Israel and its Hezbollah guerrilla foes staged a long-awaited prisoner swap yesterday that freed hundreds of jailed Arabs in return for a kidnapped Israeli and three dead soldiers.
The key to the German-mediated deal, three years in the making, was the identification at a Cologne air base of the bodies of the troops abducted at the border in 2000 and handed over by Hezbollah with businessman Elhanan Tannenbaum.
Shortly after the identification, Israel began releasing 400 Palestinian prisoners at five checkpoints into the West Bank and Gaza Strip. About 30 Arab prisoners from elsewhere were waiting at the German airport to fly home under the exchange.
"Thank God for our freedom. We hope that all prisoners will be released," said Mohammed Abu Hadas, who served 14 months for belonging to an Islamic group as he returned to Gaza. There are some 7,500 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.
"We are happy, but our present happiness will be completed when all prisoners in Israeli jails are released."
In the West Bank, motorists blared their horns and people on the street waved as buses carried the prisoners past Israeli checkpoints.
The majority had been seized during three years of Israeli-Palestinian violence.
Most of the Arabs flown from Israel were Lebanese expected to return home later in the day. A German convert to Islam jailed in 1997 as a Hezbollah agent was also freed. In addition, Israel sent bodies of some 60 guerrillas back to Lebanon.
Tannenbaum said he had gone to Lebanon to seek information on Israeli air force navigator Ron Arad, who bailed out during a mission in 1986, as well as for business.
Also see story:
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique