Official: US to bring Arab states into peace push

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) ? The U.S. is seeking to bring Arab countries into efforts to restart Israeli-Palestinian negotiations that broke down more than four years ago, a senior Palestinian official said Monday.

Also Monday, the Israeli government said it would resume regular transfers of millions of dollars of tax revenue to the Palestinian Authority, easing the economic woes for many Palestinians.

The decision could be seen as a sign of goodwill on the Israeli said and could also shore up the legitimacy of Palestinian rules should they decide to resume peace talks.

However, there are wide gaps on the terms of renewing talks. The Palestinians say Israel must freeze settlement building on lands it captured in 1967 before any negotiations can resume. Israel says the issue of settlements can be addressed during negotiations.

During a visit to the region last week, President Barack Obama sided with the Israeli view. But it is not clear how the U.S. can bring the Palestinians back to the table without a settlement freeze.

Arab countries are now being asked to help, said Yasser Abed-Rabbo, a top official in the Palestine Liberation Organization.

"U.S. efforts will increase in coming weeks and will include other Arab parties, such as Jordan and Egypt," Abed-Rabbo told Voice of Palestine radio, adding that an Arab League delegation is to visit Washington as part of these efforts.

However, he said there would be no flexibility on Palestinian demands for a settlement freeze.

"For us, the important thing is the substance, such as the full settlement freeze and the recognition of the 1967 borders," he said.

The Palestinians want a state in the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem ? territories Israel captured in 1967 ? but are ready to negotiate border changes, provided the 1967 frontier is the baseline.

Palestinian officials say they cannot return to talks without such a clear framework, arguing that open-ended negotiations will simply provide diplomatic cover to Israel to keep expanding settlements.

"We fear they (the Israelis) would waste time by getting us into a bargaining process over details and steps here and there, and in this way would waste two to three years and then get us to wait for a new U.S. administration," Abed-Rabbo said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he is willing to resume talks immediately. However, he has said he will not relinquish control over east Jerusalem and has refused to recognize the 1967 lines as a starting point for talks.

For 10 months during his previous term, Netanyahu curbed settlement building as part of a U.S. push to bring the Palestinians back to the table, but negotiations never got off the ground.

Successive Israeli governments have built dozens of settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, now home to more than half a million Israelis. Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005, dismantling almost two dozen settlements there, but sharply restricts access to the territory.

Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said Sunday that the Palestinians would wait two to three months to see if a new U.S. push to restart talks will yield results.

Resuming tax revenue transfers could be considered a signal of good intentions on the Israeli side.

In a brief statement, the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he instructed Finance Minister Yair Lapid to resume the transfers. The monthly cash transfers are from taxes and custom duties that Israel collects on behalf of Palestinians.

The decision was announced on the eve of the Jewish holiday of Passover, and Israeli officials were not available to further comment on the decision.

Israel froze the transfers to punish Palestinians after the U.N. endorsed a de facto Palestinian state in the West Bank, east Jerusalem and Gaza in November. Some money was released during the past few months, but it arrived late and only appeared to be transferred in response to international pressure.

Jamal Zakkout, an adviser to Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, said it was believed that Israel would now transfer the money regularly.

The money, around $100 million a month, is a key part of the Palestinian government budget. The Palestinian Authority has struggled to pay tens of thousands of civil servants, the backbone of the local economy, because of a shortfall in donor aid and the delayed transfers from Israel.

If the tax transfers substantially ease the Palestinians' budgetary problems, it would make it easier for their leaders to argue in favor of resuming peace talks.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/official-us-bring-arab-states-peace-push-074420439.html

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Insurance exchange changes the health care game in Minnesota (Star Tribune)

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From the Editor's Desk: Whoops - I bought a BlackBerry

 

We've reached one of those crossroads in which we've got all sorts of things to talk about, but not a whole lot to show for it, and it's as frustrating for us as as writers as it is for you as readers.

We could go on all day about the HTC One. (And, no, we're not done poring over it just yet, so expect a few more features this week.) We could talk till the cows come home about the Galaxy S4. But the fact of the matter is -- at least for those of us here in the States -- you can't actually buy one yet. Europe's getting the HTC One this week. We've still got a month (more or less) before the Galaxy S4 goes on sale anywhere -- and remember that we have no hard and firm dates from any U.S. operators yet. 

Point is, this job is so much more fun (and easier, too), when we all have our hands in the honey pot, getting sticky together. (Ed. Note: Ewwwww. Gross. Ed. Note 2: You just put an editor's note in a first-person editor's column. What the hell, Phil?) Here's to hoping we all get sexy slabs of aluminum and plastic sooner rather than later.

OK, I do have one new phone on my desk this week that anyone else can have, too. I bought my first BlackBerry.

read more

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/ce8_AYSI_f0/story01.htm

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Orphaned polar bear moving to New York

An orphaned polar bear cub found near Alaska's northwest coast is set to become a New Yorker.

The 3-to-4-month-old male cub was rescued two weeks ago by hunters who say they unwittingly shot the bear's mother near Point Lay, Alaska, according to the Anchorage Daily News.

The bear has been called Kali (the Inupiat name for Point Lay) and is being cared for at the Alaska Zoo in Anchorage but will be sent to the Buffalo Zoo later this spring, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced last week.

In Buffalo, Kali (pronounced "Cully") will be raised alongside a 4-month-old female polar bear cub nicknamed Luna, whose mom Anana was having trouble taking care of her. Letting the two cubs interact and play together could help ensure that they don't get too attached to their human keepers.

"At the Buffalo Zoo, both cubs would benefit from each other's company during this important period in their development," Randi Meyerson, coordinator of the Polar Bear Species Survival Plan, said in a statement. "Peer-raising animals is generally preferred over human-rearing whenever possible."

Buffalo might only be a temporary home for Kali; officials are considering the Saint Louis Zoo as a final destination for the bear.

This photo provided by the Alaska Zoo and taken March 18, 2013, in Anchorage, Alaska, shows Kali, an orphaned polar bear cub who is being cared for at the zoo. The cub's mother was shot in Point Lay, ... more? This photo provided by the Alaska Zoo and taken March 18, 2013, in Anchorage, Alaska, shows Kali, an orphaned polar bear cub who is being cared for at the zoo. The cub's mother was shot in Point Lay, Alaska, on March 12 and the cub is temporarily staying at the zoo in Anchorage until it has a permanent home. (AP Photo/Courtesy the Alaska Zoo, John Gomes) less? ?

"We recognize that the Saint Louis Zoo is in the process of building a state-of-the-art polar bear exhibit expected to be completed in 2015," Dan Ashe, director of the Fish and Wildlife Service, said in a statement. "Our goal is to work with the Zoo to ensure the proper standards of care are met for the polar bears who will eventually find a home in Saint Louis."

The polar bear is the largest species of bear on the planet. An adult male weighs between 775 and 1,200 pounds (351 and 544 kilograms) and will reach its full adult size between the ages of 8 and 14 years. Adult females are half the size of their male counterparts ? 330 to 650 pounds (50 to 295 kg) ? and reach full size at around age 5 to 6 years. Polar bears in captivity typically live into their 30s.

In the wild, polar bears are found in Russia, Alaska, Canada, Greenland and Norway's Svalbard archipelago, and the animals are threatened by declining Arctic sea ice, oil development, pollutants and hunting. In May 2008, United States listed the polar bear as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act, while in Canada and Russia they are listed as a species of special concern.

Follow us @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Original article on LiveScience.com.

Copyright 2013 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/orphaned-polar-bear-cub-york-home-201055500.html

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Serena Williams rallies for 3-set win at Sony Open

Essential News from The Associated Press

AAA??Mar. 25, 2013?3:35 PM ET Serena Williams rallies for 3-set win at Sony Open By STEVEN WINEBy STEVEN WINE, AP Sports Writer?? Serena Williams reacts after winning a point against Dominika Cibulkova, of Slovakia, during the Sony Open tennis tournament, Monday, March 25, 2013, in Key Biscayne, Fla. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky) Serena Williams reacts after winning a point against Dominika Cibulkova, of Slovakia, during the Sony Open tennis tournament, Monday, March 25, 2013, in Key Biscayne, Fla. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky) Serena Williams wipes her face during a match against Dominika Cibulkova, of Slovakia, during the Sony Open tennis tournament, Monday, March 25, 2013, in Key Biscayne, Fla. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky) Serena Williams, reacts after winning a point against Dominika Cibulkova, of Slovakia, during the Sony Open tennis tournament, Monday, March 25, 2013, in Key Biscayne, Fla. Williams won 2-6, 6-4, 6-2. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky) Dominika Cibulkova, of Slovakia, returns to Serena Williams during the Sony Open tennis tournament, Monday, March 25, 2013, in Key Biscayne, Fla. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky) Serena Williams wipes her face during during a match against Dominika Cibulkova, of Slovakia, during the Sony Open tennis tournament, Monday, March 25, 2013, in Key Biscayne, Fla. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky) KEY BISCAYNE, Fla. (AP) ? Serena Williams has overcome a big deficit in her fourth-round match at the Sony Open to beat Dominika Cibulkova 2-6, 6-4, 6-2. The top-ranked Williams, seeking her sixth Key Biscayne title and her first since 2008, was down a service break trailing 4-1 in the second set Monday before she won five straight games. She swept the final three games and served out the match at love with three aces. Williams' opponent in the quarterfinals will be No. 5-seeded Li Na, who beat wild card Garbine Muguruza 7-6 (6), 6-2. Williams was flat-footed and impassive for much of her match against the No. 13-seeded Cibulkova. She was screaming encouragement to herself during the comeback. She won despite 52 unforced errors, including 27 on her backhand. Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2013-03-25-TEN-Key-Biscayne/id-e396c32b834d49cd9b616c816545bfdf

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Flash in East Coast sky has social media buzzing

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Social media sites were buzzing Friday night with reports of a brief but bright flash of light that streaked across the sky along the East Coast.

Bill Cooke of NASA's Meteoroid Environmental Office said the flash appears to be "a single meteor event." He said it "looks to be a fireball that moved roughly toward the southeast, going on visual reports."

"Judging from the brightness, we're dealing with something as bright as the full moon," Cooke said. "The thing is probably a yard across. We basically have (had) a boulder enter the atmosphere over the northeast."

He noted that the meteor was widely seen, with more than 350 reports on the website of the American Meteor Society alone.

"If you have something this bright carry over that heavily populated area, a lot of people are going to see it," he said. "It occurred around 8 tonight ,there were a lot of people out, and you've got all those big cities out there."

Derrick Pitts, chief astronomer at Philadelphia's Franklin Institute, agreed that the sightings had all the hallmarks of a "fireball." These include lasting 7-10 seconds, being bright and colorful, and seeming to cross much of the sky with a long stream behind it.

He said what people likely saw was one meteor ? or "space rock" ? that may have been the size of a softball or volleyball and that fell fairly far down into the Earth's atmosphere.

He likened it to a stone skipping across the water ? getting "a nice long burn out of it."

Robert Lunsford of the American Meteor Society told USA Today "it basically looked like a super bright shooting star."

The newspaper reports that the sky flash was spotted as far south as Florida and as far north as New England.

Pitts said meteors of varying sizes fall from the sky all the time, but that this one caught more eyes because it happened on a Friday evening ? and because Twitter has provided a way for people to share information on sightings.

He said experts "can't be 100 percent certain of what it was, unless it actually fell to the ground and we could actually track the trajectory." But he said the descriptions by so many people are "absolutely consistent" with those of a meteor.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-03-22-Meteor%20Reports-East%20Coast/id-b75eb2831c0049479d051c745780f02b

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Rumblefish, Soundtrack Licensing Partner To YouTube And Others, Buys Catalogik To Improve Music Search

A note of consolidation in the world of digital music: Rumblefish, a company that works with the likes of YouTube, Amazon, Vimeo, Facebook and Slideshare to let users add licensed soundtracks to their digital creations, is today announcing the acquisition of Catalogik, a platform to help find and monitor the use of specific digital tracks.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/Se_p0qRsNho/

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