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Just days before U.S. brokered peace talks are to resume, the Israeli government has cleared the way for construction of more than a thousand new housing units in the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem. The move is sure to cast a shadow over the talks, but Israeli expectations for the talks are already very low.

Rawabi, a privately developed Palestinian community, sits in the West Bank. The first residents are due to move in later this year, but its developer is worried about water. To get a pipe laid, Rawabi needs Israeli permission. Israel has cooperated, but the Palestinian developer says the cooperation has been "very slow and always incomplete."

It has been a difficult spring for the president. He couldn't get Congress to work with him on the sequester or gun control legislation. Now he appears to be making an effort to get back to the issues Americans say they care most about.

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon met with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday, saying it is important not to "lose momentum" in the effort to convene a peace conference on Syria. Ban was only the latest in a string of foreign dignitaries who have come to Russia, seeking Putin's blessing for such a conference, expected to be held in early June. There's a lot at stake. Russia has been a long-time supporter of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and continues to supply weapons to his regime. U.S. officials have said lately that those weapons include advanced missile systems for attacking ships and airplanes. If Assad already has such weapons, they could pose a real threat to international efforts to impose a no-fly zone, to deliver supplies to the rebels, or to maintain a maritime embargo.

President Obama has decided against a one-on-one meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in September. The two leaders had tentatively planned to get together for talks in Moscow after they attend the G-20 meeting in St. Petersburg.

Cellist Janos Starker has died at 88, ending a life and career that saw him renowned for his skills as a soloist, his prodigious work with orchestras, and his commitment to teaching. Starker was born in Budapest in 1924; his path to international stardom included surviving a Nazi labor camp.

People generally don't associate trees with New York City, and if they do, they tend to think only of Central and Prospect parks. But the city is filled with old, beloved trees, some dating back more than 200 years, many of them located in the unsung outer boroughs.

Egypt has stepped up negotiations on a cease-fire between Israel and the Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip on Monday. Hamas' top leader and two senior Israeli envoys were in Cairo and met separately with Egyptian officials, including President Mohammed Morsi. One of Morsi's aides said a truce deal could be imminent.

Classical fraud on the small screen, maybe the best classical app ever and much more: what you need to read, watch and hear this week. Plus: "obscene" Britten, a scary Nutcracker and operatic takes on both "Gangnam Style" and extreme pizza.

In communities around Florida, vigils and other events marked what would've been Trayvon Martin's 18th birthday on Tuesday. Neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman has been charged in the teen's death and a judge ruled Tuesday that a June trial will go forward as scheduled.