Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had made “progress” in talks in Washington over how to reconcile continued building in east Jerusalem and US efforts to revive peace talks.
“We found a balance between the traditional policy followed by all Israeli governments and our willingness to find ways to revive the peace process. We have made progress,” Netanyahu told Israeli army radio.
Netanyahu was returning home yesterday having failed to resolve a bitter dispute with Washington over the construction of new Jewish settlements.
Despite multiple meetings with senior US officials, including an unexpected second round of talks with US President Barack Obama at the White House, Netanyahu appeared unable to tamp down the row over the construction of 1,600 new settler homes in east Jerusalem.
Ahead of his scheduled departure, Netanyahu huddled in his Washington hotel with US envoy George Mitchell for a last round of talks.
However, he canceled planned interviews with reporters, Israeli media said, and he had none of the customary public appearances, even for photo ops, with US officials during his trip.
Obama asked Netanyahu during two high-stakes meetings late on Tuesday to take specific “confidence-building” steps to boost indirect talks Washington is trying to arrange with the Palestinians.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
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