Sharon warns ministers: approve my plan
JERUSALEM, May 30 (UPI) -- Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has reportedly warned hawkish ministers he might fire them to win a majority for his revised withdrawal plan.
Various news sources said Sharon convened his cabinet Sunday to discuss the plan, but seemed to have no majority for it: Twelve ministers reportedly oppose his plan with 11 supporting it.
Israel Radio quoted Sharon as having told his cabinet members he is determined to win approval for his plan even if it would require a cabinet reshuffle.
The question is whether to endanger Israel in a serious political crisis with the United States, he reportedly said. Washington has been urging Israel to approve the plan.
Sharon brought the military's chief of general staff, the head of the military intelligence, and director of the Shabak security service to the cabinet meeting and all supported his plan, the radio reported.
No vote was expected Sunday, with Sharon telling the ministers he will give each one time to speak his mind so the debate will continue during the cabinet's next session.
The plan calls for a staged withdrawal from the Gaza Strip - with the exception of a narrow sliver of land near Egypt -- and from the northern West Bank by the end of next year.
Three Palestinians are killed in Gaza
GAZA CITY, May 30 (UPI) -- Three Palestinians, including two militant Hamas leaders, were killed Sunday in an Israeli helicopter strike south of Gaza City.
Palestinian sources said an Israeli Apache helicopter fired two missiles, one of which apparently killed two members of al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas.
Israeli security sources said one militant, Wa'al Nasser, had been involved in several attacks in which 14 people were killed and scores were injured. In one attack he directed, a female suicide bomber blew herself up at the entrance to the joint industrial zone at Erez killing four people and wounding six including a Palestinian woman.
Israeli media said the woman was pressured to go there after being caught in adultery. Nasser was also the leader of the Qassam rocket project, security sources said.
The second militant was Muhamed Zarzur, who was responsible for detonating explosives and firing anti-tank missiles and Qassam rockets. One of his attacks hit an Israeli bus injuring six people, the security sources said.
Palestinian medics with the Red Crescent said they found the bodies of three Palestinians, two of which were charred beyond recognition. Several other people, including a woman and two children, suffered injuries in the incident.
Watergate's Archibald Cox dies at age 92
BROOKSVILLE, Maine, May 30 (UPI) -- Harvard law professor and special prosecutor Archibald Cox, best known for his role in the Watergate investigation, has died at his Maine home at age 92.
Phyllis, his wife of 67 years, told the Washington Post she could not specify a single cause of the Saturday death. "He was 92 years old, and I think he died of old age."
In October 1973, Cox precipitated what would become known as the "Saturday night massacre." He insisted on obtaining tape recordings of conversations of President Richard Nixon in the Oval Office.
The demand came after five men with links to Nixon's re-election committee had been arrested in the June 1972 break-in at the Watergate headquarters of the Democratic National Committee.
Nixon refused and demanded Cox's firing, but Attorney General Elliot Richardson, who had recruited Cox as the Watergate special prosecutor, refused to fire Cox and resigned, as did his deputy, William Ruckelshaus. The third-ranking officer of the Justice Department, Robert Bork, followed Nixon's order and dismissed Cox.
Before Watergate, Cox served in various government positions, including solicitor general during the Kennedy administration and chief of the Wage Stabilization Board during the Truman administration.
He was a nationally known expert in labor and constitutional law and the author of several books in those fields.
He and his wife had three children.
Watergate counsel Sam Dash dies at 79
WASHINGTON, May 30 (UPI) -- Sam Dash, former chief counsel for the Senate Watergate Committee hearings that led to Richard Nixon's resignation, has died in Washington at the age of 79.
Dash died Saturday at Washington Hospital Center, according to hospital spokeswoman Paula Faria. However, she provided no other details, CNN reported.
Most likely known for his role as chief counsel for the Senate Watergate Committee in 1973-74, Dash investigated the Nixon administration's involvement in the 1972 break-in at the National Democratic Committee headquarters at the Watergate apartments in Washington.
Dash also served as ethics adviser to independent counsel Kenneth Starr during the Whitewater investigation of 1994-1998. He resigned that post when Starr advocated impeaching President Bill Clinton.
CNN said Dash, who helped write the independent counsel law, believed Starr's actions went beyond the scope of his legal authority.
