Unity Government

SAN'A, Yemen - Yemeni Vice President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi formed a new, 35-member unity government, state media reported Wednesday, a key step in a Western-backed agreement to secure President Ali Abdullah Saleh's exit from power and put an end to months of demonstrations and unrest. Technocrats dominate the National Reconciliation Government, which is split equally between members of Saleh's party and names put forward by a coalition of opposition parties that includes socialists and Islamists.

Israel's incoming prime minister, Ariel Sharon, and his predecessor, Ehud Barak, agreed in principle last night to join forces in a unity government in which Barak likely will serve as defense minister and Nobel peace laureate Shimon Peres as foreign minister. The deal, if approved, would moderate the impact of Sharon's landslide election victory over Barak, giving Israel a centrist, rather than a far-right, government. Many Israelis have called for a unity government in the hope that an end to the political bickering between the two leading parties, Labor and Likud, would help Israel present a strong front in handling the Palestinian crisis.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert signaled yesterday that the accord Hamas and Fatah have signed forming a Palestinian national unity government won't serve as a basis for further peace talks. The Palestinians must abide by international demands to recognize Israel, renounce violence, and accept past peace agreements with the Jewish state, Olmert said at the opening of the weekly cabinet meeting today. An agreement was signed Thursday between Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah and the Islamic militant Hamas group, which won January 2006 elections.

JERUSALEM - Reconciliation between the two rival Palestinian leaderships, announced last month with fanfare, hit a serious snag Sunday in the latest sign that the effort is not going well. The Islamist Hamas rejected the secular Fatah's proposal that Salam Fayyad, an internationally respected economist, continue as prime minister in an interim national unity government. "Hamas will not agree to grant Salam Fayyad the confidence to run the national unity government," said Salah Bardawil, a Hamas official in the Gaza Strip.

RAMALLAH, West Bank - Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad replaced almost half of his West Bank-based cabinet on Wednesday, a clear sign that efforts to end the Palestinian political split are stuck. A unity deal reached in February was to have ended five years of separate Palestinian governments, one run by Fayyad in the West Bank and the other by the Islamic militant Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Under its terms, Authority President Mahmoud Abbas was to head an interim unity government ahead of presidential and parliamentary elections.

John Nkomo, 79, vice president of Zimbabwe, died early Thursday after a long illness state radio said, citing President Robert Mugabe. The second of two vice presidents, Mr. Nkomo had not appeared at Mugabe party meetings or state functions for several months. Mr. Nkomo, a former Mugabe opponent, joined a unity government formed in 1987 at the end of an armed rebellion in the Matabeleland province by fighters loyal to his party who opposed Mugabe's domination of the first black government after independence from Britain in 1980.

Israel's defeated Prime Minister Ehud Barak, in yet another abrupt reversal for which he is famous, announced late last night that he was retiring from political life and would not serve as defense minister in a government with Prime Minister-elect Ariel Sharon. It appears that Barak was forced out by a rising chorus of opposition from his own Labor Party in what the Israeli press is calling a "palace coup. " Labor, however, seems likely to go ahead with plans to join Sharon in a national unity government - provided it excludes the increasingly unpopular Barak.

WASHINGTON - Israel's prime minister reiterated Monday that his country cannot return to the boundaries it held before the 1967 Mideast war and promised he would set out his vision of a peace deal when he speaks to Congress Tuesday. Benjamin Netanyahu, speaking to the pro-Israel lobbying group AIPAC in the late evening, repeated his assertion that such lines are "indefensible. " Netanyahu has declared the lines indefensible several times since President Obama said last week that future border negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians should be based on the 1967 lines.

CAIRO - Rival Palestinian leaders on Thursday held their first detailed talks on reconciliation since the Islamic militant Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip more than four years ago, declaring they made progress toward sharing power but failing to resolve key issues. Western-backed Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas chief Khaled Mashaal talked for two hours in Cairo but did not reach agreement on touchy matters such as the composition of an interim unity government and a date for elections.

Hard-line former defense minister Ariel Sharon warned today that a new Israeli unity Cabinet comprising the rightist Likud and center-left Labor parties could lead to creation of a Palestinian state. Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir faced a revolt from Likud members who said they would vote against the agreement reached yesterday with Labor for another four-year unity government. Shamir, nominated by President Chaim Herzog to form a government after Nov. 1 elections, is threatening to return the mandate to the president if he is defeated in a vote by the party's central committee tonight.

John Nkomo, 79, vice president of Zimbabwe, died early Thursday after a long illness state radio said, citing President Robert Mugabe. The second of two vice presidents, Mr. Nkomo had not appeared at Mugabe party meetings or state functions for several months. Mr. Nkomo, a former Mugabe opponent, joined a unity government formed in 1987 at the end of an armed rebellion in the Matabeleland province by fighters loyal to his party who opposed Mugabe's domination of the first black government after independence from Britain in 1980.

Heidi Holland, 64, a journalist and author who chronicled the rise of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe from freedom fighter to power-obsessed leader, died Saturday at her home in South Africa, police said. Lt. Col. Katlego Mogale said a gardener found Ms. Holland's body in her home in Melville, a suburb of Johannesburg after an apparent suicide. Mogale said there were no signs of foul play, nor any items missing from her home to suggest a burglary. Ms. Holland grew up in Zimbabwe, then white-controlled Rhodesia, but described in her 2008 book, Dinner With Mugabe , her sympathy for the future president and others fighting to turn control of the nation back to black Africans.

RAMALLAH, West Bank - Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad replaced almost half of his West Bank-based cabinet on Wednesday, a clear sign that efforts to end the Palestinian political split are stuck. A unity deal reached in February was to have ended five years of separate Palestinian governments, one run by Fayyad in the West Bank and the other by the Islamic militant Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Under its terms, Authority President Mahmoud Abbas was to head an interim unity government ahead of presidential and parliamentary elections.

SAN'A, Yemen - Troops commanded by relatives of Yemen's outgoing President Ali Abdullah Saleh attacked a crowd of more than 100,000 protesters peacefully marching into the capital Saturday, killing at least nine and driving Saleh to promise to leave the country. Yielding to pressure to defuse the country's turmoil, Saleh said he would leave for the United States after forces overseen by his son and nephew opened fire on the protesters. There was no immediate confirmation from American officials that Saleh would come to the United States, though Yemeni officials said he had received a visa.

SAN'A, Yemen - Yemeni Vice President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi formed a new, 35-member unity government, state media reported Wednesday, a key step in a Western-backed agreement to secure President Ali Abdullah Saleh's exit from power and put an end to months of demonstrations and unrest. Technocrats dominate the National Reconciliation Government, which is split equally between members of Saleh's party and names put forward by a coalition of opposition parties that includes socialists and Islamists.

CAIRO - Rival Palestinian leaders on Thursday held their first detailed talks on reconciliation since the Islamic militant Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip more than four years ago, declaring they made progress toward sharing power but failing to resolve key issues. Western-backed Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas chief Khaled Mashaal talked for two hours in Cairo but did not reach agreement on touchy matters such as the composition of an interim unity government and a date for elections.

JERUSALEM - Reconciliation between the two rival Palestinian leaderships, announced last month with fanfare, hit a serious snag Sunday in the latest sign that the effort is not going well. The Islamist Hamas rejected the secular Fatah's proposal that Salam Fayyad, an internationally respected economist, continue as prime minister in an interim national unity government. "Hamas will not agree to grant Salam Fayyad the confidence to run the national unity government," said Salah Bardawil, a Hamas official in the Gaza Strip.

WASHINGTON - Israel's prime minister reiterated Monday that his country cannot return to the boundaries it held before the 1967 Mideast war and promised he would set out his vision of a peace deal when he speaks to Congress Tuesday. Benjamin Netanyahu, speaking to the pro-Israel lobbying group AIPAC in the late evening, repeated his assertion that such lines are "indefensible. " Netanyahu has declared the lines indefensible several times since President Obama said last week that future border negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians should be based on the 1967 lines.

It's hard to look at the situation in Zimbabwe with any optimism. But there is one area that may be a positive portent for the future. South Africa President Thabo Mbeki has been disappointing in his reluctance to press his former mentor, Robert Mugabe. But other African leaders have said it loud that they value democracy above any alliance with the despotic Zimbabwean president. Mugabe has ruled Zimbabwe into ruin since taking over from the white minority government of what was Rhodesia in 1980.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert signaled yesterday that the accord Hamas and Fatah have signed forming a Palestinian national unity government won't serve as a basis for further peace talks. The Palestinians must abide by international demands to recognize Israel, renounce violence, and accept past peace agreements with the Jewish state, Olmert said at the opening of the weekly cabinet meeting today. An agreement was signed Thursday between Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah and the Islamic militant Hamas group, which won January 2006 elections.