WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration’s furious efforts to relaunch stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace talks this summer are going nowhere, and a looming United Nations confrontation could further set back prospects for a negotiated settlement any time soon.

Despite attempts to get the parties back to the table based on parameters that President Barack Obama outlined in a May speech, US and other officials say neither side appears willing to commit to new discussions.

Senior officials from the international group of Mideast peacemakers — the US, the UN, the European Union and Russia — planned to meet Monday in Washington.

Military aid to Pakistan halted

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The United States is suspending or canceling hundreds of millions of dollars of aid to the Pakistani military amid deteriorating ties, The New York Times reported late Saturday.

Citing unnamed senior US officials, the newspaper said the move was aimed at chastening Pakistan for expelling American military trainers and to press its army to fight militants more effectively.

In the wake of the May raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound, the United States recalled dozens of military trainers on Pakistan’s orders, while huge tensions remain over a covert American drone war against militants on the Afghan border.

Al-Qaeda’s defeat looms, says U.S.

KABUL (Reuters) – New United States Defense Secretary Leon Panetta arrived in Afghanistan on Saturday, saying he believed the strategic defeat of al-Qaeda was within reach if the United States could kill or capture up to 20 remaining leaders of the core group and its affiliates.

Panetta, on his first trip since taking over the Pentagon on July 1, told reporters before arriving in Kabul that now was the time – in the wake of the May killing of Osama bin Laden – to intensify efforts to target al-Qaeda’s leadership.

“We’re within reach of strategically defeating al-Qaeda and I’m hoping to be able to focus on that, working obviously with my prior agency as well,” said Panetta.

Mexico drug rings in battle

MEXICO CITY (AP) – Battles between the vicious Zetas gang and other drug cartels led to the discovery of more than 40 bodies in a 24-hour span, a government official said.

At least 20 people were killed and five injured when gunmen opened fire in a bar late Friday in the northern city of Monterrey, where the gang is fighting its former ally, the Gulf Cartel, said federal security spokesman Alejandro Poire.

Eleven bodies shot with high-powered rifles were found earlier, piled near a water well on the outskirts of Mexico City, where the gang is fighting the Knights Templar, Poire said.

That is an offshoot of the La Familia gang that has terrorized its home state of Michoacan.

Egyptian police in demo sacked

CAIRO (AFP) – Egypt’s Prime Minister has ordered the sacking of all police officers accused of killing protesters during the uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak, as part of a series of measures aimed at placating demonstrators.

Essam Sharaf said he ‘’issued direct orders to the interior minister to stop all police officers accused of killing protesters from working,’’ in an address broadcast on state television.

Sharaf was speaking as thousands of people protested in Cairo’s Tahrir Square to push for political change, a day after mass nationwide rallies denounced the country’s military rulers.