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Palestinian officials said life sustaining artificial respiratory machines keeping Yasser Arafat alive will be switched off when the time comes. Amman's daily al-Ghad Tuesday quoted the unidentified officials as saying the decision to remove the respirator will be taken by members of a high-ranking official Palestinian team, who arrived in Paris Monday. "There is no more hope that he will ever return to life," the sources said of Arafat who has been in coma for four days. Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia, Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath, Mahmoud Abbas, secretary of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization, Palestinian Legislative Council...

Nov. 16, 2003 Qurei: Time to end anarchy By JPOST.COM STAFF Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei announced his intention to make changes in the Palestinian security forces. In his upcoming meeting with Egyptian intelligence chief Gen. Omar Sulieman, the two are scheduled to discuss ways to "end the anarchy that reigns in the territories," he said Sunday at the end of a meeting of the Palestinian National Security Council in Ramallah. Qurei has proposed re-establishing and making personnel changes at the Palestinian security organization, and founding local and municipal councils, trade organizations, and civilian organizations. Following his meeting with Suleiman,...

The US and Britain are considering the possibility of sending observers to Palestinian Authority areas to expedite peace efforts, a Palestinian source told The Jerusalem Post. A senior Palestinian official confirmed that Britain and other members of the so-called Quartet made up of the EU, Russia, US, and UN are pressuring the US to send observers as soon as possible to facilitate implementation of their peace plan and boost the chance of achieving a cease-fire in terror attacks against Israel during a possible US-led war against Iraq. Another source said that the stationing of monitors could enable Israel to gradually...

Filed at 6:59 p.m. ET CAIRO, Egypt (AP) -- Egypt's foreign minister said Saturday that he expected Iraq to accept the U.N. resolution to disarm but that Baghdad had not yet made a formal decision. ``I think we can expect a positive position by the Iraqis,'' Ahmed Maher told reporters after Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri explained Iraq's position to the foreign ministers of the 22-member Arab League. ``We heard the Iraqi point of view and the history of relations with the United Nations and the inspectors and their readiness to cooperate ... already expressed in September, but they haven't...

Filed at 3:52 p.m. ET CAIRO, Egypt (AP) -- Arab foreign ministers denounced the Bush administration's handling of the Middle East conflict Saturday, saying U.S. bias was allowing Israel to flout international resolutions, terrorize Palestinians and destabilize the region. They reached no decision on a proposal to cut off oil sales to Israel's allies, but Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa said they didn't rule it out. The emergency meeting of the Arab League was held in Cairo in response to a siege of Palestinian cities, launched by Israel more than a week ago after a wave of Palestinian suicide bombing...