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Syria is softening its refusal to attend the Annapolis peace conference and already has won dividends, including a visit from Jordan's king that marked an end to regional isolation. But as it bends, it risks alienating Palestinian militants and its ally Iran. Syria was unlikely to announce a final decision on whether it will go to the conference until after a meeting of Arab foreign ministers to be held in Cairo on Friday to map out a joint strategy. Publicly, Syrian officials have said Syria would not go unless its demands for the return of the Golan Heights, seized by...

From the (Vermont) Burlington Free Press: Peace activist Cindy Sheehan cancels Vermont visitJuly 28, 20Peace activist Cindy Sheehan has canceled her visit to Vermont because she plans a trip to Jordan for peace talks there, organizers announced today.Sheehan was to have attended a rally Sunday at Montpelier's Unitarian Church.The rally will still be held, with Vermont organizers planning to address renewed efforts to end the war in Iraq and pursue impeachment of the Bush administration.The event is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. and is free and public. It’s sort of like Ike saying he would go to Korea.Only different.

SACRAMENTO (AP) - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and legislative leaders met Tuesday for the first time this year, discussing numerous issues including ballot measures the governor wants voters to approve in a special election this fall. Although both sides have traded biting comments for weeks, Tuesday's events were more conciliatory, including Schwarzenegger kissing Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez during a bill-signing ceremony. Nunez, a Democrat from Los Angeles, called the meeting productive and joked about Schwarzenegger's embrace, which came only a few minutes after he had lashed out at the governor during a rally with education supporters on the Capitol steps. Such...

BEIJING, Nov. 24 (Xinhuanet) -- The Himalayan region of Kashmir remains at the center of decades-long rivalry between India and Pakistan. Both South Asian nuclear powers claim the divided region and the subsequent conflict has hampered efforts to spur economic growth in an area where a fifth of the world's populations live. Both India and Pakistan have been receptive to the possibility of ending hostilities. About a thousand Indian soldiers withdrew from the Indian-controlled Kashmir last week and another unit pulled out on Monday. The reduction in troop numbers, set to continue until the end of next March, is seen...

From Henry Mark Holzer's email newsletter: Kerry smeared a hero: my dad. > By CAROL CROWLEY >Published on: 09/20/04 > Many of you believe dirty politics is the motivation of Vietnam >veterans speaking out in opposition to John Kerry. Let me tell you the real motivation. > >In the movie "We Were Soldiers," the story about the battle of the la >Drang Valley in Vietnam in 1965, a young sergeant, Jack Gell, cried as >he died, "Tell my wife I love her . . ." and my family relived the >death of my dad. He told my mother in letters...

Letter to John Kerry: It's a Matter of Honor, Sir Written by Arnold Beizer Friday, October 15, 2004 Letter to Candidate John Kerry Dear Sir: We all know you have failed and neglected to sign Form 180 authorizing release of all your military service records as President George W. Bush has done, despite your broken promise on national television to news reporter Tim Russert to do so. Instead, you have repeatedly stonewalled on this character issue and left a question of honor on the minds of every American. You have called your own honesty into question by refusing to be...

Mystery Surrounds Kerry's Navy Discharge BY THOMAS LIPSCOMB - Special to the Sun October 13, 2004 An official Navy document on Senator Kerry's campaign Web site listed as Mr. Kerry's "Honorable Discharge from the Reserves" opens a door on a well kept secret about his military service. The document is a form cover letter in the name of the Carter administration's secretary of the Navy, W. Graham Claytor. It describes Mr. Kerry's discharge as being subsequent to the review of "a board of officers." This in it self is unusual. There is nothing about an ordinary honorable discharge action in...

NAIROBI, Kenya - The Sudanese government canceled plans to attend scheduled peace talks in Geneva next week with western rebels, officials said Wednesday, just days after the president proclaimed military victory in the insurgency. On Monday, President Omar el-Bashir said the military was "in full control" of the troubled Darfur province in western Sudan and offered amnesty to surrendering rebels. The army recently has announced several successes over the rebel groups in fighting near the border with Chad. Peace talks between the government and two rebel groups, the Sudan Liberation Army and the Justice and Equality Movement, were scheduled to...

NEW DELHI: India and Pakistan have agreed to hold three-day talks beginning February 16 in Islamabad to commence the process of composite dialogue. The talks will first be held at the level of joint secretaries on February 16 and 17 followed by a one-day meeting between the two Foreign Secretaries on February 18, External Affairs Ministry spokesman Navtej Sarna announced on Tuesday. A similar announcement was made by Pakistan Foreign Office spokesman Masood Khan in Islamabad. Official sources here said that during the three-day talks, the two sides would discuss the modalities for the composite dialogue . Ending more than...

JERUSALEM : Israel has given Turkey a green light to help revive peace talks with Syria , though it is unaware of any concrete plan for Turkish mediation and would favour direct contacts with Damascus . "The Turkish government has expressed its willingness to facilitate, but I do not know of any concrete proposal right now," Raanan Gissin, media spokesman to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, said on Israel TV's Channel One on Saturday night. Turkey has passed messages between Jerusalem and Damascus in the past and would be welcome to do so again, he said. "We have good relations with...

Israel should very seriously consider remarks made recently by Syrian President Bashar Assad onresumption of peace talks between the two countries, military Intelligence Chief Aharon Ze'evi Farkash told the cabinet on Sunday. "Syrian President Bashar Assad's remarks regarding negotiations with Israel are very serious," Farkash was quoted as saying byIsrael Radio. According to the general, Assad's gesture was in response to Washington's pressure on Damascus, the present US control over Iraqand an interest in taking advantage of the standstill innegotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. Meanwhile, Farkash accused Syria of continuing to fund Palestinian terror organizations and the Lebanese Hezbollah...

Sudan's peace talks have taken a major step forward with an agreement between the government and the main rebel group to share oil resources. The deal, reached in Kenya, paves the way for a comprehensive peace accord. At the moment, the government controls all the country's oil revenues, but the SPLA rebels have demanded a share. A final peace settlement is expected to be reached soon to end 20 years of civil war in Sudan that have left about two million people dead. Fighting over percentages Vice President Ali Osman Taha and Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) leader John Garang...

Well, here we go again Posted: November 17, 2003 1:00 a.m. Eastern © 2003 WorldNetDaily.com Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia are expected to meet to restart the so-called "peace process." Here we go again. I hear a lot about the cycle of violence in the Mideast. Call this the cycle of madness. Why madness? I've heard one definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again while expecting different results. That's exactly what Israel and the United States are doing by endlessly pursuing peace with people who have no interest...

JERUSALEM - Following an Israeli offer, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat (news - web sites) said Sunday he is ready for peace talks, while about 6,000 Palestinians returned to jobs in Israel for the first time in a month. AP Photo   In an abrupt turnaround last week, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon (news - web sites) said contacts were already underway with Palestinian officials, adding, "We are ready to enter negotiations at any time." Sharon had previously conditioned talks on a crackdown on violent Palestinian groups responsible for attacks on Israelis. Asked about Sharon's remarks, Arafat told reporters he would...

Oct. 30, 2003 Sharon: We are holding talks with low-level PA officials By JPOST.COM STAFF Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said Thursday night that Israel was holding talks with Palestinian officials that are not on the political level of Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei. "We are in contact with Palestinians, however not of the level of prime ministers," Sharon said. "The reason we don't have prime ministerial level contacts stems from the fact that Palestinians have requested time to allow the designated Palestinian prime minister to establish himself," Sharon said. "We are ready to enter negotiations at any time," the prime minister...

NAIROBI: The Sudanese government and rebels fighting a 20-year-old civil war resumed peace talks on Sunday, with negotiations focusing on the sharing of power and wealth, the lead mediator said. The talks between the government of President Omar el-Bashir and the Sudan People's Liberation Army in the Kenyan town of Nakuru, 135 kilometres northwest of Nairobi, will last one week, said Kenyan Gen. Lazaro Sumbeiywo. The talks began almost a year ago and are aimed at ending the conflict in which an estimated 2 million people have died, mainly through war-induced famine and disease. Despite agreeing to the basics of...

<p>JERUSALEM — Two homicide bombings (search) rocked Jerusalem early Sunday, in a surge of attacks apparently timed to coincide with the first high-level summit between Israel and the Palestinians in more than two years.</p> <p>In the first early morning attack, a bomber blew himself up aboard a commuter bus, killing seven people, along with the bomber, and injuring at least 20 others. In the second attack, on the outskirts of the city, only the bomber was reported killed.</p>

SRINAGAR, India (Reuters) - India and Pakistan said they were ready for peace talks over war-torn Kashmir on Friday, ahead of the latest round of U.S. shuttle diplomacy to ease tensions between the nuclear rivals. Speaking from behind bullet-proof glass and tight security in the first public speech in 15 years by an Indian prime minister in Kashmir's main city, Atal Behari Vajpayee told a mainly hand-picked crowd of 10,000 he wanted talks with Pakistan as well as Kashmiri groups. But although his speech was largely conciliatory, Vajpayee did not specifically drop India's condition that Pakistan first stop Muslim militants...

<p>Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld yesterday demanded the "unconditional surrender" of Saddam Hussein as the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff called criticism of the U.S. war plan in Iraq "bogus."</p> <p>"The only thing that the coalition will discuss with this regime is their unconditional surrender," Mr. Rumsfeld told reporters at the Pentagon.</p>

Israeli troops have shot and killed one of the Palestinian attackers who killed eight Israelis outside a Jewish settlement Tuesday in the West Bank. Meanwhile, Israel has called off talks scheduled Wednesday with the Palestinians. Israeli troops killed the Palestinian in a fierce exchange of gunfire, near the Jewish settlement of Emmanuel in the West Bank. The gunman is reported to have been one of at least three Palestinians who detonated a roadside bomb beside a bus, and opened fire on passengers as they began exiting the damaged vehicle. During the gun battle, a second gunman succeeded in fleeing the...