- NABLUS (Reuters) - Israeli
soldiers shot dead a 17-year-old Palestinian during clashes with stone-throwing
protesters on Saturday, Palestinian witnesses and medics said, on the eve
of an international round of peace diplomacy.
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- The Israeli army said its troops fired "deterrence
shots not aimed at people" after Palestinians threw rocks and opened
fire.
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- The incident in the West Bank city of Nablus, which has
been under curfew for more than 100 days, inflamed tensions ahead of the
arrival of EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana on Saturday night for
shuttle talks with Israel and the Palestinians.
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- Palestinian political sources said Solana would bear
a letter from the "quartet" of international mediators -- the
United Nations, the United States, Russia and the European Union -- aimed
at breaking the current stalemate.
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- U.S. Middle East envoy William Burns is expected to visit
in coming days and a source close to the Israeli government said President
Bush had invited Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to Washington for
a meeting on October 15.
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- Political sources said Sharon's talks with Bush would
address both the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and Iraq.
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- SCHOOLCHILDREN ORDERED HOME
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- The youth killed in the West Bank city of Nablus on Saturday,
Ammar Rajab, was the second Palestinian teenager to be killed in the West
Bank in as many days.
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- Nablus residents said soldiers, who had often allowed
children to attend unofficial classes at nearby schools despite the curfew,
on Saturday ordered them back home, prompting protesters to begin throwing
stones.
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- Israel has re-occupied West Bank cities since a spate
of Palestinian suicide bombings and has imposed military curfews, saying
they help prevent further attacks. Palestinians and human rights organizations
say the measures are collective punishment.
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- Nablus is the largest militant stronghold in the West
Bank.
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- At least 1,578 Palestinians and 602 Israelis have been
killed in the Palestinian revolt against occupation, which broke out in
September 2000 after peace talks with Israel foundered.
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- Initial moves toward a cease-fire, which included an
Israeli pullback from the West Bank town of Bethlehem, were thwarted when
Israel besieged the Ramallah base of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat
for 10 days last month after a suicide attack.
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- An Israeli government source said that following the
resolution of the siege, the sides were now ready to return to talks on
the security pact that led to the pullout in August.
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- SHUTTLE DIPLOMACY
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- Solana has meetings on Sunday with Israeli Defense Minister
Binyamin Ben-Eliezer and Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, and a meeting with
Arafat on Monday.
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- Dan Meridor, an Israeli minister without portfolio from
the ruling Likud party, told Israel Radio that the government should move
ahead with a peace initiative before any U.S. attack on Iraq.
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- Meridor said Israel should propose a long-term interim
agreement that would include the creation of a Palestinian state whose
borders would be worked out later.
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- Israel is concerned Iraq will respond to a U.S. attack
by launching Scud missiles with biological or chemical weapons at the Jewish
state. In the 1991 Gulf War, Iraq fired 39 Scuds with conventional warheads
at Israel, causing few casualties.
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- Israel army chief Lieutenant-General Moshe Yaalon told
Israeli television on Friday: "Any kind of Iraqi initiative to attack
Israel will require Israel, of course, to defend itself."
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