MIDEAST
ISRAEL AGREES TO DITCH ROADBLOCKS
The latest: In the Bush administration's final push for peace, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice secured a modest agreement from Israel on Sunday designed to shore up Palestinian security forces and scale back the number of roadblocks hobbling the West Bank economy.
The details: Israel pledged to remove 50 dirt berms. The West Bank is segmented by 580 barriers, including roadblocks, checkpoints, barbed wire, concrete walls, dirt mounds and trenches, which Israel says are needed to guarantee security but which the Palestinians consider devastating to their economic well-being.
Israel also agreed to allow 700 newly trained Palestinian soldiers to take up posts in the West Bank city of Jenin and approved delivery of 25 armored personnel carriers for the Palestinian Authority. The Palestinians, in turn, agreed to improve their policing of Jenin, where anti-Israeli fighters are active.
The response: Rice praised the Israeli moves as a "very good first step" that could help bolster ongoing peace talks. But Palestinian leaders voiced skepticism. "I will believe it when I see it," said veteran Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat. "We have heard this many, many times before."
WASHINGTON, D.C.
BORDER REGION SEEN AS 'DANGER' TO WEST
The latest: The situation in the border region between Afghanistan and Pakistan where Al-Qaida has established a safe haven presents a "clear and present danger" to the West, CIA Director Michael Hayden said Sunday on CBS' "Meet the Press."
The specifics: He said the United States has an interest in targeting the border region because intelligence agencies think that Osama bin Laden is hiding there. If there were another terrorist attack against Americans, Hayden said, it would almost certainly originate from that region. He added that operatives from the region "wouldn't attract your attention" because they "look Western."
On the ground: Washington wants Pakistan's new coalition government to keep the pressure on extremist groups in the border region. Over the weekend, Pakistan's new prime minister, Yousaf Raza Gilani, pledged to make the fight against terrorism his top priority. But he said peace talks and aid programs could be more effective tools than weapons.
NORTH KOREA
MORE HARSH WORDS ABOUT THE SOUTH
The latest: North Korea continued to lash out at the new conservative government in Seoul on Sunday, threatening to reduce the South to "ashes" if the South Korean government made the "slightest move" to attack. The warning, one of the harshest in years, was a response to a statement by Kim Tae-young, the head of the South's Joint Chiefs of Staff, that his military would strike suspected North Korean nuclear weapons sites if Pyongyang attempted to attack the South with atomic bombs.
