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
SHARON TO SEEK EARLY APPROVAL OF GAZA PLAN
JERUSALEM, Israel – Prime Minister Sharon said yesterday he will seek final Cabinet approval for a Gaza withdrawal in February, four months earlier than planned, and he threatened harsh retaliation if Palestinian Arab terrorists try to disrupt the pullback. The warning came as Israel released 159 prisoners in a gesture to Egypt and the new Palestinian Arab leadership. Mr. Sharon told lawmakers on the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee he is pushing forward the Cabinet vote at the request of Israel’s attorney general, according to meeting participants. The idea, he said, is to give settlers six months to prepare for their evacuation. The early vote does not change the schedule for the actual pullout, which is to begin in July but it was the latest sign of Mr. Sharon’s determination to carry it out. Under Mr. Sharon’s plan, Israel will pull out of the entire Gaza Strip and four West Bank settlements next year, uprooting 8,800 settlers from their homes. Mr. Sharon says the continued occupation of Gaza, where 8,200 settlers live amid 1.3 million Palestinian Arabs, is untenable. Jewish settlements in Gaza come under attack daily. During yesterday’s closed meeting, Mr. Sharon pledged to strike hard at terrorists who try to attack Israelis during the pullout. “This evacuation will not be carried out under fire,” he was quoted as saying. “We conveyed a serious warning…our response will be most severe.”
– Associated Press
JORDANIAN COURT ACQUITS 13 INSURGENTS
AMMAN, Jordan – Jordan’s military court acquitted 13 Muslim insurgents, including three Saudi fugitives, of conspiring to commit terror attacks against American targets here, but it sentenced 11 of them yesterday to prison terms of up to 15 years for possessing explosives. Two defendants – Jordanian Saud al-Khalayleh and Isam al-Barqawi – were acquitted for lack of evidence on charges of possessing explosives and plotting terror attacks. Prosecutors claimed they targeted the American Embassy and other American interests in Jordan. The guilty verdict can be appealed. The prosecution charged the 13-member cell, including three Saudi fugitives and 10 Jordanians in police custody, of possessing and intending to use explosive material and conspiring to carry out terror attacks. The prosecution charged the 13 men with targeting the American Embassy in Amman and Jordanian military bases near the eastern Iraqi border, where the insurgents believed American troops were stationed. No attacks had been carried out when police uncovered the plot in December 2002. Only one defendant, Zuhair Shdeifat, confessed to plotting terrorist attacks, telling military judges that the group sought to “defend Jordan’s soil” by purging it of American forces. Mr. Shdeifat was sentenced to 7 1/2 years in jail. The other nine Jordanians in custody had pleaded innocent and said they were coerced into signing guilty confessions.
– Associated Press
WESTERN EUROPE
BLAST DESTROYS BUILDING IN FRANCE, KILLING 17
MULHOUSE, France – A gas explosion tore through a five-story apartment building in eastern France, killing 17 people and injuring 15, authorities said yesterday. Rescue workers, who initially found two bodies in the wreckage of Sunday afternoon’s blast, discovered 15 more bodies early yesterday. Most of the deaths were caused by the collapse of three floors above where the explosion took place, officials said. The victims ranged in age from 15 to 60, they said. Dozens of rescue workers equipped with body-detecting dogs and mechanical diggers pored over the wreckage in a hunt for several people who remained missing, said Captain Bertrand Weckel, a spokesman for regional emergency services. Efforts to locate the missing were complicated by the need to remove collapsed concrete beams. “Police will, of course, continue the investigation, but for us, this was clearly caused by a gas leak,” Captain Weckel said.
– Associated Press
EASTERN EUROPE
PUTIN SETS UP NEW VOTING SYSTEM
MOSCOW – President Putin yesterday set rules for naming governors of Russia’s 89 regions after pushing through a law that abolished their direct election amid a continuing power-consolidation by the Kremlin. The decree signed by Mr. Putin gives the presidential chief of staff the task of drawing up and submitting lists of gubernatorial candidates to the president. Presidential envoys to the seven federal districts will compile names of candidates and pass them to the Kremlin. The nomination process will consider a candidate’s image, business reputation, and record as a civil servant or public figure, the decree said. Putin announced sweeping electoral reforms shortly after the September hostage-taking at a school in southern Russia that left more than 330 people dead. He said the reforms would strengthen federal authority to avert future attacks and dismissed warnings that the moves would push Russia back toward its authoritarian past. Parliament quickly approved Mr. Putin’s bill to abolish gubernatorial elections. Some local governors have criticized the electoral reforms. In response, Mr. Putin has promised to grant them more say over drafting the federal budget and to give regions more economic independence.
– Associated Press