Peace Talks

Colombia's president, Juan Manuel Santos, announced Tuesday that his government has agreed to a road map to launch peace talks with the country's largest and oldest rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC. Santos said the talks will begin in October in Norway, and continue outside of Colombia. The negotiations mark the first time since 2002 that the government and the FARC will sit down to discuss a possible end to the brutal, nearly 50-year-old civil conflict that has claimed thousands of lives.

BOGOTA, Colombia - Prospects for an end to more than four decades of armed rebellion in Colombia inched closer to reality Tuesday as President Juan Manuel Santos announced that his government had agreed to start peace talks with the country's largest insurgent group. The first open negotiations in a decade between the government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, will start early next month in Oslo and then shift to Cuba, and will span "months, not years," Santos said.

BOGOTA, Colombia — President Juan Manuel Santos on Monday night said his government was in "exploratory discussions" to end more than four decades of conflict with Colombia's largest rebel group. In a short televised address, Santos said the government had engaged in discussion with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, but he did not disclose details such as where the talks were held. Meetings have been held in Cuba, according to news reports and speculation.

JERUSALEM - If there's anything that inhabitants of the Promised Land are familiar with, it's the quadrennial promises of American presidential candidates who show up to affirm the "unbreakable" bond between Israel and the United States. As candidates, former Presidents George W. Bushand Bill Clinton pledged to movetheU.S. Embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv, only to change their minds after taking office. Four years ago, before making his visit, then-candidate Barack Obama voiced support for accepting Jerusalem as Israel's undivided capital.

Yahoo and Facebook have entered settlement talks for a lawsuit involving alleged patent infringements by both companies, according to a recent court filing. Lawyers from Yahoo asked a U.S. District judge in San Francisco to provide a two-week extension on reply deadlines as well as a two-week postponement for a scheduled August hearing so the companies can continue their settlement talks. “The parties are currently engaged in settlement negotiations to resolve this dispute,” Kevin Smith, a Yahoo lawyer, said in the filing according to Bloomberg , which broke the news.

The thing that makes Metta World Peace so endearing is his transparent personality. He revels in sharing what's on his mind, no matter how goofy he sounds. Even when he's away from the cameras, World Peace remains the same approachable and down-to-earth person. And most importantly, World Peace talks openly about his vulnerabilities with mental health issues in hopes that it helps others. Yes, World Peace occasionally stumbles. His vicious elbow to Oklahoma City guard James Harden earned him a seven-game suspension and there was no justification for it. But in covering him for the last 2 1/2 seasons, it's easy to sense his conflicted emotions.

KABUL, Afghanistan - A brazen daytime assassination on Sunday offered a grim reminder of stymied progress in a key part of NATO's effort to wind down the Afghan war: peace talks with the Taliban. Arsala Rahmani, a senior member of the Afghan government body set up to conduct negotiations with the militant group, was shot and killed while traveling by car through the Afghan capital, police said. Coming less than nine months after the assassination of the head of the High Peace Council, the killing cast yet more gloom over Western-backed efforts to bring the insurgents to the bargaining table.

JERUSALEM — The surprise unity government announced Tuesday by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has many observers predicting that the reformed coalition will embark on a more moderate path, including reopening talks with Palestinians and softening rhetoric on attacking Iran. The addition of the centrist Kadima party to what has been called one of Israel's most right-wing coalition governments gives Netanyahu a comfortable 78% majority in the parliament, lessening the clout of small right-wing parties and factions.

Ten years ago, peace negotiations between the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia collapsed after the rebel group hijacked a plane and kidnapped a high-profile senator. Since then more than 20,000 rebels and paramilitary fighters have been killed in combat with military forces, according to the Washington Office on Latin America. Now, the FARC says it is ready to negotiate and has renounced its long-standing practice of kidnapping for profit. Its promise to end abductions and to release 10 soldiers and police officers held captive for more than a decade in jungle camps are significant and welcome developments - and something the FARC never agreed to in past peace talks.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Thursday sought to secure help from Pakistani leaders in facilitating peace talks with Pakistan-based Afghan Taliban leaders, while the militant group denied any interest in negotiating with an "impotent" administration. Karzai's visit to Islamabad, the Pakistani capital, came amid reports that he had said in an interview that the U.S. and Afghan governments had begun secret talks with the Afghan Taliban. In recent months, U.S. officials have been meeting with Taliban envoys to discuss the establishment of a Taliban office in the Persian Gulf state of Qatar.