Israel, Palestine (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Obama Visits West Bank

President Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu on Wednesday

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1331 GMT:Palestine. President Obama's statement on Jewish settlements today, as he stood beside Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas:

One of the challenges [to the resumption of negotiations] has been continued settlement activity in the West Bank area. I've been clear with prime minster Netanyahu...that we do not consider continued settlement activity to be constructive, to be appropriate, to be something that can advance the cause of peace.

Asked about the Israeli-backed plan for settlements in the E1 area in the West Bank near Jerusalem, Obama said:

I think that is an example of a public statement by the Israeli government that would be very difficult to square with a two-state solution. And I've said that to prime minster Netanyahu. I don't think that's a secret.

However, Obama declared that the West Bank leadership should not demand a freeze on settlement before resuming discussions with Israel:

What I shared with President Abbas is that if the expectation is that we can only have direct negotiations when everything is settled ahead of time then there is no point for negotiations. It is important to work through this process even if there are irritants on both sides. The Israeli have concerns about rockets firing into their cities last night....

Even though may have areas of strong disagreement maybe engaging in activities that the other side considers to be a breach of good faith, we have to push through those things.

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Israel (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Obama Pays A Visit

1908 GMT: Israel Press Conference. Obama was pressed (with at least 4 questions) from Chuck Todd to explain his slow progress with regards to the peace process with Palestine. Obama seemed to insinuate that he'd like to focus more on this issue in term two, but that politics in Israel and Palestine have gotten in the way, just as they have with his domestic agenda.

He stressed that Israel will be more secure, Palestine stronger, and the entire region enriched by a solution, but it's a six-decade-old problem that won't be easy to solve.

Netanyahu, seeming to forget all of Todd's questions, went back to Iran. He said that Iran was enriching uranium, but that they could develop a weapon within a year. The enrichment process is ongoing, however, so every day is one day closer to a nuclear Iran.

Neanyahu stressed that Obama had pledged historically-significant levels of support for Israel, including a ten-year commitment to extend military support for Israel.

1905 GMT: Israel Press Conference. Netanyahu stressed that Israel has a right to defend itself. Obama stressed that there was "not a lot of daylight between our two countries" as far as their intelligence concerns with Iran were concerned.

Each country has to make its own decision re military action.

On the Palestinian issue, Obama stressed that he was disappointed with the rate of progress. He did praise the role of the Palestinian Authority, and suggested that he hoped that Palestinians could feel that they were "masters of their own fate" and that they could take part in a thriving regional economy.

This hasn't happened, neither has Israel been freed from the fear of rockets falling on them.

Then an interesting line from Obama - he'll consider the trip of a success if he spends more time listening than talking.

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Iran Live Coverage: Nuclear Talks in Istanbul

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1659 GMT: On the Seas. Iran launched a domestically-built destroyer in the Caspian Sea on Sunday, its first deployment of a major warship in the area.

President Ahmadinejad inaugurated the guided missile destroyer Jamaran-2 in the port city of Anzali, about 250 kilometers (150 miles) northwest of Tehran.

He said the deployment aimed to bolster peace and friendship in the region: "The destroyer is there to meet those who want to jeopardize the security of surrounding nations,"

The 1,400-ton destroyer is equipped with surface-to-surface and surface-to-air missiles as well as anti-aircraft batteries and sophisticated radar and communications terminals.

Iran launched a version of the Jamaran destroyer in 2010 in the Persian Gulf.

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Israel (and Beyond) Live Coverage: The New Coalition Government

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0555 GMT: Israel. After seven weeks of negotiations following the 22 January election, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu finally confirmed a new Government on Friday.

Netanyahu's Likud-Beitenu bloc, which led the January poll but suffered a drop in its vote from the last ballot, reached agreement with the Yesh Atid Party --- the surprise emerging force in the election --- and the new Jewish Home Party, led by American-born high-tech entrepreneur Naftali Bennett.

The small centrist party of former Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni will also be in the coalition. For the first time in a decade, ultra-orthodox parties are excluded.

Yesh Atid's Yair Lapid was named Minister of Finance, while Bennett will be Minister of Trade. Likud-Beitenu retains control of the Ministries of Defense and Interior.

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2035 GMT: Media Watch. Reader Arshama (see Comments) brings the story that Serat News, reportedly close to the Basij militia, is on-line again after being blocked by the Filtering Commission today.

Farda News claimed that the filtering occurred after Serat ran a story about a "certain political group". Reportedly the site posted a video linking the pro-Ahmadinejad group that interrupted Speaker of Parliament Ali Larijani's speech, in Qom on the anniversary of the Islamic Revolution, to the hard-line Constancy Front.

The offending article has now disappeared.

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Egypt (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Mubarak's Police Behind Almost 900 Killings of Protesters in 2011 Uprising

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1815 GMT: Bahrain. Dozens of people have reportedly been injured amid widespread protests on the second anniversary of a Saudi-led military intervention to help suppress the pro-reform movement.

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Opposition society Al Wefaq said that at least 35 protesters had been hurt, three of them critically.

The Ministry of Interior claimed "domestic terrorists" had blocked roads and burnt cars. It said two police officers were injured.

Witnesses reported heavy clashes as police used tear gas and stun grenades against youths who, according to the Ministry of Interior, carried "Molotov cocktails, iron rods, and a number of homemade bombs."

In March 2011, the other members of the Gulf Co-operation Council sent in troops to back up Bahrain's security forces, who overran the camps of protesters, including the main one at the iconic Pearl Roundabout.

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Palestine (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Israel Looks for Calm after Death of Palestinian Detainee

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2126 GMT: UAE. Two days after denying entry to a British academic scheduled to present a conference paper on Bahrain, two Bahrain-based journalists --- Associated Press reporter Reem Khalifa and her husband, Mansoor al-Jamri, chief editor for the independent Al Wasat newspaper, have been turned away.

Khalifa and al-Jamri were on a private trip to Dubai. No explanations were given for the refusal of entry.

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Israel (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Netanyahu Claims Narrow Victory

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1700 GMT: Palestine. A 21-year-old Palestinian woman died after being shot in the face by Israeli soldiers in the West Bank today.

Lubna Hanash was killed in a shooting outside a college near Al-Arrub refugee camp, eight kilometres (five miles) north of Hebron, medics said.

Witnesses said a civilian car with Israeli plates stopped on the main Hebron-Bethlehem road in the southern West Bank and two men wearing military fatigues got out and began shooting towards a nearby Palestinian college. Medics said another two people were injured by gunshot wounds.

A military spokeswoman said troops on a routine patrol had been "confronted by Palestinians with Molotov cocktails" and opened fire in self-defence, wounding several of them.

Meanwhile, a 15-year-old Palestinian who was hit in the face by Israeli gunfire last Friday died of his injuries, an Israeli hospital spokeswoman told AFP.

Saleh Amarin had been seriously hurt by a bullet fired by Israeli troops during clashes in Aida refugee camp, north of Bethlehem.

The two deaths raised to six the number of Palestinians killed by Israeli gunfire since 10 January.

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Israel (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Election Day

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2045 GMT: Israel. Exit polls, announced at the close of balloting 45 minutes ago, indicate Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing alliance has a narrow lead in the Knesset but has lost ground to centre-left parties.

Netanyahu now faces the task of forging a new coalition Government with only 31 seats for the alliance between his Likud Party and the nationalist Yisrael Beitenu. Sixty-one members are needed for a majority in the 120-seat Knesset.

He is expected to seek an alliance with a new nationalist party, Habayit Hayehudi, led by the emerging politician Naftali Bennett. It is expected to win 12 seats, the same number as the religious Shas Party.

The surprise of the election may be the centre-left Yesh Atid (There is a Future) party, which has finished second to the Likud-Beitenu coalition and just ahead of Labour.

Yesh Atid, led by journalist-turned-politician Yair Lapid, is projected at 18 or 19 seats and Labour with 17.

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Israel Feature: The Settlers and the Politician Trying to Re-Make the Jewish State (Remnick)

Naftali BennettAt a makeshift theatre in the port of Tel Aviv, hundreds of young immigrants from Melbourne, the Five Towns, and other points in the Anglophone diaspora gathered recently to hear from the newest phenomenon in Israeli politics, Naftali Bennett. A forty-year-old settlement leader, software entrepreneur, and ex-Army commando, Bennett promises to build a sturdy electoral bridge between the religious and the secular, the hilltop outposts of the West Bank and the start-up suburbs of the coastal plain.

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