MIDDLE EAST

PALESTINIAN TERRORISTS PROMISE TO HALT ATTACKS

Terrorist groups have agreed to temporarily halt attacks on Israel, a trial period before a formal truce agreement, to give Palestinian Arab leader Mahmoud Abbas time to appeal to Israel to stop targeting terrorists, Palestinian Arab officials said yesterday. The movement toward a cease-fire, coupled with efforts by Palestinian Arab police to stop terrorists from firing rockets from Gaza into Israel, has raised hopes that a deal can be reached to end four years of bloody conflict between the two sides.

In the only serious incident yesterday, soldiers shot and killed a Palestinian Arab, who was in a no-go zone near the Karni crossing between Gaza and Israel – apparently planning to plant a bomb, Army Radio and the military said. On January 13, Palestinian Arab attackers killed five Israelis at the crossing.

Mr. Abbas said he was close to sealing a cease-fire agreement with the terrorists. Palestinian Arab officials say Mr. Abbas will not formally declare a truce until he receives Israeli guarantees it will halt military operations, including arrest raids and targeted killings of terrorists.

Separately, the Middle East peace plan from which Yasser Arafat walked away in 2000 remains the most practical basis for resolving the Israeli-Palestinian dispute, says Israel’s chief architect of the proposal, Ehud Barak, which failed despite ardent support from the Clinton administration. He said there will be peace when there is a Palestinian Arab leader “with the character of President Sadat of Egypt or King Hussein of Jordan.”

– Associated Press

EASTERN EUROPE

UKRAINE PRESIDENT NAMES TOP ALLY AS PREMIER

MOSCOW – President Yushchenko named his fiery, populist ally, Yulia Tymoshenko, 44, as prime minister yesterday during a visit to Moscow, a move that upstaged his fence-mending meeting with President Putin. Mr. Yushchenko and Mr. Putin emerged from nearly three hours of talks looking more stern and reserved than when they began. Although Russia wants Ukraine to move forward on an economic plan to further unite the two neighbors, Mr. Yushchenko says any such plan must meet Ukraine’s national interests and not close it off to other markets, such as Europe. Mr. Yushchenko made Russia his first foreign visit as president, an acknowledgment of Moscow’s close, historic ties to Ukraine as well as the Kremlin’s role as top trading partner and investor.

– Associated Press

CARIBBEAN

TERROR SUSPECTS ATTEMPTED MASS SUICIDE

Twenty-three terror suspects tried to hang or strangle themselves at the American military base in Guantanamo Bay during a mass protest in 2003, the military confirmed yesterday. The incidents came during the same year the camp suffered a rash of suicide attempts after Major General Geoffrey Miller took command of the prison with a mandate to get more information from prisoners accused of links to Al Qaeda or the ousted Afghan Taliban regime that sheltered it.

Between August 18 and August 26, the 23 detainees tried to hang or strangle themselves with pieces of clothing and other items in their cells, demonstrating “self-injurious behavior,” the U.S. Southern Command in Miami said in a statement. Ten detainees made a mass attempt on August 22 alone. U.S. Southern Command described it as “a coordinated effort to disrupt camp operations and challenge a new group of security guards from the just-completed unit rotation.”

Guantanamo officials classified two of the incidents as attempted suicides and informed reporters. But they but did not previously release information about the mass hangings and stranglings during that period.

– Associated Press

EAST ASIA

TAIWAN PRESIDENT NAMES NEW PREMIER IN RESHUFFLE

TAIPEI, Taiwan – President Chen Shui-bian today named a skillful negotiator from within his party as the new premier in a government reshuffle. Mr. Chen named Frank Hsieh, mayor of Taiwan’s second largest city of Kaohsiung, to replace Yu Shyi-kun, who has been premier for three years. A strategist in the ruling Democratic Progressive Party, the 58-year-old Mr. Hsieh will be Taiwan’s no. 3 ranking leader. The premier heads the Cabinet and brings government policy to the legislature.

Mr. Hsieh faces the difficult task of reconciliation with the opposition alliance of the Nationalist Party and the smaller People First Party, which retained a slim legislative majority after December’s elections.

– Associated Press