Prison fire probe

SAUDI authorities probed on Tuesday the fire that gutted the Hayer prison, killing at least 67 inmates. Located 40 kilometres (25 miles) south of the capital, the prison is considered one of the kingdom's biggest detention centers.

One police official said the blaze was probably not deliberate.

"It is too early to tell what happened," said the official, who declined to be named. "It could be an electric short or something else but we don't think it was sabotage."

The official also said there were no suspected Islamist militants at the prison where the fire broke out on Monday, and that most of the inmates were jailed on criminal and drug charges.

However, Saad Al-Fagih, a London-based member of the Movement for Islamic Reform, said as many as 144 inmates and 40 security men died in Monday's fire, more than double the official toll released by authorities. The saudi opposition movement was the first to break news of the blaze.

Airspace violations

UN CHIEF Kofi Annan's representative to Lebanon, Staffan de Mistura, warned Monday of a "dangerous potential for escalation" stemming from Israel's violation of Lebanon's airspace.

In a statement issued by his office in Beirut, De Mistura expressed "continuing concern over the persistence of Israeli overflights and the ensuing anti-aircraft fire".

The UN envoy called "on Israel to halt these violations of Lebanese airspace and for all parties to fully respect the Blue Line", drawn up by the UN after Israel's May 2000 pullout from south Lebanon ended a 22 year occupation. On Sunday, Israeli warplanes repeatedly broke the sound barrier as they violated Lebanon's airspace, triggering retaliatory fire from the Shi'ite Muslim militia Hizbullah, Lebanese police said.

Upping Kuwait status

US SECRETARY of State Colin Powell said on Monday that Washington would designate Kuwait a "non-NATO major ally", paving the way for a free trade agreement with the emirate. "We will be moving towards designation of Kuwait as a non- NATO major ally and will begin discussions that will lead to a free trade agreement", Powell who arrived in Kuwait from a two-day visit to Iraq told a press conference.

The move would make Kuwait the fourth Arab state to enjoy the special status. The others are Egypt, Jordan and Bahrain. Israel benefits from the same status.

Kuwait served as the main staging post for the US-led invasion of Iraq, launched on 20 March. Powell effusively thanked the emirate for its contribution to the war effort, describing it as a "good friend to the US" that was "tested in time of war and time of peace".

Widening gulf

SAUDI ARABIA'S Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal warned of an "insurmountable gulf" in relations developing between the United States and his country if US misconceptions about Saudi Arabia persist.

Prince Saud told Time magazine that "if these misconceptions continue to rise, they build a gulf that is insurmountable."

"We try to fight that gulf. We are finding a hard time on the other side of the ocean," Al-Faisal said.

The Saudi minister, responding to US criticisms that his country has become a breeding ground for terrorism, responds that this is due to the worsening Israeli- Palestinian conflict and not because of Saudi Arabia's social system.

"It is not true that the extremists are gaining the upper hand. We are fighting terrorists, pursuing them everywhere, closing the net on them," he stressed.

Access denied

US TROOPS on Monday ordered Iraqi border officials to stop men aged between 20 and 45 from entering the country from Jordan, but the vital border was fully reopened the next day.

"Yesterday [Monday] we received word from the Americans that Arab and Iraqi men aged 20 to 45 should not be allowed into Iraq and closed the border," an Iraqi customs official, who identified himself as Ahmed, said in a telephone interview from the Iraq border.

"They were afraid of fedayeen," he said, referring to Arab guerrillas who have in the past infiltrated Iraq from Jordan and Syria to fight against the US-led coalition. Ahmad reported that traffic returned to normal on Tuesday.

Jordan's Information Minister Nabil Sharif described the closure as a "routine measure" which is taken by American troops inside Iraq "from time to time", Al Rai newspaper reported on Tuesday.

Press freedom curtailed

SEVERAL newspaper editors and a star cartoonist in Algeria are expected to be charged in coming days on accusations that they insulted President Abdelaziz Bouteflika.

The North African country has greater press freedom than most Arab countries. Several leading dailies there have in recent months published accusations of corruption and abuse of power. They now accuse authorities of trying to silence a critical press in anticipation of the upcoming presidential elections in April.

The independent Algerian League of Human Rights called on the government to stop what it called harassment of the media.

A presidential committee said some newspapers had gone too far in attacking people in high office and it expected several editors to face trial.

"The president and the prime minister have been accused of being thieves and the interior minister of being a torturer," Farouk Ksentini, head of a national body in charge of human rights, said. "The attacks have been excessively insulting," he added.