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Reports are coming out that Israel targeted and killed the notorious child murderer Samir Kuntar today (Wednesday). According to the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the Israel Air Force struck a vehicle carrying five fighters loyal to dictator Bashar al-Assad. Three of the passengers were from the Syrian People's Committees, while Kuntar and the fifth person belonged to Lebanese terror group Hezbollah. Kuntar was born in Lebanon to a Druze family. In 1978 he and three other terrorists from the now-defunct Palestine Liberation Front (PLF) snuck into Israel by boat and attempted to kidnap the Haran family from their...

BAGHDAD, Iraq - U.S. soldiers detained an Associated Press photographer and driver on Tuesday, handcuffing them, forcing them to stand in the sun for three hours and denying them water or use of a telephone. Soldiers from the 2nd Battalion, 70th Armored Regiment, 1st Armored Division detained photographer Karim Kadim and driver Mohammed Abbas, both Iraqis, near Abu Ghraib, west of Baghdad, and kept their guns trained on them, despite repeated attempts to explain they were journalists. The troops were looking for explosives planted in the area. "We identified ourselves from the very beginning as press, even before we approached...

Mar. 13, 2003 Arafat delays signing prime minister bill By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat delayed the signing of a bill that forces him to share power with a prime minister. Arafat asked for two procedural changes, including retaining the right to convene Cabinet ministers. Arafat aides confirmed the Palestinian leader has asked for changes in legislation creating the post of prime minister. The Palestinian legislature approved the bill on Monday, as part of U.S.-sought reform efforts aimed at curbing Arafat's sweeping powers. The prime minister will be able to form a new Cabinet and supervise the work...

Mar. 11, 2003 Palestinian PM is part of a US conspiracy, says Hamas By KHALED ABU TOAMEH Yasser Arafat's decision to appoint a prime minister for the Palestinian Authority is in the context of an American scheme aimed at ending the intifada and imposing the road map plan on the Palestinian people, according to a statement issued by Hamas on Tuesday. "It's unfortunate that the institutions of the PLO and the PA are hostage to American-Zionist pressure," the statement added, reflecting the view of Palestinian hardliners who have strongly criticized Arafat for succumbing to pressure from Israel and the US....

Mar. 11, 2003 Hamas rejects new Palestinian prime minister By THE JERUSALEM POST INTERNET STAFF A Gaza Hamas leader, Ismail Haniya, said Monday that the Palestinian Authority's decision to appoint a Abu Mazen (Mohammed Abbas) as prime minister would not change anything and is "nothing but a game played on the Palestinians by the aggressive Zionists and Americans." "The Intifada will continue", said Haniya. Palestinian Authority Chairman, Yasser Arafat, is expected to sign the order appointing Abu Mazen as the Palestinians' first Prime Minister tomorrow. Arafat will still be commander in chief of all Palestinian armed forces, and will have...

An Interview With a Hamas Spokesman The Egyptian al-Ahram Weekly recently printed a telephone interview with Hamas spokesman and leader Khaled Mesh’al from Damascus. Mesh’al survived an Israeli assassination attempt while in Jordan in 1997. Meshal was asked about the call, articulated recently by the PLO leader Abu Mazen, for “demilitarizing the uprising....” He responded, “it is not accepted by the Palestinians. Abu-Mazen's words come at a time when the Palestinians are suffering deeply from the brutality of the Israeli forces.... Israeli forces have also started mutilating the bodies of our martyrs, as they did in Beit Hanoun. Is this...

Egypt has told the United States that Palestinian guerrilla leader Abu Abbas is not in the country, contrary to some media reports, U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said on Thursday. Boucher said: "This is a dangerous man. I don't know the exact legal status, but certainly he's not a person that we believe should be allowed safe harbor or easy passage." Abu Abbas, also known as Mohammed Abbas, is the leader of the Palestine Liberation Front, which hijacked the cruise ship Achille Lauro in the eastern Mediterranean in 1985. A disabled elderly American, Leon Klinghoffer, was killed during the...