1. U.S. DEMANDS ACTION FROM SYRIA…Syria must act rather than speak about its fight against terror and other key issues, according to United States Secretary of State Colin Powell. He met Syria’s Foreign Minister Farouq A-Shara’ in New York on Thursday. Official Syrian media outlets say Damascus welcomes the warming of ties with Washington. However the Bush Administration says the recent movement of 3,000 Syrian troops away from the main Lebanese population centers is insufficient and all Syrian soldiers should leave Lebanon. The U.S. also maintains Syria is doing little to fight terror, and some in the administration repeat the view that Syria is actively encouraging it.
2. POWELL WARNS OF AID CUT TO PALESTINIANS…The international community will begin to cut off aid to the Palestinian Authority if its head, Yassir Arafat, continues to refuse to hand over powers to his Prime Minister Ahmad Qurei’. That warning has come from United States Secretary of State Colin Powell. He was speaking to reporters at the United Nations General Assembly in New York. His comments followed a speech by U.S. President George W. Bush in which he openly attacked Arafat for preventing any progress in the peace process and internal Palestinian reforms. Despite several speeches committing to hand control of the Palestinian military to Qurei’, Arafat has so far refused to put his pledges into practice.
3. ISRAEL UPS SECURITY FOR HOLY DAY…There is tight security across Israel for the Yom Kippur weekend – widely seen as Judaism’s most important annual holy day. All border crossings into Egypt and Jordan are closed and no traffic is being allowed to pass from Arab eastern Jerusalem into the Jewish west of the city. There are at least 40 concrete warnings of planned terror attacks, according to Israel’s internal security service.