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Israel 'Demolishes' EU-Funded W. Bank Housing Shelters

Israel has demolished several European Union-funded humanitarian housing shelters in a highly sensitive strip of West Bank land near Jerusalem, an EU official said Friday.

"On April 9, three of some 18 residential structures were demolished... in Jabal al-Baba," an area outside the sprawling settlement of Maale Adumim, a spokesman for the EU's delegation to the Palestinian territories told Agence France Presse.

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Israeli Peace Activist Ron Pundak Dead at 59

Ron Pundak, a longtime peace activist and architect of the 1993 Oslo agreement between Israel and the Palestinians, died at home of cancer Friday, aged 59, Haaretz daily reported.

In the early 1990s, with the approval of then foreign minister Shimon Peres, Pundak and fellow Israeli academic Yair Hirschfeld forged a secret channel of communications with the Palestine Liberation Organization in Norway, at a time when such links were illegal for Israelis.

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Switzerland to Give Ben Ali Money to Tunisia

Switzerland said on Friday it will hand over to Tunisia $40 million (29 million euros) stashed in Swiss bank accounts by the family of ousted dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.

Swiss authorities had frozen the funds as part of a probe launched following the revolution that forced the longstanding Tunisian leader from power in 2011.

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Israel Army Occupies W. Bank Jewish Seminary after Clashes

Israel's military on Friday occupied a Jewish seminary in an extremist West Bank settlement after a series of clashes between settlers and security forces there.

"Following the recent increase in violence towards security forces, and in order to address ongoing security concerns, (the army) positioned a company of border police in the Yitzhar yeshiva building," it said in a statement.

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Gunmen Attack Iraq Deputy PM's Convoy, Killing Guard

Gunmen attacked Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Saleh al-Mutlak's convoy in the Abu Ghraib area west of Baghdad on Friday, killing a guard and wounding at least five, officials said.

The attack on one of the country's most senior Sunni Arab politicians comes less than three weeks before a contentious parliamentary election, the first since American troops left, which will be a major test for security forces.

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U.S. Push to Salvage Peace Talks Irks Israeli Right

Last-ditch U.S. efforts to rescue peace talks with the Palestinians are meeting tough resistance within Israel's governing coalition, with the far right threatening to quit over the mooted concessions.

Under huge U.S. pressure to salvage the peace process, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was on Friday facing the threat of his cabinet falling apart.

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Switzerland Says Palestinians Join Geneva Conventions on War

The Palestinian Authority has signed up formally to the Geneva Conventions, which set down the rules of warfare and humanitarian operations in conflict zones, the treaties' guardian Switzerland confirmed Friday.

Swiss foreign ministry spokesman Pierre-Alain Eltschinger told AFP that the Palestinian Authority had declared itself party to the conventions on April 2.

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Report: Egypt Police Shoot Dead 2 Brotherhood Members

Policemen killed two armed members of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood in a shootout on Friday in the Nile Delta north of the capital, state news agency MENA reported.

"Terrorist elements of the Brotherhood" opened fire on police on a road between Tanta and Al-Mahalla al-Kubra in the Nile Delta province of Gharbiya, it said.

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Al-Nusra, Allies Repel ISIL's Attack on Syria's al-Bukamal as Death Toll Hits 86

Syria's al-Qaida affiliate and its allies have repulsed an assault by jihadist rivals on a town on the Iraqi border in fighting that killed 86 people, a monitoring group said Friday.

Sixty of the dead were fighters of al-Nusra Front or its Islamist allies killed pushing back their Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) rivals from districts of al-Bukamal they had captured early Thursday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

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U.N. Deposits Palestinian Request to Join 13 Treaties, Israel Freezes Tax Transfers in Retaliation

The United Nations said Thursday it had accepted for deposit, in keeping with international procedure, a request from the Palestinians to join 13 international conventions and treaties, as Israel froze the transfer of some taxes to the Palestinian Authority as a retaliatory measure.

The requests were submitted to U.N. headquarters on April 2 by Palestinian ambassador Riyad Mansour.

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