0300 GMT on Israeli soldiers guarding Jewish settlers at Kfar Darom in the central Gaza Strip the military

(0300 GMT) on Israeli soldiers guarding Jewish settlers at Kfar Darom in the central Gaza Strip, the military said.The dead soldier was identified as 21-year-old Staff Sgt Baruch Plum. Of the two injured, one was in serious condition and the other received moderate wounds, the army added.The attack came a day after Arafat ordered Palestinian gunmen to stop shooting at Israelis from areas under Palestinian control.It was not clear whether Arafat’s call was a step toward a full-fledged truce, or if it was strictly a bid to prevent Israeli return fire on Palestinian civilian areas.Arafat’s appeal marked the first time he has called publicly for an end to the shooting by Palestinians. Israel has demanded that Arafat make a clear statement to his people to halt the fire.Responding to Arafat’s call, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak said, “words are not enough.” Israel has made a cessation of the violence a condition for returning to peace talks, which have been suspended.In clashes on Friday, four Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire.Arafat’s appeal came amid growing complaints by Palestinian civilians who have been caught in the crossfire.In a statement that was aired on Palestinian television and radio stations, Arafat said the Palestinian Authority was doing all it could to put an end to the gunfire.”We are trying our best to get our people to stop shooting” from Palestinian-controlled areas, Arafat said. “There are orders from the Palestinian security council to stop shooting.”Arafat’s statement applies to about 18 per cent of the West Bank and about two-thirds of the Gaza Strip that are under full Palestinian control. Most of the shooting has come from Palestinian-controlled areas, where the majority of Palestinians live.Israeli army officials said that Arafat’s statement did not go far enough, because there was no directive for Palestinian gunmen to cease fire everywhere.Saturday’s shooting took place in a Gaza enclave that remains under Israeli control. Also, four Israelis were killed last Monday in shooting ambushes in areas where Israel is in charge of security.More than seven weeks of violence has left more than 230 people dead, the majority Palestinian teenagers and young men.Barak said Friday that he plans to continue what he terms a policy of restraint in dealing with the crisis, saying the chance to resume peace talks will only come if the country “does not lose its cool.”"On the one hand we won’t be dragged into adventures, but on other hand we won’t let it appear that we are surrendering,” Barak said in an interview with Israel Television.. An explosion has killed a British man and injured his wife as they drove through the centre of the Saudi Arabian capital, Riyadh.

An explosion has killed a British man and injured his wife as they drove through the centre of the Saudi Arabian capital, Riyadh.
The Riyadh Police Chief, Abdullah al-Shahrani, said that he suspected that their car had been booby-trapped but did not know the reason for the bombing. Some reports suggest the Britons were mistaken by their attacker for Americans.The Foreign Office identified the victims as Christopher Rodway, who worked in a hospital in Riyadh, and his wife, Jane. Witnesses said Mr Rodway was fatally injured in the explosion and appeared to have had a leg nearly severed.The Foreign Office initially said the couple were in their forties and had been business people working in Saudi Arabia for the past seven or eight years. “Two Britons, a man and his wife who were resident in Saudi Arabia, were injured in an explosion in a car in the centre of Riyadh,” a spokeswoman said.

The man later died at the King Faisal Hospital in Riyadh.”The woman only had superficial injuries and has been discharged from hospital and she is staying with friends,” said the spokeswoman. “We do not know whether it was a bomb or not but it is clear there was some kind of explosion.”The blast happened in front of a barbershop in the centre of the capital, where businesses were closed for the Muslim holy day. One witness said he saw a blond man, whose leg was nearly severed, removed from a four-wheel-drive vehicle, and a woman who did not appear severely injured.The timing of the explosion coincides with a surge of anti-Western sentiment in the Middle East, rooted in America’s support for Israel and its failure to condemn the mass killing of Palestinians by Israeli troops. The presence of US soldiers in the kingdom is also resented by many Saudis.Opposition to the West was fuelled by the recent conviction by a military court in Jordan of a group of militants accused of plotting to kill US and Israeli tourists at the turn of the millennium.The regions anger at the West has been expressed in a series of terrorist attacks in recent years. Suicide bombers blew a hole in the side of the USS Cole on 12 October, killing 17 American sailors, as it refuelled in Aden, Yemen. A truck bomb exploded outside a housing complex near Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, on 25 June 1996, killing 19 US Air Force personnel.

The previous year, on 13 November, a car bomb blew up at a US military headquarters in Riyadh, killing five Americans.. For president Bill Clinton, it was a routine start to an official visit: an opening ceremony, an inspection of troops and a patient wait while the respective national anthems played. But yesterday’s welcoming of the first United States president to set foot in the presidential palace in Vietnam was a truly remarkable sight. For president Bill Clinton, it was a routine start to an official visit: an opening ceremony, an inspection of troops and a patient wait while the respective national anthems played. But yesterday’s welcoming of the first United States president to set foot in the presidential palace in Vietnam was a truly remarkable sight.
As the “Star Spangled Banner” echoed around the sunny forecourt of the grand, mustard-yellow colonial palace, even some of the hardened American press corps had to swallow a lump in their throat. Mr Clinton and Vietnam’s President, Tran Duc Luong, then went inside, posing for photographers in front of a huge bust of Ho Chi Minh, founder of the Vietnamese Communist Party.The visit is the first to Vietnam for an American president since 1969 when Richard Nixon stopped briefly in the US-backed southern city of Saigon at the height of the Vietnam War, known here as the “American War”.

The bitter conflict, which ended 25 years ago, left 3 million Vietnamese and 58,000 Americans dead and still haunts relations between the two countries.It was a subject that Mr Clinton could not avoid and nor did he, telling the Vietnamese in a live television broadcast that their country had made a “staggering sacrifice”. The history of the two nations was “deeply intertwined” he said. “Finally America is coming to see Vietnam as your people have asked for years, as a country not a war.”The Clintons have been greeted by enthusiastic crowds who have shown no sign of bitterness, not even in a city where hundreds were killed by US bombs. Outside the Temple of Literature, the site of Vietnam’s first university, Mr Clinton was besieged and stopped to shake outstretched hands. One government interpreter was bowled over by the famous charm “He shook my hand,” she said ecstatically.