursday as auctioneers expected to fetch up to £5,000 for "the teeth that saved the world".
©Churchill Archives Centre
An archive of Churchill's personal papers is to be made available on the Internet for the first time
LONDON (AFP) - A set of dentures made for Britain's war-time prime minister Winston Churchill went under the hammer Thursday as auctioneers expected to fetch up to £5,000 for "the teeth that saved the world".
The false teeth were specially designed to preserve Churchill's natural lisp which can still be heard on the morale-boosting radio broadcasts he made to the nation during World War II.
Churchill also used them to vent his frustration when the 1939-45 conflict was not going well by dramatically flicking them out of his mouth, according to Nigel Cudlipp, whose father made the dentures and who is now selling them.
"My father recounted many stories of Churchill putting his thumb behind the front of the teeth and just flicking them," Cudlipp told BBC radio.
"My father used to say he could tell that he could tell how well the war effort was going by how far they went across the room and whether they hit the opposite wall.
"Churchill was not a man who was renowned for his patience."
It is thought that only four sets of the teeth were made. One is thought to have gone to the grave with him, another is in a London museum labelled "the teeth that saved the world" and a third was melted down.
The dentures are going on sale at auctioneers Keys in Aylsham, Norfolk, eastern England, who have issued a guide price of between £4,000 and 5,000 (6,000 euros, 7,800 dollars).
Meanwhile, it was announced Thursday that a huge archive of Churchill's personal papers is to be made available on the Internet for the first time within two years.
This includes around a million pages of material such as annotated drafts of his most famous speeches, school reports and even information about his cat, dogs and pet budgerigar Toby.
"Churchill was someone who lived by his pen so this is an incredibly rich written archive and it must be one of the largest personal archives of its kind in the country," Allen Packwood, director of the Churchill Archives Centre in Cambridge, told AFP.
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Churchill's false teeth go on ...At least 140 dead in DR.Congo river disaster
07/29 | 15:21 GMT
©AFP/Graphic
Map of the Democratic Republic of Congo showing where a boat capsized on the Kasai river in the west of the country killing at least 140 people, the provincial governor's office said Thursday.
©AFP/Graphic
Map of the Democratic Republic of Congo showing where a boat capsized on the Kasai river
KINSHASA (AFP) - A boat capsized on a river in Democratic Republic of Congo killing at least 140 people, the provincial governor's office said Thursday.
The boat overturned on the Kasai river, a tributary of the Congo river in the west of the country, on Wednesday.
"I can confirm the accident. We're currently in a crisis meeting," said a source in the Bandundu province governor's office who asked not to be named. The source said there were 140 dead.
The boat was carrying passengers and goods from Mushie, about 30 kilometres (20 miles) from Bandundu, the province's chief town.
River transport is widely used throughout DR Congo, where the numerous waterways include the 4,700 kilometres (2,915 miles) long Congo river.
Scores of people are killed each year though in river disasters involving overcrowded boats.
In November last year, at least 73 people died when two linked barges sank on Mai-Ndombe lake in Bandundu province. In September 2009, more than 250 people died in three boat accidents on Congolese waterways.
