Syria offers to talk with armed rebels

Syria offers to talk with armed rebels

BEIRUT

Syria said Monday it is prepared to have talks with armed rebels bent on overthrowing President Bashar Assad, the clearest signal yet that the regime is growing increasingly nervous about its long-term prospects to hold onto power as opposition fighters make slow but persistent headway in the civil war.

Meanwhile, the umbrella group for Syrian opposition parties said it had reversed a decision to boycott a conference in Rome taking place to help drum up financial and political support for the opposition. Walid al-Bunni, a spokesman for the Syrian National Coalition, said the move came after a phone call between the group’s leader, Mouaz al-Khatib, and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry.

Rainforest wood to go into boardwalk

AVON, N.J.

Environmental groups say they’ll launch a boycott drive against a Jersey shore town that refuses to back off its plan to use tropical rainforest wood to rebuild a boardwalk destroyed by superstorm Sandy.

The groups calculate that 766 acres of old-growth tropical rainforest needed to be cut down to provide materials to rebuild just one small storm-damaged boardwalk at the Jersey shore, and they’re promising a tourist-season boycott if the town goes through with its plan.

Activists Monday called on the small shore town of Avon to use something other than ipe to rebuild the boardwalk destroyed by the October storm but were rejected.

“There is a consensus to move ahead,” said Commissioner Frank Gorman after hearing nearly two hours of objections from residents and out-of-town environmentalists.

UN staffer missing on Golan Heights

UNITED NATIONS

A member of the U.N. peacekeeping force charged with monitoring the cease-fire between Israeli and Syrian troops on the Golan Heights is missing, the United Nations said Monday.

U.N. deputy spokesman Eduardo del Buey would not say whether the missing person was a military or civilian member of the international or local staff.

Mediterranean diet shown to cut risks

Pour on the olive oil, preferably over fish and vegetables: One of the longest and most scientific tests of a Mediterranean diet suggests this style of eating can cut the chance of suffering heart-related problems, especially strokes, in older people at high risk of them.

The study lasted five years and involved about 7,500 people in Spain. Those who ate Mediterranean-style with lots of olive oil or nuts had a 30 percent lower risk of major cardiovascular problems compared with those who were told to follow a low-fat diet but who, in reality, didn’t cut fat very much. Mediterranean meant lots of fruit, fish, chicken, beans, tomato sauce, salads, wine and few baked goods and pastries.

Sanctions relief offered in Iran talks

ALMATY, Kazakhstan

World powers, fearful of scuttling negotiations beginning this week with Iran, are offering the Islamic republic some small new sanctions relief in return for curbing its nuclear program. But officials warned Monday that it’s unlikely that any compromise will be reached soon.

Negotiators set low expectations for the latest round of high-level diplomatic talks to begin today in Kazakhstan’s largest city — the first since last June’s meeting in Moscow that threatened to derail delicate efforts to persuade Iran to stop enriching uranium to a level close to that used for nuclear warheads.

Associated Press