[JURIST] The Palestinian parliament overwhelmingly approved Thursday a new Cabinet made up primarily of professionals rather than politicians. Of the 24 members of the Cabinet, 17 are new, marking a departure from the Yasser Arafat [BBC News report] era. The approval came after Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei [BBC News profile] withdrew his initial list of nominees [JURIST report] due to criticism that those on the initial list were not sufficiently reform minded. The New York Times has more.