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The leaders of Israel and the Palestinian Authority agreed yesterday at a U.S.-sponsored conference in Annapolis to begin "vigorous, ongoing and continuous" negotiations to try to reach a comprehensive peace settlement by the end of next year.</p>
<p>President Bush read a joint agreement by the two sides at the start of a daylong gathering at the U.S. Naval Academy that illustrated both the promise and pitfalls that lie ahead. Middle East analysts said the agreement fell short of a breakthrough, and Bush emphasized that the pact was only a beginning to further negotiations....
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"I think everyone's still in bed," sighed Adee Telem as she gazed across the deserted St. John's campus. Telem works for One Voice, an Israeli-Palestinian reconciliation group; early yesterday she was hoping to round up some local idealists in time for the midday rallies outside the Naval Academy, where the peace talks were being held.</p>
<p>The 26-year-old Owings Mills native and her colleagues figured that St. John's College was a prime place to look, even through the few students stirring there were plugged into iPods and slurping blearily from cups of coffee....
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They sang and danced to the strumming of a guitar. Some demonstrators gripped signs that they had carried on buses and planes from Texas, Pennsylvania and New York.</p>
<p>In intimate conversations, they embraced their ideological allies. And with impassioned speech that turned to shouts, they challenged their foes.</p>
<p>They waved flags for Israel, for America and for peace....
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More than 100 activists demonstrated outside the U.S. Naval Academy gates, offering their very public take on the Israeli-Palestinian dispute as diplomats met inside to chart a course toward peace.</p>
<p>The rallies Tuesday ran the gamut from a costumed protester mocking Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to a peace activist who was hopeful the talks would foster further peace negotiations such as those outlined by President Bush, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas....