Immediately following the announcement, the vice president kept the Israeli prime minister waiting 90 minutes for an official dinner.

That was taken as a sign of Mr Biden’s displeasure.

It also reflected the time needed to work out the line to take with President Barack Obama about the settlement issue.

In the end, the Americans seem to have acquiesced in a face-saving formula drawn up by Mr Netanyahu.

Warm speech

This says procedures will be put in place so that in future such announcements are not made at sensitive junctures in the peace process.

It also states that building at Ramat Shlomo will not start for several years.

In his speech in Tel Aviv, Mr Biden seized on this to say that negotiations should start immediately – there would be time later to work issues such as Ramat Shlomo (along with the division of Jerusalem, control of the holy sites, what is to happen to Palestinian refugees and the final borders between Israel and a future Palestinian state).

Mr Biden used his speech to reiterate yesterday’s unequivocal condemnation of the Israeli decision to build these 1,600 new homes on occupied land.

He said it undermined the trust needed for negotiations to succeed. But the speech was nevertheless warm and non-confrontational.

Indeed Mr Biden began it by saying that he had been a friend and supporter of Israel’s for the past 37 years as an elected public official.

‘Don’t bomb Iran’

An important section of Mr Biden’s speech was devoted to Iran.

Part of Mr Biden’s speech was aimed at Israel’s fears over Iran
Some Israeli commentators have raised the question of whether the United States will be able to fully trust Israel over the sensitive and vital issue of how to deal with Iran if Israel was prepared to humiliate Mr Biden over the settlements issue.

To dispel such thoughts, the vice-president attempted to reassure Israelis that they would not have to face what they assume to be an Iranian nuclear threat alone.

He did however plead for sanctions and diplomacy to be given a chance to work before any military action.

A big part of his private discussions with Israeli leaders is thought to have been about delivering the message: don’t bomb Iran.

Mr Biden’s visit was about resuscitating a peace process which doesn’t seem to have much life of its own – indeed one key part of his speech in Tel Aviv was to tell both parties to the conflict that the United States could not want peace more than they did.

Talks in doubt

So it seems that the White House had decided to try to avoid another damaging and protracted tussle with the Israeli prime minister about settlements.

After all, Israel came out on top in the last test of wills, agreeing to something far less than the total settlement freeze that Washington – and the Palestinians – had been demanding.

All this leaves the Palestinians in a very difficult position.

Backed by the Arab League, they have said that it will be very difficult for them to enter indirect talks unless the Ramat Shlomo project is cancelled.

Yesterday, they were feeling pretty pleased that Israel was at odds with its main ally.

Now the Palestinians must decide if they will go along with the formula adopted by Mr Netanyahu.

For the time being then, the much-delayed peace talks remain in doubt.

By JAKE COYLE, AP Entertainment Writer Jake Coyle, Ap Entertainment Writer – In “Remember Me,” Robert Pattinson has temporarily stepped away from “Twilight,” apparently in search of his “Five Easy Pieces” or “Rebel Without a Cause.”

When Pattinson’s character — a wayward, rebellious 21-year-old named Tyler Hawkins — meets who will quickly become his love interest — a fellow NYU student named Ally (Emilie de Ravin) — he informs her that his major is “undecided.”

“`Bout what?” she responds.

“Everything,” he says.

As a character-defining quote, it’s a long way from Marlon Brando’s “Whaddya got?” in “The Wild One.” Perhaps an earlier draft had him saying he’s getting a “Ph.D. in misanthropy.”

Pattinson may be on leave from the narcotic melodrama of “Twilight,” but he’s still in full-on brooding mode. The young actor has an unmistakable screen presence. However in “Remember Me,” he pours it on thickly and self-consciously.

With low eyes, sleeves rolled up just so and cigarette drooping artfully from his mouth, Tyler (like Edward Cullen) is a reluctant romantic. He quotes Gandhi in voiceover, makes love to Sigur Ros and (understandably) can’t be moved to laughter by “American Pie 2.”

His deepness runneth over.

“Remember Me” begins ominously with the Twin Towers lurking in view behind an elevated subway in 1991 Brooklyn. A woman is senselessly murdered while her young daughter watches.

When the film shifts 10 years later, the girl is Ally, whom Tyler meets through a rather preposterous revenge plot directed at her father (Chris Cooper), a New York police officer who roughed Tyler up.

Their meeting is orchestrated by Tyler’s roommate, Tate, played by Aiden Hall. But there will be no fan-created Team Tyler vs. Team Tate here. The roommate is an annoying chatterbox, whose comedic moments drag the film.

A sense of dread — hinted at by the movie’s title and intoned by Marcelo Zarvos’ score — is carried though the film, which is set in the summer of 2001. Sudden spurts of violence punctuate the story.

Long before the big reveal ending, one begins to feel “Remember Me” is romanticizing — even fetishizing — tragedy. There’s a pretentious reveling in emotional scars and painful loss.

Tyler is the son of a high-powered attorney (Pierce Brosnan), an absent father to Tyler and his young sister, Caroline (Ruby Jerins). Some time earlier, Tyler’s older brother committed suicide — the hurtful event that has given Tyler much of his grimness.

Heaviness weighs on Ally and her father, too. Cooper is typecast as an uptight, overbearing father, but he’s predictably solid.

Brosnan is the highlight of the film, again proving — as he did in Roman Polanski’s recent “The Ghost Writer” — his character actor chops. Tucked stoically behind a suit, he ably sports a Brooklyn accent in believable, confrontational scenes with Pattinson.

Director Allen Coulter shows the same skill in creating atmosphere as he did in “Hollywoodland,” but the script by Will Fetters (his first) is uneven.

The most pleasing thing about “Remember Me” is its boldness. It may be affected, but “Remember Me” is at least aiming for an intriguing character study — a positive sign in the young career of Pattinson (who is also an executive producer).

The Facebook platform game FarmVille now supports the Facebook Credits virtual currency.The popular online game uses two units of in-game currency: Farm Cash and Farm Coins. Previously, you could buy them with a credit card or PayPal. Now the game offers Facebook Credits as an option.
Facebook Credits are the number-one option, actually. They’re the default payment choice, featured at the top of the list pictured here.