NATION & WORLD DIGEST || Palestinians, Israelis signal possible deal

Palestinians, Israelis signal possible deal

JERUSALEM

In the clearest sign that a deal may be emerging to keep the troubled U.S. Mideast peace push alive, a top Palestinian official said Thursday that his side would accept an American proposal for Israel to curtail settlement construction for two months.

Israel indicated it, too, was edging toward a compromise. The country’s ambassador to Washington confirmed for the first time that the U.S. is offering “incentives” for Israel to extend a just-expired settlement slowdown.

Court upholds ban on inmates’ voting

SEATTLE

A federal appeals court has reversed course and upheld Washington state’s ban on voting by prison inmates.

The ruling came Thursday in a case that challenged the ban under the Voting Rights Act, claiming it disproportionately disenfranchised minority voters.

An 11-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said that to challenge a ban on felons’ voting, inmates would have to demonstrate intentional discrimination in the criminal-justice system — not just a disparity in the prison population’s racial makeup.

Peruvian author Llosa wins Nobel

NEW YORK

Mario Vargas Llosa, the newest winner of the Nobel Prize in literature, has never found much honor in boundaries.

“Literature shouldn’t be secluded, provincial or regional,” the Peruvian author said in New York after Thursday’s announcement in Sweden. “It should be universal, even if it has deep roots in one place.”

The 74-year-old author and political activist, a charter member of the Latin American literary boom of the 1960s, has for decades been regarded as one of the world’s greatest and most adventurous writers and is the author of more than 30 novels, plays and works of nonfiction.

Bush memoir to be released Nov. 9

NEW YORK

Former President George W. Bush’s memoir will arrive Nov. 9 with a huge first printing and an e-book with multimedia extras, Crown Publishers said in a statement Thursday.

“Decision Points” will have a print run of 1.5 million copies, the same number given six years ago for Bill Clinton’s “My Life,” which went on to sell more than 2 million copies, far greater than for most presidential memoirs.

Workers decide order of rescues

SAN JOSE MINE, Chile

Rescue workers in Chile have prepared an answer to one of the most dramatic questions surrounding the effort to pull 33 trapped miners out to safety.

They’ve drawn up a list suggesting which miners should come out first, next and last.

Navy Commander Renato Navarro tells The Associated Press that the list is based on daily examinations of their physical and mental health and strength of character during more than two months of captivity,

Foes of health law lose court ruling

DETROIT

A federal judge on Thursday upheld the authority of the federal government to require everyone to have health insurance, dealing a setback to groups seeking to block the new national health-care plan.

The ruling came in a lawsuit filed in Michigan by a Christian legal group and four people who claimed lawmakers exceeded their power under the Constitution’s commerce clause, which authorizes Congress to regulate trade.

Associated Press