Invent Op

KABUL, Afghanistan — U.S.-led coalition troops killed 14 road-construction workers in airstrikes in eastern Afghanistan after receiving faulty intelligence, Afghan officials said today.

The coalition said only that it was looking into the incident.

The engineers and laborers had been building a road for the U.S. military in mountainous Nuristan province and were sleeping in two tents in the remote area when they were killed Monday night, said Sayed Noorullah Jalili, director of the Kabul-based road-construction company Amerifa. There were no survivors, he said.

“All of our poor workers have been killed,” Jalili said. “I don’t think the Americans were targeting our people. I’m sure it’s the enemy of the Afghans who gave the Americans this wrong information.”

The company has requested that the U.S. military investigate the source of its information, Jalili said.

Nuristan Gov. Tamim Nuristani said the coalition conducted airstrikes after receiving reports that “the enemy” was in the area, and hit the road construction workers as they were sleeping.

Jalili said the workers were from four nearby provinces, and all but three of the bodies were returned to their homes.

Earlier this year, foreign troops came under scathing criticism for conducting airstrikes based on poor intelligence and causing a number of civilian casualties.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai pleaded repeatedly with NATO and coalition troops to cooperate closely with their Afghan counterparts to prevent civilian deaths.

This has been the deadliest year yet for Afghanistan since the U.S.-led invasion in 2001, with more than 6,000 people killed in extremist attacks and military operations, according to an AP tally of figures from Afghan and western officials.

Serves 10

Roasted Red Peppers (recipe follows)

Black Olive Tapenade (recipe follows)

Crostini (recipe follows)

1 pound seedless red grapes, cut into clusters

1 wedge (8 to 10 ounces) Brie

1 log (8 ounces) soft goat cheese

1 wedge (8 ounces) Gorgonzola (see Kitchen Note for other ideas)

2 cups almonds (plain or smoked)

Fresh basil leaves, stemmed

1 French baguette, sliced

1. Prepare Roasted Red Peppers, Black Olive Tapenade and crostini the day before serving. Rinse grapes and cut into clusters; refrigerate.

2. About one half-hour before serving, bring Brie, goat cheese and Gorgonzola to room temperature. Arrange on a serving platter or board with clusters of grapes and small bowls of almonds. Cover loosely.

3. Up to a half-hour before serving, place basil leaves on half of the crostini and top with a small spoonful of Black Olive Tapenade. Spoon Roasted Red Peppers on the remaining crostini. Arrange on a platter, cover and refrigerate. Or, serve peppers, tapenade and crostini in separate bowls for a more casual presentation.

4. Just before serving, slice baguette and put into a basket to the side of the cheese board.

Times Kitchen Note: Many different combinations of cheese can be served besides those suggested. Camembert or a triple crème cheese such as Explorateur or Pierre-Robert can replace the brie, and a mild, semisoft sheep’s milk cheese such as Brin d’Amour can replace the goat’s milk. Any other blue cheese can replace the Gorgonzola, or switch completely to a good aged cheddar or the local Beecher’s Flagship cheese.

Adapted from “Dishing with Style” by Rori Trovato

Delta Air Lines increased most domestic round-trip fares by $20 to help cover surging fuel prices.

The increase in leisure fares purchased at least 14 days before travel, and business tickets bought closer to flights, was put in place Monday, Delta spokeswoman Betsy Talton said in an e-mail Tuesday.

“In the face of record fuel costs, fares remain comparatively low,” Talton said.

If other airlines adopt the Delta increase, it would be the eighth by major U.S. carriers since Sept. 1.

American Airlines, United Airlines, Northwest Airlines and US Airways said they were studying whether to match the increase. Continental Airlines hasn’t adopted it, spokeswoman Julie King said.

Delta raised prices by increasing the surcharge it places on tickets to help offset higher fuel costs, said Rick Seaney, chief executive officer of FareCompare.com.

Boosting surcharges instead of base fares can confuse competitors, and the charges are easier to rescind if needed, Seaney said in an e-mail.

Law-enforcement officers in King County have arrested five men so far as part of a weeklong crackdown on unregistered sex offenders in five counties.

Gov. Christine Gregoire called for Operation Crackdown as part of her push for better supervision of sex offenders out on the streets. A new state law makes it a felony for failing to register as a sex offender.

In King County there are 31 offenders wanted on outstanding warrants, most for failure to register, said Leslie Mills, a Department of Corrections Northwest Community Response Unit supervisor.

Mills said Seattle police, King County sheriff’s deputies and Corrections staff have spent much of the past day visiting addresses where offenders told state officials they would be living.

“We’re doing knock-and-talks,” Mills said. “We have been given a week to do this.”

The program got under way Monday in King and Yakima counties and will expand to Chelan, Douglas and Spokane counties in the coming days.

King County Sheriff Sue Rahr said the county has enough jail space for new inmates.

Gregoire also announced that state Attorney General Rob McKenna has given approval to expanding the state’s ankle-bracelet monitoring of some high-risk sex offenders in their home communities.

The program, which began a few months ago, has about a dozen offenders on electronic monitoring, said acting state prison chief Eldon Vail. Originally, the state thought the bracelets could be ordered only for inmates who were convicted in the past few years, an estimated 50 ex-cons, but McKenna’s opinion now allows that program to expand to perhaps 150, picking up inmates whose convictions were as early as 2000 and 2001, he said.

The actions grew out of a task force Gregoire had appointed on sex offenders. The governor and her advisers have asked the Legislature to greatly expand community tracking of offenders and allow broader use of DNA testing.

Gregoire appointed the panel in response to the case of Terapon Adhahn, a convicted sex offender who has pleaded not guilty to kidnapping, rape and murder charges in the July abduction and slaying of 12-year-old Zina Linnik of Tacoma.

Seattle Times staff reporter Jennifer Sullivan contributed to this report.

One of Bill Doba’s most memorable victories turned out to be his last.

Two days after coaching Washington State to a dramatic come-from-behind 42-35 win over Washington, Doba is now a 67-year-old former football coach.

Doba was told by WSU athletic director Jim Sterk on Monday morning that he thought it would be best for the program if a coaching change was made.

The meeting then moved to include new WSU president Elson S. Floyd.

Doba, who steadfastly maintained publicly that he wouldn’t resign, agreed to go peacefully and went along with the official news-release terminology that it was a “mutual decision.”

When a reporter said he didn’t believe it was a mutual agreement, Doba replied, “Well, that’s your problem. … Did you hear them? They said mutual agreement.”

Sterk said Doba, who publicly stated he wanted to coach next season, “couldn’t see himself coaching two or three more years.”

At a news conference hours after the meetings, Doba sounded almost cheerful at times and acknowledged his age was being used against him in recruiting by other schools.

Doba said “negative press and Internet and rumors” made it difficult to recruit.

“The recruit wants to know if you will be there when he’s there,” Doba said. “Our opponents, not all of them, but many people, use that [against us], asking, ‘Who’s going to be your coach when you’re a senior?’ And that’s a legitimate question. And I honestly couldn’t feel right sitting in some kid’s living room and looking him in the eye and saying, ‘I’m going to be there the full time you’re going to be there.’ ”

Doba added: “The name of the game is recruiting. And I felt if I was going to hurt this university or this program, it was time for me to get the heck out of here.”

Doba called his 19 years in Pullman, the last five as head coach, “a great ride.”

“No regrets, no animosity,” he said.

Doba finishes with a 30-29 record. His only bowl appearance and winning season as coach was his first, in 2003, when the Cougars upset Texas in the Holiday Bowl. He was 3-2 against Washington.

Bob Robertson, the voice of Cougars football for 41 seasons, said he is “absolutely appalled” at the decision to remove Doba.

“It sends the wrong message about all the good things I’ve felt about the Cougars through all the years,” Robertson said. “WSU has always been a family thing. This seems cold and heartless.”

It will cost WSU $2.8 million to honor the contracts of Doba and his staff. Sterk said the athletic department is responsible for coming up with the money but said details were not finalized. It’s possible some of the assistants will be retained by the next Cougars coach.

Sterk said Bill Moos, a former WSU player who most recently was athletic director at Oregon, will work as a consultant in the Cougars’ coaching search. Moos now lives outside Spokane.

Sterk said professor Ken Casavant, WSU’s faculty representative to the Pac-10, will work with John Johnson, senior associate athletic director, to screen candidates. Sterk said Doba has agreed to be involved as an adviser, though Doba didn’t sound very enthusiastic about the assignment when asked by reporters.

California defensive coordinator Bob Gregory, a Spokane native who played at WSU in the mid-1980s, is considered an obvious candidate. And former Cougars coach Mike Price, 61, has been mentioned, too. Price, who coached at WSU from 1989-2002 before leaving to become head coach at Alabama, just completed his fourth year as head coach at Texas-El Paso.

Doba said he isn’t interested in a scenario that would have him rejoin WSU staff as defensive coordinator under Price.

“I want to take a couple of years off,” Doba said. He said he wants to play golf, fish and watch his grandson play football. Doba is an Indiana native and his children live in the Midwest.

Two other potential candidates are Montana coach Bobby Hauck and Eastern Washington coach Paul Wulff, who played on the 1988 WSU Aloha Bowl team.

Doba said he wants to be remembered “as a guy who loved my job. I had a great time. I didn’t cheat. I didn’t do anything to embarrass this university and I want to be remembered as a players’ coach.”

Craig Smith: 206-464-8279 or csmith@seattletimes.com

Final totals

Following is Bill Doba’s year-by-year head coaching career:

Year

Overall

Pac-10

2003

10-3*

6-2

2004

5-6

3-5

2005

4-7

1-7

2006

6-6

4-5

2007

5-7

3-6

Total

30-29

17-25

* Includes a Holiday Bowl win over Texas.

GRAHAM, Pierce County - Nearly a month before a convicted killer from Massachusetts was arrested in the Nov. 17 slaying of a Graham couple, Massachusetts police asked Washington state authorities to find him and monitor his activities.

Washington authorities were told they couldn’t arrest Daniel Tavares Jr. because a warrant issued for him in a Massachusetts assault case did not call for his extradition.

The revelation that Tavares was on police radar a month before the slayings adds to the complexity of a case that’s gained attention on both coasts and is even figuring into the race for the presidency.

In early October, Washington State Patrol Trooper George Mars went to Graham in his unmarked police car, where he sat and monitored a house and multiple trailers on property owned by Tavares’ in-laws. Massachusetts State Police had asked Washington authorities - including the FBI - to determine if Tavares lived at the home and see if he was participating in any white-supremacist activities, said FBI spokeswoman Robbie Burroughs, in Seattle.

“They said, ‘We think the guy is out there, and get a good address, but … don’t contact him, whatever you do,’ ” Burroughs said.

But after several days of monitoring the property, Mars reported that the 41-year-old was never seen, a Patrol spokeswoman said Monday.

Neighbors who spoke to Mars were never told why the trooper was watching the property, or that Tavares had been convicted and served time in Massachusetts for butchering his mother with a carving knife.

Pierce County Sheriff’s Department spokesman Ed Troyer said his agency was never notified about Tavares. He said someone should have warned them that Tavares was living in Graham as a courtesy.

“The guys had a warrant for his arrest. He killed his mom, threatened politicians, threatened to kill his dad, threatened officers of the law, then comes out there. Absolutely, neighbors and others should have known,” Troyer said. “It would have been a lot nicer if they would have contacted us. It’s our jurisdiction.”

Troyer concedes there is very little the department could have done if they knew about Tavares, other than having deputies who patrol the rural neighborhood familiarize themselves with him.

“We couldn’t arrest him because the warrant was nonextraditable,” Troyer said.

The case attracted national attention after it was revealed that a judge who allowed Tavares to remain free pending trial in an assault case had been appointed by GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney when he was the governor of Massachusetts. Romney then called for the judge’s resignation.

Days after Mars’ unsuccessful surveillance, Tavares’ name came up again during an FBI meeting in Washington, D.C., on presidential candidates’ security, Burroughs said. While in prison, Tavares had threatened to kill Romney, and federal law enforcement had him on their radar as a security threat on the campaign trail.

Tavares was arrested Nov. 19 in the execution-style shootings of newlyweds Brian and Beverly Mauck.

Since moving to Graham last summer, Tavares had lived in a trailer feet from the Maucks’ house.

On the morning of Nov. 17, Tavares went to the Maucks’ home to collect $50 he believed Brian Mauck owed him for a tattoo he was putting on Mauck’s back, according to relatives of the victims.

Mauck, 30, was supposed to pay Tavares $50 up front and $50 when he completed the inking, said Darrel Slater, Beverly Mauck’s father.

Prosecutors allege that Tavares killed the couple over the $50 debt and because he had been insulted by Brian Mauck.

Pierce County prosecutors are considering whether to seek the death penalty against Tavares.

Tavares moved to Washington to marry a woman he met through a prison pen-pals program. According to Pierce County records, the couple were married July 30 - soon after he was released from prison.

Jennifer Tavares, 37, has been charged with one count of misdemeanor rendering criminal assistance. Prosecutors say she lied to authorities after the slayings in an attempt to protect her husband.

Tavares served 16 years behind bars in Massachusetts for stabbing his mother to death in 1991.

One employee of the Massachusetts Department of Corrections, who asked that his name not be used to protect his job, remembers Tavares as one of the worst inmates he has ever come into contact with.

“He was just a profane, obscene and foul man to deal with,” the employee said Monday. “He was a guy difficult to deal with in a maximum-security setting. I could’t imagine him drunk or high in a normal community setting.”

The prison employee said Tavares spit on guards, hurled food trays and threw urine on other inmates. He said Tavares, who he labeled a racist, wrote letters threatening to kill Romney and a prosecutor. Tavares also threatened to kill the state prisons chief, as well as corrections staff, he said.

The prison employee said Tavares was punished inside prison for punching a guard and for spitting on another guard. Even though Tavares was a troublemaker, he received enough “good time” credits to be released from prison nearly two years early, the employee said.

Tavares completed his sentence in June, but before he was released, prosecutors in Massachusetts charged him with assaulting two guards and asked that he be kept in custody. A district-court judge ordered Tavares held on $50,000 bail on each count, but Tavares appealed the ruling.

On July 16, Superior Court Judge Kathe Tuttman ordered Tavares released on his own recognizance, rejecting arguments from a prosecutor that he posed a flight risk. Tuttman also rejected the prosecutor’s request to place a tracking device on Tavares.

Tuttman ordered Tavares to live with his sister in Massachusetts and report by telephone three times a week to probation officials to confirm where he was living and any employment.

Tavares reported to probation officials July 18, but failed to appear for a court hearing July 23, prompting a warrant to be issued for his arrest. But the warrant did not include an extradition request from a state as far as away as Washington because of the cost.

On Saturday, Romney called for Tuttman to resign.

Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani has cited the case to criticize Romney’s record on crime. But others have come to the judge’s defense, including the chief justice of the Massachusetts Superior Court.

Chief Justice Barbara Rouse said Monday that Tuttman applied the law to the facts that were before her when she made the decision to free Tavares.

“Today, unfortunately, she is living every judge’s nightmare: that a principled decision based on the law and the information provided to her was followed by tragic events over which she had no control,” Rouse said in a statement.

While Romney was in Seattle Nov. 19, Massachusetts police contacted his campaign to report that Tavares might be living in Washington state, a Romney spokesman said.

Information from The Associated Press is included in this report.

Jennifer Sullivan: 206-464-8294

Steve Miletich: 206-464-3302

KIRKLAND - The Seahawks went straight to work Monday looking at game film from what was not one of their best efforts Sunday at St. Louis, even though they came out with a 24-19 win.

At least one of their teammates won’t be joining them when on-field preparation for the Philadelphia game begins Wednesday at team headquarters.

Wide receiver D.J. Hackett reinjured his previously sprained right ankle during the game and will miss “over two weeks,” coach Mike Holmgren said Monday. That was the extent of what Holmgren knew about how long Hackett won’t be able to play, but Hackett missed six games with a high ankle sprain earlier this season.

Hackett is fourth on the team in catches (28) and yards (343) in five games played this season.

Hasselbeck OK, Tatupu might rest

Quarterback Matt Hasselbeck said he felt good Monday, much better than he did at the same time last week.

After Sunday’s game, Hasselbeck was retching loudly in the locker room, then came out and told reporters he was exhausted. Holmgren attributed the exhaustion to the fact that Hasselbeck didn’t practice most of the previous week because of pain in his ribs and side inflicted by the Chicago Bears, and that Hasselbeck took a lot of punishment from the Rams defense.

“I thought he played a rather courageous game,” Holmgren said.

Hasselbeck is expected to practice this week and said his ribs are not really a big issue.

“I think everybody’s a little sore. It was a tough game,” Hasselbeck said.

Middle linebacker Lofa Tatupu has injured ribs and is sore, enough that Holmgren will keep Tatupu out of practice the early part of this week but hopes to get him back before the team leaves for Philadelphia.

“He’s a stud. He’s a tough guy,” Holmgren said of Tatupu, also labeling him as a “throwback” type of player because Tatupu has such a desire to play, even when hurting.

As for running back Shaun Alexander, Holmgren said he has a good chance to play if he practices Wednesday, but he didn’t say whether Alexander would practice.

Seattle Sea-Sacks

The Seahawks are third in the NFL in sacks with 35, and their defense knocked an opponent’s starting quarterback out of the game for the third time on Sunday.

The Rams’ Marc Bulger absorbed a hit from Seattle’s Leroy Hill early in the first quarter and suffered a concussion, though Bulger stayed in the game for two more series. Bulger joined Tampa Bay’s Jeff Garcia and San Francisco’s Alex Smith as the three signal callers who were lost for either the entire game or a good part of it after being hit by Seahawks.

Hill drilled Garcia with a blow to the chin in Week 1, but Garcia was able to return to action after missing half of the third and fourth quarters. Rocky Bernard dropped Smith in Week 4 and caused a shoulder injury.

The Seahawks’ Patrick Kerney is second in the NFL in sacks with 10 ½.

Milestones

Seahawks return man Nate Burleson has the team record for most punt returns in a season with 42 after returning six punts against the Rams. Seahawks pro personnel director Will Lewis had 41 in 1980.

Also, 2007 marks the first time the Seahawks have had two kickoff-return touchdowns in a season. Josh Wilson got one Sunday and Burleson has the other.

The Seahawks gave up their longest run of the season when Steven Jackson ran for a 53-yard touchdown. On the flip side, Maurice Morris had the longest Seattle run of the season (46 yards) on Sunday.

Notes

• Holmgren said he thought SS Deon Grant and CB Kelly Jennings might have had their best games as Seahawks on Sunday at St. Louis. Grant had six tackles and Jennings helped hold WR Torry Holt to five catches for 54 yards.

• Holmgren said he was not happy with the way snapper Boone Stutz got the ball back to holder Ryan Plackemeier for field goals Sunday, two of which the Seahawks missed. He called the snaps “too much of an adventure right now.”

José Miguel Romero: 206-464-2409 or jromero@seattletimes.com

Seattle comedy contest has winner

The 28th annual Seattle International Stand Up Comedy Competition is over, and a Salt Lake City performer who goes by the single name Marcus is getting the last laugh. He took first place in the nearly monthlong competition, winning $5,000 and a Dec. 6-8 gig at Seattle’s Comedy Underground.

Other top-five finishers: Tony Boswell ( Chicago); Leif Skyving (Boise); and Northwest residents Key Lewis and Geoff Lott.

Marcus incorporates music, dance and celebrity voices into his routines. More information on his Dec. 6-8 shows: 206-628-0303, www.ticketweb.com or www.comedyunderground.com.

Seattle Times staff

“Idols” in “Black Nativity”

A trio of local singing contestants from the hit reality TV series “American Idol” will take solo turns in Intiman Theatre’s holiday musical, “Black Nativity,” Sunday. By far the best known is Sanjaya Malakar, the controversial entertainer who placed seventh in this year’s “Idol” contest. Also appearing will be Karma Johnson (from the 2002 season of “American Idol”) and Leah Vladowski (from season 2004).

All three performers are alums of Seattle singer Patrinell Wright’s Total Experience Gospel Choir, which performs annually in “Black Nativity: A Gospel Song Play.”

Malakar, Johnson and Vladowski will appear in the shows at 2 and 7:30 p.m. Sunday Tickets and information for those shows and other performances of “Black Nativity,” which runs through Dec. 28:206-269-1900 or www.intiman.org.

New City finds new home

Another footloose drama company has found a place to dwell on Capitol Hill. New City Theatre is now installed in its new home, a 900-square-foot performance space at 1404 18th Ave., between Union and Pike streets.

According to New City artistic director John Kazanjian, the venue is titled New City Art Center and will officially open in January with a new work by writer-actor Kristen Kosmas. The show will be followed in February, tentatively, with a Holly Hughes play presented by the New City Gay & Lesbian Theater Project.

New City also plans to host an annual festival next March that showcases work by local actors, playwrights and directors. More information: newcitytheater@comcast.net or 206-271-4430.

Misha Berson,

Seattle Times theater critic

Christmas in NW online, on CD

Ready for Christmas tunes? Then check out “Christmas in the Northwest Radio,” streaming continuously online at www.christmasinthenorthwest.com, courtesy of Children’s Music Fund. Steve Lawson, executive producer, said in a statement that the project is a promotion of the 10 CDs by “Christmas in the Northwest” artists, and a fundraiser for four children’s hospitals in Washington and Oregon. A visit to the Web site will give listeners a link to continuous streaming of all 10 of the “Christmas in the Northwest” CDs, with no commercials.

Among the artists: Kirkland resident and Grammy nominee Stacie Orrico, the Dave Matthews Band, Harvey Danger, Heart, Pete Droge, LeRoy Bell, Kenny G and the Steve Miller Band.

For more information about Children’s Music Fund and the “Christmas in the Northwest” series, or to listen to song samples from previous albums, visit www.christmasinthenorthwest.com or www.myspace.com/christmasinthenorthwest.

A classical Christmas

Fans of classical Christmas music can now hear all Christmas, all the time, too, through Dec. 25 by visiting the new KING-FM Christmas Channel in HD radio at www.KING.org. There the station is streaming traditional carols and holiday classics on demand, the perfect option for listeners around the world who have no desire to hear another pop crooner intoning “Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire.”

The KING-FM Christmas Channel will also be available 24 hours per day for local audiences in HD at 98.1 HD-2, said Bryan Lowe, the station’s program director, in a statement. The station has been streaming 98.1 Classical KING-FM on the Internet since 1985, with a current average of 450,000 listening sessions each month, and an average time spent listening of 110 minutes.

Melinda Bargreen,

Seattle Times music critic

A 47-year-old Kirkland man was sentenced Monday to more than five years in prison and ordered to pay nearly $1.7 million in restitution for conspiracy to commit health-care fraud, a sentence federal prosecutors say is the longest for the crime ever handed down in Western Washington.

The government said Alexander Milman, who owned the A-Z Pharmacy with stores in Kent, Bellevue and Tacoma, continued to file false health claims even after he knew he was under investigation. He also was the behind-the-scenes owner of Lakeshore Pharmacy in Kirkland.

Milman was the ringleader of a group that included his wife, Alexandria, and two men, Oleg Ordinartsev and Vladimir Mitkovetski, who all pleaded guilty to charges ranging from money laundering to conspiracy.

Judge James Robart said during Milman’s sentencing in U.S. District Court in Seattle that Milman ran a “sophisticated” scheme that involved false billing of Medicaid claims for customers he lured to his pharmacy with free gifts. Milman and his co-conspirators used information from the customers to create bogus accounts that were used to bill Medicaid for services that were never delivered, according to federal prosecutors.

When Medicaid suspended the Milmans’ ability to bill Medicaid in November 2004, they entered into a secret deal with Ordinartsev and Mitkovetski to operate the Lakeshore Pharmacy. The men, prosecutors say, hid Milman’s ownership of that store.

Ordinartsev, Mitkovetski and Alexandria Milman cooperated with the government’s investigation. The details of their cooperation, however, were sealed by the court. They will be sentenced Feb. 4.

The $1.7 million in restitution Milman was ordered to pay is about equal to the amount investigators determined was defrauded from the government. To pay it, Milman forfeited several bank accounts, three pieces of property - including his Kirkland home, valued at more than $1 million - and jewelry, including a Rolex watch, according to court documents.

Defense attorney Angelo Calfo wrote in a sentencing brief that Milman has taken responsibility for his crimes.

However, prosecutors argued that he continued to attempt to secretly operate a pharmacy even after his Medicaid privileges had been suspended and he knew he was under investigation.

In imposing the sentence - which Milman had agreed to - Robart called him a “person who was deeply involved in a fraud that does not speak well of his underlying character.”

Mike Carter: 206-464-3706 or mcarter@seattletimes.com

JERUSALEM - The television set in Aroma Cafe was tuned to Fox News coverage of the Annapolis, Md., peace conference, but on Monday the sound had been muted and no one seemed to be paying attention.

“I’m more interested in U.S. politics,” said Iris, a 46-year-old secretary who declined to give her last name and kept her back to the television while having coffee with her mother. “I don’t know what will come of it.”

What will come of it?

Ask most people in the Middle East that question and they will tell you the same thing: not much.

On the eve of the Bush administration’s international conference to restart Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, a series of polls found widespread skepticism among Israelis and Palestinians about the ability of representatives of perhaps 50 countries gathering in Annapolis to solve this conflict.

Nearly three-quarters of Israelis expect the conference to lead to nothing. A majority of Palestinians expect that a failure at Annapolis will lead to a surge in violence. And while most people on both sides support peace talks, they aren’t willing to make the painful sacrifices necessary to end the conflict.

In the Arab world, political commentary has been decidedly hostile. Most commentators suggest that the conference is a way to pressure Arabs to normalize relations with Israel. The word “normalization,” which many Arabs interpret as defeat, crops up in nearly every Arabic-language print or broadcast item on the meeting.

Erfan Nizam al-Din, writing for the pan-Arab newspaper Al-Hayat, condemned the talks in a tirade that accused President Bush of staging “a theatrical gesture” aimed at “saving face for the United States after a series of failures.”

Not even the name of the host city is safe. A humorist at a Saudi-owned newspaper, taking advantage of the fact that “ana” in Arabic means “I” and that “police” is a word widely understood in the Middle East, put the sounds together and arrived at: Annapolis, or “I’m the police.” That, he joked, was a message from Bush to Middle Eastern leaders.

“You remember that I am the police, and not only for the Middle East or for the peace process, but for the entire world,” the humorist, Hamad al-Majid, wrote, imagining Bush’s opening remarks.

Ben Caspit, a leading analyst for Israel’s daily newspaper, Maariv may have captured the Israeli mood best when he derided Annapolis as “the most expensive photo-op in history.”

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas both face major problems within their spheres of influence.

Olmert is deeply unpopular among Israelis for his poor handling of last year’s war with Hezbollah and is the subject of various criminal investigations.

According to Israeli newspapers, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had hoped to prod Olmert into making concessions on Jerusalem and Jewish settlements in the West Bank, but she backed off after Olmert warned her that his coalition would crumble if he went too far.

Abbas is considered by many to be weak and ineffective, and he’s facing a major challenge from Hamas, the hard-line Islamist party that controls the Gaza Strip. Hamas is threatening to blow up literally any future peace deal with more rockets from Gaza and suicide bombings.

Meanwhile, polls found little willingness among Israelis and Palestinians to compromise on central issues.

The Palestinian Center for Public Opinion found that about 70 percent of Palestinians oppose dividing control of the religious sites in Jerusalem’s Old City. About half of Israelis also oppose any decision to divide authority over the holy sites.

The Palestinian poll also found that about 70 percent want their negotiators to continue to press for the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes in what’s now Israel. A survey for the Israeli newspaper Maariv found that three-quarters of Israelis remain firmly opposed to granting such a right.

Amid the sea of skepticism, there exists an ember of hope. As long as there are negotiations, however slow, they help keep extremists from feeding on the deep well of cynicism, said Uri Dromi of the independent Israel Democracy Institute.

“In the Middle East, if you don’t talk, you shoot, so talking is good for everybody,” he said.