US tries to get peace talks moving in the Middle East

Diplomatic efforts pressed ahead today to bridge the wide gaps between Israelis and Palestinians on how to follow through with a plan both sides say they essentially support as the basis for getting peace talks back on track.

Differences were wide enough to force the postponement on Sunday of a three-way security meetings that was to be convened by CIA chief George Tenet.

Instead, Tenet met separately with Israeli and Palestinian officials.

It wasn’t clear whether Tenet would get the sides together later today, a move not expected until the CIA chief deemed it likely the Bush administration’s deepest intervention in the Mideast crisis would yield results.

A five-month-old Jewish boy died today after hit in the head with a stone last week while riding in a car.

He had been in a coma with a severe brain injury since the stone shattered a window in his parents car as they drove toward their home in the West Bank Jewish settlement of Shilo.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon visited the baby last night in a Jerusalem hospital’s intensive care unit.