Foreign Desk
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

MIDDLE EAST
ISRAELI MISSILE KILLS SENIOR TERRORIST
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – An Israeli helicopter fired a missile at a car in Gaza City late yesterday, residents said, killing a senior Hamas terrorist leader, the latest Israeli attack in the territory it plans to leave next year. Witnesses said parts of a dismembered body were pulled from the wreckage.
Hospital officials said six were wounded, two seriously, all bystanders returning from a mosque. Witness Omar Arfa, 52, who owns a fast-food stand nearby, said the street was full of cars.
“A spark came from the sky, then there was a huge explosion in part of street,” he said. The Israeli military had no official comment. But military sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said an Israeli attack helicopter carried out the attack. Hamas identified the dead man as Khaled Abu Shamiyeh, 30, from the Shati refugee camp next to Gaza City. Hamas did not say what role he played in the terror group, which has claimed responsibility for dozens of suicide bombings in Israel.
– Associated Press
MADONNA ADDRESSES KABBALAH CONFERENCE
TEL AVIV, Israel – Pop star Madonna called for world peace yesterday at a conference on Jewish mysticism, a highlight of her five-day pilgrimage to the Holy Land.
Israel hopes the star – the biggest pop celebrity to visit in years – will revive tourism, which has been battered by four years of Mideast violence, and government officials were on hand at a Tel Aviv hotel to share the spotlight, the glory, and the photographs.
Madonna, wearing a low-cut dress with a black-and-white leopard pattern, said she was hesitant to come to Israel “after seeing so many news reports about terror attacks,” but said “I realize now that it is no more dangerous to be here than it is to be in New York,” she told the gathering. Madonna was raised a Roman Catholic, but she has become an avid devotee of Jewish mysticism in recent years.
– Associated Press
TURKISH BOMB BLAST INJURES AT LEAST 14
ISTANBUL, Turkey – A bomb exploded under a police car at a pop concert yesterday in southern Turkey, injuring at least 14 people, the prime minister’s office said.
A hospital official said at least 17 people, including two police officers, were injured in the southern city of Mersin. Two of the injured were in serious condition, the hospital official said on condition of anonymity.
TV footage showed a young woman lying on the ground with blood splattered on her pants and on the ground around her. A man could be seen helping another who was injured in the leg. Young concertgoers carried several of the wounded to ambulances as music blared in the background.
The Mersin mayor, Macit Ozcan, said authorities were investigating what type of explosive was used in the attack, which happened late yesterday outside the area where the Turkish pop star, Candan Ercetin, was giving an open-air concert attended by thousands.
– Associated Press
WESTERN EUROPE
FAR RIGHT SURGES IN GERMANY
BERLIN – Chancellor Schroeder’s ruling Social Democrats were dealt a heavy blow yesterday by voters in two East German states, where anger at high unemployment and economic reforms prompted a surge in support for the far Right and post-communists.
Fifteen years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, TV exit polls in the states of Saxony and Brandenburg reflected dissatisfaction at the lack of progress in raising living standards in the East to those of Western Germany. In Brandenburg, a huge state that encircles Berlin, the Social Democrats remained the strongest party but lost 7% from their 1999 result, while in Saxony, to the south, the party secured a record low of 9.5%, only half a percentage point ahead of the far-Right National Democratic Party, or NPD.
Riding on the wave of disgruntlement, the NPD scored its best result in years in Saxony, where it easily cleared the 5% barrier required to enter the state Parliament. The result, a dramatic improvement on the 1.4% it gained in 1999, gives it a seat for the first time in 35 years.
– The Daily Telegraph