Holocaust-denying British historian David Irving accused Polish authorities of turning Auschwitz into a Disney-style tourist site, as he defended his own trip to a Nazi death camp.
A senior official in Jerusalem said the official reason Israel declined the request was scheduling problems, but the real reason was a desire to avoid heavy European pressure on Israel to extend the settlement construction freeze beyond the end of this month.
Netanyahu wants to begin with security arrangements, recognition of Israel as a Jewish state and a Palestinian willingness to declare an end to the conflict when an agreement is signed - but Abbas and his colleagues want to begin by defining the borders of a future state.
Normally apolitical NYC ceremony tense as demonstrations for and against Ground Zero mosque begin; Obama at Pentagon says we are not at war against Islam.
EU Foreign Ministers meeting informally in Brussels on Friday and Saturday are to discuss among other topics the recent resumption of Israeli-Palestinian talks and the EUs participation in the peace process.
Attackers threw a makeshift explosive device at a synagogue in the centre of the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek as the city's Jews were preparing to celebrate the Jewish New Year on Thursday.
Nearly 24,000 Hasidic Jews, most of them from Israel, attended the annual pilgrimage to the grave of a venerated 18th-century rabbi in central Ukraine Thursday, officials told AFP.
