Asked whether Mr Sharon was raiding as much of the West Bank as possible before the arrival of the US envoy, General Anthony Zinni, he announced that this was a “very silly plan”.Mr Arafat added: “He [Sharon] needs to remember how many times he has been defeated in front of me before. Inside, Mr Arafat did not seem surprised by the invasion, or by knowing that as Mr Sharon’s so-called concessions were leading news bulletins worldwide on Monday, Israeli forces were preparing for the biggest ground offensive since the 1982 invasion of Lebanon, another disastrous operation also masterminded by Mr Sharon.”This is rudeness, rudeness,” Mr Arafat said, as he sat in his office, unblemished by any sign of crisis apart from dead flowers, “Who can accept this? What is the meaning of following this statement by this military escalation everywhere?”The President looked well, despite a sleepless night caused by the Israeli assault, and largely free of his usual tremor. As a deserted Ramallah awaited more punishment from Israel with Apache helicopters overhead, knots of gunmen began to roam the centre.Guards at Mr Arafat’s headquarters, litter-strewn and badly war-damaged, moved around the corridors in the darkness Barely a light was on. The streets around his compound, enveloped by a thick, nocturnal fog, echoed with the sudden hammering of heavy machine-gun fire. The toll at the end of a bloody day was six Israelis and two gunmen killed in a Galilee ambush, and an Israeli shot in the West Bank, taking the total to 39 on both sides in 24 hours.The tanks rumbled through Ramallah by the score, backed by 20,000 Israeli troops, raiding yet another refugee camp and drawing up within a stone’s throw of the compound in which Mr Arafat is confined.He has been trapped for three months, but last night Mr Arafat and his coterie of officials seemed more under siege than ever. Less than a day elapsed after Ariel Sharon, Israel’s Prime Minister, declared his arch-enemy Yasser Arafat was free to move again in the occupied territories before Israel’s tanks penetrated the Palestinian leader’s shattered fiefdom again, with even more armour and deadly force.Israel’s tanks rolled deep into the Gaza Strip, killing more than two dozen Palestinians. It was a pledge no sooner made than broken.

In the aisles, Donny Osmond will rub shoulders with Kiss frontman Gene Simmons, before the guests will party the night away in Wall Street’s St Regis Hotel.. Also attending are Hollywood stars of the past Gina Lollobrigida, Claudia Cardinale and Debra Paget.As Jackson escorts Ms Minnelli down the aisle, Whitney Houston will sing “The Greatest Love of All”. “There will be a full unit security team on site.”Ms Minnelli will be given away by Michael Jackson, who will also be Mr Gest’s best man, while her matron of honour will be Elizabeth Taylor, no stranger to weddings herself.Her bridesmaids will include Martine McCutcheon, once of EastEnders, the singer Chaka Khan, actress Mia Farrow and socialite Nabila Khashoggi.Sitting in the pews of the Marble Collegiate Church on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan will be Elton John, Michael Douglas, Kirk Douglas, Anthony Hopkins, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Liam Neeson and wife Natasha Richardson and property tycoon Donald Trump. “Guests will not be allowed cameras or video cameras inside the church and will enter through metal detectors,” he told the New York Post. Some of Hollywood’s biggest stars face the indignity of being searched before being allowed inside the church where Liza Minnelli is to be married.
Ms Minnelli, 56, will walk down the aisle for a fourth time on Saturday when she marries David Gest, 48, who produced Michael Jackson’s comeback show in New York in September.The guest list for the “showbiz wedding of the year” is suitably star-studded and after the ceremony, the reception will feature performances from the Doobie Brothers, the Pointer Sisters and Gloria Gaynor.Pictures from the wedding are being sold to an American magazine and Ms Minnelli’s publicist, Warren Crowles, warned yesterday that everyone invited to the wedding is liable to be searched.

It deserves better treatment.”In 1999, Jessica Reinsch took the coveted prize with a recording of a radio interview featuring 61 examples of the verbal fumble in 15 minutes.Mr Oldfield’s campaign against “you know” is part of a lifetime of philanthropy He has provided scholarships worth a total of $3m.. Mr Oldfield wrote: “To get 21 ‘you knows’ in four minutes is stark testimony about how dreadfully littered we have made our beautiful English language. The latest prize has gone to Evan Koontz, a pupil at Lincoln Pound Middle School, who had the excruciating experience of hearing an athlete use the dreaded phrase 30 times in the space of a 135-second conversation.He becomes the sixth recipient of the scholarship funded by Barney Oldfield, a 92-year-old veteran of the Second World War who wants to highlight the way that the phrase is filling the airwaves.The proliferation of “you know”, be it at the beginning or end of a sentence or to fill a hiatus in the middle, has been diagnosed as chronic among American teenagers.The scholarship has previously been awarded to 13-year-old Molly Kamrath who beat 50 other entries in 2000 with a recording of an interview boasting 21 “you knows” in four minutes. There can be few things more anti-climactic than when a victorious athlete is collared for a breathless interview, and can muster only a succession of inarticulate “you knows” and “do you know what I means?”.
But an American schoolboy has turned the incoherence of a top athlete to his own advantage by winning a school scholarship awarded for spotting the least silver-tongued verbal performance in a television exchange.Each year, a retired United States Air Force officer gives $1,000 (£700) to a pupil who can find the worst example of over-use of the words “you know”.

Poindexter went into business as a private defence consultant.. He stood in contrast to Poindexter, round­faced and balding, his unruffled, pipe­smoking boss.Larry Sabato, a University of Virginia professor who has written a book on political scandals, said someone with Poindexter’s talent and experience “shouldn’t be put in the penalty box for life,” regardless of past misdeeds.”I doubt you could find one American in 100,000 who could explain what the Iran­Contra scandal was all about,” Sabato said.With Israel serving as an intermediary, proceeds from the secret US arms sales to Iran were funneled to anti­communist “Contra” fighters in Nicaragua, which defied a congressional ban.After their convictions were set aside, North made an unsuccessful run for the Senate, then began a new career as a syndicated radio talk show host. Neither post is subject to Senate confirmation.Congressional hearings made a celebrity out of North, who came across as a dashing, brash commando. The appointments of Abrams, and now Poindexter, drew little open criticism. As Reagan’s political director in 1986 and 1987, Daniels helped oversee a White House damage­control effort.Senate Democrats raised Iran­Contra objections last year, particularly over the Reich and Negroponte nominations. His service in the 1980s as ambassador to Honduras, which the U.S.­supported Contra rebels used as a base, has drawn criticism.¿Budget Director Mitch Daniels.