Israeli, Palestinian leaders announce cease-fire
BY LARA SUKHTLAN
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
SHARM EL-SHEIK, Egypt — Is
raeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon
and Palestinian leader Mahmoud
Abbas declared Tuesday that their
people would stop all military and
violent attacks against each other,
pledging to break a four-year cycle
of bloodshed and get peace talks
back on track.
With their national flags whip
ping in the wind, Sharon and Abbas
met face to face at a Mideast sum
mit, smiling broadly as they leaned
across a long, white table to shake
hands. In one sign the talks went
well, Egypt and Jordan announced
afterward that they would return
their ambassadors to Israel after a
four-year absence, and the Israeli
Mideast
leaders
try again
Israeli Prime Minister
Ariel Sharon and
Palestinian leader
Mahmoud Abbas
leaned across a
long white table to
shake hands at the
Mideast summit in
Egypt on Tuesday,
a hopeful sign of
progress in renewing
peace talks.
Second
summit
Sharon and
Abbas will
meet in next
few weeks;
Sharon
invited
Abbas to
his ranch;
Sharon wants
to visit
Ramallah.
Security
Committees
of security
officials will
be set up
to negotiate
thorny
issues;
Palestinians
want
amnesty for
fugitives.
Prisoners
Israel will
release 500
Palestinian
prisoners,
another
400 later.
Palestinians
want large
scale release
of most or all
of the 8,000
prisoners.
fl
Transfer
of towns
Israel will
complete
transfer
of security
of five
Palestinian
towns
and cities
within three
weeks
Reform
British
prime
minister
will host
conference
on
Palestinian
reform
March 1;
Israel
will not
participate
t
Washington
Sharon
and Abbas
will meet
separately
with
President
Bush to
discuss
peace
efforts.
Withdrawal
Sharon plans to
withdraw Israeli
settlers and
troops from the
Gaza Strip and
four West Bank
settlements in the
summer; Israel
will coordinate
withdrawal
with the
Palestinians.
foreign minister said other Arab
countries might follow.
But the Palestinian militant group
Hamas immediately called the deal
into question, saying it would not
be bound by the cease-fire declara
tions and was waiting to see what
Israel would do next.
As part of the deal, Israel will
hand over control of five West Bank
AP
towns to the Palestinians within
three weeks and immediately re
lease 500 Palestinian prisoners.
Those agreements, and the sight
of Abbas and Sharon shaking
hands, were the clearest signs yet of
momentum in the peace process af
ter Yasser Arafat’s death in Novem
ber and Abbas’ election to succeed
him in January.
One Israeli official, Gideon Meir,
said “there was a great atmosphere
in the talks,... smiles and joking.”
An invitation to both sides to
meet separately with President
Bush at the White House this spring
added another round of momentum
on the summit’s eve.
“We have agreed on halting all vi
olent actions against Palestinians
and Israelis wherever they are,” Ab
bas declared in a statement made
after the meetings, as he, Sharon,
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak
and Jordan’s King Abdullah II sat
around a round table.
By any other name, not just another day
Florists across the
nation are gearing up
for Valentine’s Day and
preparing to sell millions
of roses and other
blooms in the name of
love. While men tend to
buy Valentine flowers for
romantic reasons,
women use the occasion
to treat family and friends
— and most of all
themselves.
Holiday spending on fresh flowers
and plants
27%
Christmas
Hanukkah
26% .*
Mother’s
Day
5%
. Other
. 5%
Thanksgiving
|. 13%
Easter/
Passover
. 24%
Valentine
Day
Spouses,
significant other
80%
Self
27%
Who they bought flowers for
ill Men CIj Women
Mother
Friend Daughter
23%
5% 8% 7% 3% , 8%
Top flower growing U.S. states
California 68% Florida 6% ■ Hawaii 4%
Oregon 2%
Ȥt
Washington 4%
Others 14%
Michigan 2%
The meaning of color
SOURCES: Ipsos-lnsight for the American Floral Endowment’s
Consumer Tracking Study. 2004; Society of American Florists
AP
isil
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U.S. shippers push to import
flowers for Valentine's Day
BY HARRY R. WEBER
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
ATLANTA — The war of the roses
is on.
An expected surge in Valentine’s
Day flower purchases this year is
proving to be a boon for both South
American growers and major
shipping companies.
Atlanta-based UPS Inc. and Mem
phis, Tenn.-based FedEx Corp. are
bringing in extra workers and planes
to handle all flower shipments from
Colombia and Ecuador, where the
bulk of the roses sold in the United
States are grown.
And demand is predicted to be
high, with roughly 175 million ros
es produced for Monday’s holiday,
according to the Society of Ameri
can Florists.
FedEx this week expects to carry
900,000 shipments of Valentine’s
Day gifts, including flowers, teddy
bears and chocolates. UPS said it ex
pects to move in excess of 20 mil
lion flowers alone.
“While our total volume is rough
ly the same as last year, our peak
day — Monday — is going to be 30
percent higher than last year,” said
Jack Muhs, FedEx’s vice president
of global network planning.
FedEx doesn’t deliver on Sundays,
so more shipments of flowers this
year will be made on Monday. Last
year, the holiday fell on a Saturday.
“Most of the husbands or sweet
hearts want to get the product there
on Valentine’s Day,” Muhs added.
“This year, with the holiday falling on
a Monday, we’re focusing a lot of at
tention on the weekend.”
To handle the extra volume, FedEx
is adding more than 100 refrigerated
trucks and more than 50 flights this
week. Spokeswoman Lourdes Pena
said about 40 corporate employees
have volunteered to he
lp at the company’s Miami distri
bution hub.
At UPS, the company said that
during the run-up to Valentine’s
Day, it doubles its number of flights
out of South America to handle the
flower shipments. Retailers place
their orders with growers in
Ecuador, who then work with ex
port cargo agents to get shippers
such as UPS to bring the flowers
into the United States.
UPS operates a 200,000-square
foot warehouse at the Miami airport
to store the flowers it brings in from
South America.
“UPS’s transportation responsibili
ty is to deliver the flowers on time to
our warehouse in Miami. The import
agents collect those flowers from us
and take them to distribution cen
ters,” Tom O’Malley, UPS’s vice presi
dent of cargo, said.
The National Retail Federation es
timates consumers will spend less on
average this Valentine’s Day, though
more people will be celebrating the
holiday, which could give a boost to
overall spending. It says 2005 Valen
tine’s Day spending is expected to
reach $13.2 billion.
Greeting cards remain the most
popular gift, though nearly 58 per
cent of men surveyed by the retail
group said they plan to buy flowers
for their sweethearts.
Valentine’s Day cards account for 7
percent of all individual greeting
cards sold industry-wide for the year,
with about 200 million cards ex
changed among sweethearts, said
Rachel Bolton with Hallmark Cards
Inc. That’s not including boxed cards
and miniature Valentines often
passed among school-aged kids.
That slice of market ties Valen
tine’s Day with Christmas for the
biggest card-giving holiday.
And often cards accompany flow
ers on the most romantic of holidays.
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