S. Arabia vows to hunt

S. Arabia vows to hunt
down terrorists

INDONESIA/SAUDI ARABIA: The Saudi Arabian foreign minister
reiterated on Tuesday his government's resolve to hunt down
terrorists.

Minister of Foreign Affairs Prince Saud Al-Faisal said in a
statement, which was made available to The Jakarta Post by the
Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia in Jakarta on Tuesday, that the
recent terrorist attack in Al-Khobar would not discourage Saudi
Arabia in its determination to fight terrorism.

He was referring to the recent suspected al-Qaeda militant
attack on the Oasis residential compound in the oil city of Al-
Khobar, which killed 22 people -- 19 of them foreigners.

Meanwhile, unidentified gunmen shot dead an American in the
Saudi capital of Riyadh on Tuesday who worked for a U.S.
contracting firm, the U.S. embassy and the firm said.

It was the fifth assault on Westerners in the world's leading
oil exporter in five weeks. -- Agencies

;AFP;APS;
ANPAi..u..
Mideast-Israel-politics
Israeli minister quits cabinet in protest at Gaza pullout plan
JP/11/ATW

Israeli minister
quits cabinet

JERUSALEM: The leader of Israel's hardline National Religious
Party (NRP), Effi Eitam, handed in his resignation from the
coalition cabinet to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on Tuesday,
public radio reported.

"The cabinet decision (to approve the Gaza pullout) offers
Hamas a terrorist state on a plate, at the expense of the blood
of Jews," Housing Minister Eitam charged in his letter to Sharon.

A party colleague, deputy social affairs minister Yitzhak
Levy, also submitted his resignation in protest at the cabinet's
decision on Sunday to approve Sharon's so-called disengagement
plan.

But fellow NRP deputy Welfare Minister Zevulun Orlev has
decided to remain in the cabinet. --AFP