Direct Talks

The NHL Players' Assn. has accepted the league's invitation to hold a meeting between players and owners, but as with most aspects of their labor dispute, this isn't quite what it seems. The session, scheduled to take place Tuesday in New York, won't be strictly limited to players and owners: It will also include staff members and counsel for both sides. However, neither NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman nor NHLPA Executive Director Donald Fehr is expected to attend, a good omen for those who think each leader's ego has gotten in the way of reaching a new collective bargaining agreement and saving a semblance of the NHL season.

WASHINGTON -- Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei rejected the U.S. offer of direct talks on his country's disputed nuclear program, deepening doubts about the prospects that Tehran's upcoming discussions with six world powers over the issue will make progress. Khamenei, who sets his country's policy on the issue, said in comments carried Thursday on his personal website that talks “will not settle the issue” when the United States has imposed sanctions and is threatening Iran with attack if it doesn't yield.

WASHINGTON -- Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei rejected the U.S. offer of direct talks on his country's disputed nuclear program, deepening doubts about the prospects that Tehran's upcoming discussions with six world powers over the issue will make progress. Khamenei, who sets his country's policy on the issue, said in comments carried Thursday on his personal website that talks “will not settle the issue” when the United States has imposed sanctions and is threatening Iran with attack if it doesn't yield.

A series of bizarre turns in negotiations between the NHL and its players on Thursday extinguished the optimism generated during direct talks between players and owners early this week and put the league in position to lose a season for the second time since 2004. Commissioner Gary Bettman was red-faced and angry, and NHL Players' Assn. Executive Director Donald Fehr swiftly switched from declaring the sides were "close if not on top of one another" on major issues to saying he would tell fans, "It looks like this is not going to be resolved in the immediate future.

Sudan began direct talks with two rebel groups, as President Bush and U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan called on the government to give humanitarian aid agencies unrestricted access to western Sudan. Bush also said the Sudanese government must stop militias in the Darfur region from committing atrocities against the local population. Since rebels took up arms in the region in February 2003, thousands of people have been killed and more than 800,000 others forced to flee their homes.

The Iraqi government proposed Wednesday that the United Nations arrange direct talks with Iran to work out the details of a cease-fire in the Persian Gulf War, and Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar announced that a team will leave "immediately" for Baghdad and Tehran. In Tehran, the supreme leader of Iran, the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, told his countrymen that although he had decided to accept a U.N. call for a cease-fire, it was "worse than drinking poison."

Hopes that Jordan's King Hussein would cross the border for breakthrough talks with Israel were dashed when a Jordanian official said the monarch seeks dialogue as part of a regional peace conference. Israeli officials had welcomed a published interview quoting the king as saying the time is nearly ripe for face-to-face contacts between Arabs and Israelis. But a palace spokesman in Jordan said the king did not call for direct talks outside of a Mideast peace conference proposed by the Arabs.

Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres on Wednesday dismissed the idea of an international conference aimed at achieving peace in the Middle East and proposed direct Israeli talks with King Hussein of Jordan as the best approach. "We oppose the international conference," Peres said in a joint news conference with Italian Prime Minister Bettino Craxi. "We are not looking for a show; we are looking for dialogue."

President Reagan met with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak today and emerged to call for direct talks between Israeli and Palestinian leaders as the best road to peace. Reagan, in a departure statement, did not indicate that he approves immediate direct talks with the Palestine Liberation Organization--something Mubarak has sought. But his emphasis on direct negotiations indicated that talks with other Palestinian leaders would be acceptable.

Pakistan's foreign minister Tuesday rejected Aghanistan's insistence on holding direct talks on the pullout of Soviet troops from Afghanistan. Sahabzada Yaqub Khan told a joint Parliament session during a debate that the demand for direct talks is "untenable and unacceptable." A sixth round of indirect talks between Pakistani and Afghan foreign ministers through a U.N. mediator was suspended in Geneva last week after Kabul insisted on direct talks.

The NHL Players' Assn. has accepted the league's invitation to hold a meeting between players and owners, but as with most aspects of their labor dispute, this isn't quite what it seems. The session, scheduled to take place Tuesday in New York, won't be strictly limited to players and owners: It will also include staff members and counsel for both sides. However, neither NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman nor NHLPA Executive Director Donald Fehr is expected to attend, a good omen for those who think each leader's ego has gotten in the way of reaching a new collective bargaining agreement and saving a semblance of the NHL season.

Is U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice an appropriate choice as President Obama's second-term secretary of State? Nearly 100 House Republicans have come out against Rice, joining several prominent GOP senators. Meetings on Capitol Hill this week appear not to have helped her cause with them. They consider her either untrustworthy or incompetent, insinuating that she is too much of a partisan to represent the country as a whole on the world stage. But the Republicans should relent in their opposition.

DEL RAY BEACH, Fla. - On the eve of the final presidential debate - on foreign policy -  Mitt Romney declined Sunday to say whether he would favor one-on-one negotiations with Iran to resolve the deadlock over that country's nuclear program. The New York Times reported Sunday that U.S. officials have said Iran is willing to restart one-on-one talks after the Nov. 6 presidential election, and administration officials have told the Los Angeles Times that Iran may be prepared to reengage in those discussions.

With a Monday deadline at hand, California officials have resumed direct talks with the Obama administration about joining a multibillion-dollar, multi-state mortgage settlement with the nation's largest banks, a source said Sunday. The potential settlement would call for banks to provide financial assistance for homeowners who experienced foreclosure or are in danger of losing their homes. It also would require banks to overhaul their mortgage servicing and foreclosure practices as well as include a component for "principal write-downs," the reduction of mortgage debt for individual homeowners.

Frustrated in its bid to restart peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians, the international group known as the Mideast quartet is pushing both sides to submit detailed proposals for borders of a Palestinian state and measures to ensure Israel's long-term security, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair said Tuesday. Blair, who serves as envoy for the quartet — consisting of the U.S., Russia, the European Union and United Nations — will discuss the latest approach during separate meetings Wednesday in Jerusalem and Ramallah.

In Lewis Carroll's "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland," the heroine falls down a rabbit hole into a confusing fantasy world. Writing today, Carroll might have placed Alice in the 66th General Assembly of the United Nations, where Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas plans this week to seek U.N. recognition of statehood. If Alice was perplexed by the Mad Hatter or the Queen of Hearts, it would be interesting to see her reaction to a president whose mandate has long expired applying for statehood over territory, part of which he is too afraid to visit.

Angola's civil war foes appeared Friday to be inching toward a truce to halt the world's bloodiest conflict after meeting for direct talks without their U.N. mediator, diplomatic sources said. Top officials of Angola's government and UNITA rebels met over breakfast at a hotel in Zambia's capital, Lusaka, to discuss critical political questions that could derail a proposed cease-fire. It was the second meeting within a week between the two sides that did not include U.N.

The State Department said today the new policy declaration by the Palestine Liberation Organization parliament in exile does not satisfy U.S. requirements for the opening of a dialogue with the PLO. Spokesman Charles E. Redman said the results of the Palestine National Council session in Algiers "fall short" of Administration conditions. He said the PNC endorsement of U.N.

Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg arrived here Wednesday with a warning that world leaders would take steps to press their objections to North Korea's uranium enrichment program. Steinberg said last week's Washington summit between President Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao sent a "clear message" that Kim Jong Il's nuclear ambitions violated international agreements. "It's very important that the international community send a strong message that the uranium enrichment program, indeed any uranium enrichment program by North Korea, would be inconsistent with its international obligations, with Security Council resolutions and with its own commitments," he said.

Arab League members decided Friday to give the Obama administration one more month to get faltering Mideast peace talks back on track, but they also said they support a Palestinian threat to quit direct talks unless Israel reverses itself on resuming West Bank settlement construction. The Arab League decision, announced at a meeting in Libya, gives U.S. negotiators more time to resolve the current standoff and solicit support for their proposal to renew Israel's partial construction moratorium, which expired Sept.