Possible exchange deal reached

Possible exchange deal reached

JERUSALEM

Israeli and Hamas have reached a deal to free a captured Israeli soldier held in the Gaza Strip in exchange for more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners, both sides said Tuesday, capping five years of painful negotiations that have repeatedly collapsed in fingerpointing and violence.

The deal, brokered by the new Egyptian government, would bring home Sgt. Gilad Schalit, who was captured in a cross-border raid in June 2006 by Palestinian militants who burrowed into Israel and dragged him into Gaza. Little has been known about his fate since then.

Hamas and Israel are bitter enemies. Hamas has sent dozens of suicide bombers into Israel, killing hundreds, and Israel blockaded Gaza after Hamas seized power there in 2007, carrying out a large-scale invasion in 2009 to try to stop daily rocket attacks on Israel.

Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, convened an urgent Cabinet meeting Tuesday night to approve the deal

Protesters march past homes

NEW YORK

Now it’s personal: Hundreds of anti-Wall Street protesters had a “Millionaires March” on Tuesday past the homes of some of the wealthiest executives in America, stopping to jeer “Tax the rich!” and “Where’s my bailout?”

Walking two-by-two on the sidewalk because they had no march permit and didn’t want to be charged with blocking traffic, members of the Occupy Wall Street movement and other groups made their way up Manhattan’s East Side, along streets like Fifth Avenue and Park Avenue where some of the richest 1 percent of the population live in townhouses and luxury apartments.

They paused outside buildings where media mogul Rupert Murdoch, banker Jamie Dimon and oil tycoon David Koch have homes, and decried the impending expiration of New York’s 2 percent “millionaires’ tax” in December.

Slovakia rejects expanding fund

NEW YORK

One of Wall Street’s quietest days in months ended mixed after investors spent the day waiting to see if Slovakia would block an expansion of Europe’s financial rescue program.

Slovakia’s decision came after U.S. stock markets closed. That country’s parliament rejected a bill to strengthen the powers of a regional rescue fund. The sixteen other countries that use the euro already have signed off on the bill, but the measure requires unanimous support.

There are ways around Slovakia’s opposition, but the move temporarily sets back efforts to address Europe’s debt jam, which has been the most important issue for financial markets for months.

Prosecution: Man prepared for death

DETROIT

Moments before he attempted to bring down an American jetliner, a young Nigerian man on a mission for al-Qaida retreated to the plane’s lavatory for a long cleansing ritual to prepare for death, prosecutors told jurors Tuesday.

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab prayed, washed himself, brushed his teeth and put on perfume, then returned to his seat and tried to detonate a bomb in his underwear, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Tukel said in his opening statement at the start of the man’s trial.

Virtually everyone else aboard the Amsterdam-to-Detroit flight had holiday plans back on Christmas Day 2009, but Abdulmutallab believed his calling was martyrdom, Turkel said.

In the plane’s bathroom, “he was engaging in rituals. He was preparing to die and enter heaven,” the prosecutor said.

Associated Press