NPR 2010-09-02

Challenging Mideast leaders to seize what he called a fleeting 1 opportunity to end their differences, President Obama is playing host to the first Mideast peace talks in nearly two years. The president holding talks today with Israeli Prime Minister Banjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas ahead of the official start of discussions tomorrow. Also in town for the talks are Jordan's King Abdullah and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. Speaking through an interpreter, Mubarak's saying for too long the Mideast peace has remained illusionary.

"There is no doubt that this situation should raise great frustration 2 and anger among our people, for it is no longer acceptable or conceivable on the verge 3 of the second decade of the third millennium 4 that we fail to achieve just and true peace."

All the leaders pledged to work diligently 5 towards peace, but they also indicated that their own national interests must be satisfied.

Leader of the Pakistani Taliban Hakimullah Mehsud has been charged in US federal court on terrorism charges. Mehsud is accused of being involved in the killing 6 of seven US citizens last year at a military base in Afghanistan. NPR's Tom Gjelten says it's the first time a leader of the Pakistani Taliban has faced US terrorism charges.

Hakimullah Mehsud is the self-proclaimed emir of the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). He's believed to have been behind the suicide attack at a CIA base in Khost, Afghanistan that killed seven Americans, all CIA agents or contractors 7. The suicide bomber 8 in that case was a Jordanian doctor. But before the attack, he appeared in a videotape, seated alongside Hakimullah Mehsud, and the two men discussed the upcoming attack. The US complaint cites that video in support of the charges against Mehsud. The Khost attack is believed to be the first time the Pakistani Taliban struck at US interests outside Pakistan. And until now, no Pakistani Taliban leader has faced US terrorism charges. Tom Gjelten, NPR News, Washington.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is promising 9 US troops coming home from Iraq will get the services they need. More from Chuck Quirmbach of Wisconsin Public Radio.

Representative Pelosi spoke 11 at the American Legion convention in Milwaukee a day after President Obama talked about the end of the combat mission in Iraq during a nationally televised address. Pelosi told convention goers that as US troops come back from Iraq, they will be helped to make a smooth transition to life at home.

"Regardless of what you may have thought about going into the war, we separate the war and the warrior 12, and we will welcome them home as the heroes that they are."

A Legion member from Wisconsin says the Department of Veterans Affairs is getting better at providing services but may face tougher times helping 13 more Iraq veterans who have battled stress, heat and other difficulties. For NPR News, I'm Chuck Quirmbach in Milwaukee.

Stronger-than-expected manufacturing numbers gave Wall Street a midweek boost. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 254 points.

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A hostage drama in the Washington DC suburb of Silver Spring, Maryland ended with police shooting and killing the armed hostage. Montgomery County Police Chief Thomas Manger confirming just before 5PM Eastern Time the gunman, also believed to a possible explosive canister strapped 14 to whose body, was shot in the hostage's free. Police officials at the scene say the hostage taker had a history with the cable channel and was apparently 15 upset with its programming. Police spent several hours negotiating with the man who entered the building around one o'clock today. Most of the other 1,900 people who work in the building along with a day care center had already been evacuated 16.

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair's autobiography 17 is out today. As Larry Miller 18 reports, the 700-page memoir 19 entitled "My Journey" spans events including the war in Iraq, the death of Princess Diana, and a fractious handover of power to Gordon Brown.

Blair says he cried for the civilian 20 and military victims of the Iraq War but has no regrets about the decision to go to war.

"The West has got to understand this is a generation on struggle and we've got to be in it."

Blair says leaving Saddam Hussein and his sons in power would be far worse than the war and its aftermath. Blair describes former US President George W. Bush as intelligent, "a true idealist" and a man of integrity, though he says Vice 10 President Cheney and others wanted to extend military operations in the Middle East. Blair says his successor Gordon Brown was often "maddening", had tried to blackmail 21 him and was a man with "zero" emotional intelligence. For NPR News, I'm Larry Miller in London.

Hurricane Earl, again a powerful Category 4 storm, is continuing to churn to the waters of the Atlantic. Even though at last Earl will remain hundreds of miles away from land, governors of North Carolina, Virginia and Maryland have ordered evacuations.

I'm Jack 22 Speer, NPR News in Washington.