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Oct. 30, 2003 Sharon: We are holding talks with low-level PA officials By JPOST.COM STAFF Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said Thursday night that Israel was holding talks with Palestinian officials that are not on the political level of Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei. "We are in contact with Palestinians, however not of the level of prime ministers," Sharon said. "The reason we don't have prime ministerial level contacts stems from the fact that Palestinians have requested time to allow the designated Palestinian prime minister to establish himself," Sharon said. "We are ready to enter negotiations at any time," the prime minister...

NAIROBI: The Sudanese government and rebels fighting a 20-year-old civil war resumed peace talks on Sunday, with negotiations focusing on the sharing of power and wealth, the lead mediator said. The talks between the government of President Omar el-Bashir and the Sudan People's Liberation Army in the Kenyan town of Nakuru, 135 kilometres northwest of Nairobi, will last one week, said Kenyan Gen. Lazaro Sumbeiywo. The talks began almost a year ago and are aimed at ending the conflict in which an estimated 2 million people have died, mainly through war-induced famine and disease. Despite agreeing to the basics of...

<p>JERUSALEM — Two homicide bombings (search) rocked Jerusalem early Sunday, in a surge of attacks apparently timed to coincide with the first high-level summit between Israel and the Palestinians in more than two years.</p> <p>In the first early morning attack, a bomber blew himself up aboard a commuter bus, killing seven people, along with the bomber, and injuring at least 20 others. In the second attack, on the outskirts of the city, only the bomber was reported killed.</p>

SRINAGAR, India (Reuters) - India and Pakistan said they were ready for peace talks over war-torn Kashmir on Friday, ahead of the latest round of U.S. shuttle diplomacy to ease tensions between the nuclear rivals. Speaking from behind bullet-proof glass and tight security in the first public speech in 15 years by an Indian prime minister in Kashmir's main city, Atal Behari Vajpayee told a mainly hand-picked crowd of 10,000 he wanted talks with Pakistan as well as Kashmiri groups. But although his speech was largely conciliatory, Vajpayee did not specifically drop India's condition that Pakistan first stop Muslim militants...

<p>Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld yesterday demanded the "unconditional surrender" of Saddam Hussein as the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff called criticism of the U.S. war plan in Iraq "bogus."</p> <p>"The only thing that the coalition will discuss with this regime is their unconditional surrender," Mr. Rumsfeld told reporters at the Pentagon.</p>

Israeli troops have shot and killed one of the Palestinian attackers who killed eight Israelis outside a Jewish settlement Tuesday in the West Bank. Meanwhile, Israel has called off talks scheduled Wednesday with the Palestinians. Israeli troops killed the Palestinian in a fierce exchange of gunfire, near the Jewish settlement of Emmanuel in the West Bank. The gunman is reported to have been one of at least three Palestinians who detonated a roadside bomb beside a bus, and opened fire on passengers as they began exiting the damaged vehicle. During the gun battle, a second gunman succeeded in fleeing the...

Aasser Arafat said yesterday he's willing to embrace the Mideast peace deal he disdained two years ago at Camp David, but Bush officials dismissed the offer as the cynical posturing of a desperate man. "Just more of his rant," said one senior administration official of the offer. "Arafat who? The man has made himself irrelevant to this process." In an interview with the Israeli daily Ha'aretz, the Palestinian Authority chairman declared that "enough is enough" — the phrase recently used by President Bush — and said it was time for "no more war." For the first time, Arafat said he...

JERUSALEM -- In one of the worst Palestinian attacks in the past year, at least 19 Israelis died when a militant blew himself up Wednesday in a Netanya hotel where guests gathered for Passover dinner. The suicide attack wounded at least 140 others and all but wrecked the most recent U.S. attempt to broker peace. The bombing in the seafront resort town -- the third suicide attack in the Jewish state in a week -- accelerated talk of a full-blown Israeli invasion of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Islamic militant group Hamas took responsibility for the blast and said...

The Palestinian Authority (PA) has ruled out cease-fire talks with Israel until Israeli forces withdraw from the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Senior Palestinian spokesman Nabil Abu Rdainah set the precondition for talks ahead of the imminent arrival in Israel of America's Middle East envoy Anthony Zinni. In a further sign boding ill for General Zinni's visit, the founder of the Islamic militant group Hamas says his group will continue its attacks on Israelis during the peace mission. Sheikh Ahmed Yassin told the Reuters news agency in an interview that Hamas wanted to avenge the killings of civilians during the...