Weather | Sports | Forums | Comics | Classifieds | Calendar | Movies
© St. Petersburg Times, published August 19, 2002
JERUSALEM -- Israeli and Palestinian officials brokered a deal late Sunday night to begin withdrawing Israeli troops from the West Bank city of Bethlehem and parts of the Gaza Strip in exchange for Palestinian guarantees to reduce militant attacks on Israel.
The Palestinians would "take responsibility to calm the security situation and reduce violence and terror," said an Israeli Defense Ministry statement after a three-hour meeting between Israeli Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer and Palestinian Interior Minister Abdel Razak Yehiyeh in a Tel Aviv Hotel. "The Defense Minister agreed that Israel for its part would do everything in order to ease conditions on the Palestinian population especially for civilians and in the humanitarian area at this time."
Nabil Abu Rudinah, a spokesman for Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, confirmed that the parties agreed to the so-called "Gaza-first proposal."
He said he expected the withdrawals to begin today, though the Israelis did not announce a date. Palestinian officials said they hoped the withdrawal from those areas would be finished within two days.
If it works, the deal could pave the way for more Israeli withdrawals from Palestinian areas and a wider ceasefire.
Also Sunday, a former treasurer of the Palestine Liberation Organization, who fled to London last week, accused Yasser Arafat of transferring millions of dollars of international donations into a personal account, according to interviews published in Israeli newspapers.
Jawad Ghussein, 71, alleged that Arafat moved up to $8-million to his personal account every month and was aware of the widespread corruption, said the accounts in Haaretz and Yediot Ahronot, two leading Israeli dailies.
Palestinian Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo denied the allegations and called Ghussein a "thief" who had stolen $6.5-million from the PLO.
BODIES LIKELY THOSE OF MISSING GIRLS: In a case that has transfixed Britain, police said Sunday they are almost certain two bodies found in a nature preserve are those of 10-year-old girls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman, who disappeared Aug. 4. Their bodies were found Saturday a few miles away.
"It may be some days yet before we are able to positively identify the two bodies," Deputy Chief Constable Keith Hoddy said. "However, we are as certain as we possibly can be tonight that they are those of Holly and Jessica."
A magistrate Sunday granted police a further 36 hours to question a 28-year-old man arrested on suspicion of murder and abduction and a 25-year-old woman arrested on suspicion of murder. No charges have been brought.
SUSPECT ARRESTED IN COLOMBIAN ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT: Police said Sunday they arrested a suspected rebel in connection with the April assassination attempt against President Alvaro Uribe during his election campaign. Police said Osvaldo Enrique Diaz was the brain behind the bombing of Uribe's motorcade during a campaign stop in the Caribbean port of Barranquilla. Five people were killed in the attack, though Uribe was unharmed.
INDIA WANTS CUTS IN ANTIWAR FILM: An antiwar film that depicts the euphoria after India's first successful nuclear tests and the horror of Sept. 11 has been deemed too provocative for Indian eyes.
Just weeks after nuclear-armed India and Pakistan pulled back from the threat of war, the film censor board has demanded that veteran documentary filmmaker Anand Patwardhan make 21 cuts to War and Peace because of scenes that "may have the effect of desensitizing or dehumanizing people."
Critics charge that the board's decision is part of an effort to muzzle Indian media that challenge the ruling coalition led by Hindu nationalists. Patwardhan says the cuts would ruin the three-hour film, which ends with silent scenes of the Sept. 11 attacks.