shorts — mideast

Bomber dined

before detonating

jerusalem (jta) | A Palestinian suicide bomber who blew up a Haifa restaurant last month ate at the restaurant before exploding.

Details of the Oct. 4 attack at Maxim restaurant by Hanadi Jaradat, a woman lawyer recruited by Islamic Jihad, were released Monday as the Haifa District Court indicted an Israeli Arab who reportedly drove Jaradat to the restaurant.

The driver claimed Jaradat said she wanted to visit her father in a Hadera hospital, but on the way redirected him to Maxim's, where the two ate lunch, the driver's lawyer told Israel Radio.

The woman paid and then detonated a bomb belt she was wearing under her clothes, killing 23 diners and injuring scores of others, including the driver. He is pleading innocent to charges of aiding the attack.

Snafu exposes

secret missile test

jerusalem (jta) | An Israeli missile test will be televised in the Arab world after a video transmission was not encrypted.

The video of the test was available

for 48 hours and was captured by an Israeli television channel, which aired a

censored version.

A Knesset committee is expected to investigate the security breach, allegedly by Israel Aircraft Industries.

Report: Arafat using

aid funds for family

jerusalem (jta) | Yasser Arafat reportedly has diverted at least

$800 million in Palestinian aid money

to a private account for his family in

Paris.

CBS' "60 Minutes" reported Sunday that the Palestinian Authority president held secret accounts abroad, and

gives $100,000 a month in Palestinian aid money to his wife and daughter

in Paris.

Palestinian Authority Finance Minister Salam Fayad, who is also investigating spending accounts, was interviewed for the piece. Arafat declined, however.