"Israel wants to proceed to move forward in the peace process, and all the difficult issues, all the core issues of the conflict are on the table, including the sensitive issue of settlements. In the interim, the limited construction underway will in no way impact upon the final contours of a peace agreement."

A Belgian skydiver, Els Clottemans, has been sentenced to 30 years in prison for murdering her love rival by sabotaging her parachute. The victim was sent plummeting to her death as both women took part in a jump with their instructor, with whom each was romantically involved. Belgian prosecutors showed how Clottemans had cut the cords to the main and reserve chute of her rival.

The head of the BBC World Service Peter Horrocks says some of its language services will have to close as a result of budget cuts and funding changes, but he couldn't yet say how many or which ones. Mr Horrocks said the World Service would have to save 25% of its current costs over four years and suggested a number of areas that could be considered for efficiency savings.

"Those choices will involve, among a number of examples, cutting further programmes from the English schedule, reducing our distribution costs significantly, cutting parts of some services entirely, for instance, losing both the programming and distribution costs where short-wave audiences have become too small. And we also intend to close some language services."

World News from the BBC