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Hezbollah, Israel set to swap prisoners in two-stage process BY HUSSEIN DAKROUB THE ASSOCIATED PRESS BEIRUT, Lebanon—Israel and Hezbollah will exchange prison ers in a two-stage deal in which the militant Lebanese group promises to obtain information about Israel’s most famous miss ing serviceman, and Israel re leases Lebanon’s longest-held prisoner within three months, the Hezbollah leader said Sunday. The deal begins with an ex change of prisoners and human remains Thursday and Friday, and will proceed to the case of missing Israeli airman Ron Arad and negotiations for the release of more prisoners, Hezbollah’s lead er Sheik Hassan Nasrallah told a news conference. “After Thursday and Friday, there will be no Lebanese prison ers in Israeli jails,” Nasrallah said. “But the door is still open, and the second stage will be very important, especially for the Palestinians. He spoke a day after the deal, negotiated with German help, was announced. After releasing 400 Palestinian prisoners to the West Bank and Gaza Strip, Israel will bring 23 Lebanese prisoners and 12 pris oners from other Arab countries to Munich where the swap will take place, the officials said. Nasrallah said the Palestinians would include members of Hamas and Islamic Jihad, the groups re sponsible for most of the suicide bombings in Israel. It will be Israel’s most signifi cant release of Palestinian pris oners since Ariel Sharon became prime minister in 2001. The remains of 59 Lebanese killed in battle also will be handed to Lebanese authorities at a bor der crossing in south Lebanon, Nasrallah said. Hezbollah has promised to free Israeli businessman Elhanan Tannenbaum and three Israeli sol diers — all captured by the guer rilla group in October 2000. In the deal’s second stage, Nasrallah said a committee will be formed to seek information on Arad and four Iranian diplomats who disappeared in Lebanon in 1982 during the Israeli invasion. "Any positive development in the case of Ron Arad will open the way for the release of more Palestinians and Arabs,” Nasrallah said. In Jerusalem on Sunday, Prime Minister Sharon said he had been assured Hezbollah would make ev ery effort to find out what hap pened to Arad, who was captured after his plane was shot down in 1986. "A system was decided on in which all the relevant sides will cooperate fully until we discover the fate of Ron Arad and he re turns home—something we all hope will happen in the near fu ture,” Sharon told his Cabinet. Nasrallah said further talks are also planned to secure the release of Lebanon’s longest-held prisoner in Israel, Samir Kantar. Kantar has been in an Israeli prison since 1979 for killing three members of an Israeli family dur ing a Palestinian militant raid into northern Israel. Kantar’s release has been a key Hezbollah demand, and Israel is believed to have regarded him as a bargaining chip for information on airman Arad. An Israeli official said Kantar’s release depended on information about Arad. Another phase of talks could then be opened for the release of more Arab prisoners, the official said. Israel and the U.S. regard Hezbollah as a terrorist group. Lebanese view it as the group that led a guerrilla war against Israel’s 18-year occupation of an enclave in southern Lebanon. Free trade deal up for approval BY MARTIN CRUTSINGER THE ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON - The Bush ad ministration reached an agree ment with Costa Rica on Sunday that will allow that nation to join four of its neighbors in creating a Central American Free Trade Area with the United States, offi cials of the two countries an nounced. The deal must be approved by Congress. The agreement came after two weeks of intense nego tiations aimed at overcoming dif ferences in such areas as telecom munications and insurance that had prompted Costa Rica to back out at the last minute from com pleting the CAFTA talks last month with the four other na tions, Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Honduras. Administration officials said they were pleased with the mar ket-opening language finally reached with Costa Rica, which had sought to protect its monopoly operations in tele phones and insurance. Costa Rica agreed to fully open its insurance market to foreign competition by 2011. It also agreed to open three key sectors of its tele phone market to competition — wireless services, private network services and Internet services. While the country will main tain bans against foreign competi tion in other areas of telecommu nications, U.S. negotiators said they were satisfied that they had torn down barriers in the areas of most interest to U.S. companies. “Costa Rica needed a little more time to complete its participation in CAFTA, and we’re very pleased it has joined its Central American neighbors in this cutting-edge, modern free trade agreement,” U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick said in a statement. The negotiating breakthrough was announced jointly in Washington by Zoellick and Costa Rican Trade Minister Alberto Trejos. Senior U.S. trade officials, who briefed reporters Sunday on con dition of anonymity, said that they hoped to publish the full text of the CAFTA agreement by the end of the week. They said the next step would be to add a sixth country, the is land nation of the Dominican Republic, to the trade deal before submitting it to Congress. U.S. officials on Sunday re fused to speculate on when the CAFTA would he presented to Congress for a vote. Supporters hope that the addition of the Dominican Republic will pick up critical House votes among Democrats whose districts in clude large numbers of Dominican immigrant popula tions. Pakistani confined for suspected leak BY MATTHEW PENNINGTON THE ASSOCIATED PRESS ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN - The father of Pakistan’s nuclear pro gram, considered a national hero for giving the Islamic world its first atomic bomb, has been con fined to the capital, as investiga tors probe whether scientists leaked weapons technology, an acquaintance said Saturday. Abdul Qadeer Khan has been questioned “many times” in re cent weeks, said Zahid Malik, au thor of the book “Islamic Bomb” on Pakistan’s nuclear program. “He’s cooperating (with the in vestigation), but he’s satisfied that he’s done nothing wrong,” Malik, who met with Khan on Thursday, told The Associated Press. After denying for years that its scientists might have been in volved in proliferation and pro vided technology to North Korea, Iran, Libya and Iraq, Pakistan re cently acknowledged that some individuals might have leaked in formation for personal profit. On Saturday, President Pervez Musharraf told reporters that the extreme secrecy surrounding the development of Pakistan’s nucle ar program 30 years ago gave wide latitude to scientists—and possibly allowed them to sell in formation. “‘Covert’ meant scientists moved around with full autono my in a secretive manner,” he said, adding that the program “oould succeed only if there was total autonomy and nobody knew. That is how it continued.” "Now, if there was some indi vidual or individuals, un scrupulous, if they were for per sonal gain selling national as sets ... it was possible because it was not open, it was not under strategic check and controls. That is why it was possible,” he added. Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Musharraf said his country’s investigation started after Iran disclosed to the U.N. in spection agency the names of peo ple who provided them with nu clear technology—including Pakistani scientists. Musharraf said agents were in vestigating whether Pakistani government officials knew of tech nology being leaked overseas. The probe also includes checks into the bank accounts of scien tists and authorities who have been detained in connection with the suspected information leaks, an Interior Ministry official said, •speaking on condition of anonymity. The official said investigators suspect one scientist and one other person did something for personal gain. He would give no names or further details. "Pakistan’s investigations are vigorous. And they are looking into all dimensions, including fi nancial aspects,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Masood Khan told AP. Eight scientists and adminis trators from the Khan Research Laboratories—Pakistan’s lead ing nuclear weapons facility ■ that is named after Khan—are currently being held for what the government has labeled "de briefings.” One scientist, Saeed Mansoor Ahmad, was released late Saturday, said Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, who added that interrogations could be over within a week. Though he is confined to the capital, Khan is continuing his work as an adviser in the prime minister’s office, his acquain tance Malik said. “He’s restricted to Islamabad, but goes to his office in the prime minister’s secretariat,” Malik told AP. A government official said on condition of anonymity that “se curity restrictions may have been increased” on Khan but that the scientist had "chosen to stay in Islamabad” while “debriefings” of laboratory employees take place. Musharraf has vowed to pros ecute any scientists who sold nu clear secrets overseas for crimes against the state. In an interview with CNN on Friday, he said he wouldn’t like to predict the out come of Pakistan’s investigation but that it appeared "some indi viduals were involved for per sonal gain.” Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the U.N. atomic agency who is also' attending the World Economic Forum, said this week that the nuclear proliferation al legations involved a “very so phisticated network of black mar ket” operators. But he said he had seen no evidence that the Pakistani government was in volved. refl USc'lD* - - ^ Welcome 1 na * yPfcB ack! _~ _t_ "" hriday, January iotli 10pm - 2am Russell House Lobby