Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert had an unscheduled meeting a day before Abbas was leaving on a trip that takes him to the US later this month.
The moderate Palestinian leader has talks scheduled for April 23 with US President George W. Bush. He was scheduled to leave yesterday for Jordan, the first leg of his trip.
Sunday was the last opportunity for Abbas to meet Olmert, though the two talked last week.
The intention appeared to be to keep the meeting at Olmert’s official residence a secret. In the past, their frequent sessions have been announced well in advance and news photographers are granted some access. Sunday’s meeting was confirmed only hours before it took place and then only after the Associated Press queried officials.
Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said Abbas asked Olmert to agree to an Egyptian initiative to arrange an unofficial ceasefire in Gaza, but Olmert gave no commitment. Israel refuses to deal with Hamas. Erekat said the meeting took place on Sunday because Abbas was leaving yesterday on the trip that will take him to the US.
Months of meetings at various levels have failed to produce noticeable progress toward a peace deal.
Israel and the Palestinians renewed negotiations in November at a US-hosted conference in Annapolis, Maryland, ending a seven-year impasse. The talks have been troubled by Palestinian militant attacks, by ongoing Israeli construction and military operations in the West Bank and by the fact that Islamic Hamas militants rule Gaza. Abbas controls only the West Bank.
On Sunday an explosion in a Gaza house killed three people and wounded seven, Palestinian officials said. Residents said it was caused by explosives that went off prematurely.
Later on Sunday, a Palestinian was wounded in an Israeli airstrike on a house in Gaza City, Palestinians and the Israeli military said.
Last week, militants attacked the Israeli border terminal that pipes the only fuel that reaches Gaza, killing two workers. Israel immediately shut down the terminal and launched raids that have killed 16 people since, including at least six civilians.
Palestinians have warned of a looming fuel shortage and the director of the territory’s only power plant has said it would have to be shut down this week because its fuel would run out.
In the sweltering streets of Jakarta, buskers carry towering, hollow puppets and pass around a bucket for donations. Now, they fear becoming outlaws. City authorities said they would crack down on use of the sacred ondel-ondel puppets, which can stand as tall as a truck, and they are drafting legislation to remove what they view as a street nuisance. Performances featuring the puppets — originally used by Jakarta’s Betawi people to ward off evil spirits — would be allowed only at set events. The ban could leave many ondel-ondel buskers in Jakarta jobless. “I am confused and anxious. I fear getting raided or even
Kemal Ozdemir looked up at the bare peaks of Mount Cilo in Turkey’s Kurdish majority southeast. “There were glaciers 10 years ago,” he recalled under a cloudless sky. A mountain guide for 15 years, Ozdemir then turned toward the torrent carrying dozens of blocks of ice below a slope covered with grass and rocks — a sign of glacier loss being exacerbated by global warming. “You can see that there are quite a few pieces of glacier in the water right now ... the reason why the waterfalls flow lushly actually shows us how fast the ice is melting,” he said.
RISING RACISM: A Japanese group called on China to assure safety in the country, while the Chinese embassy in Tokyo urged action against a ‘surge in xenophobia’ A Japanese woman living in China was attacked and injured by a man in a subway station in Suzhou, China, Japanese media said, hours after two Chinese men were seriously injured in violence in Tokyo. The attacks on Thursday raised concern about xenophobic sentiment in China and Japan that have been blamed for assaults in both countries. It was the third attack involving Japanese living in China since last year. In the two previous cases in China, Chinese authorities have insisted they were isolated incidents. Japanese broadcaster NHK did not identify the woman injured in Suzhou by name, but, citing the Japanese
RESTRUCTURE: Myanmar’s military has ended emergency rule and announced plans for elections in December, but critics said the move aims to entrench junta control Myanmar’s military government announced on Thursday that it was ending the state of emergency declared after it seized power in 2021 and would restructure administrative bodies to prepare for the new election at the end of the year. However, the polls planned for an unspecified date in December face serious obstacles, including a civil war raging over most of the country and pledges by opponents of the military rule to derail the election because they believe it can be neither free nor fair. Under the restructuring, Myanmar’s junta chief Min Aung Hlaing is giving up two posts, but would stay at the
RSS