Israel has approved three settlement outposts in the occupied West Bank, the office of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has said in a statement. The UN and the US criticised the move, with US State Department Spokeswoman Victoria Nuland calling it unhelpful to making peace with Palestinians. At a meeting late on Monday, an Israeli ministerial committee "decided to formalise the status of three communities which were established in the 1990s following the decisions of past governments," a statement said on Tuesday. [Read the full article]