Syria's Assad in rare visit as rockets hit capital

AMMAN, Jordan (AP) — Syrian President Bashar Assad made a rare public appearance on Wednesday, visiting a Damascus power station, while two bombs exploded near the city center and wounded 15 people, Syria's state news agency reported.

SANA said the blasts were caused by two improvised explosive devices which went off on Khalid Bin Walid street and the nearby Bab Mesalla Square. It said the bombs were planted by "terrorists," a term the government uses to describe rebels fighting to topple the Syrian leader.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights however said the Bab Mesalla explosions were due to rockets that fell in the area. It said initial information indicated that there were casualties, but the number could not be obtained immediately.

There was no immediate explanation for the discrepancy in the reports.

The Observatory said police sealed off Bab Mesalla, which has restaurants, shops and a main public transportation station linking Damascus with the southern provinces of Daraa and Sweida.

In the other incident, the Observatory said a bomb exploded near police headquarters on Khalid Bin Walid Street. It said several people, including children, were wounded in the blast.

No other details were immediately available.

Assad's visit to the power station came just a day after a powerful bomb hit the capital.

A broadcast on Syria's state television showed Assad speaking to staff on the occasion of International Workers Day, or May Day, at the Umayyad Electrical Station in the Tishrin Park district. Similar still images also appeared on a page used by the Syrian presidency on the popular social network Facebook.

"They want to scare us, we will not be scared ... They want us to live underground, we will not live underground," Assad was shown on TV, telling a group of workers who gathered around him.

"We hope that by this time next year we will have overcome the crisis in our country," he added.

At least 14 people were killed in Tuesday's blast, the second in the heart of the capital in two days. Rebels seeking to topple Assad have been trying to create a supply line from Jordan, so that arms bought by Saudi Arabia and Qatar can be shipped in for assaults on the city they hope to capture.

The television showed Assad, confident and wearing a dark business suit, talking with workers and shaking their hands. Later he is shown surrounded by the staff in a garden.

Meanwhile, the Turkey-based Syrian National Coalition, in its first public response, rebuked the leader of Lebanon's Hezbollah militant group, a day after he said that Syrian rebels will not be able to defeat Assad's regime militarily.

Sheik Hassan Nasrallah had warned that Syria's "real friends," including his Iranian-backed militant group, could intervene on the government's side if the need arises.

The coalition said it hoped Hezbollah would stay out of the Syrian war, and urged Lebanon to "control its borders and urgently stop, through all available means, the military operations attributed to Hezbollah in areas close to the Syrian border."

It also blamed Assad's regime for "destroying" religious Muslim and Christian sites.

Hezbollah, a powerful Shiite Muslim group, is known to be backing Syrian government forces in Shiite villages near the Lebanese border against the mostly Sunni rebels fighting to topple Assad. But Nasrallah's comments were the strongest indication yet that his group is ready to intervene more substantially on the side of Assad's embattled regime.

"You will not be able to take Damascus by force and you will not be able to topple the regime militarily. This is a long battle," Nasrallah said, addressing the Syrian opposition. "Syria has real friends in the region and in the world who will not allow Syria to fall in the hands of America or Israel or the Takfiris."

Takfiris is a term used to refer to followers of an al-Qaida-like extremist ideology.

Hezbollah and Iran are close allies of Assad. Rebels have accused both of them of sending fighters to assist Syrian troops trying to crush the 2-year-old anti-Assad uprising, which the U.N. says has killed more than 70,000 people.

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Associated Press writer Zeina Karam in Beirut contributed to this report.

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Kremlin criticizes U.S. blacklist ahead of Obama adviser visit

By Steve Gutterman

MOSCOW (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin's spokesman on Sunday called a U.S. law barring Russians from the country over alleged rights abuses unacceptable interference in Russia's affairs, setting a tough tone before a visit by a senior White House adviser.

Dmitry Peskov's remarks were the first comment from Putin's office after the U.S. administration named 18 Russians subject to visa bans and asset freezes over the Magnitsky Act legislation passed by Congress late last year.

Most of the 18 were blacklisted for alleged links to the prosecution of whistleblowing lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, whose death in a Moscow jail in 2009 has set off a chain of events that has damaged Russian-U.S. ties.

"This is direct interference in Russian affairs. The so-called 'Magnitsky case' should not be discussed outside Russia at all," state news agency Itar-Tass quoted Peskov as saying. "This is unacceptable to us, and we will never agree with it."

President Barack Obama had been obliged to release the U.S. list by Saturday under the Magnitsky Act, which drew attention to concerns about rights and the rule of law in Russia, which Putin has led since 2000 as president or prime minister.

Moscow responded on Saturday by naming 18 Americans barred from Russia under retaliatory legislation Putin signed in December, most of them accused of violating the rights of Russians prosecuted in the United States.

Peskov blamed the United States for the exchange and said it could draw the attention of the two nuclear-armed countries away from issues of global security that are more important.

"At a time when international and regional conflicts dictate rapprochement between Russia and the United States, because the two countries are in many ways responsible for the situation in the world, actions are being taken that not only cast a shadow but inflict harm on relations between these countries," he said.

The blacklists added to tension before a visit by Obama's national security adviser Tom Donilon, whose talks with senior Russian officials on Monday will be the highest-level face-to-face contacts between the Kremlin and the White House since Obama started his second term in January.

But despite the rhetoric, both governments kept high-level current officials off their lists in an apparent effort to contain the political damage.

Peskov made clear on Friday that the relationship would not be ruined, saying ties were multifaceted and there remained "many prospects for development and growth".

Donilon's talks are expected to include discussion of U.S. plans for a European anti-missile shield, which have strained relations because Russia says the system could eventually shoot down its nuclear missiles and threaten its security.

A U.S. decision to scale down its plans could ease those concerns, but Moscow's response so far has been cautious.

(Editing by Sonya Hepinstall)

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Obama visit poses tough choices for Palestinians

JERUSALEM (AP) — President Barack Obama spoke grandly of big picture peacemaking Thursday, but the Palestinians are focused on a specific demand — that Israel freeze settlement building before they'll return to talks.

Stingingly rebuffed by Obama on this score, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas now finds himself at a crossroads: Fold and see his tattered credibility suffer further, or stick to his guns while peace efforts stay frozen and Israel continues to build on the land Palestinians — and Obama himself — want for their state.

Abbas signaled that he's not changing course, creating a moment of rare public friction between him and Obama at a joint news conference following their meeting Thursday. After Obama said neither side should set terms for renewing negotiations, basically siding with Israel, Abbas pointed out that most of the world deems Israeli settlements illegal.

"We don't demand anything beyond the international resolutions and it's the duty of the Israeli government to stop settlement activities to enable us to talk about all issues in the negotiations," he said.

Abbas also warned that growing numbers of Palestinians are losing faith in the possibility of establishing a Palestinian state alongside Israel because of the encroachment of settlements.

The Palestinians want a state in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem, territories Israel captured in 1967. Since that war, Israel has built dozens of settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem — now home to more than a half million Israelis — that make a partition deal increasingly difficult, some say impossible.

Abbas argues that he cannot negotiate the borders between Israel and a future Palestine while Israel unilaterally determines that line by accelerating settlement construction, particularly in east Jerusalem. Israel disputes the logic of this because it has dismantled settlements in the past.

Now Abbas' options are becoming more unappealing.

Abbas has been the most unwavering Palestinian advocate of establishing a Palestinian state through negotiations with Israel, saying it's the only path to independence.

If he rejects Obama's terms, it means negotiations will likely remain frozen, depriving Abbas of a credible political program and, as time goes by, legitimacy.

Abbas was elected in 2005 to a four-year term, but has stayed on because the bitter political split between him and the rival Islamic militant group Hamas, which seized Gaza in 2007, has prevented new elections.

Two senior Abbas aides provided conflicting interpretations of the Obama-Abbas meeting.

Veteran negotiator Saeb Erekat, gave a more upbeat assessment. He said Obama told Abbas that he remains committed a Palestinian state, considers a peace deal a priority and will send U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry to the region to follow up.

Abbas "came out more confident of the possibility of making peace after meeting with the president," Erekat said, but did not elaborate.

Another adviser, speaking on condition of anonymity because of possible diplomatic repercussions, said Abbas was disappointed in Obama and expects peace efforts to remain paralyzed.

Talks between Abbas and former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert broke down in 2008. Since then, Abbas and Olmert's hard-line successor, Benjamin Netanyahu, have been unable to find common ground for resuming them.

Erekat also said Obama told the Palestinian leadership that "Kerry will be really engaged in the next few weeks."

Top U.S. diplomats have made many shuttle missions in 20 years of intermittent U.S.-led negotiations, but all were ultimately unsuccessful.

Some analysts suggested that the U.S. could try to lure Abbas to talks by persuading Israel to agree to a partial settlement freeze, release Palestinian prisoners or hand more West Bank land to Palestinian control.

But it's unclear if Israel would be willing to make such gestures, which have been proposed in the past, and if Abbas would consider them sufficient.

Much of Obama's visit appeared to be aimed at building credibility with ordinary Israelis and convincing them that a deal with the Palestinians is in their interest and still possible, at times bypassing Netanyahu and his political allies.

Speaking to Israeli students Thursday, Obama urged them to imagine themselves in the place of Palestinians and outlined some of the daily hardships of living under Israeli occupation.

"Israelis must recognize that continued settlement activity is counterproductive to the cause of peace, and that an independent Palestine must be viable, that real borders will have to be drawn," he said. "I've suggested principles on territory and security that I believe can be the basis for talks."

But some warned that time is running out for a deal as settlements continue to grow.

"We are reaching the tipping point," said settlement watcher and Jerusalem expert Daniel Seidemann, an Israeli lawyer.

"A year from now, if the current trends continue, the two-state solution will not be possible. The map will be so balkanized that it will not be possible to create a credible border between Israel and Palestine," he said.

Palestinians also argue that after two decades of intermittent negotiations, the contours of an agreement have widely been established and it's time for decisions, not endless rounds of diplomacy. They suspect Netanyahu is seeking open-ended negotiations to give him diplomatic cover for more settlement-building, while being unwilling to make the needed concessions.

Netanyahu has said he is willing to negotiate the terms of a Palestinian state. He reiterated Wednesday, with Obama by his side, that he is ready to return to talks but also said there should be no "preconditions" — his term for the Palestinians' insistence on a settlement freeze.

The Israeli prime minister has also adopted a tougher starting position for negotiations than some of his predecessors. He refuses to accept the 1967 frontier as a baseline for border talks — even though two previous Israeli leaders, Ehud Barak and Ehud Olmert, did offer the Palestinians the overwhelming majority of the West Bank in previous rounds.

Netanyahu also says he will not relinquish any of east Jerusalem, an area Israel expanded into the adjacent West Bank and annexed immediately after the 1967 war.

Israeli governments have built many thousands of homes for Jews in east Jerusalem since then, creating a ring of Jewish settlement within the city's municipal boundaries that increasingly disconnects its Arab-populated core from the rest of the West Bank. Some 200,000 Jews now live in east Jerusalem, almost even with the Palestinian population in the city, which overall has about 800,000 residents.

In recent months, Netanyahu's government has approved construction plans for thousands more settlement apartments on Jerusalem's southern edge that would further isolate Arab neighborhoods in the city from the West Bank, including the nearby biblical city of Bethlehem.

There is strong consensus on the Palestinian side that a two-state deal must include a sharing of Jerusalem — resulting in total deadlock on this issue.

European diplomats warned in an internal report last month that if the current pace of settlement activity on Jerusalem's southern flank continues, "an effective buffer between east Jerusalem and Bethlehem may be in place by the end of 2013, thus making the realization of a viable two-state solution inordinately more difficult, if not impossible."

Henry Siegman, a leading critic of Israeli policy in the American Jewish community, said he believes Obama is fully aware of the corrosive effect of settlements.

Time for a deal is slipping away and Obama cannot make do with four more years of just managing the conflict, he said.

"They (U.S. officials) know that if they do nothing, they are sealing the doom of the two-state solution if it has not already been sealed," said Siegman. "It cannot survive another four years, given the rate of colonization that is taking place."

____

Laub is the AP chief correspondent in the Palestinian territories. She has covered the Israeli-Palestinian conflict since 1987.

Daraghmeh has covered the West Bank for the AP since 1996.

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Gaza militants fire at Israel during Obama visit

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli police say Gaza militants have fired two rockets at southern Israel on the second day of President Barack Obama's visit to the region.

Spokesman Micky Rosenfeld says one rocket exploded in the courtyard of a house in the border town of Sderot, causing damage but no injuries. The other landed in an open field.

As a presidential candidate in 2008, Obama visited Sderot, which is frequently targeted by rocket attacks from the nearby Gaza Strip. The territory is ruled by the militant Palestinian Hamas group.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for Thursday's attack, which came as Obama was in Jerusalem. He is to visit the West Bank city of Ramallah later in the day.

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Palestinians unenthusiastic about Obama visit

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) — President Barack Obama will find a disillusioned Palestinian public, skeptical about his commitment to promoting Mideast peace, when he visits the region.

Obama's trip, beginning Wednesday, appears aimed primarily at resetting the sometimes troubled relationship with Israel. But winning the trust of the Palestinians, who accuse him of unfairly favoring Israel, could be a far more difficult task.

After suffering disappointments during the first Obama administration, Palestinians see little reason for optimism in his new term. The White House announcement that Obama will not present any new peace initiatives strengthened their conviction that the U.S. leader isn't prepared to put the pressure on Israel that they think is necessary to end four years of deadlock in negotiations.

"Obama is coming for Israel, not for us," said Mohammed Albouz, a 55-year-old Palestinian farmer. "Obama will come and go as his predecessors did, without doing anything."

While Israel is preparing to give Obama the red-carpet treatment, there are few signs of excitement in the West Bank. Large posters of Obama hung in Ramallah last week were quickly defaced, and a small group of activists called "The Campaign for Dignity" plans on releasing black balloons into the air in a sign of mourning when Obama arrives.

Obama himself played a role in reaching the current deadlock, which stems in large part from disagreements over Israeli settlement construction in the West Bank and east Jerusalem. The Palestinians claim both areas, captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war, as parts of a future state, a position that is widely backed internationally.

When Obama first took office, he strongly and publicly criticized the Israeli settlements, saying the construction undermines hopes for peace. "It is time for these settlements to stop," Obama said in a high-profile address to the Muslim world delivered in Cairo just months after taking office.

Emboldened by Obama's tough stance, the Palestinians said they would not negotiate with Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, unless settlement construction was frozen.

Obama persuaded Netanyahu to impose a 10-month slowdown, but Palestinians did not agree to restart talks until the period was nearly over. When the Israeli moratorium expired several weeks later, Netanyahu rejected American appeals to extend the slowdown, and the negotiations collapsed.

Obama stopped pushing the matter, and talks have never resumed, and the Palestinians, viewing Obama as afraid to take on Israel's allies in Washington, have few expectations now.

"What we are going to tell him behind closed doors is what we are saying in public. There is no secret that a successful peace process needs a complete settlement freeze," said Nabil Shaath, a top adviser to President Mahmoud Abbas. "The Israelis are building on our land and claiming they want to negotiate with us about this land."

More than 500,000 Israelis now live in settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem. The Palestinians say the ever-growing settlements are a sign of bad faith and make it increasingly difficult to partition the land between two peoples.

Netanyahu maintains that negotiations must resume without preconditions, and the fate of the settlements should be one of the issues on the table. He notes that previous rounds of negotiations have gone forward without a construction freeze.

Obama will get a firsthand glimpse of settlements when he heads to the Palestinian city of Ramallah on Thursday. The 20-minute drive from Jerusalem passes by sprawling settlements that are home to tens of thousands of Israelis.

Obama is scheduled to meet with Palestinian leaders and visit a youth center. He plans to head to the West Bank town of Bethlehem the next day to see the Church of the Nativity, built on the site where Christian tradition says Jesus was born.

Netanyahu, who was re-elected in January, has said he will make a renewed push for peace in his new term. His new government, which takes office this week, is sending mixed signals.

On one hand, he has named former Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, a political centrist who has good working relations with the Palestinians, as his chief negotiator. The biggest partner in his coalition, the centrist Yesh Atid Party, has demanded the new government make a serious attempt to restart talks.

At the same time, Netanyahu's own Likud-Yisrael Beitenu bloc is dominated by hard-liners who oppose major concessions to the Palestinians. Another partner, the Jewish Home Party, is linked to the settler movement and would reject any attempts to freeze construction, much less hand over West Bank territory to the Palestinians.

Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian negotiator, said getting talks back on track will require a deeper and long-standing effort by the president and his new secretary of state, John Kerry, who is expected back in the region in April.

"We really hope that President Obama and Secretary Kerry can succeed in reviving a meaningful peace process, succeed in having Netanyahu saying the sentence that he accepts the two states in the 1967 borders," Erekat said. "We don't need new plans. We need commitment."

The gaps between Israel and the Palestinians are just one of many obstacles. The Palestinians are also deeply divided between Abbas' government in the West Bank, which favors a negotiated agreement with Israel, and the rival Hamas government in the Gaza Strip, which rejects peace with Israel. Hamas has controlled Gaza since expelling Abbas' forces in 2007.

Yehia Moussa, a senior Hamas official in Gaza, told the pro-Hamas "Felesteen" newspaper the Obama visit was meant to "cool down" the Palestinians "by giving empty promises that will assist with continuing the (Israeli) occupation."

Hani Masri, a prominent Palestinian commentator in the West Bank, said the visit might lead to some movement.

"Most likely we are going to see some life in the negotiations," perhaps a limited settlement freeze that forces Abbas to resume talks. "But such a process won't lead to a peaceful settlement."

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Obama needs to charm skeptical Israelis in visit

JERUSALEM (AP) — Barack Obama's vow to take his message straight to the public during his first presidential visit to Israel will be a tough sell with many Israelis who consider him naive, too soft on the nation's enemies and cool to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Overcoming this perception will require a major charm offensive and an uncompromising U.S. pledge to stand behind Israel, especially when it comes to stopping Iran's suspect nuclear program. Without a major initiative in his pocket for making peace between Israel and the Palestinians, the U.S. president will use his three-day visit, which begins on Wednesday, primarily as a means to convey a close alliance with Israel.

Rather than address Israeli leaders in parliament, as his predecessor George W. Bush did, Obama will deliver his main speech at a Jerusalem auditorium packed with university students. Tickets for Obama's speech on Thursday at a 1,000-seat convention center are much in demand, and students are entering ticket raffles across the country.

"He could have spoken to politicians or tycoons, but instead he chose to speak to us," said Lotem Cazes, a 25-year-old political science student at Ben-Gurion University in the southern city of Beersheba. "It's very moving. Even though he knows that not everyone likes him here he is still coming and trying to help."

In another effort to woo the Israeli public, Obama granted an exclusive interview with Channel 2 TV at the White House.

"What this trip allows me to do is once again to connect to the Israeli people and there is no substitute to that. The bonds between our two countries are so strong, not just shared values but shared families, shared businesses," he said in the interview, which aired Thursday. "And for me to be able to directly speak to the Israeli people and talk about our unshakable commitment to Israel, but also to talk about hopefully a shared vision of a more peaceful and prosperous future during a time when we know there is a lot of tumult in the area, it is a great opportunity for me. I'm really looking forward to it."

Throughout the interview, he referred to Netanyahu by his nickname "Bibi."

The U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv launched a Facebook competition for 20 tickets to hear the president and thousands applied. The embassy also has unveiled a life-sized cutout of the president so people can pose for photos with his likeness.

American flags are lining Israeli highways and an enthusiastic embrace of Obama would start a new chapter in his relations with Israel.

Disappointment has marked Obama's previous visits to the region. On those trips, he passed over Israel and stopped in Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Egypt, where he delivered a landmark speech aimed at improving ties with the Muslim world. The speech, in which he criticized Israeli West Bank settlements, was seen in Israel as overly appeasing to the Arabs at their expense.

"I don't feel like he's done anything special for Israel," said Oshri Biton, a 40-year-old Jerusalem merchant. "As president, he has to be a friend of Israel's. But he's a friend who pats you on the shoulder. He doesn't give you a hug."

Israelis also will be looking for reassurance from Obama over his stance on Iran's suspect nuclear program.

Israel views a nuclear armed Iran as a threat to its existence, and Netanyahu has hinted at launching a pre-emptive military strike on the Islamic Republic. Obama has said that while he prefers using diplomacy over force, all options remain on the table. Tehran denies it is seeking atomic weapons, insisting its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes.

Relations during Obama's first term in office were mostly characterized by high-profile spats with Netanyahu, over peacemaking efforts with the Palestinians, Israeli settlement building in the West Bank and Iran. In public appearances together, the two have shown little personal chemistry and looked uncomfortable with one another.

Eytan Gilboa, an expert on Israel-U.S. relations at Bar-Ilan University near Tel Aviv, said most Israelis made a distinction between the United States, Obama the person and Obama the president.

A survey Gilboa conducted last year found that more than 90 percent of Israelis polled had a favorable opinion of America and Americans. More than two-thirds liked Obama personally, but fewer than 50 percent approved of his Mideast policies and his treatment of Netanyahu. When asked about specific policies, only one-third approved of Obama's approach to Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking and even fewer approved of his policies toward Iran, Gilboa added.

The survey of 500 Israelis had a margin of error of 4 percentage points.

"The most powerful explanation is that Israelis think he cares less about Israel and more about other countries," Gilboa said.

Under the Obama administration, Israel has enjoyed its greatest security cooperation ever. The president and his team have been lauded by Israeli defense officials, particularly for backing the "Iron Dome" anti-missile defense system that recently shot down hundreds of rockets during a round of fighting against Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip. But the goodwill hasn't filtered down to the public.

Obama's visit, at the start of his second term and just as a new Israeli government takes shape, looks to open a new page and send a message to Israel — as well as its adversaries — that the U.S.-Israel bond is unshakable.

While policy issues are sure to dominate Obama's meetings with Netanyahu and President Shimon Peres, he is not expected to exert major pressure and most of his visit is expected to be centered on ceremonial events and his efforts to seek public appeal.

Obama is scheduled to visit the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial and lay a wreath on the grave of the slain Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. He is to tour the Israel Museum and an exposition of products from the country's booming high-tech sector.

Ben Rhodes, Obama's deputy national security adviser, said Thursday that the president would reinforce U.S. support for the Palestinian Authority and would meet with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas during a trip to the West Bank city of Ramallah.

The Palestinians aren't too giddy about the president either. Early in his administration, Obama T-shirts were a big seller on Palestinian streets after he pushed Netanyahu to curb the construction of settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, where the Palestinians hope to build their state. That, however, gave way to disappointment, especially after the White House refused to support the Palestinian's bid for independence at the United Nations. In recent days, posters of Obama have been vandalized in the Palestinian territories.

Obama sought to restart peace talks in 2010, but the effort collapsed within weeks. The Palestinians refuse to resume negotiations unless Israel stops building settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem. Netanyahu says talks should resume without preconditions, and says the Palestinians didn't return to the table even when he imposed a 10-month construction slowdown. He has allowed stepped-up construction in the territories since the United Nations moved to recognize a de facto state of Palestine in November.

Amnon Cavari, an expert in American presidential politics at the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya, a college near Tel Aviv, said he didn't think Obama would try to use the Israeli outreach effort as a way to pressure the government into concessions.

If anything, he said it had more to do with domestic American issues. Obama's shunning of Israel in the first term did not sit well with Jewish-American voters and a show of friendship could go a long way for Democrats in 2014 midterm elections.

"In the next four years there are going to be major changes in the Middle East, one way or the other," he said, referring primarily to issues over Iran. "Coming to Israel conveys the following message: The situation is not simple. The United States is behind you.'"

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Students Still Hope to Visit White House After Capitol Visit 'Wow'

Disappointed, but still determined, 15 Iowa sixth-graders woke up before dawn today and boarded a plane for the nation's capital, still hopeful that they would get to visit the White House.

It's been 10 days since the students of St. Paul's Lutheran School, just outside Cedar Falls, Iowa, learned their White House tour was in jeopardy, a casualty of those across-the-board spending cuts.

"We have not gotten an answer, but our tour is not scheduled until 11:30 a.m. tomorrow [Saturday], so we are hoping for late-breaking news," Karen Thalacker, chaperone and mother of 12-year-old Malcolm Newell, told ABC News' Jonathan Karl shortly after their arrival in Washington.

The White House cancelled all public tours indefinitely as a result of the sequester cuts, saying they had to choose between nixing the tours or possibly furloughing Secret Service officers.

President Obama told ABC News' George Stephanopoulos earlier this week that the administration is trying to find a way to accommodate school groups, but it seems unlikely a solution will be reached in time for the students from St. Paul's.

"The Secret Service and the White House are talking about what is possible. I would not anticipate that opening tours that soon would be possible," White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said earlier this week, when asked about the students.

One boy today told ABC News he'll miss seeing inside the White House but understands the president had a tough decision to make.

Another classmate said, "We're upset, but there's nothing that we can really do about it. We've done our best to try. And that's only really we can do."

Turning their disappointment into a real-life civics lessons, the students launched a social media blitz to spread their message: "The White House is our house! Please let us visit!"

"We can make a difference. Maybe we're just 12 and 11 years old, but that doesn't matter," one of the students told ABC today.

"These kids aren't Democrats, they're not Republicans, they're American kids who want to see the White House, and everybody should be let in regardless of who's living there," Thalacker said.

While they wait for news from the White House, the students kicked off their Washington weekend with a visit to the Capitol, which remains open for business.

One boy's first reaction: "Wow. It's overwhelming. I never would have thought we could have gotten this far."

House Speaker John Boehner's office learned of their story and offered some special treatment, including a stop by the speaker's balcony to take in the view of the Mall and the opportunity to go inside the chamber.

On Saturday, they're still hoping to visit the White House - or at least get a look at it from outside the gates.

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Afghanistan's Karzai blasts U.S., marring Hagel visit

KABUL (Reuters) - The Afghan Taliban and the United States have been holding talks in the Gulf Arab state of Qatar, Afghan President Hamid Karzai said on Sunday.

The Taliban suspended the talks one year ago, blaming "shaky, erratic and vague" U.S. statements.

The U.S. government has said it remained committed to political reconciliation involving talks with the Taliban but progress would require agreement between the Afghan government and the insurgents.

"Senior leaders of the Taliban and the Americans are engaged in talks in the Gulf state on a daily basis," Karzai told a gathering to mark International Women's Day.

But the Taliban spokesman in Afghanistan, Zabihullah Mujahid, denied that negotiations with the United States had resumed and said no progress had been made since they were suspended.

"The Taliban strongly rejects Karzai's comments," he said.

U.S. officials could not be immediately reached for comment.

The Kabul government has been pushing hard to get the Taliban to the negotiating table before most U.S.-led NATO combat troops withdraw by the end of 2014.

Afghan officials have not held direct talks with the militants, who were toppled in 2001 and have proven resilient after more than a decade of war with Western forces.

U.S. diplomats have been seeking to broaden exploratory talks with the Taliban that began clandestinely in Germany in late 2010 after the Taliban offered to open a representative office in Qatar.

U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel is in Afghanistan to visit U.S. troops.

Hagel, who arrived on Friday for his first trip abroad as defense secretary, is also due to hold talks with Karzai, whose recent orders to curtail U.S. military activity highlights an often tense relationship with the 66,000 American forces here.

Hagel's visit also coincides with the passing of a deadline imposed by Karzai for U.S. special forces to leave the province of Wardak, after Karzai accused them of overseeing torture and killings in the area.

U.S. forces have denied involvement in any abuses and it was not clear if they were leaving Wardak by the deadline.

Regional power Pakistan indicated a few months ago that it would support the peace process by releasing Afghan Taliban detainees who may help promote the peace process.

But there have been no tangible signs the move advanced reconciliation.

(Additional reporting by Hamid Shalizi; Writing by Michael Georgy; Editing by Robert Birsel)

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Biden, Netanyahu set tone on Iran for Obama visit to Israel

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned on Monday that Iran was getting closer to being able to build a nuclear bomb despite sanctions and diplomacy and said a "clear and credible military threat" was needed to halt Tehran's program.

Speaking via satellite link from Jerusalem, Netanyahu used an address to an influential U.S. pro-Israel lobbying group to underscore Israeli impatience with Washington's strategy on Iran, a message that could foreshadow his talks with President Barack Obama on a Middle East visit later this month.

"Words alone will not stop Iran. Sanctions alone will not stop Iran. Sanctions must be coupled with a clear and credible military threat if diplomacy and sanctions fail," Netanyahu said to loud cheers at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) policy conference in Washington.

Despite Netanyahu's tough rhetoric, the hawkish prime minister gave no indication that Israel was ready to act precipitously at a time when world powers have re-engaged with Iran in new negotiations and he himself is caught up in the delicate task of forging a new government after January's elections.

But Netanyahu's remarks showed that the latest round of international talks with Iran in Kazakhstan last week had done little to soothe Israeli concerns about Tehran's nuclear drive.

Netanyahu repeated his assertion that Iran was using the negotiations "to buy time" to press ahead with its nuclear program.

Netanyahu has strongly hinted at Israeli plans to strike Iran's nuclear sites if it deems peaceful options to have failed. He has pressed the Obama administration to set strict limits on Tehran's nuclear development that would trigger U.S. military action - a demand that has fueled tensions between the two close allies. Obama has resisted the demand.

Speaking before Netanyahu, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden insisted that Obama was "not bluffing" about Washington's determination to stop Iran from getting a nuclear weapon and said "all options including military force are on the table."

He repeated the administration's position that there is still time for a diplomatic solution, though he said "that window is closing."

IRAN 'CLOSER TO THAT RED LINE'

Netanyahu said Iran had not yet crossed a "red line" he set at the United Nations in September, when he said Tehran should not be allowed to amass enough medium-enriched uranium that, if purified further, would be enough to power a single warhead. He gave a rough deadline at the time of spring or summer 2013.

But he told AIPAC: "Iran is getting closer to that red line and its putting itself in a position to cross that line very quickly once it decides to do so ... We cannot allow Iran to cross that red line." However, Netanyahu stopped short of any explicit threat of Israeli military action.

Netanyahu's calculus on Iran is complicated by Israel's unsettled domestic politics. He is still struggling to forge a new coalition government after a surprisingly strong showing by centrist parties in January's elections.

At the talks in Almaty, Kazakhstan, the United States and five other powers offered Iran modest sanctions relief in return for Tehran curbing its most sensitive nuclear work. There was no breakthrough but the sides agreed to resume political discussions in early April.

Netanyahu has insisted that Iran, whose leaders have frequently threatened Israel, is using the negotiations to stall for time to continue development of nuclear bomb capability. Tehran denies it has any such aim. Israel is assumed to be the Middle East's only nuclear-armed power.

"The latest efforts at conciliation and some kind of agreement with the Iranians have failed," Republican U.S. Senator John McCain told the audience earlier. "It's very clear that they are on the path to having a nuclear weapon. I don't think it's whether, it's obviously a question of when."

Obama has repeatedly pledged to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon but his refusal to take an even stronger stance with Tehran has contributed to a testy relationship with Netanyahu.

Even so, the situation has calmed considerably since Obama addressed AIPAC last year and issued a pointed warning against "loose talk" of war with Iran.

A senior Israeli official said that while the Netanyahu government had hoped for a tougher line at the negotiations by the so-called P5+1 - made up of the United States, China, France, Russia, Britain and Germany - it was resigned to awaiting the results of the next round of talks.

Iran may have lessened Israel's immediate sense of urgency by turning some of its 20 percent-pure uranium - which is considered to be only a short technical step away from weapons-grade uranium - into fuel rods for a research reactor.

(Editing by Warren Strobel and Mohammad Zargham)

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Queen Elizabeth cancels Italy visit over health - presidency

ROME (Reuters) - Queen Elizabeth has cancelled a trip to Italy this week because of health reasons, the Italian presidency announced on Sunday.

The Queen was to have visited Italy March 6-7 as a guest of Italian President Giorgio Napolitano.

The monarch cancelled a visit to the Welsh city of Swansea because of a stomach upset on March 1.

The president's office said it had been informed about the cancellation by Britain's ambassador to Rome, Christopher Prentice, who told Italian officials that the Queen needed "medical checks".

Queen Elizabeth marked 60 years on the throne last year and remains hugely popular in Britain.

(Reporting by Naomi O'Leary)

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UK, FBI delegations visit Libya in Lockerbie probe

LONDON (AP) — Scotland's top legal officer says Scottish police and the FBI visited Libya this week as part of their investigation of the 1988 Lockerbie bombing.

Lord Advocate Frank Mulholland said Friday that a four-person team of Scottish police and prosecutors, along with an FBI delegation, met senior Libyan officials in Tripoli Monday.

The trip was not announced in advance for security reasons.

Mulholland said the discussions "were positive and it is hoped there will be further progress as a result."

The December 1988 bombing of a Pan Am plane over the Scottish town killed 270 people, many of them American.

Libyan intelligence officer Abdelbaset al-Megrahi is the only person convicted over the attack. He was released from a Scottish prison in 2009 on compassionate grounds and died of cancer last year.

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