Booby-trapped phone kills leading Palestinian militant
JERUSALEM -- A leading Palestinian militant was blown up Thursday when a booby-trapped public phone exploded as he used it on the street outside the West Bank jail where he was held on-and-off by Palestinian authorities.
Palestinians immediately blamed Israel for the killing, which came a day after the sides held heated and inconclusive talks on ending more than six months of Mideast violence.
The Palestinians charged that Israel was trying to kill the officials. Israel insisted that the Palestinians opened fire first, prompting return fire from the Israeli soldiers.
In the West Bank town of Jenin, Iyad Hardan, 30, a leading militant in the radical Islamic Jihad movement, was killed instantly when an explosive device detonated as he spoke on a pay phone he often used just outside the Palestinian jail, witnesses said.
Israel did not immediately comment on the blast, but it had named Hardan one of the most dangerous members of Islamic Jihad, and accused him of masterminding major bomb attacks against Israel.
Without saying directly that Israel was responsible, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said that his government would conduct a constant struggle against terrorism. "Sometimes we will announce what we did, sometimes we will not announce what we did," he told a political meeting in Tel Aviv. "We don't always have to announce it."
White House, GOP struggle to reverse setback to tax cut
WASHINGTON -- Still struggling for votes, Republicans conceded Thursday that the budget they plan to push through the Senate may fall short of President Bush's full $1.6 trillion, 10-year tax cut proposal.
On the floor of the evenly divided Senate, lawmakers continued working through a $1.94 trillion fiscal blueprint for 2002 that would lay the groundwork for Bush's proposals for cutting taxes and restraining spending. Leaders planned for nonstop votes Thursday evening and Friday.
Behind the scenes, the GOP effort to win support from maverick Sen. James Jeffords, R-Vt., seemed to be flagging. Jeffords' vote would be pivotal in the Republican effort to erase the blow that the Senate dealt Bush on Wednesday in voting to slice the tax reduction to $1.15 trillion.
"I've about run that string out," Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., said of efforts to satisfy Jeffords. Jeffords has threatened to vote against Bush's budget because he says it would shortchange special education to make room for an oversized tax cut.
Lott said Republicans were seeking support from others, including Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb. But he acknowledged that the tax number in the Senate's budget may well end up being below Bush's coveted $1.6 trillion figure.
Bush backs off plan to ease salmonella testing in schools
WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration backed away from a proposal to ease salmonella testing requirements on meat for school lunches, saying it was overruling lower level Agriculture Department officials.
The administration reversed course Thursday after the proposal made front-page news, provoking criticism from consumer groups already angered by President Bush's withdrawal of a standard for the amount of arsenic allowable in drinking water a standard issued by President Clinton.
"It makes for a very tough morning when you open most newspapers in this country and find a front-page story that your administration is relaxing standards on the safety of school lunch programs," said Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., who favors testing. "That's a hard one to sell."
The proposed changes were on the Agriculture Department's Web site on Wednesday, but were gone by Thursday morning.
Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman said the changes "were released prior to receiving an appropriate review."
EU won't stage protest over global warming against U.S.
BRUSSELS, Belgium -- Despite outrage over U.S. rejection of the international agreement on global warming, the European Union said Thursday it does not yet plan to retaliate against the Bush administration.
EU Environment Commissioner Margot Wallstroem said it was too soon to discuss sanctions, after a two-day visit to Washington to discuss the policy reversal that abandoned the Kyoto Protocol, the 1997 agreement by industrial countries to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.
"We should see now what we can do and from there on we might have to think about exactly how to act," Wallstroem said.
Wallstroem held out hope the United States could still contribute to the debate, and said any action would have to wait until after an international meeting on the issue in July in Bonn, Germany.
"We are still having these contacts. They are important partners in trade and other aspects as well," she said.
She said it remained unclear what "creative solutions" the Bush administration would be able to come up with, but left no doubt that the essence of the Kyoto agreement would be ripped out of any U.S. government position.
"Kyoto has become somewhat of a dirty word in the Bush administration," she told journalists. "I don't think the United States will change their mind. The kind of harsh statements made, make it very difficult to back off," she said.
Compiled from Associated Press reports
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