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Groton Daily Independent
Friday, Aug. 25, 2017 ~ Vol. 25 - No. 056 ~ 32 of 65
and ignore their concerns.
Further complicating any hope for progress are internal troubles for all three leaders. Trump’s administra-
tion has become preoccupied with a series of domestic crises, most recently the fallout from the deadly racially charged violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, earlier this month.
Netanyahu, meanwhile, is facing a growing corruption investigation that could soon lead to an indictment against him. These legal troubles, along with Israeli concerns about a possible long-term Iranian presence in neighboring Syria, make it unlikely that he will agree to any major diplomatic initiative.
After years of on-and-off peace efforts that have yielded no progress, Abbas is deeply unpopular at home. He also is stuck in a bitter rivalry with the Islamic militant group Hamas, which seized the Gaza Strip from his forces a decade ago and is now pursuing a reconciliation deal with Mohammed Dahlan, a former Abbas ally who has turned into his political nemesis.
Since the collapse of U.S.-mediated peace talks three years ago, the sides have grown further apart and have been plagued by repeated rounds of violence, including a war between Israel and Hamas and recur- ring low-level violence sparked by tensions over a contested Jerusalem site holy to both Jews and Muslims.
Israel, meanwhile, has increasingly shifted its sights toward a regional deal with certain Arab countries, rather than one focusing solely on the Palestinians, an approach Trump has expressed support for.
“The time has come for a regional approach,” Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely told Israel Radio. “That is the thinking guiding President Trump and the prime minister of Israel, and so our message to the Palestinians is that time is working against them.”
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Associated Press writer Fares Akram in Gaza City, Gaza Strip, contributed to this report.
Chef slain at Charleston restaurant; suspect shot by police By RUSS BYNUM, Associated Press
CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — A red dishwasher shot and killed a chef and held a person hostage for about three hours before he was shot by police at a crowded restaurant in a tourist-heavy area of downtown Charleston on Thursday, authorities and one of the restaurant’s owners said.
The hostage was freed unharmed, Mayor John Tecklenburg said. The shooting took place at Virginia’s restaurant on the usually crowded King Street, a row of shops and nice dining that caters to both tourists and residents in South Carolina’s largest and most historic city.
Tecklenburg quickly said the shooting was “the act of a disgruntled employee” and not a terrorist attack or a hate crime in a city where nine black church members were killed by a white man two years ago.
“This was a tragic case of a disturbed individual, I think, with a history of some mental health challenges,” Tecklenburg said at a news conference.
The gunman killed Virginia’s executive chef, 37-year-old Anthony Shane Whiddon, deputy Charleston County coroner Sheila Williams said late Thursday.
Authorities had not released the name of the wounded gunman. They initially said they believed there were “a couple” or a “small number” of hostages.
The shooting was reported shortly after noon Thursday.
Peter Siegert IV and his family from Galesville, Maryland, had just been served fried chicken at the res- taurant when he noticed waitresses and kitchen workers leaving hurriedly through the front door. Then he saw a man in a backward ball cap and an apron enter the dining room from the back of the restaurant.
“He said, ‘There’s a new boss in town,’” Siegert told The Associated Press. “I don’t think anybody realized he had a gun until after he locked the door. And then he turned around and had a revolver in his hand. He never pointed it at any of the patrons. He held it by his side.”
The man told all the customers to get onto the oor, Siegert said, then directed them to crawl to the back of the restaurant — where the rear exits remained unlocked.
“He told everybody to get out,” he said. “Everybody started running for the doors.”
One of the restaurant’s owners, John Aquino, told WCSC-TV that a dishwasher who had been red came