Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon agreed yesterday to hold early elections, possibly as soon as February, kicking off a political campaign certain to freeze all moves to restart Mideast peace talks. After meeting with Sharon yesterday morning, Labor Party leader Amir Peretz said the two men had discussed holding the ballot between late February and the end of March, instead of next November as scheduled.
Sharon spokesman Asaf Shariv said the prime minister wanted to hold elections as soon as possible.
Sharon plans to meet with other parliamentary faction leaders to discuss possible elections dates before Monday, when Israel's parliament is scheduled to holds a preliminary vote on whether to dissolve the government, Shariv said.
The Israeli election campaign, combined with Palestinian parliamentary elections scheduled for January, would postpone efforts to build on the momentum from Israel's recent pullout from the Gaza Strip to spark new peace moves after five years of Israel-Palestinian violence.
Peretz, head of the second-largest party in Sharon's coalition, told a news conference that Sharon had agreed to choose an election date by Monday.
"I'm letting him choose a date in that period between the end of February and the end of March and whatever date he chooses is acceptable to me. The earlier the better," Peretz said.
The call for early elections gained momentum when Peretz was elected Labor leader last week on a platform that included pulling out of the government and forcing an early poll.
Peretz defeated Labor head Shimon Peres, who led the party into a coalition to support the Gaza pullout, which sparked a rebellion within Sharon's hardline Likud faction, threatening to bring down the government before the withdrawal. Peretz's victory left Sharon with little choice but abandon his efforts to keep his government together.
TIT-FOR-TAT: The arrest of Filipinos that Manila said were in China as part of a scholarship program follows the Philippines’ detention of at least a dozen Chinese The Philippines yesterday expressed alarm over the arrest of three Filipinos in China on suspicion of espionage, saying they were ordinary citizens and the arrests could be retaliation for Manila’s crackdown against alleged Chinese spies. Chinese authorities arrested the Filipinos and accused them of working for the Philippine National Security Council to gather classified information on its military, the state-run China Daily reported earlier this week, citing state security officials. It said the three had confessed to the crime. The National Security Council disputed Beijing’s accusations, saying the three were former recipients of a government scholarship program created under an agreement between the
Sitting around a wrestling ring, churchgoers roared as local hero Billy O’Keeffe body-slammed a fighter named Disciple. Beneath stained-glass windows, they whooped and cheered as burly, tattooed wresters tumbled into the aisle during a six-man tag-team battle. This is Wrestling Church, which brings blood, sweat and tears — mostly sweat — to St Peter’s Anglican church in the northern England town of Shipley. It is the creation of Gareth Thompson, a charismatic 37-year-old who said he was saved by pro wrestling and Jesus — and wants others to have the same experience. The outsized characters and scripted morality battles of pro wrestling fit
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