In the past year of fighting Israel has repeatedly shelled Palestinian police stations entered

In the past year of fighting, Israel has repeatedly shelled Palestinian police stations, entered Palestinian territory and killed suspected militants in targeted attacks. However, Palestinian leaders have been immune from Israeli retribution.The Israeli Cabinet was divided over whether to target the Palestinian Authority. Israeli Finance Minister Silvan Shalom, a member of Sharon’s Likud party, said Israel must expel Arafat from the region, while Transport Minister Ephraim Sneh, a moderate, warned the region would descend into greater chaos if Arafat was forced out.Early Thursday, Israeli tanks took up positions in outlying districts of the Palestinian towns of Jenin and Ramallah, drawing Palestinian fire. Troops imposed curfews in the areas they seized, Palestinian witnesses said.In Jenin, shots fired from advancing Israeli tanks hit a classroom of an elementary school, killing a 12–year–old Palestinian girl and seriously wounding a classmate, Palestinian doctors said. The Israeli army confirmed there was an exchange of fire near the school and said it was checking further. In Ramallah, a 25–year–old Palestinian gunman was shot in the head, Palestinian officials said.Troops also imposed a curfew on the Jerusalem suburb of Izzarieh in the West Bank. Soldiers accompanied by dogs searched dozens of homes, including that of Palestinian Cabinet minister Ziad Abu Zayyad, a leading moderate, witnesses said.Abu Zayyad said soldiers told him they were searching for armed men.In the Gaza Strip, Palestinian security forces arrested three senior members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the PLO faction that claimed responsibility for the killing of Zeevi.

Three other wanted PFLP activists went into hiding, security officials said.In Ramallah, where the PFLP has its headquarters, no arrests were made. Security forces put together a list of 25 suspects, but all have gone into hiding, said a Palestinian official who spoke on condition of anonymity. A spokesman of the group, Ali Jeradat, was briefly detained for questioning, but then released.The PFLP said it killed Zeevi to avenge its leader, Mustafa Zibri, who was killed Aug. 27 in a targeted Israeli rocket attack while sitting in his Ramallah office.Israel held Arafat directly responsible for the killing of Zeevi, saying the Palestinian leader has done nothing to restrain militants, despite pledges he made as part of a Sept.

26 truce deal to try to prevent attacks on Israelis.”Time after time, Arafat has deceived Israel and the entire international community,” the Israeli Cabinet statement said.Palestinian Cabinet Minister Saeb Erekat said Israel was using the Zeevi killing as a pretext for trying to crush the Palestinian Authority. The minister said the Palestinians have appealed to the United States and the European Union for help.In Washington, the Bush administration condemned the assassination of Zeevi. Arafat “must immediately find and bring to justice those who committed this murder, as well as those who would do harm to efforts to restore an atmosphere of calm and security for Israelis and Palestinians,” White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said.Zeevi, 75, was an ultranationalist who staunchly opposed land–for–peace agreements with the Palestinians and advocated their ouster from the West Bank and Gaza Strip. He was killed by one or more gunmen in the hallway of a Jerusalem hotel where he was staying when parliament was in session.He was the first Israeli Cabinet minister to be killed by Palestinian militants, and the most prominent Israeli to die in more than a year of Mideast fighting.. The Chinese deployed 10,000 police and military personnel while fighter jets patrolled closed airspace over Shanghai as the city prepared to receive the American President and 20 other heads of state for the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation forum today – the largest gathering of international leadersin China.

The Chinese deployed 10,000 police and military personnel while fighter jets patrolled closed airspace over Shanghai as the city prepared to receive the American President and 20 other heads of state for the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation forum today – the largest gathering of international leadersin China.
Even without a global crisis, the Chinese government would have gone to extraordinary lengths to guarantee a problem-free summit. Navy gunboats patrol the Huangpu river and the tunnel underneath is closed to unauthorised personnel.For the 13 million citizens of Shanghai, China’s most populous city, the Apec meeting is a major frustration. “Ordinary people don’t care about Apec,” said Zhang Jianguo, a writer. “The people just hate the hassles – so many roads are blocked, and the migrant workers who usually clear rubbish and hawk vegetables have been rounded up in police trucks.”The real or imagined threat of terrorist retaliation for American strikes against Afghanistan has led to an expanded military and police presence in Shanghai.Chinese embassies worldwide have been refusing visas to applicants from Afghanistan, Pakistan and many Middle Eastern countries. Chinese airlines have blacklisted passengers from 19 mostly Middle Eastern nations, and Shanghai’s taxi drivers have been warned not to accept Arab fares.The Apec summit, under way since Monday but with key meetings this weekend, should comprise another milestone in Communist China’s coming of age as a capitalist giant. Wang Yaotian, an econ-omist aged 83, said proudly: “Hosting Apec will increase China’s profile and put Shanghai back on the map.” Not only can he recall the free-wheeling days of pre-Communist Shanghai, but for the past three decades he has been a leading advocate for Chinese membership of the World Trade Organisation. With the 2008 Olympic Games and WTO membership almost in the bag, a regime obsessed with the symbolism and prestige of hosting events such as Apec can point proudly to economic growth the rest of the world can only dream of, yet Beijing’s best-laid plans have been hijacked by ill-fortune.While Chinese officials have been stressing Apec’s economic agenda, the 11 September attacks threaten to dominate.