BAD NEWS, GOOD NEWS

by RAY FLEMING
WITH the Turkish army moving into Kurdish Iraq and street riots in Serbia over Kosovo it was beginning to look like another bad weekend. But then two items of relatively good news popped up yesterday afternoon. The first was slightly surprising. In Gaza a Hamas official, Sami Abu Zuhri, first welcomed the EU parliament's resolution this week calling on Israel not to inflict “collective punishment” on Gaza through its economic blockade, and then went on to say that Hamas would stop firing rockets if Israel would stop its military operations in Gaza and the West Bank. “We in Hamas are ready to study any initiative that could contribute to ending the Israeli aggression on our people,“ Mr Zuhri said. His offer should be taken up promptly. The second better news came from Kenya where there was progress to report in solving the political dimension of the crisis over the rigged elections which led to widespread killing. The chief negotiator, Kofi Annan, said he was “beginning to see light at the end of the tunnel” with the agreement in principle of the newly elected President Kibaki to create a new post of prime minister which would be occupied by the opposition leader Raila Odinga on a power sharing basis. If confirmed, this is a major step forward although clearly agreement on the precise areas of responsibility in the power sharing will still take time to negotiate. Mr Kibaki's willingness to compromise under international pressure is an encouraging sign.