Israel lifts bar on building new homes goes in held areas
Reuters, Jerusalem
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has told senior ministers he is lifting restrictions on settlement building in East Jerusalem, a statement said on Sunday, immediately after the city’s municipal government approved permits for the building of hundreds of new homes in the area.
“There is no longer a need to coordinate construction in the Jewish neighborhoods in East Jerusalem. We can build where we want and as much as we want,” the statement quoted Netanyahu as saying, adding that he also intended to allow the start of building in the West Bank.
Germany deports 26 asylum-seekers
AP, Berlin
Germany has deported 26 Afghan migrants as part of the government’s efforts to increase the number of rejected asylum-seekers leaving the country after an influx of more than 1 million migrants in the last two years. The German news agency dpa reported that the Afghans arrived Tuesday in Kabul where members of the German Embassy and Afghan authorities arranged accommodation before the deportees will be taken to their home provinces.
Italy avalanche death toll rises to 14
Reuters, Farindola
Rescuers working through the night pulled five more bodies from the wreck of a hotel in central Italy that was razed by an avalanche last week, bringing the death toll to 14, the national fire brigade said on Tuesday. The latest bodies – three men and two women – were recovered hours before families of victims were due to hold the first funerals of those killed in the avalanche.
Bomb kills four soldiers in Somalia
Reuters, Mogadishu
At least four soldiers were killed and five wounded on Tuesday when a roadside bomb that Islamist insurgents said they planted exploded outside a military camp in a town near Mogadishu, officials said.
The blast in Afgoye, about 30 km (18 miles) southwest of the capital, took place a day after the al Shabaab group carried out a raid in the same town that was repulsed by government troops, Major Osman Abdulle, a police officer, told Reuters.
“Last night, we repulsed the militants who attacked us. They must have planted the bomb,” he said.
