MIDDLE EAST

PALESTINIAN ARABS WELCOME 500 FREED PRISONERS

JERUSALEM – Palestinian Arabs gave a jubilant welcome to 500 prisoners freed yesterday by Israel as part of a truce, but many complained that uprising leaders were not among those released. Hamas insurgents appeared unmasked in a West Bank city, their leader shouting that there can be no peace “as long as there is a single prisoner in Israeli jails.”

Suhail Abu Madala, 35, spent four years in prison and had three more years to serve when he was set free yesterday.

The decision to release the prisoners led to criticism by some Israelis that the move could re-ignite the bloodshed that has beset the region for more than four years.

“It’s true that many of them don’t have blood on their hands, but it’s not because they didn’t try – it’s because they didn’t succeed,” Menachem Landau, a former commander in Israel’s Shin Bet security service, told Army Radio.

Relatives of terror victims appealed unsuccessfully to Israel’s Supreme Court to block the release, listing Israelis who have been killed over the years by freed Palestinian Arab prisoners. The prisoners released yesterday were not directly involved in violence, officials said.

But earlier, Israeli officials indicated it would consider freeing Palestinian Arabs convicted of direct involvement in violence, a change in its blanket refusal to release Palestinian Arabs with “blood on their hands.”

– Associated Press

PERSIAN GULF

POWERFUL EARTHQUAKE HITS CENTRAL IRAN; FOUR KILLED

TEHRAN, Iran – A powerful earthquake shook central Iran early today, killing four people and destroying villages, state-run television reported.

An official in the city of Kerman said authorities said that four people were killed in the powerful 6.4-magnitude quake, according to the broadcast.

The epicenter of the earthquake was reported to be 35 miles from Kerman, the U.S. Geological Survey reported. Kerman provincial governor Mohammad Ali Karimi was quoted by state television as saying that “several villages have been destroyed” by the earthquake.

The television broadcast said that rescuers were en route to an area of several villages near Zarand. A magnitude-6.6 quake in December 2003 flattened the historic southeastern city of Bam in the same region, killing 26,000 people. Iran experiences at least a slight earthquake every day on average.

– Associated Press

SOUTH ASIA

CLINTON, BUSH WRAP UP TOUR OF TSUNAMI AREAS

MALE, Maldives – Wrapping up a tour of tsunami-ravaged nations, two former presidents, Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush, sat with child survivors at a temporary shelter in southern Sri Lanka yesterday and mingled with European tourists at a luxury beach resort in the Maldives.

The purpose of the three-day tour, which included stops in Thailand and the devastated Indonesian province of Aceh, was to encourage more donations for a reconstruction process across the Indian Ocean region that is expected to take years.

President Bush asked his father and Mr. Clinton, former political adversaries, to lead the American effort to raise private funds for tsunami relief. The former presidents said they planned to deliver a report to the younger Mr. Bush on March 8. Private American donations have amounted to $700 million, Mr. Clinton said, and President George W. Bush has asked Congress to provide another $950 million to tsunami relief efforts.

– Associated Press

MORE BODIES FOUND FROM FERRY DISASTER

DHAKA, Bangladesh – Divers found more bodies yesterday from a ferry that sank over the weekend near the capital of Bangladesh, raising the death toll to 119. A search for dozens of missing passengers was called off.

The double-decker MV Maharaj was carrying about 200 people when it capsized during a storm just before midnight Saturday on the Buriganga River. Many of the passengers had worked late and were headed home for a two-day public holiday.

The vessel was about 30 minutes into its journey from Dhaka to the eastern town of Chandpur when wind gusts struck. It capsized and sank near Pagla.

Eighty-two bodies were found Sunday and 37 more yesterday when the vessel was pulled from the water, officials said.

– Associated Press

EAST ASIA

NORTH KOREA WILL RETURN TO NUCLEAR TALKS IF CONDITIONS ARE MET

SEOUL, South Korea – North Korean leader Kim Jong Il told a visiting Chinese envoy that his government will return to American-sponsored nuclear disarmament talks if the United States shows “sincerity,” the communist state’s official news agency reported today.

Mr. Kim spoke of his government’s position in the escalating nuclear standoff with America and its allies when he met Wang Jiarui, head of the Chinese Communist Party’s International Department, according to the North’s state-run Korean Central News Agency. Mr. Wang was sent to North Korea to convince Mr. Kim to rejoin six-nation talks on its nuclear program.

The task was made more urgent by Pyongyang’s unconfirmed declaration earlier this month that it has built nuclear weapons. Pyongyang also said it would boycott six-nation talks with China, America, South Korea, Japan, and Russia. During three rounds of talks in Beijing since late 2002, North Korea has demanded more aid and a peace treaty with Washington in exchange for giving up its nuclear program.

– Associated Press