Al-Ahram Weekly | Front Page

		30 May - 5 June 2002 Issue No.588 Front page	Current issue Previous issue Site map
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875		Recommend this page

Briefs

Seville plan
SENIOR Israeli and Arab officials could meet in Seville, Spain, within two months to discuss how to end the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, Israel's daily Yediot Aharonot reported yesterday.
The paper said King Juan Carlos of Spain, Morocco's King Mohamed VI and UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan were working to set up the meeting, which would substitute for a planned international conference on the Middle East.
The conference was planned by the 'quartet' of the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations but has made little progress.
The foreign ministers of Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia were also expected to attend the meeting, which would last two days, the report said. It did not specify who would represent the Palestinian Authority. Arab countries have declared they would not take part in any Middle East peace conference if Syria was intentionally excluded upon Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's request.

'Vast multiple'
LIBYA has offered to pay $10 million per family as compensation for the deaths of 270 people in the 1988 Pan Am 103 bombing, lawyers representing the families said.
They said the Libyan offer was a "vast multiple" of settlements paid as in any other aviation or terrorism case.
At $10 million per family, the combined compensation would come to $2.7 billion. Of the 270 victims, 181 were Americans.
The lawyers have been negotiating with the Libyans for years to reach a settlement that would permit the lifting of both UN Security Council and US sanctions against Libya.
The State Department has not been involved in the negotiations. A senior department official expressed doubt that the Bush Administration would approve the arrangement.
The New York-based Kriendler & Kriendler law firm, discussing the case publicly for the first time, outlined the status of the negotiations in a five-page letter to family members. Copies were made available to the news media.
Under the agreement, the money would be placed in escrow and released piecemeal as the sanctions against Libya are revoked: 40 per cent when UN sanctions are lifted, 40 per cent with the removal of US commercial sanctions and 20 per cent when Libya is removed from the State Department's list of sponsors of international terrorism.

Hit 'precisely'
US-LED WARPLANES patrolling a no-fly zone over northern Iraq bombed an Iraqi air defence system in response to Iraqi anti-aircraft fire, the US military said yesterday.
The planes dropped bombs after Iraqi forces fired anti- aircraft artillery at them during routine patrols on Tuesday, the US-European Command said in a statement. The attack took place near the northern city of Mosul.
"Coalition aircraft responded to the Iraqi attack by delivering precision ordinance on elements of the Iraqi integrated air defence system," the Germany-based command said. "All coalition aircraft departed the area safely."
The official Iraqi News Agency (INA) said five civilians were wounded during the bombing.
US and British warplanes based in southeastern Turkey patrol a no-fly zone established in 1991 to protect the Kurdish population from Iraqi forces. Iraq does not recognise the zone and has been challenging allied aircraft since 1998. A similar zone over southern Iraq is allegedly meant to protect Shi'ite Muslims.

Send a letter to the Editor Recommend this page

ARCHIVES
Letter from the Editor
Editorial Board
Subscription
Advertise!

WEEKLY ONLINE: www.ahram.org.eg/weekly
Updated every Saturday at 11.00 GMT, 2pm local time
weeklyweb@ahram.org.eg

Al-Ahram Organisation