Dozens protest in Palestine's Bethlehem against Kerry's visit

Dozens of Palestinian protesters demonstrated in Bethlehem on Wednesday as US Secretary of State John Kerry arrived in the Southern West Bank city. The protesters gathered near a crossroads on the main road where Kerry's motorcade was scheduled to pass on his way to meet President Mahmoud Abbas at his Bethlehem headquarters. The demonstrators waved posters reading "No to US partiality with Israel", the Palestinian Maan news agency reported. Other banners urged the Palestinian Authority (PA) to stop peace negotiations with Israel "in light of settlement expansion and all Israeli policies which thwart any hopes to establish a Palestinian state within the 1967 territories." Kerry arrived in the region late Tuesday amid growing indications that the US-brokered peace talks that resumed in late July are on the brink of collapse.