Peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians may be deadlocked, but an online community of young Israelis and Arabs from across the Middle East is hoping for better results in the virtual world.
On Monday and Tuesday the group, using Facebook, is hosting a virtual peace and economic cooperation conference seeking to transcend borders by sharing ideas on the Internet. Initiated by the Peres Center for Peace, an Israeli institution, and Palestinian partners, the YaLa Young Leaders Facebook page has attracted more than 40,000 supporters since it was launched last summer. Participants in the online conversations have included Egyptians, Palestinians, Israelis, as well as people from Libya, Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria. Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates, according to organizers.

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Runners from across the globe have already registered for the second annual Jerusalem Marathon, taking place on March 16, 2012. To date, entrants from as far as Indonesia, Trinidad & Tobago, Singapore, China, North and South America, Europe, and of course from around Israel, have registered for the Marathon. In addition, several leading charities are set to benefit as runners seek sponsorship and donations for their participation.

The 2012 Jerusalem Marathon includes a full marathon route, a half marathon and a 10km run. Early registration for the event remains open until January 15th, with more than 500 runners from more than 40 different countries who have taken advantage of the reduced registration fee. Most coming from the United States, United Kingdom, France, Italy and Germany, but with entrants from locations including Indonesia, Trinidad and Tobago, Singapore, China, Brazil, Argentina and Peru.

Marathon organizers expect to have over 1,000 participants arriving from abroad, with an estimated 600 taking part in the full, 42 km track.

The Jerusalem Marathon takes runners on a route that tests not only the most experienced of runners, but also on a unique path through history; through the city so holy to Jews, Christians and Muslims around the globe. Participants will run on the cobblestones of the holy and ancient city, through the beautiful neighborhoods of Jerusalem, and through the modern city center of Israel's capital. The views alone are enough to take one's breath away.

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Israeli and Palestinian officials met in the Jordanian capital on Monday, their second session in less than a week, after peace talks had been stalled for more than a year. The encounter was kept at such a low profile, however, that it was almost as if it had not happened at all — attesting to the fragility of the contacts and the apparently minimal expectations each side has for progress.

A Palestinian official, speaking on condition of anonymity from Ramallah in the West Bank, said that the Israeli side did not produce anything on Monday that could move the process forward.

Mark Regev, an Israeli government spokesman, said only that if the talks were to have any chance of success, “they must be allowed to be conducted with discretion.”

The Jordanian Foreign Ministry, the only party authorized to make public statements about the meetings, did not make any comment.     

The United States, the European Union, the United Nations and Russia — known as the quartet — worked for months to bring the Israelis and Palestinians back to the negotiating table. The talks have been described as exploratory sessions, where the sides can sound each other out on the possibility of resuming full-scale negotiations for a peace deal.

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Steven Erlanger, New York Times

Iran on Thursday sought to downplay the importance of intensified economic sanctions against it, even as European Union countries moved closer to agreement on an embargo on Iranian oil, their boldest step so far in the increasingly tense standoff with Iran over its nuclear program.

A final decision by the European Union would not come before the end of the month and would be  carried out in stages to avoid major disruptions in global oil supplies. But the move by some of Iran’s most important  oil customers appears to underscore the  resolve of Western allies to impose on  Iran the toughest round of sanctions to  date, increasing pressure on Tehran to  stop enriching uranium and to negotiate  an end to what Western leaders argue is  an accelerating program to build a nuclear bomb.

Iran denies military intent and refuses to stop enrichment of uranium for  what it describes as civilian purposes.  But it has responded to the threat of new  U.S. and European sanctions with a  series of military and diplomatic  threats. It has test-fired new missiles,  announced the production of its first nuclear-fuel rod, warned a U.S. aircraft  carrier not to return to the Persian Gulf,  and threatened to shut the Strait of Hormuz to shipping, which analysts said  could drive oil prices up by at least 50  percent.

On Thursday in Tehran, Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said Iran was “not concerned at all” about an imminent E.U. ban on its oil, vowing that Iran would “weather the storm’’ of what the Economy Minister, Shamseddin Hosseini, likened to “an economic war.’’

Mr. Salehi told a press conference that “Iran, with divine assistance, has always been ready to counter such hostile actions and we are not concerned at all about the sanctions.’’ He added: “Just as we have weathered the storm in the last 32 years with the hold of God and efforts that we make, we will be able to survive this as well.’’

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Google is planning to go an extra step for Israeli entrepreneurs. The company's R&D center in Israel will open a tech incubator for about 20 Israeli startups in each round.

The startups will receive office space, an Internet connection, and expertise from one of the world's most innovative and powerful companies. The startups will range from cloud to mobile to open-source. The incubator will be close to the Google Israel R&D facility in Tel Aviv. 

In recent years, Google Israel has been famous for releasing many of the company's most admired features, including Google Instant and Google Suggest. 

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