Israel sends experts

to discuss U.N. mission
JERUSALEM (KRT) — Confronted by a new controversy, the Israeli government hurriedly dispatched legal experts Wednesday night to the United Nations to discuss the mandate and composition of a U.N. fact-finding mission to the Jenin refugee camp.
The panel will investigate allegations that troops massacred Palestinians in the camp during Israel’s military campaign against terrorists in the West Bank. Despite Israeli complaints, U.N. investigators are scheduled to arrive Saturday in Jenin.
Meanwhile, the standoff continued at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. Israeli troops shot two Palestinians inside the compound Wednesday, and one of them died.
Early Thursday morning, Israeli tanks rolled into the West Bank city of Hebron, firing in all directions, Palestinian witnesses said. It was unclear if the move signaled a full-scale invasion of the city.
The dispute over the Jenin fact-finding mission comes as President Bush meets Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah on Thursday to discuss ways of reviving peace talks and ending 19 months of Israeli-Palestinian violence.
Abdullah will urge Bush to pressure Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon into withdrawing his forces from Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s Ramallah compound and the city of Bethlehem and to express Israel’s willingness to negotiate with the Palestinians on the basis of land for peace, a senior adviser to the crown prince said Wednesday.
“Our view is Sharon has to be restrained. Israel has to pull back its forces,” Adel al-Jubeir, Abdullah’s top foreign policy adviser, told Knight Ridder Newspapers.

— By Martin Merzer, Warren P. Strobel and James Kuhnhenn

Senate approves $8,000

for MCC performances
By a vote of 7 to 3, the ASUO Student Senate on Wednesday night gave $8,000 in surplus incidental fees to the Multicultural Center to help pay expenses for a series of upcoming performances sponsored by the group.
Abigail Lovett, a student who works in the MCC, said the hip-hop concerts, featuring Dead Prez, will highlight issues focused on in the MCC this year, such as the prison industrial complex.
Senators voted 8 to 2 to grant a special request by University Theatre for $2,500.
With the extra money, University Theatre will now be able to pay student actors in its Mad Duckling summer theater production $500 for the season instead of the $250 they were paid previously, theater student Rich Brown said.
The senate unanimously approved two special requests by MEChA, one for $1,705 to supplement funding for the group’s Cinco de Mayo celebration, and one for $361 to purchase compact discs for the group’s radio show.
Senators also approved transfers from accounts within the group’s budget, including the transfer of $1,127 from a holding account to be used for food at the Cinco de Mayo event.
In old business, senators discussed moving the senate office into the space currently occupied by the Designated Driver Shuttle.
In new business, senators voted on proposed rule changes to senate office hours and special request guidelines for groups new to the ASUO Programs Finance Committee budget.

— Kara Cogswell