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 ALLIES PROMOTE THEIR NEW PARTY AS PEACE FACTION
JERUSALEM – Ariel Sharon’s top allies, including Justice Minister Tzipi Livni and Finance Minister Ehud Olmert, began their election campaign yesterday, saying the prime minister’s new centrist party would push for a final agreement with the Palestinian Arabs and the creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel.
The new party gained instant support across Israel. Polls showed the party would muster enough votes in elections to propel Mr. Sharon back into the prime minister’s seat. Officials said March 28 is the agreed election date.
– Associated Press
ISRAEL SAYS WARPLANES HIT TARGETS IN LEBANON
JERUSALEM – Israel said its warplanes struck in Lebanon yesterday in what Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz described as the largest-scale Israeli response to cross-border attacks by Lebanese guerrillas since 2000. Mr. Mofaz spoke just hours after Israeli fighter jets attacked a command post of Hezbollah guerrillas in south Lebanon and after army bulldozers entered Lebanon to demolish a Hezbollah post just north of Ghajar.
– Associated Press
EAST ASIA
JAPAN WANTS TO SCRAP LAW THAT BANS IT FROM HAVING AN ARMY
TOKYO – Japan’s Liberal Democratic Party yesterday unveiled plans to revise its constitutional commitment to pacifism. The proposals would end Japan’s renunciation of the right to maintain an army. Japan already has, in the 240,000-strong Self Defense Forces, a military in all but name. But constitutional revision would regularize its status, sweep away restrictions, and enable it to play a bigger role.
– The Daily Telegraph
CHINESE CITY CUTS OFF WATER TO 3.5M
BEIJING – One of China’s largest cities was in panic yesterday after water supplies were cut off for four days and rumors of an imminent earthquake spread. The authorities in Harbin said the water was being cut off because of the threat of pollution after an explosion last week at a petrochemical plant in Jilin. The decision will affect the 3.5 million people living in the city.
– The Daily Telegraph
SOUTH ASIA
NEPAL’S KING ISOLATED BY MAOIST DEAL
KATHMANDU, Nepal – Nepal’s Maoist rebels entered a pact with opposition politicians yesterday in a move to isolate King Gyanendra. Under the deal, the communists would lay down their arms under U.N. supervision while a new constitution is drafted. They say they will become a democratic party if the king is removed.
– The Daily Telegraph
WESTERN EUROPE
INVESTIGATOR SEEKS DETAILS ON ALLEGED CIA TRANSFER PLANES
PARIS – A Swiss senator, Dick Marty, who has been investigating alleged secret CIA prisons in Eastern Europe on behalf of the 46-member Council of Europe, said yesterday he was checking 31 suspect planes that landed in Europe in recent years and was trying to acquire past satellite images of sites in Romania and Poland.
– Associated Press
DAILY MIRROR: BLAIR PERSUADED BUSH NOT TO BOMB AL-JAZEERA
LONDON – A civil servant has been charged under Britain’s Official Secrets Act for allegedly leaking a government memo that a newspaper said yesterday suggested that Prime Minister Blair persuaded President Bush not to bomb the Arab satellite station Al-Jazeera. The Daily Mirror reported that Mr. Bush spoke of targeting Al-Jazeera’s headquarters in Doha, Qatar, when he met Mr. Blair at the White House on April 16, 2004.
– Associated Press
EASTERN EUROPE
BOSNIA TO REMAKE DIVIDED GOVERNMENT Leaders of Bosnia’s three major ethnic factions agreed yesterday to remake their divided government a decade after the end of their bloody civil war. Secretary of State Rice heralded the Balkan accord struck in Washington, but warned that international patience has run out for accused war criminals who walk free in Bosnia.
– Associated Press