It is also speeding up the processing of 1,000 planning permissions.

The Palestinian Authority has said it will not return to peace talks without a freeze in settlement building.

The decision comes a day after a vote at the UN General Assembly upgraded the Palestinians’ status at the UN to that of non-member observer state.

According to the Israeli Haaretz newspaper, some of the new units will be between Jerusalem and the settlement of Maale Adumim.

Plans to build …

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Veteran British film director Ken Loach has sparked a war of words with the organisers of an Italian film festival after he turned down an award over wage and staff cuts at the event’s backers.

Mr Loach, whose films are known for their social conscience, had been due to receive the Gran Premio Torino on Sunday but today revealed it would be “weak and hypocritical” to accept after learning the hiring practices at National Museum of …

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A small union of maritime clerks managed to shut down most of the nation’s busiest seaport complex Wednesday, raising concerns about harm to the fragile economy.

Although late November is a relatively slow time for cargo movement at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, a prolonged closure could prove costly for retailers and manufacturers who rely on the ports to get their goods as well as truckers and other businesses that depend on the …

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DHAKA/CHICAGO (Reuters) – Three supervisors of a Bangladeshi garment factory were arrested on Wednesday as protests over a suspected arson fire that killed more than 100 people raged on into a third day, with textile workers and police clashing in the streets of a Dhaka suburb.

The government has blamed last weekend’s disaster, the country’s worst-ever industrial blaze, on saboteurs and police said they had arrested two people, who were seen on CCTV footage trying to …

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BANGKOK — Myanmar on Thursday began its largest crackdown on protesters since the civilian government of President Thein Sein came to power 20 months ago, mounting a raid on hundreds of Buddhist monks and villagers opposed to the expansion of a Chinese-led copper mine project in central Myanmar.

Witnesses said dozens of monks and other protesters were injured when security forces used incendiary devices that set fire to protesters’ encampments outside the offices of the Chinese …

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The internet has been cut off and mobile phones have been disrupted in Syria, monitoring firms have said.

Networking firm Renesys said the country’s connection protocols were unreachable, “effectively removing the country from the internet”.

Local reports suggested that the internet had been down since early afternoon, and that telephone lines were only working intermittently.

The Syrian government has blamed “terrorists” for the disconnection.

“The terrorists targeted the internet lines, resulting in some regions being cut off,” Syria’s minister …

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Fast-food workers at several restaurants in New York walked off the job on Thursday, firing the first salvo in what workplace experts say is the biggest effort to unionize fast-food workers ever undertaken in the United States. The effort — backed by community and civil rights groups, religious leaders and a labor union — has engaged 40 full-time organizers in recent months to enlist workers at McDonald’s, Wendy’s, Domino’s, Taco Bell and other fast-food restaurants …

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One of the world’s leading human rights organizations is calling out the capitol of the world, New York City, for arresting half a million people for possession of pot, even though the practice has little clear public safety benefit.

In a study published Nov. 23 titled “A Red Herring“, Human Rights Watch found that “New York City police arrest more people for possessing small amounts of marijuana in public view than for any other offense.”

“Between 1996 …

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President Barack Obama signed new whistleblower protections into law, the White House said Tuesday.

The law, known as the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act (pdf), expands protections for federal workers who blow the whistle on misconduct, fraud and illegality.

It clarifies the scope of protected disclosures, tightens requirements for non-disclosure agreements, expands penalties for violating protections and adds to the staff of some federal agencies an ombudsman whose job will be to educate agency employees of their rights, …

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When it comes to the repression of women, you’d be hard pressed to find a more misogynistic place than Saudi Arabia. Women there are, among other things, prohibited from voting (until 2015), driving a car and working in most places.

To leave the country, Saudi women must present written permission from their male guardians, even if they’re traveling together. Now, to add insult to injury, male guardians will also receive a text message whenever “their” women …

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