LAURA BUSH AT UNESCO IN PARIS
The director-general of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Koichiro Matsuura (R), looks on as U.S. First Lady Laura Bush speaks during a conference at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris, January 15, 2007. The first lady who is UNESCO's honorary ambassador for the decade of literacy is on a three-day visit to France. (UPI Photo/Eco Clement)
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An Israeli plan to build 1,028 homes in East Jerusalem and the West Bank "contradicts efforts" to renew the peace process, a Palestinian official said.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas was on hand Tuesday for the raising of the Palestinian flag at UNESCO headquarters in Paris.
Israel has agreed to transfer $100 million in tax and customs payments, after a monthlong freeze that threatened to collapse the Palestinian National Authority.
The United Nations says it will work with Italy to restore Pompeii, which was damaged by heavy rains last year.
Israel is considering the release of Palestinian tax revenues that have been frozen for more than a month, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said Monday.
The top U.N. envoy to the Middle East Monday urged Israeli and Palestinian officials to submit concrete proposals to revive the Middle East Peace talks.
Palestinian leaders deny the Palestinian Authority would defer its U.N. membership bid if Israel frees hundreds of prisoners and lifts financial sanctions.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy allegedly called Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu a liar in talks behind closed doors, a French Web site said.
The announcement that Washington was pulling funding from UNESCO means the agency can't work at its current level of activity, an official said.
The top Palestinian envoy to the United Nations said he was studying how countries voted to admit the territory to UNESCO to help gauge a possible U.N. vote.
