Abu Mazen

NO OTHER event in recent history provides Palestinians with the chance to transform their political landscape like the death of Yasser Arafat. With his passing yesterday in France, Palestinians have been freed from the constraints of his one-man rule, polarizing personality and failed leadership. As they eulogize the guerrilla patron of their nationalist cause, Palestinians should reflect on the cost of violence and terror in the past four years and the thousands who have died in the uprising against the Israeli occupation.

YUshchenko - Shchampagne? Viktor-y in Ukraine? The vote's tomorrow, Away then with sorrow! Today - a holiday refrain: Best to all, to all good cheer, Let Peach abound & banish fear! Raise now a toast (It surely helps) To Jamie Foxx and Michael Phelps, To Ken Jennings, camp of Jeopardy! And Cindy Wolf, all salt-and-pepperdy! Singh we a songh now to India's top guy, And to Ayad Allawi and Hamid Karzai. To Illinois Senator Barack Obama, A place in the Democrats' futurama! To Ariel Sharon and to Abu Mazen, Hopes for peace, West Bankish and Gazan.

MAHMOUD ABBAS is expected in Washington this week for the first visit to the White House by a Palestinian Authority president in years. He can distinguish himself from his predecessor - Yasser Arafat, whom Mr. Bush refused to see - by highlighting his accomplishments on security matters, identifying pragmatic ways the administration can help improve Palestinian lives and pressing the president on the prospects for peace after the Israeli withdrawal from...

JERICHO, West Bank - U.S. Secretary of State Colin L. Powell pried some small symbolic moves and promises from Israel and the Palestinians yesterday but failed to make much headway in the U.S. bid to launch a new Middle East peace process. Powell tried to appear upbeat as he concluded the first leg of a weeklong tour of the Mideast and Europe, which included meetings with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and new Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas. Abbas' confirmation as prime minister at the end of last month paved the way for the release of the new U.S.-backed "road map" for peace in the region.

KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip - For the past four years, Palestinian police Lt. Saifaldeen al-Saidy has retained most of the tools of his trade. He kept his olive-green uniform, floppy green beret and Kalashnikov assault rifle. What he lacked was authority to arrest anyone. For all of that time, the Palestinian government virtually disappeared, in effect giving the gunmen of Hamas and other militant groups immunity for their actions. Militants who claimed that Israel was their target became neighborhood warlords, deciding for themselves what law and justice meant.

JERUSALEM --Israel will continue to cooperate with the Palestinian Authority and its interim government as long as Hamas is not represented there, the acting prime minister, Ehud Olmert, said yesterday. He said Israel would cooperate with the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, known as Abu Mazen, whose position is not directly affected by the sweeping victory of Hamas in Palestinian legislative elections. "I have no interest in harming Palestinian Authority Chairman Abu Mazen as long as he doesn't cooperate with Hamas and as long as the Palestinian government isn't led by Hamas," Olmert said.

JERUSALEM -- Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is expected to announce tomorrow that he will use his power of presidential decree to hold a national referendum on the question of establishing a Palestinian state beside Israel, according to Palestinian officials. The decree would follow 10 days of apparently fruitless talks between members of Abbas' Fatah movement and the Hamas-led Palestinian government over whether Hamas would endorse a document written by Israeli-held Palestinian prisoners that implicitly recognizes Israel.

JERUSALEM - A Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up late last night near a line of people waiting to enter a Tel Aviv nightclub, killing four people, injuring at least 50 others and breaking a two-week-old cease-fire that had brought renewed hopes for peace in the Middle East. Last night it remained unclear who was responsible for carrying out the attack. Israeli news media were reporting that the militant group Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the bombing, but later indicated that the Lebanese guerrilla group Hezbollah, which has been attempting to disrupt peace efforts, might have carried out the attack.

RAMALLAH, West Bank - As a teen, Munir Aqra'a earned Israel's attention by throwing Molotov cocktails, was arrested and spent five years in an Israeli prison. By age 25, he says, during a second Palestinian uprising, he helped organize attacks that killed four Israeli soldiers and five Jewish settlers. After four years in hiding in the main Palestinian government compound, Aqra'a is still wanted by the Israelis. But this week his life took a turn. After prodding from the Palestinian Authority, Aqra'a signed a one-page pledge to put down his weapons and not engage in attacks against Israel.

JERUSALEM - Israel will propose more than a dozen changes to a Middle East peace initiative and is prepared to abandon negotiations if the amendments are rejected, a top aide to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said yesterday. Dov Weisglass, the head of Sharon's office, said most of Israel's concerns about the peace plan center on ending Palestinian attacks and establishing Palestinian security forces committed to halting violence. The announcement came as Israeli troops allegedly shot and seriously wounded an American peace activist with the International Solidarity Movement in the West Bank town of Jenin.