JERUSALEM
Three Israelis killed in Gaza bombing
Three Israelis were killed and two wounded yesterday when a bomb went off next to a tank in the Gaza Strip, Israeli military officials said.
Palestinians opened fire on a civilian convoy guarded by soldiers and set off a bomb, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity. The Israelis sent a tank into the area and a huge bomb exploded under it, they said. The officials would not say whether the casualties were soldiers or civilians.
The incident took place near the Netzarim intersection southeast of Gaza City, the officials said.
About 5,000 Israeli settlers live in Gaza among more than a million Palestinians. Israel controls the main roads through Gaza, and soldiers protect convoys of civilian vehicles entering and leaving the settlements.
The Israeli rescue service Magen David Adom sent ambulances to the scene of the bombing. The wounded were taken to Soroka Hospital in Beersheba.
The attack follows an Israeli incursion into Palestinian-controlled areas of Gaza. The 18-hour operation, the largest in Gaza since violence erupted more than 16 months ago, ended Wednesday evening. Five Palestinians were killed during the raids, which the Israeli military said were a response to rocket fire by Hamas militants on Sunday.
ALEXANDRIA TOWNSHIP, N.J.
Limousine driver found dead at estate of former basketball star Jayson Williams
A limousine driver was found shot to death early yesterday during a party at the home of former professional basketball player Jayson Williams, authorities said.
Costas Christofi, 55, was found in a bedroom with a shotgun wound to his chest, said acting Hunterdon County prosecutor Steven C. Lember. The death was reported as a suicide and is under investigation.
Christofi had been hired by Williams to transport friends from a sporting event in Bethlehem, Pa., to a restaurant and then to Williams' home, Lember said.
Williams, his brother Vincent and about 10 guests were in the home at the time of the shooting, Lember said. State Police Sgt. Al Della Fave said members of the Harlem Globetrotters and some Lehigh University students were at the house at the time.
Calls to Williams' home yesterday were not answered.
Williams, a basketball commentator for NBC, was one of the NBA's best rebounders when he played for the New Jersey Nets and Philadelphia 76ers in the 1990s.
PHOENIX
Man convicted on charge of lying to the FBI about knowing hijacker
A Saudi man was convicted yesterday on a charge of lying to the FBI for telling agents he didn't know one of the Sept. 11 hijackers.
Faisal Al Salmi, who came to the United States from Saudi Arabia on a student visa in 1997, was the first person to be tried on charges that described any kind of connection to the terror attacks. He was never charged with terrorism.
Attorney General John Ashcroft made an example of Al Salmi after his indictment was unsealed in October, saying the charges were a reminder the government "will bring the full weight of the law upon those who attempt to impede or hinder'' the terrorism investigation.
"Lying to the FBI under any circumstances, especially under these circumstances, is unacceptable,'' said Assistant U.S. Attorney Peter Sexton, who prosecuted the case. He declined to comment further.
Al Salmi didn't react after the jury's verdict was read. His attorney, Gerald Williams, declined to comment.
Al Salmi faces up to six months in prison when he is sentenced April 29.
Prosecutors said Al Salmi lied repeatedly during a series of interviews on Sept. 18 and Sept. 19 about knowing Hani Hanjour, who was one of the terrorists aboard the plane that hit the Pentagon and who had lived and trained to fly in Arizona. Al Salmi has been in custody since Sept. 21.
Several FBI agents testified during Al Salmi's trial that he had repeatedly changed his story during the interviews, eventually acknowledging he had met Hanjour on different occasions during the past several years.
Court records also show Al Salmi and Hanjour were registered at the same time to use a flight simulator that was open to the public at a Phoenix flight school.
During closing arguments yesterday, Sexton said even Al Salmi's eventual acknowledgment that he met Hanjour two times at a Phoenix area mosque was deceptive, as shown by testimony that the two were seen together at a Scottsdale store last summer.
"He clearly has a friendship that goes beyond the two times he said he met him (Hanjour) at the mosque,'' Sexton told the jury.
Williams didn't deny his client and Hanjour had met, but reiterated there are distinctions between meeting someone and knowing them.
"They are trying to get Mr. Al Salmi to admit he was connected to Hani Hanjour but he wasn't and he's not going to admit it no matter how hard they try,'' Williams told the jury.
He said Al Salmi might have told agents he had met Hanjour at the mosque but questioned whether that constituted being associated with him.
