Israel, Palestinians eye peace deal in 9 months

Secretary of State John Kerry stands between Israel's Justice Minister and chief negotiator Tzipi Livni, right, and Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat, as they shake hands after the resumption of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, Tuesday, July 30, 2013, at the State Department in Washington. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

Secretary of State John Kerry stands between Israel's Justice Minister and chief negotiator Tzipi Livni, right, and Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat, as they shake hands after the resumption of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, Tuesday, July 30, 2013, at the State Department in Washington. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

Israel's Justice Minister and chief negotiator Tzipi Livni, left, looks towards Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat during statements to reporters after their meeting together with Secretary of State John Kerry on the resumption of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, Tuesday, July 30, 2013, at the State Department in Washington. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

Secretary of State John Kerry stands with Israel's Justice Minister and chief negotiator Tzipi Livni, right, and Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat, after the resumption of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, Tuesday, July 30, 2013, at the State Department in Washington. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

Secretary of State John Kerry stands with Israel's Justice Minister and chief negotiator Tzipi Livni, left, and Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat, after the resumption of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, Tuesday, July 30, 2013, at the State Department in Washington. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Israeli and Palestinian negotiators agreed Tuesday to meet again within two weeks to start substantive negotiations on a so-far elusive peace deal with the goal of reaching a deal within nine months, Secretary of State John Kerry said.

Speaking as the two sides wrapped up an initial two days of talks at the State Department after paying a visit to President Barack Obama at the White House, Kerry said Israel and the Palestinians were committed to "sustained, continuous and substantive negotiations on the core issues" that divide them. He said the next round of negotiations would take place in either Israel or the Palestinian territories at an as yet-unspecified date before mid-August.

"The parties have agreed here today that all of the final status issues, all of the core issues and all other issues are all on the table for negotiation. And they are on the table with one simple goal: a view to ending the conflict," Kerry said. "Our objective will be to achieve a final status agreement over the course of the next nine months."

U.S. officials had previously said the negotiations would continue for a minimum of nine months without setting that as a timeframe for reaching a deal. Kerry said he was aware of the deep skepticism surrounding the new push for peace and acknowledged that the road ahead would be difficult. Yet, he said he was hopeful an agreement could be reached. "While I understand the skepticism, I don't share it. And I don't think we have time for it," he said.

"I firmly believe the leaders, the negotiators and citizens invested in this effort can make peace for one simple reason: because they must," Kerry said. "A viable two-state solution is the only way this conflict can end. And there is not much time to achieve it. And there is no other alternative."

Kerry said the negotiations, to be mediated on a day-to-day basis by his new Mideast peace envoy, Martin Indyk, would be cloaked in secrecy and that the parties had agreed that he would be the only person to comment on them. He quickly added that he would not comment on them, leaving unclear the framework for the talks that he struggled for six months to get back on track.

Despite the secrecy, the broad outlines of an agreement are well known: the Palestinians want a state based on the lines, with agreed land swaps, that existed before the 1967 war in which Israel seized east Jerusalem and occupied the West Bank and Gaza. Israel wants security assurances and a recognition that it is and will remain a Jewish state.

Obama laid out those parameters as U.S. policy for any negotiations in a May 2010 speech but neither the Israelis nor the Palestinians has publicly signed off on them. U.S. officials said Tuesday the talks would proceed under the framework Obama announced in that speech but Kerry did not mention that in his comments.

Instead, he said only that the two sides had agreed that all "final status issues, all of the core issues and all other issues" would be on the table for negotiation. Those issues include security, borders, the status of Jerusalem, the fate of Palestinian refugees and water, all of which have been responsible for cratering multiple U.S.-brokered peace efforts over the past two decades.

Earlier Tuesday, Obama and Vice President Joe Biden met with the lead negotiators ? Israeli Justice Minister Tzipi Livni and senior Palestinian official Saeb Erekat ? for about 30 minutes. White House spokesman Jay Carney said Obama called the meeting to "directly express his personal support for final status negotiations." Obama pledged full U.S. support to the process, Carney said.

At the State Department ceremony, Kerry was flanked by Livni and Erekat ? who each spoke briefly about the need to resolve the long-standing conflict.

"It's time for the Palestinian people to have an independent sovereign state of their own," said Erekat, who spoke first. "It's time for the Palestinians to live in peace, freedom and dignity within their own independent, sovereign state."

Livni allowed that she and Erekat had been involved in failed negotiations before, notably the Annapolis Process that former President George W. Bush initiated in 2008, but she said this time could be different.

"You know, Saeb," she said to Erekat, "we all spent some time in the negotiations room ... but we didn't complete our mission. And this is something that we need to do now, in these negotiations that we will launch today. And the opportunity has been created for us, for all of us, and we cannot afford to waste it."

"I believe that history is not made by cynics; it is made by realists who are not afraid to dream," Livni added. "Let us be these people."

___

AP White House Correspondent Julie Pace contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-07-30-US-US-Mideast-Talks/id-630a4d2c25244a85a2e8f8c515a32567

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Isis announces national deployment coming later this year

Last time we heard from Isis, the aspiring mobile payments collaboration between three US wireless carriers, its CEO Michael Abbott wasn't willing to discuss the company's future plans in specific terms. Three months appear to make all the difference, however: Isis is almost ready to expand beyond its trial runs in Salt Lake City and Austin, and the service will be rolling out from coast to coast later this year. The company isn't giving any more specific details regarding timing or new Isis-compatible devices (there are currently 35 of them spread across Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile), although it's planning to enable the service on BlackBerry and Windows Phone devices later this year as well. The press release will serve up all the details after the break.

Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless, Mobile, Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile

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Report: Blazers asst. Vanterpool top candidate in 76ers' coach search

By Royce Young | NBA writer

July 29, 2013 5:01 PM ET

The Philadelphia 76ers still don't have a coach.

But they could be closing in on fixing that.

Trail Blazers assistant David Vanterpool has emerged as a top candidate for the Sixers, according to Yahoo Sports.

The position opened April 18, when Doug Collins resigned after the season. As every other coaching vacancy filled during the offseason, the Sixers remained patient as new general manager Sam Hinkie took a deliberate approach to his hire.

Vanterpool was an assistant for Terry Stotts in Portland last season after spending time with the Thunder as their director of player personnel in 2010. He was set to likely rise into a prominant front office position but moved to the Blazers to take a coaching position.

One of Vanterpool's roles in Portland was working with Rookie of the Year Damian Lillard. Vanterpool, 40, played professionally in Russia for CSKA Moscow, then stayed on as an assistant under legendary Euroleague coach Ettore Messina for three seasons.

The 76ers have also reportedly expressed interest in Spurs assistant Brett Bowen, Celtics assistant Jay Larranaga and current Sixers assistant Michael Curry.

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North Korea military parades through Pyongyang

PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) ? Goose-stepping soldiers, columns of tanks and a broad array of ominous-looking missiles poised on mobile launchers paraded through Pyongyang's main square on Saturday in a painstakingly choreographed military pageant intended to strike fear into North Korea's adversaries and rally its people behind young ruler Kim Jong Un on the 60th anniversary of the armistice that ended the Korean War.

The lavish assembly of weapons and troops is reminiscent of the marches held by the Soviet Union and China at the height of the Cold War. It is one of the few chances the world gets to see North Korea's military up close. Although Pyongyang frequently uses the occasion to reveal new, though not always operational, hardware, there didn't appear to be any new weapons in Saturday's parade. Its arsenal of missiles, however, was front-and-center.

Overlooking a sea of spectators mobilized in Kim Il Sung Square to cheer and wave flags, leader Kim Jong Un saluted his troops from a review stand. He was flanked by senior military officials, the chests of their olive green and white uniforms laden with medals. As fighter jets screamed overhead, a relaxed looking Kim smiled and talked with China's vice president. China fought with North Korea during the war and is Pyongyang's only major ally and a crucial source of economic aid. Kim did not make a speech.

Kim's rule, which began in late 2011 after the death of his father, Kim Jong Il, has been marked by high tensions with Washington and Seoul. He has overseen two long-range rocket launches and a nuclear test that drew widespread condemnation and tightened U.N. sanctions.

North and South Korea have turned to tentative diplomacy in recent weeks, but March and April saw North Korean threats of nuclear war against Washington and Seoul in response to annual South Korean-U.S. military drills and U.N. condemnation of Pyongyang's February nuclear test, the country's third. Long-stalled North Korean nuclear disarmament talks show no sign of resuming.

Saturday's parade marks a holiday the North Koreans call "Victory Day in the Fatherland Liberation War," although the 1950-53 Korean War that refers to ended in a truce and the Korean Peninsula remains technically at war.

Last year's parade, held to commemorate the April celebrations of the 100th birthday of the late national founder Kim Il Sung, Kim Jong Un's grandfather, created a buzz among military watchers when the North rolled out a mysterious long-range missile known abroad as the KN-08. Most outside observers now believe the missiles were mock-ups, but they were carried on mobile launchers that appeared to have been obtained from China, possibly against U.N. arms trade sanctions.

Choe Ryong Hae, the army's top political officer, said North Korea should be ready to fight to defend the stability the country needs to revive the economy. But his speech at Kim Il Sung Square was mild compared with past fiery rhetoric from Pyongyang attacking the United States and South Korea.

Meanwhile, in South Korea, President Park Geun-hye vowed not to tolerate provocations from North Korea ? Seoul says North Korean attacks in 2010 killed 50 South Koreans ? but she also said Seoul would work on building trust with the North. "I urge North Korea to give up the development of nuclear weapons if the country is to start on a path toward true change and progress," Park said in a speech.

North Korea is estimated to have a handful of crude nuclear bombs, but many analysts don't think it has yet mastered the technology needed to build warheads small enough to fit on long-range missiles.

About 200 people gathered in Seoul, some burning pictures of the North's ruling Kim dynasty, at a rally meant "to condemn the nuclear development and threatening strategy of the tyrannical regime of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un," said Park Chan-sung, an anti-North Korea activist.

Shin Eun-gyeong, who visited an exhibit on the armistice on Saturday at a recently opened history museum, said she wants the rival Koreas to be unified ? but as a democracy, not under North Korea's autocratic rule. "It's a real tragedy for Korea that we are still a divided nation," Shin said.

The North's parade tradition goes back to the founding of the country in 1948. Few countries ? including North Korea's communist models ? continue to trot out their military forces in public squares with such pomp and pageantry. But Pyongyang has stuck with them because its leaders believe they are a good way to show the world those things about the military they want to reveal, while at the same time sending a potent message domestically of the power of the ruling elite.

"The beauty of a parade is that weapons systems don't actually have to work in order to be impressive ? a missile launcher looks good even when the missile won't launch," said David Stone, an expert on the Soviet and Russian militaries, at Kansas State University.

That can be risky, however.

Almost as soon as last year's parade was over, military experts around the world said they thought the stars of the show ? the long-range KN-08 missiles ? were mock-ups of a design that is still being perfected and probably couldn't actually fly, despite North Korea's claims that it has the capability to strike the United States with nuclear-tipped ICBMs.

"They certainly learned that they might lose some reputation by showing imperfect mock-ups," said Marcus Schiller, a private-sector aerospace engineer in Germany who is regarded as one of the world's leading authorities on North Korea's missile capabilities. "Better to show nothing and let the world know by 'leaked secret information' how dangerous they are."

Even so, analysts say the parades send important messages meant to signal strength to North Korea's people ? who are not privy to such outside analysis. As it rolled out its arsenal Saturday, military helicopters, jets in formation and other warplanes did flyovers. Later, thousands of civilians marched alongside festive floats, a departure from previous parades. A truckload of soldiers wore chest packs with nuclear symbols.

"After watching this parade, I feel our country could defeat anyone," said Ryang Un Ho, 84, a captain in the North Korean infantry during the war who sat in the hot sun with other veterans at the square for the two-hour spectacle.

__

AP writers Hyung-jin Kim, Elizabeth Shim and Foster Klug contributed to this story from Seoul, South Korea.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/north-korea-military-parades-pyongyang-010240931.html

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Perseid meteor shower: Coming soon to a sky near you

Perseid meteor shower: Beloved by skywatchers, 2013 will be an excellent one for the Perseid meteor shower. The moon will set before midnight on the peak Perseids nights.

By Joe Rao,?Space.com / July 27, 2013

NASA Astronaut Ron Garan, Expedition 28 flight engineer, tweeted this image from the International Space Station on Sunday Aug. 14 2011 with the following caption: "What a 'Shooting Star' looks like from space, taken yesterday during Perseid Meteor Shower."

(AP Photo/Ron Garan - NASA)

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Get ready to start looking up this summer.

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For Northern Hemisphere observers, the latter half of July on into August is usually regarded as "meteor viewing season," with one of the best displays of the year reaching its peak in mid-August.

The annual Perseid meteor shower is beloved by everyone from meteor enthusiasts to summer campers, and 2013 will be an excellent one for the Perseids. The moon will set before midnight on the peak nights of Aug. 11 and 12, meaning dark skies for prospective observers. [See Amazing Perseid Meteor Shower Photos of 2012]

This week, however, let's concentrate on some of the lesser-known summer meteor displays.?

In general, Earth encounters richer meteoric activity during the second half of the year, and stargazers are more likely to see twice as many meteors per hour in the predawn hours as compared with the evening hours. During the premidnight hours, the United States is on the "trailing" side of the Earth due to our orbital motion through space. Any meteoric particle generally must have an orbital velocity greater than that of the Earth to "catch" the planet.

After midnight, when the United States is ?turned onto the Earth's "leading" side, any particle that lies along the Earth's orbital path will enter the planet's atmosphere as a meteor.? As such, objects collide with the atmosphere at speeds of 7 to 45 miles per second (11 to 17.7 kilometers per second), their energy of motion rapidly dissipates in the form of heat, light, and ionization, creating short-lived streaks of light popularly referred to as "shooting stars."

Summertime meteors, occasionally flitting across your line of sight, are especially noticeable between mid-July and the third week of August. Between Aug. 3 and 15, there are no fewer than six different active minor displays. These six meteor showers are listed in the table below.

The actual number of meteors a single observer can see in an hour depends strongly on sky conditions, but the only equipment you'll need to see them are your eyes and a modest amount of patience.

The rates given in the table are based on a limited star magnitude of +6.5 (considered to be the faintest star visible to the naked eye without the use of binoculars or a telescope), an experienced observer, and an assumption that the radiant is directly overhead.

The radiant is the place in the sky where the paths of meteors, if extended backward, would intersect when plotted on a star chart.? Your clenched fist held at arm's length is equal to roughly 10 degrees on the sky.? So if the radiant is 30 degrees ("three-fists") above the horizon, the hourly rate is halved; at 15 degrees, it is one-third.

While the hourly rates from these other meteor streams provide but a fraction of the numbers produced by the Perseids, combined, overall they provide a wide variety of meteors of differing colors, speeds and trajectories.?

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