To the Point

Sharon, Mubarak and Evolving Middle East Policy

President Bush has met again with Presidents Hosni Mubarak of Egyptian and Ariel Sharon of Israel, both of whom are seeking to influence America's developing policy on the Middle East. Though anxious to revive peace talks, Bush has declined Mubarak's request for a specific timetable for speeding up the process of forming a Palestinian state. But he has also stopped short of endorsing Sharon's calls for eliminating Palestinian Chairman Yasser Arafat from the peace process. We assess these latest attempt to balance peace, Israeli security, Palestinian self-determination, and regional reform with journalists in the region as well as those traveling with its leaders, the principal negotiator of the Taba Accord, and a member of Arafat's newly reformed cabinet. Newsmaker: US Citizen Arrested as Dirty Bomb Plotter The US has arrested an American citizen, charging him as an al Qaeda terrorist plotting to build and detonate a radioactive "dirty bomb." Jos- Padilla, a convicted Chicago gang member who had taken the name Abdullah al Muhajir, was arrested May 8 when he arrived from Pakistan. Mark Hosenball, investigative correspondent for Newsweek, says the arrest demonstrates stepped-up cooperation between the FBI and CIA. Reporter's Notebook: Solar Eclipse Tonight marks the last solar eclipse visible from the US until 2005. Depending on one's location, the moon will blot out anywhere from one-fifth to three-fourths of the sun. But for astronomers, the real action is in Mexico. Jay Pasachoff, a professor of astronomy at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, has traveled from New England to Puerta Vallarta, at the tip of Baja California, view today's partial eclipse.