Police nab suspect in federal office burglary

Police nab suspect infederal office burglary
LAKEWOOD, Colo. -- Authorities arrested a 24-year-old woman Saturday after a burglary at a Federal Highway Administration office that houses sensitive information about Hoover Dam.
A federal ID badge and computer hard drives were among the more than $100,000 in items stolen, however the hard drives were not believed to have contained sensitive information, said Raul Carballido of the FBI.
Carballido said investigators did not believe the break-in involved a terrorist threat.
The woman, identified as Jennifer Cisney, was arrested in nearby Golden driving a stolen SUV with a loaded .357-magnum revolver on the front seat.
"She has an extensive criminal history," said police Lt. Al Wilson, a member of the area drug task force. No reason was given for the presence of task force members at the news conference, and officials declined to say if drugs were involved.
Investigators wouldn't give details of the arrest except to say Cisney had been contacted and a rendezvous arranged. But she fled when officers approached, backing into another vehicle.
Israel considers liftingblockade on Arafat
JERUSALEM -- Israel's plans to consider lifting the blockade on Yasser Arafat's West Bank headquarters drew sharp criticism from a hard-line government minister and skepticism from a Palestinian negotiator Saturday, a day before a planned Cabinet debate on the issue.
But the bloodshed continued Saturday. Israeli troops fatally shot an unarmed man they feared was attacking them, and 18 Palestinians and 2 Israeli soldiers were wounded in two separate incidents in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Infrastructure Minister Avigdor Lieberman threatened to lead his party out of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's coalition government if Israel decides to end the blockade of Arafat's compound in Ramallah, which has confined the Palestinian leader for nearly three months.
Sharon's inner Security Cabinet is due to debate the issue at its weekly session today, in the wake of Palestinian arrests of suspects in the assassination of an Israeli minister and the renewal of the three-way talks aimed at preparing the way for a cease-fire.
Senior Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said he believed Sharon was determined to continue his campaign against Arafat, making the Cabinet debate meaningless.
"At the end of the day Sharon, who fires missiles into Arafat's compound, 20 meters away from his office, will continue and may kill Arafat," Erekat said.
Colombian leader visitsformer rebel territory
SAN VICENTE DEL CAGUAN, Colombia -- President Andres Pastrana returned Saturday to the very spot in former rebel territory where he began a tortuous peace process three years ago and blamed the guerrillas for sabotaging the talks to end Colombia's 38-year war.
Pastrana touched down by helicopter on a soccer field in the southern cattle ranching town of San Vicente del Caguan, just hours after army troops stealthily occupied it, yanked down a rebel flag and tossed the flag into the trash.
Pastrana is trying to reassert government authority over cattle country and tropical jungle in southern Colombia that he ceded to the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, in 1998 as an incentive to end the war. The region is twice the size of New Jersey with about 100,000 residents.
He angrily revoked the zone earlier last week, after rebels hijacked an airliner and kidnapped a Colombian senator, ordering hundreds of airstrikes on rebel targets and mobilizing 13,000 troops to retake the zone.
Trouble-free pilgrimage
MINA, Saudi Arabia -- With their annual pilgrimage so far spared the disasters of past years, thousands of Muslims streamed to this valley outside the holy city of Mecca on Saturday to pelt pebbles at three pillars representing the devil.
In wave after wave, the pilgrims each threw seven tiny pebbles at the gray stone pillars as they chanted "Allahu Akbar," or "God is great." The ritual, which symbolizes the rejection of Satan's temptations, will be repeated today on what will officially be the pilgrimage's last day.
The pilgrimage, required of every able-bodied Muslim at least once in a lifetime, is a spiritual journey that, according to tradition, cleanses the soul and wipes away a Muslim's sins. Of the estimated 2 million Muslims who are performing this year's pilgrimage, or hajj, more than 1.3 million came from abroad.
"There has so far been no deaths caused directly by the hajj, like overcrowding for example," said Saad bin Abdullah al-Twijri, commander of Saudi Arabia's civil defense forces.