Matty Ster/U.S. Embassy Tel Aviv via Getty Images(JERUSALEM) -- The U.S. and Great Britain are making a new push to restart peace talks between the Israelis and Palestinians that have gone nowhere for the past five years.

Secretary of State John Kerry and his British counterpart, Foreign Secretary William Hague, held talks Thursday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem and President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah.

Kerry acknowledged the daunting task that lies ahead in getting the two sides to bend after so much intransigence, telling reporters, "I know this region well enough to know that there is skepticism. In some quarters there is cynicism and there are reasons for it. There have been bitter years of disappointment."

Still, the top U.S. envoy is holding out hope that the Israelis and Palestinians will head back to the bargaining table to work out a deal guaranteeing a separate Palestinian state and more security for Israel.

The major obstacle remains the building of Jewish settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Abbas wants them stopped before he'll resume talks with Netanyahu while the prime minister says he'll only consider halting construction once peace discussions get underway.

In spite of the long odds, Netanyahu expressed confidence that talks can happen, adding, "Where there is a will, we will find a way."

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Dan Kitwood/Getty Images(LONDON) -- The two men who allegedly hacked a British soldier to death were known to intelligence services before the Wednesday incident, a British security official admitted Thursday. Still, the men weren't deemed enough of a threat to arrest or monitor.

British intelligence will likely face questions about whether they should have been able to stop the assault near an army barracks as police have now widened their investigation, raiding a suspect's father's home and combing, inch-by-inch, the area around the attack that raised fears of terrorism's return to London.

The soldier who died in southeast London has been identified as Drummer Lee Rigby of the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers. "Drummer" is the equivalent of "private" in the Fusiliers, an infantry regiment in the British Army.

He was a veteran of Afghanistan, having served in Helmand in 2009. Before deploying to Afghanistan, he had served as part of the Queen's Guard, standing duty outside London's royal palaces.

One of the alleged attackers was a British Christian who converted to Islam, according to Anjem Choudary, the former leader of the group Al Muhajiroun, a banned Islamist Organization.

He is Michael Adebolajo, who converted to Islam in 2003 and changed his name to Mujahid, meaning one who wages jihad, Choudary told ABC News.

Choudary said Adebolajo was never a member of Al Muhajiroun but he knew him because he attended the group's rallies from about 2005 to 2011.

After 2011, Choudary said, Adebolajo stopped attending rallies. Choudary said he has no idea what Adebolajo has been doing since, and he said that Adebolajo never suggested any antipathy to British soldiers or any willingness to commit violence.

"He was a very peaceful man," Choudary said. "Never saw any kind of violence streak in him. Very quiet, timid man, in fact."

Adebolajo is under arrest in the hospital, recovering from bullet wounds he suffered when police shot him after he allegedly killed the British soldier.

He apparently had no intention of getting away, asking passersby to call the police and inviting them to interview him on their camera phones. He spoke holding two bloody knives and his hands stained deep red, using rhetoric similar to that expressed in martyrdom videos.

"We swear by almighty Allah, we will never stop fighting you until you leave us alone, your people will never be safe," Abedolajo said calmly, according to ITV News, which first obtained the video. "Tell them to bring our troops back so we -- so you -- can all live in peace."

British police and politicians are concerned about blowback attacks, especially in the London district of Woolwich, the scene of Wednesday's attack, which has had a past history of racial tensions. A few hundred members of the anti-immigrant and right-wing party, the English Defense League, poured into Woolwich Wednesday night, wearing masks and throwing rocks at police. And police reported two separate attacks on Muslim centers in southern and eastern England.

In response, an additional 1,200 cops are patrolling London on Thursday, according to Scotland Yard, focusing on mosques and religious centers, as well as outside army barracks.

And British Prime Minister David Cameron took pains to appeal to all Britons, emphasizing that the attack wasn't only on a single soldier.

"This was not just an attack on Britain and the British way of life. It was also a betrayal of Islam and of the Muslim communities who give so much to our country," Cameron told reporters.

Police in Essex, east of London, arrested a 43-year-old who was holding a knife outside of a Muslim prayer center Wednesday night. They charged him with attempted arson as well as suspicion of possession of an offensive weapon, Essex police told ABC News.

And in Gillingham, Kent, which is south of London, another man was arrested Wednesday night outside a mosque on suspicion of racially aggravated criminal damage, Kent police told ABC News.

British Muslim organizations were quick to condemn the attack.

"We must come together, isolate those who believe that extremism and violence are acceptable, and work to ensure that they meet the full force of the law," Fiyaz Mughal, the director of Faith Matters, said in a statement. "We as the Muslim community will work against anyone who promotes such hatred."

Still, at a moment when much of the country was upset by a crime clearly designed to shock, there were signs of bravery.

After the attack, a mother of two named Ingrid Loyau-Kennett approached one of the attackers and engaged him in conversation. Loyau-Kennet can be seen in a photograph calmly talking to the man. He was holding a bloody knife, and she appeared unafraid.

"I just talked to him. He looked like a normal guy. He wasn't high, he wasn't on drugs. A normal guy pissed off with the fact [as he said], 'Muslim women and children are dying in their countries by the hand of white men,'" she told ITV's Daybreak. " He was very, very close to me. He was almost touching me ... I asked him, what's the point. [He said] 'war in London.'"

An ITV presenter asked her why she wasn't scared. "Better me than a child," Loyau-Kennet said. "Because, unfortunately, there were more and more mothers with children stopping around. So it was even more and more important that I talk to him and then ask him what he wanted."

Cameron called Loyau-Kennet a hero.

"When told by the attacker he wanted to start a war in London, she replied, 'You are going to lose. It is only you against many,'" Cameron said. "She spoke for us all."

Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio

File photo. iStockphoto/Thinkstock(Fjallsárlón, Iceland) -- American tourists dining on a glacier in eastern Iceland found themselves floating away from shore earlier this week, an Icelandic newspaper reported.

Four people were rescued from Fjallsárlón glacial lagoon. They had set up a table and chairs with plans for dinner when a gust of wind pushed the ice from the land. They were stranded about 30 feet from shore. One of the diners managed to jump to shore before the ice drifted too far and call for help.

The tourists have not been identified, but a photo captured three of the diners sitting in chairs, floating on a piece of ice that appears to be hardly larger than the table at which they were seated.

"When we arrived it was quite comical to see them sitting on chairs and with a table on an iceberg ...Yes, the dinner was over," Páll Sigurður Vignisson told Iceland Review. He did not notice what they had been eating.

However, Vignisson later told Iceland news service RUV, "They could have been in danger. We never know how ice will behave, if it rolls over and when -- we just don't know."

Fjallsárlón glacial lagoon is an isolated glacial lagoon in the realm of Vatnajökull, according to a local tour company. Vatnajökull is Europe's largest glacier.

Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio

Hemera/Thinkstock(LONDON) -- Anyone looking for a sign of British bravery in the face of terror should look no further than Ingrid Loyau-Kennett.

A British soldier had been hacked to death on the streets of southeast London Wednesday afternoon. His alleged killers carried butcher knives dripping with blood, stalking the scene.

Loyau-Kennett's bus had just stopped in front of the killing. Some people might have shielded their eyes and fled. Instead, the mother of two and Cub Scout leader got off the bus and walked straight for the man whose hands were stained a deep red.

"I just talked to him. He looked like a normal guy. He wasn't high, he wasn't on drugs. A normal guy pissed off with the fact, [as he said], 'Muslim women and children are dying in their countries by the hand of white men,'" she told Daybreak, a morning news program on the British channel ITV. "He was very, very close to me. He was almost touching me... I asked him, what's the point. [He said] 'war in London.'"

The man was Michael Adebolajo, a Briton who converted to Islam in 2003 and changed his name to Mujahid, according to Anjem Choudary, the former leader of a banned Islamist Organization whose rallies Adebolajo attended.

Loyau-Kennett, 48, talked with him before police arrived, hoping to keep his focus on her and off the other eyewitnesses. Nearby, a school was just about to let out, and she hoped to shield the children.

Loyau-Kennett admitted she wasn't trained for anything like this, but said her former teacher instincts kicked in.

"Were you scared?" ITV presenter Lorraine Kelly asked.

"No," Loyau-Kennett replied. "Better me than a child. Because, unfortunately, there were more and more mothers with children stopping around. So it was even more and more important that I talk to him and then ask him what he wanted."

British Prime Minister David Cameron praised Loyau-Kennett by name as he spoke to reporters outside 10 Downing Street. He hailed her as a hero, and said she represented the nation.

Loyau-Kennett, who was in London to celebrate her son's birthday, kept speaking with Adebolajo until she noticed her bus was about to leave.

"So I asked the guy last time, is there anything more I could do for him?

"He said no, 'I just want to shoot the police.'"

Loyau-Kennett got on her bus, assured that the police could handle him. Minutes later, Adebolajo lay on the ground, bleeding after being shot multiple times by a police officer.

Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio

SHAH MARAI/AFP/Getty Images(KABUL, Afghanistan) -- Afghan President Hamid Karzai won't run in 2014. Actually, he can't. The flamboyant and often inscrutable leader is barred by his constitution from seeking a third term.

Karzai asserted that there is "no circumstance that will allow me to stay as president" when asked whether he'll try to get around term limits while on a visit to India Wednesday.

According to the Afghan president, he's actually ready for retirement after eight grueling years. But even more importantly, Karzai asked rhetorically, "Why would I ruin my legacy by staying on and taking an opportunity away from Afghanistan to become an institutionalized democracy?"

Despite his sometimes puzzling statements about U.S.-Afghan relations, Karzai is a known commodity to the West unlike other potential candidates.

The national elections are set for next April just as U.S. and NATO allies prepare to withdraw most of their military forces from Afghanistan. Washington and Kabul are still trying to hammer out a post-war agreement about what the U.S. role will be in Afghanistan after 2014.

As for how the country will manage without coalition forces to repel foreign and domestic militants, Karzai seemed unperturbed, predicting that Afghanistan is much different from Iraq because there are no sectarian tensions to deal with.

Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio

iStockphoto/Thinkstock(LONDON) -- British authorities are debating whether to raise the country's threat level one day after a British soldier was hacked to death by suspects shouting jihadist slogans in southeast London.

Britain's top leaders held an emergency meeting Thursday in the equivalent of the White House Situation Room, deciding whether they believe the assault could lead to more attacks.

Counterterrorism police searched a home in northeast England, according to police in Lincolnshire, and officers were seen meticulously searching a parking garage and a lawn in Woolwich, where the attack took place. They also continue to interview the two suspects, who are in the hospital under arrest after they were both shot by armed police. It's unclear whether they are cooperating with authorities.

One of the alleged attackers was a British Christian who converted to Islam, according to Anjem Choudary, the former leader of the group Al Muhajiroun, a banned Islamist Organization.

Choudary told ABC News that the killer's name is Michael Adebolajo, who converted to Islam in 2003 and changed his name to Mujahid, meaning one who wages jihad.

Choudary said Adebolajo was never a member of Al Muhajiroun, but knew him because he attended the group's rallies from about 2005 to 2011.

After 2011, Choudary said, Adebolajo stopped attending rallies. Choudary said he has no idea what Adebolajo has been doing since, and he said that Adebolajo never suggested any antipathy to British soldiers or any willingness to commit violence.

"He was a very peaceful man," Choudary told ABC News. "Never saw any kind of violence streak in him. Very quiet, timid man, in fact."

After the attack, instead of fleeing the scene, Abedolajo and his alleged accomplice invited eyewitnesses to interview them on their camera phones. Abedolajo spoke to one eyewitness while holding two bloody knives. His hands were stained deep red and he used rhetoric similar to that used in martyrdom videos.

"We swear by almighty Allah, we will never stop fighting you until you leave us alone, your people will never be safe," Abedolajo said calmly, according to ITV News, which first obtained the video. "Tell them to bring our troops back so we -- so you -- can all live in peace."

The attack occurred a few hundred feet from an army barracks in Woolwich, home to the Princess of Wales' regiment and the King's Troop, a ceremonial unit. Authorities have increased security at the 10 army barracks across London, according to British officials.

British Prime Minister David Cameron praised the police response Thursday morning.

"This was not just an attack on Britain and the British way of life. It was also a betrayal of Islam," Cameron told reporters after chairing the meeting of senior government officials. "There is nothing in Islam that justifies this truly barbaric act."

Police and community leaders feared violent backlashes following the attack, especially in Woolwich, which has had a past history of racial tensions.

A few hundred members of the anti-immigrant and right-wing party the English Defense League poured into the area last night, wearing masks and throwing rocks at police. And police reported two separate attacks on Muslim centers in southern and eastern England.

Police in Essex, east of London, arrested a 43-year-old who was holding a knife outside of a Muslim prayer center Wednesday night. They charged him with attempted arson as well as suspicion of possession of an offensive weapon, Essex police told ABC News.

And in Gillingham, Kent, which is south of London, another man was arrested Wednesday night outside a mosque on suspicion of racially aggravated criminal damage, Kent police told ABC News.

British Muslim organizations were quick to condemn the attack.

"We must come together, isolate those who believe that extremism and violence are acceptable, and work to ensure that they meet the full force of the law," Fiyaz Mughal, the director of Faith Matters, said in a statement. "We as the Muslim community will work against anyone who promotes such hatred."

Still, at a moment when much of the country was upset by a crime clearly designed to shock, there were signs of impressive bravery.

After the attack, a mother of two Ingrid Loyau-Kennett approached one of the attackers and engaged him in conversation. Loyau-Kennet can be seen in a photograph calmly talking to the man. He was holding a bloody knife and she appeared unafraid.

"I just talked to him. He looked like a normal guy. He wasn't high, he wasn't on drugs. A normal guy pissed off with the fact [as he said], 'Muslim women and children are dying in their countries by the hand of white men,'" she told ITV's Daybreak. "He was very, very close to me. He was almost touching me ...I asked him, what's the point. [He said] 'war in London.'"

Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio

iStockphoto/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) -- Two octogenarian climbers are facing off once again to earn the title of the oldest man to reach the summit of Mount Everest.

Yuichiro Miura, of Japan, is ascending the mountain in hopes of taking home the Guinness World Record that slipped away from him in May 2008, when he was just 75 years and 227 days.

Miura was beaten to the peak by Nepalese climber Min Bahadur Sherchan, who successfully made the climb one day before him, at the age of 76 and 340 days, according to the Guinness World Records website.

Five years later, both men meet again at Everest to test what is perceived to be possible when it comes to one of the greatest physical challenges a climber can endure.

Miura's daughter, Emili Miura, told ABC News in an email that her father is "scheduled to make [the] final attempt toward summit today."

"Anybody functioning in their 70s and 80s is going to be an elite athlete if they're there," RMI Expeditions mountain guide Alex Van Steen told ABC News. "I think the myth to bust might be the fact that if an 80-year-old can do it, Everest must be easy. It's not that way."

"There's a significant health risk [in climbing Everest]," Van Steen said. "It doesn't matter if you're 40 or if you're 80."

Van Steen, who has attempted Everest's North Ridge twice but never reached the summit, said that once a climber reaches a certain altitude, it becomes difficult to perform at a high physical level in the oxygen-limited area.

"I always paint a picture, it's as if you had just come off a nasty cold and have a hundred-pound bag of concrete on your back and you have to run a marathon," Van Steen said. "It feels oppressive. Maybe not to everyone, but it makes it difficult to function."

According to his Facebook page, Miura, 80, had reached the 8,500-meter mark on Wednesday, close to the 8,850-meter summit. He posted a photo of himself and a fellow climber enjoying tea.

Meanwhile, 81-year-old Sherchan's journey to the mountain's apex has just begun. He posted a photo of himself at Everest base camp on Tuesday to his Facebook.

If Miura reaches the summit, his record will only hold if Sherchan is not successful in his expedition.

While Miura is the only man to summit Everest twice after turning 70 years old, according to his website, he set a goal for himself to revisit the climb at the age of 80.

"It is to challenge [my] own ultimate limit. It is to honor the great Mother Nature," he stated on his expedition's website. "If the limit of age 80 is at the summit of Mt. Everest, the highest place on earth, one can never be happier."

But Miura's journey has not been without limitations.

He fractured his pelvis in 2009, just one year after his second Everest Summit, his expedition's website stated. He was told a full recovery would be unlikely at the age of 76, but just six months after the injury, he was back in training to attain his goal.

He also suffered from arrhythmia and metabolic issues.

Despite the health and safety risks that await climbers regardless of age, these men would not be attempting the summit if they were not extreme athletes.

"Climbing Everest requires an enormous amount of training, fitness, and willpower," said Van Steen. "That probably offsets however many issues they have."

Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio