Israel warns Palestinians to stand by prime minister

Israel warns Palestiniansto stand by prime minister
JERUSALEM -- Israel will not negotiate with any new government hand-picked by Yasser Arafat, the Israeli foreign minister said Sunday in the first public warning to those trying to topple beleaguered Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas.
A power struggle between Arafat and Abbas has intensified in recent days, with clashes over key appointments and control of security forces.
Several Palestinian legislators, including Arafat allies, are lobbying to oust Abbas later this week after he presents the achievements of his first 100 days in office to parliament. It remains unclear whether the session will be followed by a vote of confidence.
Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom suggested Sunday that an already troubled U.S.-backed peace plan would be derailed if Abbas is ousted.
Libya reaches 2nd dealwith victims' families
TRIPOLI, Libya -- Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi said Sunday a second agreement over compensation has been reached between his country and the families of 170 victims of a French airliner that exploded in 1989.
In 1999, Libya provided $33 million to families of the passengers killed when a UTA airliner crashed over the Niger desert Sept. 19, 1989. A French court earlier convicted six Libyans -- including Gadhafi's brother-in-law -- in absentia over the bombing.
However, France wanted to renegotiate for more compensation after Libya recently agreed to pay families of the 270 victims of the 1988 Pan Am bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland, a total of $2.7 billion -- or between $5 million and $10 million for each victim.
Gadhafi previously said the UTA "file was closed" after the $33 million was paid. But he said the French government was pressured by victims' relatives after it became clear that relatives of the Lockerbie victims would receive more money.
Libya, subsequently, came under international pressure to protect the French government from "further embarrassment," Gadhafi said.
Tribal fighters kill 200
BUNIA, Congo -- Congo tribal fighters killed at least 200 people and abducted scores more during a series of attacks that destroyed a northeast town once controlled by a rival tribe, an official from the defeated tribe said Sunday.
Fighters from the Lendu tribe repeatedly attacked Fataki, a town 37 miles northwest of Bunia that was controlled by the rival Hema tribe, over the past month, forcing thousands of residents to flee, said Saba Rafiki, security chief for the Union of Congolese Patriots, a Hema tribe militia.
During the attacks, the Lendu abducted at least 137 Hema residents to use as laborers and concubines, Rafiki said.
Police say they thwarteda 'spectacular' attack
NEW DELHI, India -- Weekend anti-terrorist crackdowns by security forces prevented a "spectacular" attack by a Pakistan-based militant group in India's capital, police said Sunday.
Police killed two suspected members of the outlawed Jaish-e-Mohammed group in a sprawling New Delhi park late Saturday, hours after explosives were seized and three people arrested elsewhere in the city.
The actions in the capital came after paramilitary soldiers in Indian-controlled Kashmir said they killed the Jaish chief in India, Ghazi Baba. Ghazi Baba was suspected of masterminding a December 2001 attack on India's Parliament that brought nuclear-armed rivals India and Pakistan close to war.
Police Joint Commissioner Niraj Kumar said the militants were part of a plot to target "something spectacular," like important political figures or "symbols of national importance like the India Gate and Red Fort, something like that."
"The exact target would have been disclosed to them by Jaish headquarters a short time before the actual strike," he told reporters.
California candidatesattack Schwarzenegger
SAN FRANCISCO -- Arnold Schwarzenegger's views on the economy and immigration came under attack Sunday in California's gubernatorial recall campaign, but the GOP front-runner continued to keep a low profile over the Labor Day weekend.
Gov. Gray Davis jabbed at Schwarzenegger's lack of specifics on his economic plan, while state Sen. Tom McClintock, the action star's chief Republican rival, chided him for failing to take a no-new-taxes pledge. Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante, the only prominent Democrat seeking to succeed Davis if he is recalled, attacked him as anti-immigrant. "As far as I'm concerned, Arnold's going back to the same wedge-issue politics that his mentor, Pete Wilson, suggested to the state of California. It was a time of division in California," Bustamante said on CNN's "Late Edition." "He's wrong in doing this, and he's not going to get a pass from me. We're going to take him on."
Schwarzenegger, who came to the United States from Austria during the late 1960s, has acknowledged voting for Proposition 187, the 1994 initiative that denied some social services to illegal immigrants but has since been mostly voided by the courts.
Associated Press