Article:
Henke Pistorius, 59, said that his family had "zero doubt" that Mr Pistorius had shot Reeva Steenkamp dead mistakenly thinking she was intruder.

 "When you are a sportsman, you act even more on instinct," he said. "It's instinct - things happen and that's what you do."

 He said the entire Pistorius family was "heart and soul" behind the athlete and would do "whatever needs to be done" to help him clear his name.

 His comments to The Sunday Telegraph followed the release by the family of a statement in which they described the 26-year-old athlete as "numb with shock as well as grief" over the events of the past three days.

 They said that evidence gathered by the police themselves "strongly refutes" any possibility of the premeditated murder charge with which prosecutors have said they will charge the athlete.

 They also insisted that Mr Pistorius, whose position as South Africa's golden boy was cemented when he won two gold medals and a silver at last year's London Paralympics, had no reason to harm Miss Steenkamp, 29, his girlfriend of four months.

 "All of us saw at first hand how close she had become to Oscar during that time and how happy they were. They had plans together and Oscar was happier in his private life than he had been for a long time," they said.

 Reeva Steenkamp in the reality show Tropika Island of Treasure

 The family fightback came as reports emerged that Mr Pistorius fought to save Miss Steenkamp's life after allegedly shooting her four times through the bathroom door in the early hours of St Valentine's Day morning.

 Security guards and neighbours who rushed to his exclusive home on a security compound outside Pretoria saw Mr Pistorius running down the stairs with the blonde model in his arms, according to a source quoted by the Afrikaans newspaper Beeld.

 Miss Steenkamp was still breathing, it said, and Mr Pistorius tried desperately to save her using mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.

 "Blood splatters along the route that Pistorius carried her was further proof that her heart was still beating," the paper added.

 And a close friend of Mr Pistorius told on Saturday how the athlete called him moments after Miss Steenkamp was shot.

 Justin Divaris told the Sunday People: "Oscar called me at 3.55am saying that Reeva had been shot. I said to him, 'What are you talking about? I don't understand you.' He then repeated himself - 'There has been a terrible accident, I shot Reeva.

 "Next thing his neighbour picked up the phone and told me it was true and told me to get to Oscar's home. I was in total shock. I asked the neighbour, 'Is she OK?' Did the gun go off by accident?' She replied, 'No. She's not OK. You need to get here'."

 Beeld also reported that Mr Pistorius, who kept a machine gun under his window for security as well as the 9mm pistol by his bed - with which he is believed to have shot Miss Steenkamp - had seven firearm licence applications pending, including one for a .223 semi-automatic rifle - the same calibre of combat weapon used in the Sandy Hook school massacre in the United States, in which 20 children and six teachers died.

 Henke Pistorius reaches out to his son Oscar (AFP/Getty)

 In the Tropika Island of Treasure programme, filmed in Jamaica and screened on South African television last night with the blessing of her family, Miss Steenkamp was seen alongside other bikini-clad contestants taking part in a hunt for treasure. The winner of the contest was to receive £73,000 in prize money.

 In a series of scenes she was filmed studying a treasure map on the deck of a yacht, jumping into the sea from a cliff, and swimming with dolphins.

 In a poignant interview, filmed just days before she died as she prepared to return home she spoke about the importance of leaving a positive mark in life.

 Dressed in a strappy top and a yellow and black bikini, with her blonde hair scraped back, she said: "Not just your journey in life but the way that you go out and make your exit is so important. You have either made an impact in a positive way or a negative way."

 Mr Pistorius had delivered a prescient message of his own just days earlier, retweeting to followers the comment: "Learn to appreciate what you have, before time makes you appreciate what you had" with the additional words: "True that."

 On Friday, during his first court appearance since the incident on Thursday morning, he repeatedly burst into tears as prosecutors discussed how they would charge him with murdering his girlfriend.

 Mr Pistorius faces a murder charge in Pretoria (Reuters)

 Standing behind him, his father and brother were seen reaching out to clasp his shoulder and pat his back. Henke Pistorius told The Sunday Telegraph on Saturday that they were a close family and had no doubt of his innocence.

 "I let him know that all of us are in heart and soul with him," he said. "That's why we were there and whatever needs to be done we will do."

 He said he felt no need to question his son too closely about the exact events of that night. "He is going to have enough of that, enough advocates asking him things over and over," he said. "I can just imagine how absolutely emotional it must have been for him."

 But there was "zero doubt" in his mind that he had acted in fear of an intruder, he added. "Without any doubt there was no purpose in it, it's not an issue for us," he said. "I have zero doubt (that he thought it was an intruder) - it's totally absurd to even suggest anything different.

 "When you wake up in the middle of the night - and crime is so endemic in South Africa - what do you do if somebody is in the house? Do you think it's one of your family? Of course you don't," he said. The family were keen hunters, he said, and his son had grown up with guns.

 Reading a statement before television cameras yesterday, Mr Pistorius' uncle Arnold and sister Aimee said the entire family was "in a state of total shock".

 "Firstly about the tragic death of Reeva who we had all got to know well and care for deeply over the last few months," they said. "We are all grieving for Reeva, her family and her friends. Oscar - as you can imagine - is also numb with shock as well as grief."

 They said that they were also struggling to come to terms with the murder charge Mr Pistorius now faces. "The lives of our entire family have been turned upside down forever by the unimaginable human tragedy," they said.

 "After consulting with legal representatives, we deeply regret the allegation of premeditated murder. We have no doubt there is no substance to the allegation and that the State's case, including its own forensic evidence, strongly refutes any possibility of premeditated murder or indeed any murder at all."

 Last week was not the first time however that Mr Pistorius has brushed with police. In 2009 he received a warning over an alleged assault on a 19-year-old girl at his home. Last year, he was accused of sending a text message to a man he believed was involved with his former girlfriend threatening to break his legs.

 Mark Batchelor, a friend of the man who got involved in the row, alleged Mr Pistorius also telephoned and threatened him.

 "He called me 'boy' and said he wanted to clear the air, saying he had heard I had a problem with him. I told him that he can't go around threatening people. He said he wasn't afraid of me and the phone cut," he told Johannesburg's Star newspaper. "The man I heard on the phone is a different man from the image given out there. He carries a gun everywhere and I have seen him be controlling to women."

 Reeva Steenkamp's uncle Michael, who like most of her family lives in Port Elizabeth on the south coast, said they were ignoring such reports and focusing on the case ahead. Mr Pistorius, who is being held this weekend in a polic station cell, will return to Pretoria Central Magistrates Court on Tuesday for a bail application.

 "We do not want to speculate what happened. We would rather pay attention to the criminal process will take its course now," Mr Steenkamp told Beeld. "We are a religious family. And if you believe in God, then you know justice will be in his hand." ||||| video transcript

 As Paralympic star Oscar Pistorius awaits a bail hearing here in South Africa, his agent says fans across the world are rallying behind the athlete. On a visit to Pistorius on Sunday (February 17), agent Peet van Zyl said he was supporting the runner as a colleague and friend. SOUNDBITE: (English) PISTORIUS' AGENT PEET VAN ZYL, SAYING: "I can tell you that we have had overwhelming support from Oscar from a lot of fans on a global scale, really on a global scale. South African fans, international fans from literally all over the world." (Reporter: Have you passed that on to him?) "He knows it I have given him that message, yes." (Reporter: Did he have reaction to that?) "As I said to you I am not going to talk to you about his emotional state at this point in time." Pistorius is facing charges or murdering girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, who was found dead at the athlete's home last week. His family deny the charges and say Pistorius is numb with grief and shock. Steenkamp will be buried on Tuesday (February 17). ||||| The seed for Wide00014 was:

 - Slash pages from every domain on the web:

 -- a ranking of all URLs that have more than one incoming inter-domain link (rank was determined by number of incoming links using Wide00012 inter domain links)

 -- up to a maximum of 100 most highly ranked URLs per domain

 - Top ranked pages (up to a max of 100) from every linked-to domain using the Wide00012 inter-domain navigational link graph ||||| Oscar Pistorius' agent has canceled all future track races so the double-amputee Olympian can focus on the murder charge against him, underscoring the possibility the disabled sports icon might never again run competitively on his famous carbon fiber blades.

 Kenny Oldwage, lawyer for Oscar Pistorius, foreground, and Carl Pistorius, brother of Oscar Pistorius arrive at the Brooklyn police station in Pretoria, South Africa, Sunday, Feb. 17, 2013. Oscar Pistorius... (Associated Press)

 Olympic athlete Oscar Pistorius leaves the Boschkop police station, east of Pretoria, South Africa, Thursday, Feb. 14, 2013 en route to appear in court charged with murder. Pistorius was charged Thursday... (Associated Press)

 FILE - In this Aug. 5, 2012 file photo, South Africa's Oscar Pistorius starts in the men's 400-meter semifinal during the athletics in the Olympic Stadium at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. Paralympic... (Associated Press)

 Peet van Zyl, managing agent for Olympian athlete Oscar Pistorius, talks to the press outside the Brooklyn police station in Pretoria, South Africa, Sunday, Feb. 17, 2013, after visiting Pistorius. Oscar... (Associated Press)

 Aimee Pistorius outside the Brooklyn police station in Pretoria, South Africa, Sunday, Feb. 17, 2013, after visiting her brother Oscar Pistorius. Oscar Pistorius faces a bail hearing Tuesday and Wednesday,... (Associated Press)

 FILE - This is a Saturday, Aug. 4, 2012 file photo of South Africa's Oscar Pistorius as he reacts after finishing first in a men's 400-meter heat during the athletics in the Olympic Stadium at the 2012... (Associated Press)

 Arnold Pistorius, right, uncle of Olympic athlete Oscar Pistorius, comforts his niece after making a statement to selected press in Pretoria, South Africa, Feb. 16, 2013. Pistorius said that Oscar is... (Associated Press)

 In this frame-grab from state television channel SABC 1 a tribute is devoted to slain model Reeva Steenkamp, girlfriend of Olympic athlete Oscar Pistorius. South Africa’s national broadcaster went ahead... (Associated Press)

 Pistorius is defending himself against allegations he murdered his model girlfriend by shooting her several times in his upscale house on Valentine's Day morning.

 Reeva Steenkamp died from gunshot wounds suffered inside Pistorius' home in the predawn hours of Thursday. Pistorius was arrested and charged with her murder the same day. His family denies he murdered her.

 "I have decided that following these tragic events that we have no option but to cancel all future races that Oscar Pistorius had been contracted to compete in," agent Peet van Zyl said in a written statement late Sunday night.

 A few hours earlier, Van Zyl had visited his athlete at a police station in the South African capital, Pretoria, where he is being held in custody in a red-bricked, one-story building with green metal fencing.

 Pistorius has been there since Friday following the shocking developments at his villa in a gated community in Pretoria's eastern suburbs where Steenkamp was shot dead.

 Her death and Pistorius' arrest stunned South Africans, who revered Pistorius for his humble nature and success at overcoming adversity to become an international star, despite having his lower legs amputated as a baby.

 Pistorius still had "overwhelming support" from his fans, Van Zyl said as he left Brooklyn police station, but the agent steered away from a question from a reporter on what Pistorius' emotional state was now like following the death of his girlfriend and a possible realization that his entire career was in ruins.

 Pistorius' sponsors _ including big-name brands Nike and eyewear manufacturer Oakley _ were also sticking by him, Van Zyl said. But that could depend on the outcome of a possibly lengthy murder trial.

 "Regarding sponsors and partners, I can confirm that at this point in time, all parties are supportive and their contractual commitments are maintained," Van Zyl's In Site Athlete Management company said. "They have said they are happy to let the legal process takes its course before making any change in their position."

 The Beaverton, Ore-based Nike Inc. and Foothill Ranch, Calif.-based Oakley Inc. did not immediately respond to messages from The Associated Press seeking comment.

 Pistorius was quickly arrested and charged with murder Thursday, with prosecutors saying at his first court appearance a day later that they would pursue a more serious premeditated murder charge, which carries a life sentence.

 Pistorius broke down and wept in the court, with his face in his hands. His family later denied he murdered Steenkamp and said the state's own evidence "strongly refutes" any possibility of a murder.

 "I am not going to comment on anything except that (what) is related to his athletics career at this point in time," Van Zyl told reporters outside the police station after being asked how Pistorius was coping. "Obviously from a management side and also as a friend, it's a tragic circumstance and events that have unfolded and we can only give Oscar our support at this point in time."

 Family members and his lawyers also visited Pistorius on Sunday, but declined comment both when they arrived and when they left the city center police station.

 The family of Steenkamp, a model, law graduate and budding reality TV star, told The Associated Press that her body had been released by police after an autopsy and was back in their hometown of Port Elizabeth on South Africa's southern coast.

 "Reeva is back home," the late model's brother, Adam Steenkamp, told the AP by phone. He had flown back from Britain, where he now lives, to be with the family.

 They also said Steenkamp's funeral would be held Tuesday and would be a private ceremony for family at a local crematorium. Media would not be allowed in.

 The main purpose for Van Zyl's visit to Brooklyn police station Sunday afternoon was to discuss Pistorius' running career, but "also to visit him as a friend and give him my moral support," the agent said. "On a personal level I wanted to offer my support to Oscar, who I have known and worked with for the last seven years and consider a friend and a great professional athlete."

 Following the meeting, Van Zyl announced publicly that the five races that Pistorius had confirmed for in 2013 were canceled: two in Australia in March, exhibition races against fellow Paralympic champions Alan Oliveira of Brazil and Jonnie Peacock of Britain, and an appearance at the U.S. Drake Relays in Iowa.

 Van Zyl's decision to cancel those races was first reported by the AP on Saturday. All others that were still in negotiation were also now called off, Van Zyl said on Sunday.

 The high-profile rematch with Oliveira, who beat Pistorius in the 200 meters at the London Paralympics last year, was to be a straight line 200 race on Copacabana beach to promote the 2016 Rio Olympics and Paralympics.

 The runner's main goal for 2013 was to qualify for the worlds in Moscow in August, which is now almost certainly not going to happen.

 Pistorius was the first amputee athlete to run at the world championships in 2011, then made history when he competed at last year's Olympics in London.

 He and his coach have both said that they aimed to retire from track after the Rio Games, but one of the world's most famous athletes, who fought for years to be allowed to run against able-bodied competitors, is now facing the possibility he will never go to any major meet again.

 ___

 Follow Gerald Imray at http://twitter.com/GeraldImrayAP ||||| The best friend of Oscar Pistorius told yesterday how the Paralympic hero called him moments after his girlfriend was shot and later sobbed: “My baba, I’ve killed my baba. God take me away.”

 Businessman Justin Divaris, who introduced model Reeva Steenkamp to the London 2012 double gold winner, said Pistorius phoned him first instead of emergency services, the Sunday People can report.

 Speaking exclusively to the Sunday People, Justin, 27, said: “It’s all very sad. Oscar called me at 3.55 am saying that Reeva had been shot.

 “I said to him, ‘What are you talking about? I don’t understand you?’ He then repeated himself – ‘There has been a terrible accident, I shot Reeva’.

 “Next thing his neighbour picked up the phone and told me it was true and told me to get to Oscar’s home.

 “I was in total shock. I asked the neighbour, ‘Is she OK?’ Did the gun go off by accident?’ She replied, ‘No. She’s not OK. You need to get here’.”

 Justin and his girlfriend Sam dashed to 26-year-old Pistorius’s luxury home on the security-patrolled Silver Woods estate in Pretoria, South Africa, in the early hours of Valentine’s Day.

 The police had already arrived and were holding the double amputee superstar – nicknamed Blade Runner because of his state-of-the-art artificial limbs – in his garage.

 Justin, chief executive of luxury car sales firm Daytona Group, said: “It was very traumatic. By the time we got there it was already a crime scene and we weren’t allowed in the house.

 Twitter Pals: Reeva pictured with Pistorius's friends Justin (C) and Francois Hougaard Rex Tragic: Oscar Pistorius with girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp

 “But we could see Reeva through the door lying there covered in blankets and towels at the bottom of the stairs.

 “I think Oscar planned to take her to the hospital but the neighbour had covered her in towels.

 “Oscar was being detained in the garage but they allowed me access to speak to him.

 “He was totally incoherent and just kept saying, ‘My baba, I’ve killed my baba. God take me away’. He must have been sobbing there for a whole hour.

 “I was with him for 10 minutes and asked him exactly what had happened but he couldn’t answer and just kept repeating the same thing.”

 Justin added: “It is so sad. I introduced Reeva to Oscar. She was a really good friend of mine too and actually had been a friend longer. She is a best friend of my girlfriend.

 “I don’t understand exactly what happened but the truth will come out.”

 Reeva, who had been dating Pistorius since November and is said to have complained he was becoming possessive, had arrived at his house at 7pm.

 Several hours before the shooting, wealthy neighbours complained to the estate’s security guards about loud noise coming from the house and asked them to stop it.

 Reeva, 29, is believed to have been sitting on a toilet when she was hit four times – in the arm, head, hip and finger – by three bullets fired through the bathroom door.

 REUTERS Sobs: Pistorius weeps uncontrollably in court AFP/Getty Images Dazed: The distraught Paralympian is led away from court

 It is believed she was still alive as Oscar carried her downstairs and  tried to revive her.

 Blood stains were found on the walls, indicating her heart was pumping.

 It is claimed Oscar was still holding Reeva in his arms and performing mouth-to-mouth when paramedics arrived.

 Neighbours said they heard her last breaths before she was pronounced dead by the paramedics.

 Forensic officers have removed the bathroom door as evidence.

 Reeva’s parents June and Barry were being treated for shock by doctors at their home in Port Elizabeth.

 Justin’s girlfriend Sam, who runs a catering company with June, said: “I’m trying to focus on keeping them calm at the moment but they have taken it very, very badly.

 “Barry is in bed and we’ve got some tablets from the doctor. It’s been a terrible, terrible shock.

 “The detective said she was shot at close range and it wasn’t a burglary.”

 Reeva was voted one of the top 100 sexiest women in South Africa.

 She graduated with a law degree but made a career change after being scouted by model agents and became the first face of cosmetics giant Avon South Africa.

 She moved from Port Elizabeth to Johannesburg and appeared on the cover of FHM magazine.

 Reeva, a keen horse rider, broke her back in an horrific fall six years ago, suffering injuries so severe that she had to learn to walk again.

 Last night an episode of South African reality TV series Tropika Island Of Treasure, in which Reeva starred, went ahead as planned.

 A pal said Pistorius had become increasingly possessive in recent weeks.

 The friend said: “Reeva mentioned that Oscar was quite possessive and insecure.

 “When she was at events he’d call her incessantly. I think she was starting to get annoyed with it.

 “She had planned to go home that night but had sent a message to one of her housemates to say she was staying with Oscar.

 REUTERS Crime scene: Pistorius's home in Pretoria

 “That was the last time anyone had heard from her. I’m devastated I will never see her again.

 “She was such a kind and beautiful person, both inside and out.

 “Her parents won’t be able to cope without her. She was going to build them a house and take them on holiday.

 “It is so tragic. It is a loss to everyone who knew her.”

 Pistorius, who was born without fibula in both legs and was amputated below the knee at 11 months, sobbed when he appeared in court on Friday.

 He is accused of premeditated murder, which carries an automatic life sentence.

 The runner, who became the first double amputee to compete in the Olympics where he reached the 400-metre semi-finals at London 2012, will reappear in court on Tuesday.

 A court official said he was being held in a police station instead of jail because of his fame, not his disability. |||||Summary:

– With an eye toward 'roid rage, police had Oscar Pistorius' blood tested for steroids, and a "source close to the investigation" tells the Sun that police did find performance enhancers in their search of his house. "Steroid drugs were found at Pistorius’ home together with evidence of heavy drinking. That’s why police have specifically ordered that he be tested for steroids," says the source. What might have gotten him so angry? The Sun reports that Reeva Steenkamp's phone records indicate she may have gotten a text from rugby star Francois Hougaard that night. Sources say Pistorius was unhappy with Steenkamp's friendship with Hougaard. Pistorius' running days are over for now even if he is granted bail. "I have decided that following these tragic events that we have no option but to cancel all future races that Oscar Pistorius had been contracted to compete in," his agent said after a visit to his client, who is being held in a police station, the AP reports. The Olympic and Paralympic star still has "overwhelming support" from his fans, says his agent, whose company has confirmed that big sponsors including Nike are sticking by Pistorius and "are happy to let the legal process takes its course before making any change in their position." He declined to discuss Pistorius' emotional state, Reuters reports. Pistorius' best friend—who introduced him to Steenkamp—says the runner called him minutes after the shooting, before contacting emergency services, the Mirror reports. Pistorius said, "My baba, I’ve killed my baba. God take me away," says Justin Davaris. Asked to explain, Pistorius said, "There has been a terrible accident, I shot Reeva," Davaris says. Amid reports that a bloodied cricket bat is now a key part of the case, the runner's family say they have "zero doubt" that Pistorius shot his girlfriend by accident after mistaking her for an intruder. "When you are a sportsman, you act even more on instinct," his father tells the Telegraph. "It's instinct—things happen and that's what you do."


Thanks to the people who signed my petition on Change.org, I’m glad to know the Powerade sold at my school and consumed by people around the world will be a little bit healthier without BVO in it. I knew that if Gatorade could do the right thing, so could Powerade.

 A couple months ago, I found out that one of my favorite drinks, Gatorade’s Orange, contained brominated vegetable oil (BVO). According to Scientific American and other news reports, BVO is patented as a flame retardant and has been banned in Europe and Japan. So I started a Change.org petition asking Gatorade to stop using it. More than 200,000 people signed my petition on Change.org and we won! But I learned that BVO is also in other drinks, like Powerade’s red fruit punch that is actually sold in my school!

 It’s weird because Gatorade’s fruit punch doesn’t have BVO! But Powerade’s fruit punch does, and it is probably one of the most popular flavors for my friends. It is so wrong to be selling something like that to a bunch of kids anywhere! What are these companies thinking? I don’t want anyone in my family touching that stuff. Why do these companies put all this weird, crazy stuff in our food and drinks?

 After Gatorade agreed to remove BVO from their drinks, a lot of people have been encouraging me to keep going, so now we’re back to officially ask Powerade to do the same thing! It’s common sense that sports drinks here shouldn’t contain crazy ingredients that are banned in entire countries because of health concerns.

 I’ve read some crazy information about how BVO and the ingredient bromine can build up in people’s bodies over time and how the chemical is linked to problems with hormones and fertility and stuff like that. I also saw that Powerade may be the official drink of the NCAA for college athletes! Athletes shouldn’t be drinking that! NASCAR also has a deal with Powerade, but I don’t know why unless it’s to put out those engine fires!

 Gatorade did an amazing thing and agreed to stop using BVO, and I hope the entire beverage industry is paying attention. Consumers don’t want BVO and every day that they keep it in there makes us trust them less.

 For now though, Powerade pretends to be a healthy sports drink and it has to decide if it wants to be the only one (there will be no BVO in Gatorade or Vitamin Water) that still uses a chemical banned in Europe and Japan and that its main competitor, Gatorade, agreed to remove.

 I know Powerade will listen. If they sell those things overseas without BVO, why risk my health and my friends’ health?

 *Please sign and share to support me* ||||| The other day, I Googled "brominated vegetable oil." It was the last time I drank Orange Gatorade. I found out that this "BVO" is a controversial flame retardant chemical that is in some Gatorade drinks! Who wants to drink that? Not me!

 I’m naturally a curious and argumentative person doing things like debate team in school. I also love sports like volleyball, and I always believed Gatorade when they said stuff in their ads about how it's good to drink when exercising. And, just like most people, I care about my health. So, as I was sitting at home the other day drinking an Orange Gatorade, I decided to look up some of the ingredients.

 The last ingredient is "brominated vegetable oil," which has been banned in Japan and the European Union. That means, #1 it’s not necessary to make Gatorade, and #2 there is enough information out there that entire countries have banned this chemical product.

 According to Scientific American, BVO has been patented as a flame retardant and is found in some beverages including some flavors of Gatorade. It is “under intense scrutiny because research has shown that they are building up in people's bodies, including breast milk, around the world.” The same article also mentions that there are “links to impaired neurological development, reduced fertility, early onset of puberty and altered thyroid hormones.”

 I’m not a scientist, but if there are lots of suspicious things about putting a flame retardant chemical in Gatorade (most flavors don’t even use it!) then why would Gatorade want to put it in a product designed for people like me who are into sports and health?

 It doesn’t make sense. Please sign my petition asking Gatorade to stop putting flame retardant chemicals in sports drinks.

 Photo by marcgelinas on Flickr ||||| FILE - In this Aug. 5, 2010 file photo, bottles of Powerade sports drink and other Coca-Cola products are chilled over ice in Orlando, Fla. A controversial ingredient, brominated vegetable oil, is being... (Associated Press)

 FILE - In this Aug. 5, 2010 file photo, bottles of Powerade sports drink and other Coca-Cola products are chilled over ice in Orlando, Fla. A controversial ingredient, brominated vegetable oil, is being... (Associated Press)

 NEW YORK (AP) — Coca-Cola is dropping a controversial ingredient from its Powerade sports drink, after a similar move by PepsiCo's Gatorade last year.

 The ingredient, brominated vegetable oil, had been the target of a petition by a Mississippi teenager, who questioned why it was being used in a drink marketed toward health-conscious athletes. The petition on Change.org noted that the ingredient is linked to a flame retardant and is not approved for use in Japan or the European Union.

 In response to customer feedback, PepsiCo said last year it would drop the ingredient from Gatorade. At the time, Coca-Cola declined to say whether it would remove the ingredient from the two flavors of Powerade that contain it as well.

 But this week, bottles of Powerade in fruit punch and strawberry lemonade flavors being sold in the Detroit, Michigan; Omaha, Nebraska, New York and Washington, D.C. areas no longer list the ingredient. Some bottles still list it, however, suggesting Coca-Cola Co. may have started phasing it out recently.

 A representative for the Atlanta-based company confirmed Sunday that its Powerade brands are "BVO-free." But no details were immediately available on when the change would be complete or how the drinks were reformulated.

 Powerade's website still lists brominated vegetable oil as an ingredient for its fruit punch and strawberry lemonade flavors.

 The Food and Drug Administration says brominated vegetable oil is used as a stabilizer for flavoring oils in fruit-flavored drinks. Coca-Cola has said in the past that it uses it to "improve stability and prevent certain ingredients from separating."

 The decision by Coca-Cola to remove brominated vegetable oil from Powerade is just the latest evidence that food makers are coming under pressure for the ingredients they use. While companies stand by the safety of their products, some are making changes in response to the movement toward foods that people believe are natural.

 Earlier this year, for instance, Subway said it would remove an ingredient dubbed the "yoga mat chemical" from its breads. The ingredient, azodicarbonamide, is approved for use by the FDA and can be found in a wide variety of breads. The petitioner, Vani Hari of FoodBabe.com, said she targeted Subway because of its image for serving healthy food.

 Likewise, brominated vegetable oil can also be found in several other drinks.

 But the Mississippi teenager, Sarah Kavanagh, said she targeted Gatorade and Powerade in petitions because they're designed for athletes, who are likely more concerned about what they're putting into their bodies. Her Powerade petition had more than 59,000 online supporters while the Gatorade one had more than 200,000.

 As Americans cut back on soda, sports drinks have become more important for Coca-Cola and PepsiCo Inc., which is based in Purchase, New York.

 Although Coca-Cola has long dominated rival PepsiCo on the soda front, it lags the company in the growing sports drink category. According to the industry tracker Beverage Digest, Gatorade has 64 percent of the sports drink market.

 ___

 Follow Candice Choi at www.twitter.com/candicechoi |||||
What is a one-paragraph summary of the above article?

– Looks like a teenager's online petition has induced Coca-Cola to remove an ingredient from Powerade. The Mississippi teen, Sarah Kavanagh, led the charge with two Change.org petitions against brominated vegetable oil—one targeting Powerade, the other Gatorade—that gathered nearly 260,000 supporters in all, the AP reports. PepsiCo agreed to pull BVO from Gatorade last year, and now Powerade bottles in strawberry lemonade and fruit punch flavors in several cities don't have the ingredient listed. Some bottles still list it, and Coca-Cola said today that Powerade is "BVO-free," so it seems the company is phasing it out. Just what is BVO? According to the FDA, it's used in fruit-flavored drinks as a stabilizer for flavoring oils. But Bromine is a patented flame retardant that's banned in the European Union and Japan, and may be harmful to anyone who drinks it in large amounts, the Telegram reports. Coca-Cola and PepsiCo aren't the only companies under pressure from petitions: Subway yanked an FDA-approved ingredient known as the "yoga mat chemical" from its breads earlier this year when a petitioner at FoodBabe.com challenged the company's healthy-food image.


Here is a news article: Make Sure Your College Tuition Pays You Back

 Look Beyond College Costs, Check Your Return on Investment

 Paying for college is more of a luxury than ever. Where can you get the most payback on your tuition dollars? PayScale reviewed nearly 700 colleges and universities to calculate your tuition return on investment (ROI) - what you get back for what you spend.

 Highest College ROI

 California Institute of Technology (Caltech) $1,713,000 Lowest College ROI

 Shaw University $15,480

 - 100K ||||| With the ever-rising cost of a college degree and the dearth of jobs for graduates, many have begun questioning the worth of higher education. Compensation data site PayScale has taken some uncertainty out of the equation by completing an in-depth tabulation of more than 850 colleges' ROI, or return on investment, scores. ROI takes the price of a school's degree and compares it to how much that school's graduates earn on average, producing perhaps the truest measure of a school's value. Using 1.4 million reports, they calculated which colleges give the most bang for their buck.

 We've highlighted the 13 schools with the top ROI scores below. See Payscale's complete list here, including a breakdown of the public and private schools with the highest ROIs.

 And over at BusinessWeek, there's a state-by-state breakdown of PayScale's data, with a slideshow featuring the best-value school in each state.

 Is this list surprising to you? Has your college degree given you a worthy ROI? Let us know in the comments section. |||||
A summary of this is?

– Which colleges pay off? PayScale crunched the numbers to compute the best returns on investment—by comparing the cost of a degree against what its students earn upon graduation—and Huffington Post rounds up the best of the bunch: Massachusetts Institute of Technology: annual ROI: 12.6%; 30-year ROI: $1.69 million California Institute of Technology: 12.6%; $1.64 million Harvard: 12.5%; $1.63 million Harvey Mudd College: 12.5%; $1.63 million Dartmouth: 12.4%; $1.59 million Stanford: 12.3%; $1.57 million Princeton: 12.3%; $1.52 million Yale: 11.9%; $1.39 million Notre Dame: 12.2%; $1.38 million University of Pennsylvania: 11.8%; $1.36 million See the Huffington Post slideshow here and PayScale's complete rankings here.


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U.S. President Barack Obama speaks next to Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, February 27, 2015.

 WASHINGTON President Barack Obama would veto a bill recently introduced in the U.S. Senate allowing Congress to weigh in on any deal the United States and other negotiating countries reach with Iran on its nuclear capabilities, the White House said on Saturday.

 "The president has been clear that now is not the time for Congress to pass additional legislation on Iran. If this bill is sent to the president, he will veto it," said Bernadette Meehan, a spokeswoman for the White House's National Security Council.

 The United States and five other major powers are seeking to negotiate an agreement with Iran to curb its nuclear program in exchange for relief from economic sanctions.

 The Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act would require to submit to Congress the text of any agreement within five days of concluding a final deal with Iran. The bill would also prohibit Obama from suspending or waiving sanctions on Iran passed by Congress for 60 days after a deal.

 Meehan said United States "should give our negotiators the best chance of success, rather than complicating their efforts."

 Negotiations between the United States, Russia, China, France, Germany, Britain and Iran have reached a crucial stage, with a basic framework agreement due by the end of March.

 Republican Senator Bob Corker, one of the bipartisan group of sponsors of the bill, said it was "disappointing that the president feels he is the only one who speaks for the citizens of our country."

 (Reporting By Julia Edwards and Timothy Gardner; Editing by Steve Orlofsky) ||||| WASHINGTON/JERUSALEM (Reuters) - The United States and Israel showed signs of seeking to defuse tensions on Sunday ahead of a speech in Washington by Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu when he will warn against a possible nuclear deal with Iran.

 Policy differences over the negotiations with Iran remained firm, however, as Netanyahu set off for the United States to deliver the speech, which has imperiled ties between the two allies.

 Israel fears that U.S. President Barack Obama’s Iran diplomacy, with an end-of-March deadline for a framework accord, will allow its arch foe to develop atomic weapons — something Tehran denies seeking.

 By accepting an invitation from the Republican party to address Congress on Tuesday, the Israeli leader infuriated the Obama administration, which said it was not told of the speech before plans were made public in an apparent breach of protocol.

 U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry reiterated Washington’s determination to pursue negotiations with Iran, saying on Sunday the United States deserved “the benefit of the doubt” to see if a nuclear deal could be reached.

 Last week, Obama’s national security adviser, Susan Rice, said the partisanship caused by Netanyahu’s looming address was “destructive to the fabric of U.S.-Israeli ties”.

 Asked about this on the ABC program “This Week”, Kerry said “the prime minister of Israel is welcome to speak in the United States, obviously. And we have a closer relationship with Israel right now in terms of security than at any time in history.”

 He said he had talked to Netanyahu on Saturday, adding, “we don’t want to see this turned into some great political football.” Israel and the United States agreed that the main goal was to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon, he said.

 In remarks on Saturday at Jersualem’s Western Wall, Netanyahu said: “I would like to take this opportunity to say that I respect U.S. President Barack Obama.” He added that he believed in the strong bilateral ties and said, “that strength will prevail over differences of opinion, those in the past and those yet to come.”

 Netanyahu did not repeat those remarks as he departed on Sunday. The Israeli prime minister, who is running for re-election in a March 17 ballot, has framed his visit as being above politics and he portrayed himself as being a guardian for all Jews.

 “I’m going to Washington on a fateful, even historic, mission,” he said as he boarded his plane in Tel Aviv. “I feel that I am an emissary of all Israel’s citizens, even those who do not agree with me, and of the entire Jewish people,” he told reporters.

 Netanyahu is expected to use his speech to urge Congress to approve new sanctions against Iran despite Obama’s pledge to veto such legislation because it would jeopardize nuclear talks.

 U.S. officials fear he is seeking to sabotage the Iran diplomacy, and critics have suggested his visit is an elaborate election stunt that will play well with voters back home.

 With Obama past the mid-point of his final term, his aides see an Iran nuclear deal as a potential signature achievement for a foreign policy legacy notably short on major successes.

 While White House and Israeli officials insist that key areas of cooperation, from counter-terrorism to intelligence to cyber security, will remain unaffected, the divide over the Iran talks has shaped up as the worst in decades.

 Previously Israel has always been careful to navigate between the Republican and Democratic camps. The planned address, however, has driven a rare wedge between Netanyahu’s government and some congressional Democrats. Some two dozen or more of them plan to boycott the speech, according to unofficial estimates.

 IRANIAN ACCUSATION

 Speaking in Tehran on Saturday, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif accused Netanyahu of trying to undermine the nuclear talks in order to distract from the Palestinians’ unresolved bid for an independent state.

 “Netanyahu is opposed to any sort of solution,” Zarif said.

 Hard-line U.S. supporters of Israel say Netanyahu must take center-stage in Washington to sound the alarm over the potential Iran deal, even at the risk of offending long-time supporters.

 But a U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the “politicized” nature of his visit threatened “what undergirds the strength of the relationship”.

 As one former U.S. official put it: “Sure, when Netanyahu calls the White House, Obama will answer. But how fast will he be about responding (to a crisis)?”

 Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu listens as U.S. President Barack Obama (R) speaks, during their meeting in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington October 1, 2014. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

 Last month, U.S. officials accused the Israeli government of leaking information to the Israeli media to undermine the Iran negotiations and said this would limit further sharing of sensitive details about the talks.

 “What the prime minister is doing here is simply so egregious that it has a more lasting impact on that fundamental underlying relationship,” said Jeremy Ben-Ami, head of J Street, a liberal pro-Israel lobbying group aligned with Obama’s Iran policy.

 Netanyahu will address the influential pro-Israel lobby AIPAC on Monday. Even as he makes his hard-line case against Iran, he is expected to try to keep tensions from spiraling, mindful that Israelis are wary of becoming estranged from their superpower ally. ||||| VIENNA (Reuters) - The U.N. nuclear watchdog chief said on Monday Iran was being slow to cooperate with his agency’s investigation into the Iranian atomic program and that the inquiry could not continue indefinitely.

 International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Yukiya Amano waits for the start of a board of governors meeting at the IAEA headquarters in Vienna March 2, 2015. REUTERS/Heinz-Peter Bader

 Diplomats have voiced doubt over whether the outstanding issues in the U.N. investigation would be resolved before a broader diplomatic agreement is reached between Iran and the United States, Britain, France, China, Russia and Germany.

 The seven countries have set a deadline of late March for a framework deal and June for a comprehensive final settlement that would curb Iran’s nuclear activity to ensure it cannot be put to bombmaking in return for the lifting of international sanctions that have hammered the oil-based Iranian economy.

 When asked about a time frame for the U.N. inquiry running parallel to the higher-level negotiations, International Atomic Energy Agency chief Yukiya Amano said: “It depends on the level and pace of cooperation from Iran, I cannot tell by when...

 “We have asked questions and the questions are clear, so (Iran) can answer.”

 The Islamic Republic has yet to address two outstanding issues relating to alleged explosives tests and other measures that might have been used for nuclear bomb research which it should have explained away by last August.

 The West fears Iran wants to develop atomic bomb capability. Tehran says its program is for peaceful nuclear energy only.

 The IAEA remains ready to accelerate the resolution of all outstanding issues, Amano added, but “this process cannot continue indefinitely”. Iran’s leading negotiator Abbas Araqchi met with Amano last week, promising swifter cooperation, but neither side has spelled out any details.

 Iran wants Western countries to swiftly lift crippling economic sanctions in any deal curbing its nuclear program - one of the sticking points in high-level negotiations continuing in Switzerland this week.

 The IAEA is likely to monitor the implementation of any deal between Iran and the six powers. Amano said he proposed a 1.8-percent increase to the body’s 344-million-euro ($386 million) budget given increased demand for its services.

 He reiterated deep concern about the nuclear activities of North Korea, which quit the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in 1993. The IAEA has not had inspectors on the ground there since they were expelled by North Korea in 2009.

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 WASHINGTON — President Obama and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel offered radically divergent approaches to the perils of a nuclear-armed Iran on Monday even as they tried to cool down the personal nature of a long-distance dispute that has inflamed relations between the United States and Israel for more than a month.

 On the eve of Mr. Netanyahu’s hotly debated address to Congress, the two leaders separately disclaimed personal animosity while laying out what amounts to the biggest policy schism between the two countries in years. Mr. Obama defended his diplomatic efforts to negotiate a deal with Iran while Mr. Netanyahu presented them as dangerously naïve.

 “I have a moral obligation to speak up in the face of these dangers while there is still time to avert them,” Mr. Netanyahu told thousands of Israel supporters in Washington. “For 2,000 years, my people, the Jewish people, were stateless, defenseless, voiceless.” He added: “Today, we are no longer silent. Today, we have a voice. And tomorrow, as prime minister of the one and only Jewish state, I plan to use that voice”

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 In an interview a few hours later, Mr. Obama said that he and Mr. Netanyahu had a “substantial disagreement” over how to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons. But he suggested that Mr. Netanyahu was an alarmist, saying that the Israeli leader had been unduly skeptical of a preliminary accord intended to slow the Iranian nuclear program during negotiations aimed at a longer-term resolution.

 “Netanyahu made all sorts of claims — this was going to be a terrible deal, this was going to result in Iran getting $50 billion worth of relief, Iran would not abide by the agreement,” Mr. Obama told the Reuters news agency. “None of that has come true.”

 Mr. Obama said that any deal would have to ensure that Iran was not capable of building a nuclear weapon in less than a year, and that the agreement must stand for at least 10 years. “If they do agree to it,” he said, “it would be far more effective in controlling their nuclear program than any military action we could take, any military action Israel could take, and far more effective than sanctions will be.”

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 Mr. Netanyahu’s trip to Washington, coming just two weeks before Israeli elections and three weeks before a deadline in the Iran talks, has polarized politicians in both countries. The prime minister’s speech to a joint meeting of Congress on Tuesday — arranged by Speaker John A. Boehner without consulting the White House — immediately took on a partisan flavor, and Mr. Obama refused to meet with Mr. Netanyahu because his visit comes so close to the Israeli elections.

 Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and more than 50 Democratic lawmakers plan to skip Mr. Netanyahu’s speech. While the White House has not publicly encouraged a boycott, it sent an email late Monday inviting House Democratic aides to a trade meeting at the White House on Tuesday at a time that would make it hard for them to attend the speech. Advocates on both sides have published incendiary newspaper ads in recent days, including one attacking Susan E. Rice, the president’s national security adviser.

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 The president expressed grievance about the speaking invitation, which the White House has interpreted as a way of bashing Mr. Obama and undercutting the Iran talks. In the Reuters interview, Mr. Obama said it would be as if Democrats in Congress invited the French president to speak after opposing President George W. Bush’s invasion of Iraq. “I guarantee you that some of the same commentators who are cheerleading now would have suggested that it was the wrong thing to do,” he said.

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 But the president and his team also seemed intent on tamping down the intensity of the dispute. Secretary of State John Kerry, in Geneva for more talks with Iran, made a point of defending Israel before the United Nations Human Rights Council on Monday. And Mr. Obama sent Ms. Rice and Samantha Power, his ambassador to the United Nations, to address the American Israel Public Affairs Committee conference in Washington.

 “This is not a personal issue,” Mr. Obama said. “I think that it is important for every country in its relationship with the United States to recognize that the U.S. has a process of making policy.” Even though Ms. Rice said last week that the issue could be “destructive” to bipartisan support of Israel, Mr. Obama said Monday that it was a distraction and would not be “permanently destructive.”

 Mr. Netanyahu, appearing before an estimated 16,000 supporters of Israel at the Aipac conference, characterized the disagreement over Iran as a “family” fight that would ultimately be overcome, and he expressed gratitude to Mr. Obama for his support of Israel over the years.

 “My speech is not intended to show any disrespect to President Obama or the esteemed office that he holds,” Mr. Netanyahu told the crowd, which greeted him with standing ovations. “I have great respect for both.”

 He said he was sorry if anyone interpreted his visit as a political shot at Mr. Obama. “The last thing anyone who cares about Israel, the last thing that I would want, is for Israel to become a partisan issue,” he said, “and I regret that some people have misperceived my visit here this week as doing that. Israel has always been a bipartisan issue. Israel should always remain a bipartisan issue.”

 But he emphasized that the threat of a nuclear-armed Iran looked different from Jerusalem than it does from Washington. “American leaders worry about the security of their country,” Mr. Netanyahu said. “Israeli leaders worry about the survival of their country.”

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 Some supporters said they hoped Mr. Netanyahu’s measured language might defuse some of the anger of recent weeks. “I think he did well and lowered the temperature,” said Abraham H. Foxman, the national director of the Anti-Defamation League, who had called on Mr. Netanyahu to cancel the speech because of the fallout. “He could have pepped them up. He did not. It was an important message.”

 Opponents of Mr. Netanyahu said he had done lasting harm. “I’m here to do damage control,” said Erel Margalit, a Labor member of Parliament who attended the Aipac conference. “I’m here to say we, too, are very concerned about Iran becoming a threshold nuclear state, but we’re interested in getting the discussions back to where they were.”

 Republicans maintained that it was Mr. Obama who had done the damage by making a fuss over a speech rather than paying attention to the substance of Mr. Netanyahu’s message. “The address is an opportunity for you to hear from the leader of one of our closest allies about the grave threats we face from radical Islam and Iran,” Mr. Boehner’s office said in an email.

 The tension of the moment was reflected at the Aipac conference before Ms. Power’s speech, when the audience was advised to “treat all our speakers as guests in our home.” Ms. Power and Ms. Rice both used their speeches to reaffirm Mr. Obama’s support for Israel and his determination to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons.

 But Ms. Rice encountered skepticism when she laid out the argument for a possible deal, with the audience applauding the goal of barring Iran from nuclear enrichment altogether even as she called that unrealistic. “Sound bites won’t stop Iran from getting a nuclear weapon,” Ms. Rice said. “Strong diplomacy backed by pressure can.” ||||| An agreement on Iran’s nuclear program would be a momentous event in American-Iranian relations, and one that White House officials insist is the best hope for constraining Tehran’s nuclear ambitions and easing decades of animosity between Iran and the United States. But critics fear a deal will merely defer the day when Iran becomes a nuclear weapons state, while prompting Arab nations to consider developing their own nuclear deterrent.

 An accord could also be a major accomplishment for Mr. Kerry, 71, who has logged more than 309 travel days in the past two years, but whose major achievement to date is an agreement that required President Bashar al-Assad of Syria to give up his chemical arms — and left him ensconced in Damascus while the casualty toll from the conflict has continued to soar. Mr. Kerry’s intensive pursuit of a Middle East peace agreement ended in bitter recriminations between Israeli and Palestinian leaders, and he has little to show for his push to end the civil war in Syria.

 In Ukraine, it is the Germans and French who have the lead: No American officials were present when a shaky cease-fire was reached in talks with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia last month, and which Russia-backed separatists ignored by taking the town of Debaltseve.

 Mr. Kerry’s relationship with Mr. Zarif is not unique. Mr. Kerry has invested heavily in his relationships with other foreign figures, such as Mr. Netanyahu and Sergey V. Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, even when the payoff has not always been obvious.

 But Mr. Kerry clearly sees Mr. Zarif as a promising interlocutor at a time when conditions for a deal are better than they have been in years. Plummeting oil prices, economic sanctions and the Obama administration’s willingness to allow Iran to retain a limited capability to enrich uranium have provided Tehran with an incentive to negotiate.

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 Mr. Kerry’s diplomatic efforts with Mr. Zarif began at the United Nations in September 2013, when an introductory meeting scheduled for five minutes lasted for half an hour and ended with the diplomats exchanging email addresses and phone numbers.

 The relationship, however, has not always been harmonious. There were angry voices in a meeting in Muscat, Oman, last November, when the American side became frustrated by Mr. Zarif’s reluctance — or inability, given his tight negotiating instructions — to make important concessions. When the two sides were unable to surmount their differences later that month in Vienna, Mr. Kerry proclaimed that they had been brainstorming about new ideas and would seek a framework agreement by the end of March.

 In recent months, the pace, intensity and stakes of the talks have increased. After Mr. Zarif was criticized by the Iranian lawmakers for his stroll with Mr. Kerry in Geneva, he appeared to be taking no chances when the two sides reconvened in Munich in February and photographers were not permitted to record the traditional handshake and greetings at the start of the session.

 In an apparent effort to demonstrate his toughness to his Iranian critics, Mr. Zarif also told Iran’s state-controlled media that he had been instructed by Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, to stop shouting at Mr. Kerry.

 At the last round of talks, however, the two sides appeared to get down to business. As that negotiating session approached, the Iranians informed the United States that Mr. Zarif would be accompanied in Geneva by Ali Akbar Salehi, the director of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, who also served as foreign minister under Iran’s former president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. That prompted the United States to include Ernest J. Moniz, the secretary of energy, in the talks.

 Mr. Salehi and Mr. Moniz are also expected to be at the Montreux negotiations with the two foreign ministers.

 In the meantime, Mr. Kerry’s laserlike focus on getting an accord has unnerved Israel and prompted concerns in Saudi Arabia and other Arab foes of Tehran, anxieties Mr. Kerry is trying to quell even before an agreement has been forged.

 Mr. Kerry talked to Mr. Netanyahu by phone on Saturday, and discussed the Iran negotiations, the prime minister’s visit to Washington and the United States’ concern about the financial plight of the Palestinian Authority, even after criticizing him in public. (Mr. Kerry recently told Congress that the Israeli prime minister’s support for the George W. Bush administration’s effort to topple Saddam Hussein showed his judgment could not always been trusted. Mr. Kerry did not mention that he himself voted for a 2002 Senate resolution authorizing military action against Iraq if diplomatic efforts to eliminate its suspected weapons of mass destruction failed.)

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 Mr. Kerry has also made plans to try to ease Arab anxieties about the potential accord with Iran. After leaving Montreux, Mr. Kerry plans to head to Riyadh to meet on Thursday with the new Saudi king, Salman. His next step will be London, where he will meet with foreign ministers from Arab nations in the Persian Gulf.

 A European diplomat whose country is participating in the negotiations with Iran questioned last week whether Mr. Kerry was too involved. “You want to bring in the secretary of state at the end, to resolve the last differences, as a closer,” said the official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly about the talks. “He should not be involved in the day-to-day technical negotiations.”

 The Obama administration has sent Mr. Moniz and a team of experts to work on the technical issues with their Iranian counterparts in Montreux. But the next few weeks are expected to see a series of marathon meetings between the two foreign ministers, and with a deadline fast approaching, nobody is expecting Mr. Kerry to hold back now. ||||| Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu visits Jerusalem's holy Western Wall hours ahead of trip to Washington where he is expected to deliver controversial Congress speech on Iran. (Reuters)

 Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu visits Jerusalem's holy Western Wall hours ahead of trip to Washington where he is expected to deliver controversial Congress speech on Iran. (Reuters)

 Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s upcoming address to a joint meeting of Congress will probably be the most important speech of his career — and one that has already jeopardized relations between Israel and the United States.

 On Tuesday morning, Netanyahu will confront an American president and insist that the future of the State of Israel, and the world, is imperiled by a pending “bad deal” with Iran on its nuclear program.

 Also hanging in the balance is Netanyahu’s own political future. Just two weeks after the speech, Netanyahu will either be reelected to a historic fourth term as prime minister or be out of a job.

 Netanyahu has spent three terms as Israeli prime minister focused on the dangers posed by Iran. In his first address to Congress in 1996, he warned that an atomic Iran would “presage catastrophic consequences, not only for my country, and not only for the Middle East, but for all mankind.”

 His supporters call him prescient; his detractors say Netanyahu has been warning for 20 years that “time is running out” on the Iran threat. His critics say Netanyahu is a broken record, a Cassandra obsessed, willing to deeply damage U.S.-Israeli relations in a futile confrontation with the United States that wins Israel nothing.

 His opponents in Israel and the United States say the speech is mostly a cynical ploy to get reelected in a tight March 17 vote, by fear-mongering on Iran and by opposing an American president who is not very popular in Israel.

 On Tuesday morning, as Secretary of State John F. Kerry meets with his counterparts in Switzerland to try to complete a framework accord with Iran by the end of March, Netanyahu will stand at the lectern in Congress to tell Americans, essentially, that President Obama is either foolhardy or weak and about to sign a deal with the devil.

 Netanyahu will warn, as he has in the past, that the Americans are gambling on a radical Iranian regime run by Muslim clerics who deny the Holocaust, sponsor terrorist groups, support a murderous regime in Syria and pledge to destroy Israel.

 As his chartered plane wings toward Washington on Sunday afternoon, Netanyahu’s advisers say the final author of the speech will be Netanyahu himself.

 The prime minister’s press office released photographs of Netanyahu penning his speech in longhand.

 Netanyahu will write the speech because he considers himself not only an authority on the minutiae of the Iran nuclear program — the number, type and productivity of the centrifuges and the estimates of low-enriched uranium to the kilogram — but also an expert on U.S. politics and the American people.

 Netanyahu studied at MIT and served as Israeli ambassador to the United Nations in New York. He has been called the “most American” of Israeli prime ministers.

 This is his moment. Netanyahu’s English is fluid, conversational, persuasive and often blunt. He has a flair for stagecraft. His guiding light, says his inner circle, is Britain’s wartime premier and great orator, Winston Churchill, who is the only other foreign leader to have addressed a joint meeting of Congress three times.

 During Netanyahu’s second speech to Congress in May 2009, he received 29 standing ovations.

 Netanyahu’s critics in Israel and in the Obama administration warn that the Israeli leader is really no Churchill and that he has seriously miscalculated this time.

 Israeli relations with Democrats and the Obama administration are at a historic low.

 A top Israeli diplomat said that Netanyahu, if reelected, has already written off his relations with Obama in his last two years in the White House, a potentially perilous gambit for a Middle East leader surrounded by enemies.

 National security adviser Susan E. Rice on Tuesday denounced the upcoming address as “destructive” to the relationship between the United States and Israel.

 A senior U.S. official said Friday that the strategy is to stand aside and let Netanyahu give his speech, which will neither derail Iran talks nor sway Congress to block a possible agreement.

 The senior official, who agreed to present administration views in exchange for anonymity, said the speech is more about Netanyahu’s reelection bid and his preoccupation with Iran — a clear and present threat shared by the Obama White House, but approached in a more pragmatic manner.

 “The Netanyahu myth is that he alone understands the Americans,” said Alon Pinkas, a former Israeli consul general in New York and former adviser to four Israeli foreign ministers.

 Pinkas said the speech will be applauded by Republicans but will do little to shape the Iran deal. “He is a grumpy, old man. He’s like a Republican senator from West Jerusalem. He talks like them, he dresses like them. He is always saying, �?They’re against me! They don’t like me!’ He’s dealing with an America he doesn’t know.” Pinkas predicted the speech will fall flat.

 Israeli journalist and author of the best-selling history “My Promised Land,” Ari Shavit, said he expects Netanyahu to give “a brilliant and desperate speech.”

 Shavit is sympathetic. He sees the Iranian threat as more “bloodcurdling” than ever. Yet he says the prime minister has made a mistake by working against the U.S. administration rather than beside it.

 Now “Israel rather than Iran has been isolated,” Shavit wrote in a recent column .

 Netanyahu has opposed any deal with Iran that does not dismantle its uranium-enrichment program and insisted that economic sanctions should be stiffened, not lifted. Kerry and his negotiators have said such a deal is impossible.

 Senior administration officials say an imperfect agreement that freezes Iran’s nuclear ambitions and allows for monitoring leaves the world in a much safer place than a rogue Iran with the potential to rush toward a bomb in clandestine bunkers packed with centrifuges.

 Iran has long maintained that it seeks only a peaceful atom, and it is within its rights to research and exploit nuclear energy.

 Netanyahu does not believe this. The Israeli leader has brushed aside appeals by Jewish leaders in the United States, congressional Democrats and some of his allies at home to pull back and find a face-saving way to cancel the speech.

 In Israel, Netanyahu faces an extremely tight race for reelection against a surprisingly strong challenger, Isaac Herzog, leader of the Labor Party, who has pounded Netanyahu for endangering U.S.-Israeli relations with his speech.

 Two hundred former generals and commanders of the Israeli Defense Forces, Mossad intelligence agency, Shin Bet domestic security and National Police are scheduled to appear at a joint news conference Sunday to urge Netanyahu to avoid any further deterioration of the U.S.-Israeli strategic relationship.

 All this may help Netanyahu at home. “There will be nothing new in this speech,” said Dan Avnon, a lecturer of political theory at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. “The question here is who will be able to replace him? Can anyone else stand up in Congress and talk so forcefully against the leader of the United States? This has an effect on voters in Israel. People sit at home and say this man really steps up to the pressure.”

 “What will happen after the speech? I honestly don’t know,” said Yuval Steinitz, Israeli minister of intelligence and strategic affairs, a Netanyahu confidant and the Israeli government’s top authority on the nuclear talks.

 “It will be very clear this is a historic speech,” Steinitz said. “Because this issue is burning in his bones. He really feels that as prime minister of Israel this is his first priority, above all other issues.”

 Netanyahu’s speech is going to be especially challenging, as it must reach multiple audiences with multiple messages.

 “He is speaking to the people of Israel, his political system, to the administration, to Congress and to the American people, as well,” said Dore Gold, president of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs and a former foreign policy adviser to the prime minister who is still part of his inner circle.

 “I think the notion that this speech is for political purposes is baseless,” said Gold, a former Israeli ambassador to the United Nations.

 Netanyahu has reveled on the grand stages afforded him in past performances at the United Nations and before Congress. In a September 2012 address before the U.N. General Assembly, Netanyahu employed a kind of Wile E. Coyote drawing of a bomb with a fuse and took out a marker to draw a literal red line.

 Netanyahu’s intelligence minister said he has not seen a draft of the speech, but he said the prime minister will stress that leaving Iran with thousands of centrifuges and a stockpile of uranium — materials that Israelis say would allow Iran to break through to a nuclear bomb in months, not years — is too dangerous.

 “Our position is simple,” Steinitz said. “Iran built a nuclear program in secret, illegally. They want normal relations with the world? Okay, dismantle it.”

 Ruth Eglash and Anne Gearan contributed to this report. |||||

– Over the next two days, Washington will be a study in contrasts. Today, President Obama and two key advisers will push for a diplomatic means of avoiding a nuclear Iran; tomorrow, in a controversial speech to Congress, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will push back against the plan, the New York Times reports. To set the scene: Netanyahu left Tel Aviv yesterday for what he called "a fateful, even historic, mission" for which he is "an emissary of all Israel's citizens, even those who do not agree with me, and of the entire Jewish people," Reuters reports. His speech will likely call for boosted sanctions against Iran, but Obama has suggested he would veto any bill giving Congress a chance to legislate on the matter. This weekend, Netanyahu offered conciliatory words, saying he "respected" Obama and that "strength will prevail over differences of opinion." Obama will meet Reuters for an interview this afternoon, while National Security Adviser Susan Rice and UN Ambassador Samantha Power speak to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a group Netanyahu will also address, the Times reports. The paper sees the meetings as a chance for the administration to reaffirm its support for Israel. Indeed, John Kerry yesterday noted on ABC's This Week that Netanyahu "is welcome to speak in the United States, obviously. And we have a closer relationship with Israel right now in terms of security than at any time in history," Reuters reports. Kerry tomorrow will join international officials in Switzerland as they look to outline an Iranian deal by the month's end, the Washington Post reports. Kerry has been working closely—too closely, according to some Iranian lawmakers—with Iran's foreign minister to hammer out a deal, the Times reports. "He has made a huge investment of his time and energy in the talks, and his personal, hands-on involvement in recent months has been crucial to building momentum toward a deal," says an analyst. But some worry that Iran could read Kerry's "eagerness" as an opening to seek more concessions. Meanwhile, the UN's nuclear agency says Iran is coming up short on providing essential information, Reuters reports. "The (IAEA) is not in a position to provide credible assurance about the absence of undeclared nuclear material and activities in Iran, and therefore to conclude that all nuclear material in Iran is in peaceful activities," the agency's chief says.