Israel's president begins consultations with parties after election deadlock

Israel's President Isaac Herzog has begun consultations with political parties on whom to task with forming a new coalition government, after he received the official results of a general election last week he said had no clear winner. Herzog told party leaders that "not every commitment and promise can be fulfilled" if they want to avoid a new election. Neither the bloc of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu nor his rival Gadi Eisenkot secured a majority in parliament. Earlier, electoral officials said there was no evidence of irregularities and that unsubstantiated claims by Netanyahu's camp of Arab-led parties "stealing" the election did not justify delaying the results' certification.