Expansion plan highlights West Bank city’s plight

Expansion plan highlights West Bank city’s plight

QALQILIYA, West Bank

Last year, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government quietly passed one of its most significant concessions to the Palestinians: a plan to alter the West Bank map and turn over a small chunk of Israeli-controlled territory.

But after an uproar by Israeli settler leaders, the government appears poised to cancel the move – a decision that could upset nascent U.S. efforts to restart peace talks and take away a rare piece of relief for the residents of this overcrowded city.

As the West Bank’s most densely populated Palestinian city, Qalqiliya has been eagerly awaiting implementation of the Israeli plan that would allow it to double its size by expanding into land that has until now been off-limits.

US inks anti-terror deal with Qatar in press to end dispute

DOHA, Qatar

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson sealed a deal Tuesday to intensify Qatar’s counterterrorism efforts, tackling a central issue in the spat pitting the besieged Gulf nation against four other American allies lined up against it.

Tillerson outlined the agreement at the end of his first visit to Qatar since its neighbors moved to isolate it over grievances, including what they allege is its support for extremist groups.

It was his second stop on a shuttle-diplomacy circuit that will take him next to Saudi Arabia, which has shut Qatar’s only land border and is the most powerful of the countries opposing it.

The centerpiece of the visit was the signing of a memorandum of understanding that lays out steps Qatar can take to bolster its fight against terrorism and address shortfalls in policing terrorism funding.

Voter fraud panel tells states to hold off on sending data

CONCORD, N.H.

President Donald Trump’s commission on election fraud is telling states to hold off on providing detailed voter information in the face of increasing legal challenges.

The commission had given states until Friday to provide data including names, birth dates and partial Social Security numbers, but in an email Monday, the panel’s designated officer told states to hold off until a judge rules on a lawsuit filed by the Electronic Privacy Information Center in Washington.

In its initial filings in that case, the commission said it planned to collect the data via a Department of Defense file exchange program. After the privacy group said that system was neither secure nor approved to collect such information, the commission said the director of White House information technology would repurpose an existing system instead, and information already sent by Arkansas through the defense department program would be deleted.

Pope Francis adds new pathway to sainthood

VATICAN CITY

Pope Francis has added a fourth pathway to possible sainthood — people who lived a good Catholic life and who freely accepted a certain and premature death for the good of others.

Until now, gaining consideration for sainthood in the Catholic Church required martyrdom, living a life of heroic values or – less frequently invoked – having a clear saintly reputation.

The Vatican announced Tuesday that the pope has issued a law on his own initiative – known as a mutu proprio – adding the fourth route.

Associated Press