Article 1 < Heart Radio Northamptonhire; heartnorthants.co.uk >
Barack Obama is to meet the leaders of the Israelis and the Palestinians in New York for the first time in his presidency
The meetings, involving Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas are a breakthrough and a surprising one because the US Middle East Envoy had appeared to leave the region last week with nothing to show for his efforts.
Negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians were suspended in January just over a year since being launched in Annapolis Maryland.
They were halted because of Israel's January offensive in Gaza and have never been resumed since Benjamin Netanyahu's right wing coalition came into power.
Palestinians have said there is nothing to talk about if Israel carries on building on the land they want for their own state. The White House originally appeared to support that position.
Special Envoy George Mitchell said: "It is another sign of the President's deep commitment to comprehensive peace that he wants to personally engage at this juncture, as we continue our efforts to encourage all sides to take responsibility for peace and to create a positive context for the resumption of negotiations."
In a keynote address in Cairo to the Muslim world Barack Obama said he did not accept the legitimacy of continued settlement expansion and said it must stop.
His officials made it clear they wanted a freeze in settlement construction. Under international law building settlements on occupied land is illegal.
The Israelis have refused and in months of private meetings appear to have watered down the demand for a freeze to a compromise.
They say they want a reduction in settlement construction, with work to continue on 2500 housing units already being constructed and to begin 450 units.
They want the reduction to last only nine months and not to include Jerusalem. They claim to be close to persuading America to accept their compromise.
Palestinians had called that unacceptable and said they would not meet with Israelis without a freeze.
Just bringing the two leaders together is therefore a diplomatic achievement for the White House.
But it is just a meeting about trying to have more meetings about eventually beginning real negotiations.
The difficulties in simply convening a face to face meeting encounter will be nothing to the real challenges ahead.
The meetings will take place in New York on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly meeting.
Article 2 <ExpressNews; http://www.expressnews.lk>
Obama to meet Middle East leaders
President Barack Obama will meet Israeli and Palestinian leaders on Tuesday to try to relaunch peace talks.
Mr Obama will hold separate talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, before a joint meeting.
Efforts to restart the peace process have so far been blocked by disagreements over Israeli settlements.
The announcement of the meetings, which will take place on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York, came after US envoy George Mitchell's latest round of shuttle diplomacy ended without agreement.
Comments:
• What are the differences in style between the two articles
Article 1 is very informative. It not just states the news but gives background information relating to the news itself, such as the reason of the previous suspension on 3-way-negotiations, stands of the U.S, and the function of the relaunching of meetings. A short quote from George Mitchell also highlights the theme behind the news, i.e. the aim of President Obama in resuming the peace in Middle East.
Article 2 appears more like a headline than news report. Yet, it gives a short brief of the news and has included all key points: the relanuch of 3-way-meetings; reason of the previous freeze of meeting and a brief fact on the recent visit of George Mitchell.
• Which article did you find easier to read? Why?
In terms of choice of word and sentence structure, Article 2 of course is easier to read. The sentences are short and straight forward, without use of conjunctions at all. The words it used are simple and common.
• What sort of person do you think reads the printed edition of each newspaper?
Article 1: readers looking for more information on news, readers living at the US and Middle East.
Article 2: students, readers looking for a gist of daily news