ISRAEL: Cabinet to mull lifting Arafat’s confinement

Israel’s plans to consider lifting the blockade on Yasser Arafat’s West Bank headquarters drew sharp criticism from a hard-line government minister and a Palestinian negotiator Saturday, a day before a planned Cabinet debate on the issue.

Infrastructure Minister Avigdor Lieberman threatened to lead his party out of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s coalition government if Israel decides to end the blockade of Arafat’s compound in Ramallah, which has confined the Palestinian leader for nearly three months.

Sharon’s inner Security Cabinet is due to debate the issue today at its weekly session.

The siege was imposed in early December after the October assassination of Israeli Tourism Minister Rehavam Zeevi.

Egypt: Mass burial of victims of train wreck delayed

Families were given one more day to identify loved ones among the 363 dead from a train fire before the scores of charred bodies are buried in a mass grave, officials said Saturday.

Justice Ministry official Farouq Awad announced the burial would be postponed until today to give families “the longest time possible” to identify victims.

Of the dead, 197 bodies have been identified. Many were burned beyond recognition in the blaze, which broke out on a night train jammed to twice its capacity of passengers headed south from the capital, Cairo.

Switzerland: Country prepares for U.N. status vote

A national debate about whether Switzerland should join the remaining 189 countries in the world and enter the United Nations or continue as an observer  the only state alongside the Vatican  ends next weekend.

A referendum is scheduled for March 3 would end years of Swiss tradition of being neutral.

Supporters, including the government, argue that national pride is compatible with U.N. membership.

But opponents claim U.N. membership would force Switzerland to abandon its cherished sovereignty and submit to the political dictates of the five permanent members of the Security Council.

Seventy-five percent of Swiss rejected U.N. membership in 1986. Recent opinion polls, though, predict about 56 percent support for membership.