President Bush angered European officials by including the European Union in his threat to cut off financial aid and other support to the Palestinian Authority unless the Palestinians choose a leader other than Yasser Arafat. But Bush needed to mention Europe and the Middle East to make his threat effective. This year the U.S. government has earmarked $460 million in aid to the Palestinians but none of it is channeled through the Palestinian Authority. The E.U. on the other hand is a heavy donor to the PA. Following the signing of the Oslo agreement the E.U. pledged to provide $2.4 billion over five years (1994-1998) to the Palestinian Authority mainly to pay the salaries of government employees. The E.U. renewed its pledge in 1999 and continues to donate about $10 million a month to the PA. In fact, the E.U. has exceeded its pledge. From 1994 to 1999 the European Union committed $731.1 million -- $498.85 million from its budget, $215 million in loans from the European Investment Bank, and another $17.25 million in EIB interest rate subsidies. In addition, the E.U. made $207.23 million available to the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees under the regular budget support program. Support from Arab countries -- also linked by Bush to Arafat's removal -- has been more lavish in promises than in delivery. In November 2000, Arab finance ministers agreed on a mechanism to disburse up to $1 billion. Depending on whom you listen to, the Arabs have so far delivered about half of that amount to the Palestinians. On Thursday, European officials were saying privately that Arafat's departure was a devout wish ("If I were Arafat I would make a grand gesture for my country and leave," declared Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi) but governments had no plans to stick to Bush's linkage request.
A Canadian proposal to direct immigrants to less populated areas has drawn fire from human rights and immigrants groups who are calling it a threat to freedom of movement. The idea was presented by Canada's Immigration Minister Dennis Coderre, who wants immigrants to sign a social contract accepting to live in an assigned location for between three and five years before being allowed to move to urban centers. Under the scheme, new arrivals will be sent to the Atlantic or Prairie provinces, or the rural areas of Ontario, Quebec or British Columbia. Half of Canada's 250,000 annual immigrants head for Toronto, 15 percent choose Vancouver and 11 percent settle in Montreal. The Coderre plan is meant to help stop the flow of young people from rural regions by using skilled immigrants to help improve "quality of life" in areas such as education and medical care. But the plan -- not yet adopted by the Canadian government -- has its critics. For Glora Fung, chairman of the Chinese Canadian National Council's immigration committee, it recalled Communist China's similar but bigger attempts rural relocation. "I wonder," she says, "if Minister Coderre is suggesting Canada should go in the same direction."
The Israeli defense establishment was denying the story Thursday, but reliable sources in Tel Aviv insist that earlier this week counter-intelligence agents uncovered and stopped a suicide bomb attack on the nuclear storage bunkers near Moshav Zechariah where Israel stores its nuclear warheads and Jericho missiles. Six Palestinians were arrested on June 24 near Beit Shemesh on their way to carry out the attack. Israel's Shin Bet service, acting on information, launched a massive hunt and tracked the six men. Israeli sources said security around the facility is so tight that the bombers would have been stopped long before they reached any sensitive area. Still, the propaganda effect of such a bold strike would have been considerable.
The Japanese government has made an unnerving terrorist discovery as it begins salvage operations on a suspected North Korean spy ship that sank in the East China Sea in December after a firefight with Japan's Coast Guard. The craft is 242 miles (390 km) at off Amami Island, Kagoshima Prefecture, in Chinese territorial waters. Investigators have uncovered a Russian-made surface to air missiles aboard the sunken craft, along with machine guns and rocket launchers. The missile is estimated to have a range of over 1.86 miles, and uses infrared technology to home on aircraft engines. The missile was not used in the exchange of fire that sank the boat on 22 December. The discovery of the missile is causing the JCG to review its future responses to unidentified ships in Japanese waters. Heavy weather has been slowing the salvage operations.
