World News from the BBC
Israeli officials say the Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has told the Middle East envoy Tony Blair there is no question of extending the current restrictions on building Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank. The Palestinians have threatened to pull out of the newly-launched peace talks if the partial building moratorium, which is due to expire in two weeks, is not extended. But correspondents say both sides' positions suggest there may still be enough room for
maneuver
to prevent any immediate
breakdown
of the talks.
A team of French judges and legal experts has arrived in Rwanda to begin a week-long investigation into the killing of President Juvenal Habyarimana 16 years ago. The move follows a thaw in relations between the two countries which restored diplomatic links last year. The ties were broken off in 2006 after an earlier French investigation blamed forces close to the current Rwandan President Paul Kagame for the assassination of President Habyarimana.
The Muslim cleric behind plans to build an Islamic cultural centre near the site of the destroyed World Trade Center in New York says it would have been a disaster if a small church in America had gone ahead with its threat to burn the Koran.
Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf told US television that the burning would have strengthened radicals in the Muslim world.
"This issue has riveted the attention of the whole Muslim world. And whatever we do and whatever we say and how we move and the discourse about it is being watched very, very closely. And if we make the wrong move, it will only expand and strengthen the voice of the radicals and the extremists."