West Bank

JERUSALEM - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, speaking on the eve of a key meeting with the White House Mideast envoy, said yesterday that differences remain with the United States over resuming peacemaking with the Palestinians. Netanyahu delivered the assessment before flying to Cairo for talks with Egypt’s president, a main mediator in efforts to restart peace talks. He is scheduled to meet with George Mitchell, President Obama’s envoy today. The Obama administration, with Mitchell as the point man, has been pressing Israel to declare a halt to construction...

At 26, Saed Qasrawi is among the oldest students at Bir Zeit University in the West Bank. The leading Hamas activist has been enrolled for eight years, but he has been unable to complete his undergraduate engineering program because he keeps getting detained by Palestinian security forces before final exams. This year, Qasrawi and more than a dozen other supporters of the Islamic militant group tried a new tactic. Since May 5, they've remained on campus — a sanctuary considered off limits to the security forces — to evade arrest.

JERUSALEM -- Israel's defense minister endorsed a plan yesterday to speed up checks at West Bank roadblocks, but also make them more permanent -- a sign that crippling travel restrictions on Palestinians will not be lifted soon. The plan includes a code of conduct for soldiers, high-tech devices, and a special lane for ambulances, VIPs, and foreigners, according to a Defense Ministry statement. One Israeli Army commander has recommended that Israel use millions of dollars confiscated from Palestinian banks to improve roadblocks, but it was not clear whether Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz adopted the...

The Palestinian campaign to boycott goods produced in Jewish settlements in the West Bank has received a boost from abroad with an unprecedented South African proposal to have the name of Israel dropped from labels on merchandise made in the settlements. The South African government issued a notice saying it wants to require merchants "not to incorrectly label products that originate from the Occupied Palestinian Territory as products of Israel. " The notice did not specify what the labels should say and the proposal has not yet taken effect, pending public objections that can...

JERUSALEM - Israel’s Supreme Court ordered the military yesterday to allow Palestinians to travel on the part of a major highway that runs through the West Bank, handing Palestinians their biggest victory yet against Israel’s practice of reserving some roads for Jews. The West Bank section of a road linking Jerusalem and Tel Aviv was closed in 2002 to the Palestinians, after militants shot at Israeli vehicles on the highway and killed several motorists. About half of the 20-mile highway runs through the West Bank.

JERUSALEM - The Israeli army punished six soldiers, sending two to prison, for protesting the army’s demolition of structures at an unauthorized settler outpost in the West Bank, the military said yesterday. The soldiers hung a banner Monday at an army base in the West Bank, proclaiming their opposition to using the army for such missions. A photograph of them hoisting the banner was featured widely in Israeli media yesterday. Other soldiers carried out orders to dismantle two makeshift houses Monday at the outpost of Negohot, near the city of Hebron.

JERUSALEM - Israel defied US pressure to halt construction in its West Bank settlements yesterday, with key leaders speaking out in support of the contentious enclaves and preparing to sign orders allowing the construction of hundreds of housing units. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak are expected to approve orders for about 500 apartments today, Israeli officials said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because the plans have not been finalized.

JERUSALEM -- The Palestinian prime minister asked President Bush yesterday to reconsider his tacit recognition of some Jewish settlements in the West Bank. Israeli troops, meanwhile, killed nine Palestinians in fighting in the Gaza Strip, where gun battles in the town of Beit Lahiya trapped about 4,000 residents of a housing complex indoors for several hours. The Palestinian prime minister, Ahmed Qurei, wrote to Bush, saying recent US declarations that Israel could keep some of the West Bank and would not have to absorb Palestinian refugees contradict longstanding US policy.

SALFIT, West Bank -- Palestinians hoping for a morale boost after four years of bloody conflict with Israel were disappointed yesterday, when their contestant in a much-watched contest for the Arab world's best singer lost to a Libyan. Ammar Hassan, 27, from the town of Salfit, became the darling of the Palestinian people as he made his way through the stages of the 13-week "Superstar 2" competition on the Lebanese TV channel al-Mustaqbal. As with practically everything in Palestinian society, the song contest became a symbolic element in the campaign for a state and against Israeli...

JERUSALEM - Soldiers unleashed a dog at a Palestinian protester, and the Israeli Army said it fired a rubber bullet at an Israeli protester, in separate incidents in the West Bank on Friday. The dog chased down the Palestinian protester, grabbing him by the arm and dragging him to the ground. Video footage released by activists showed soldiers struggling to get the dog to release his clamp on the man. A military official said soldiers unleashed the dog after the protester hurled rocks at them.

RAMALLAH, West Bank - The late Yasser Arafat's powerful moneyman is the target of the highest-profile Palestinian corruption probe to date, facing allegations he siphoned off millions of dollars in public funds, the chief investigator said Wednesday. Anticorruption campaigners lauded the case against the shadowy former aide, Mohammed Rashid, as a sign of the maturing of the Palestinian political system, although the probe also appeared to be tinged with political intrigue. Rashid, who has in the past denied wrongdoing, made veiled threats on a website to disclose purported secrets...

RAMALLAH, West Bank - Palestinians marked the anniversary of their mass displacement that followed Israel's creation with a blend of sadness and hope on Tuesday, stopping in their tracks for a mournful siren but also flashing victory signs and carrying banners proclaiming their right of return. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled or were forced from their villages during the war that established the Jewish state in 1948, an event they commemorate every year as their "Nakba," or catastrophe.

After years of neglect, the Palestinians are going green. In a society preoccupied with the struggle for independence from Israel, protecting the environment has often been sidelined — as evidenced by the ubiquitous sight of burning trash and piles of garbage bags on sidewalks in this city of 30,000 north of Jerusalem. Trying to raise awareness, officials are encouraging thousands of children to collect compost, visit recycling centers and plant trees. The hope is that the young generation will learn good habits, and maybe teach their parents something about conservation.

"The Avengers" is taking a page out of Superman's comic book - flying faster than a speeding bullet to the billion-dollar mark at the box office. The superhero blockbuster took in $103.2 million to lead for a second-straight weekend, raising its domestic total to $373.2 million, according to studio estimates Sunday. With $95.4 million more overseas, "The Avengers" lifted its international receipts to $628.9 million and a worldwide haul of just over $1 billion, only 19 days after it began rolling out in some markets.

Palestinian security forces detained a prominent ex-fighter Sunday, stepping up a campaign of arrests following the death of the governor of the northern West Bank district of Jenin, residents said. Masked security men seized Zakariya Zubeidi in Jenin after halting his car, blindfolding him and shackling him before bundling him into another car and speeding away, residents said. Zubeidi, who is in his mid-30s, was a well-known militant who once battled Israeli forces before he was granted amnesty four years ago and co-founded a theater.

For the thousands of Palestinian families who have a relative in Israeli detention, a photograph is the only real contact with their loved ones. In homes, the images are usually decked in elaborate frames alongside the portraits of dead ancestors, marking the conspicuous absence of the prisoners. The fate of the prisoners, always an emotional issue in Palestinian society, has become an especially poignant rallying point over the past month as more than 1,000 men imprisoned by Israel have staged a hunger strike.

YASUF, West Bank - Assailants vandalized a Palestinian mosque early yesterday, burning prayer carpets and holy books, and leaving behind Hebrew graffiti indicating the rampage was the work of settlers angry over Israel’s plans to curb settlement construction. Israeli settlers have repeatedly attacked Palestinians and their property in response to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision to scale back settlement building under US pressure. They call the attacks the “price tag’’ policy.

JERUSALEM -- The Palestinian prime minister asked President Bush yesterday to reconsider his tacit recognition of some Jewish settlements in the West Bank. Israeli troops, meanwhile, killed nine Palestinians in fighting in the Gaza Strip, where gun battles in the town of Beit Lahiya trapped about 4,000 residents of a housing complex indoors for several hours. Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia wrote to Bush, saying recent US declarations that Israel could keep some of the West Bank and would not have to absorb Palestinian refugees contradict longstanding US policy.

"Homeland" star Mandy Patinkin has made a small push for peace while filming episodes of the hit TV show in Israel. Israel's Channel 10 Sunday showed footage of the cast filming near Jaffa and actress Claire Danes leaving a restaurant. Patinkin is a supporter of the Israeli left that advocates a two state solution to Israeli-Palestinian conflict and an end to settlement building in the West Bank. Patinkin said he wants his grandchildren "to be able to have Hummus with their neighbors in Hebron," a West Bank town.

One of the last Palestinian farming villages that still uses irrigation systems from Roman times says its ancient way of life is in danger as Israel prepares to lay down its West Bank separation barrier. With construction possibly beginning in the coming weeks, the people of Battir hope a legal battle, backed by recent U.N. recognition of the village's agricultural practices, will help change Israel's mind. Battir's 6,000 inhabitants live in limestone-faced houses built into a hillside southwest of Jerusalem.