以色列工党加入内塔尼亚胡内阁
24日下午在特拉维夫市举行的工党大会，据以色列媒体《国土报》(Haaretz)报道，共有78%的中央委员参与表决，其中680人赞成巴拉克所提加入内塔尼亚胡内阁案，反对的有570人。内塔尼亚胡随即致电巴拉克表达恭贺之意。而早在工党召开大会讨论入阁案前，巴拉克与内塔尼亚胡已签署共组联合政府协议。依据这项协议，内塔尼亚胡同意下届政府五个部长、两个副部长与一个国会委员会主席将分配给工党，而巴拉克可续任国防部长。内塔尼亚胡也承诺，继续推动与巴勒斯坦人之间的和谈。
BBC news with David Legg
The Labor Party in Israel has voted to join a coalition led by the Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu. The decision should give Mr. Netanyahu the parliamentary majority he needs to form a government. Under the deal, it's reported that the Labor leader Ehud Barack will remain defence minister. Mr. Netanyahu has already signed coalition agreements with two far-right parties. One Labor member of the Israel parliament, Matan Vilnai told reporters why he'd voted in favor of joining the coalition,
"it's better to be part of the government in order to shift from the deep right to the center, and the peace process that is very important for us, when we are there in the government, I'm sure that it will continue."
The United States government has announced a 700-million-dollar plan to help combat the illegal drugs trade in Mexico. Washington will step up border security and provide the Mexican army with five helicopters on a surveillance plane. An estimated 8000 people have been killed in the last two years in Mexico's drug wars. The new plan was announced by the US Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano.
Our goal is two-fold, to provide assistance to the government of Mexico, to break up these huge cartels, which are funneling tonnage quantities of illegal drugs into our country on a regular basis. The second is to guard against an increase in violence in the United States as a result of the actions undertaken in Mexico.
Opposition parties in Nigeria have agreed to unite to fight the governing People's Democratic Party in elections in two years time. The group which has yet to adopt an official name is now seeking to register with the authorities. Here is Mary Harper of our Africa desk.
Nineteen Nigerian opposition parties have decided that the best way to challenge the government of President Umaru Yar'Adua is to form what they describe as one big mega-party. Political heavyweights are involved including former presidential contenders Atiku Abubakar and Muhammadu Buhari, who also served as head of state. The opposition parties say they are uniting in order to save Nigeria. They accuse the governing People's Democratic Party of running the country into the ground, and acting as if Nigeria was a one-party state.
