Israel dismissed a UN resolution demanding it retract threats to remove Yasser Arafat while Palestinians hailed the vote as another sign of support for their leader. \nThe overwhelming support in the UN General Assembly on Friday -- 133 nations voted in favor of the measure -- comes a day after the incoming Palestinian prime minister stridently defended Arafat, saying he is key to peace efforts and the US should treat him as a real partner. \nPrime Minister-designate Ahmed Qureia's criticism of US policy on Friday was the strongest sign yet he does not plan to challenge Arafat, who Israel and the US, which opposed the UN resolution, tried to circumvent by pressing for the creation of the post of prime minister. \nInstead, Arafat appears to have maintained a central role, handpicking Qureia after the resignation of the first prime minister, Mahmoud Abbas, and moving to shape a Cabinet of loyalists from his Fatah party. \nRegardless, Bush said Thursday that Arafat "had a failed as leader" and accused him of forcing out Abbas, who resigned Sept. 6 after wrangling with Arafat for months. \nQureia called Bush's statement "regrettable" and said it "does not serve the peace process." \nArafat also responded Friday. "You have to know we are the authority of the Palestinians that has been recognized by all the Palestinians," he told ABC News. Bush "has to remember that President Clinton was dealing with me, his father was dealing with me. And he was in the beginning with me." \nArafat's popularity soared after Israel's decision on Sept. 11 to "remove" him at an unspecified time. Israeli officials have suggested he may be exiled, killed or simply isolated at his shattered compound in the West Bank town of Ramallah. \nA first attempt at the UN to condemn the Israeli decision was thwarted by the US, which vetoed a Security Council resolution because it did not censure the Palestinians for suicide bombings that have killed more than 400 Israelis in nearly three years of fighting. \nBut Friday in the General Assembly, Palestinian diplomats won the support of the EU and many African states by adding a condemnation of suicide bombings to match language in the resolution deploring Israel's "extrajudicial killings and their recent escalation." \nOnly two other countries -- Micronesia and the Marshall Islands -- joined Israel and the United States in opposing the resolution, though 15 nations did abstain. \nGeneral Assembly resolutions -- unlike those of the powerful UN Security Council -- aren't legally binding. But they do carry symbolic weight. \nThe vote was "a real slap to Israel and to its supporters," said Nabil Abu Rdeneh, a senior aide to Arafat \nIsrael said the Palestinians should focus on fighting terrorism, not diplomatic maneuvering. \n"Once again the Palestinians have decided to focus their energies on rhetoric instead of fighting terrorism," the foreign ministry said in a statement. \nUS Ambassador John Negroponte called the resolution unbalanced for not condemning specific Palestinian militant groups. \nIsrael and the US say the Palestinians must take action against the militants, as required under the US-backed "road map" peace plan. \nAlso See Story: \n \nNew Palestinian leader speaks out
INCURSION: After 13 PLA aircraft flew into Taiwan’s ADIZ, the US Department of State said that China should rather ‘engage in meaningful dialogue’ with Taiwan US President Joe Biden’s administration on Saturday urged China to stop placing military pressure on Taiwan, while calling on both sides of the Taiwan Strait to engage in peaceful dialogue. The statement by the US Department of State was issued after 13 Chinese military aircraft flew into Taiwan’s southwest air defense identification zone (ADIZ) on Saturday, the highest number observed in a single day this year, the Ministry of National Defense said. The air force scrambled fighter jets to monitor the Chinese aircraft, issuing radio warnings and mobilizing air defense assets until the planes left the ADIZ. The US “notes
‘INCREASED VIGILANCE’: A source of infection has not yet been found for the latest two cases in a hospital cluster, which should serve as a warning, Chen Shih-chung said A total of 2,991 people associated with a COVID-19 cluster infection at Taoyuan General Hospital have been put under home isolation, after an emergency expanded isolation order was issued on Sunday evening, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said yesterday. Fifteen people have so far tested positive in the cluster infection. The first case in the cluster (case No. 838) was reported on Jan. 12 — a doctor who treated an infected patient who had returned from the US. Contact tracing for the first 13 cases found connections to case No. 838, said Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who
FAMILY UNIT: The CECC warned that the eldest sister of the latest case, who also has COVID-19, visited Taoyuan’s Chungping evening market on Tuesday and Wednesday The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday reported a domestic case of COVID-19, associated with a recent cluster infection at Taoyuan General Hospital, and two imported cases. Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center, said that the latest case (No. 885) is a woman in her 50s, who is the third daughter of case No. 881, a man in his 90s. The woman is the main caregiver of her elderly father, who had been hospitalized earlier this month and was treated by a nurse (case No. 852) from Monday to Thursday last week, he said, adding that
DUBIOUS HONOR? A man in his 90s, who tested positive yesterday and is part of the Taoyuan hospital cluster, is the oldest person in Taiwan to have contracted COVID-19 Taiwan yesterday recorded six new imported cases of COVID-19 and two new domestic cases, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said, adding that the local infections are linked to the cluster at Taoyuan General Hospital, which now totals 12 cases. One of the domestic cases is a man in his 90s, who was treated earlier this month at Taoyuan General Hospital and tested negative for COVID-19 on Monday last week, four days before he was discharged, the center said in a statement. After one of the nurses on the ward was confirmed on Saturday last week to have contracted COVID-19, the
RSS