February 27, 2002

Pres Bush, thrusting himself into Mideast peace effort, calls Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah and praises his proposal for Israel to withdraw completely from West Bank and Gaza in return for full normalization of relations with all Arab countries; others in administration are less enthusiastic, undertain how Prime Min Ariel Sharon will view long-term plan at time of intensifying violence; Javier Solana of European Union reports Sharon says idea is interesting; also discusses concept with Yasir Arafat, who sends team to Tel Aviv to discuss curbing violence; some Israeli ministers are heartened by what seems to be first concrete peace signal in 17 months of unmitigated violence (M)

Rudolph Giuliani agrees to prompt distribution of $100 million remaining in Twin Towers Fund to families of 430 uniformed and civilian rescuers killed at World Trade Center; families criticized former mayor's efforts to privatize fund, hire staff of 12 and take months or years to disburse money; police widows' group threatened lawsuit; still unclear is whether state attorney general and courts will allow transfer of money to private charity controlled by Giuliani, who is now agreeing to distribute money within 60 days; police widows will not oppose his control of about $15 million he has raised since leaving office; individual families will get average of $232,000; deal emerges from tense meeting at which police relatives lash out at Giuliani; police and fire unions have not yet agreed to resolution (M)

Analysis of Enron Corp former chief executive Jeffrey K Skilling's testimony before Senate committee; says Skilling did not offer his opinion as to who perpetrators were and recurring theme in his testimony was that he is not an accountant; holds Skilling has not picked up much in way of humility since Enron Corp, blaming banks for Enron's collapse because they were not willing to keep lending billions; photo of Skilling with Enron president Jeffrey McMahon and Skilling's lawyer Bruce Hiler (M)

Profile of Michael Mallner, 15-year-old from Livingston, NJ, who was arrested year ago with another teen-ager, accused of carrying 'pipe bomb' to school; it turns out that 'bomb' was something less than that, and prosecutors acknowledge that boys were not out do hurt anyone; Mallner is confined to his home by court order as punishment for breaking into school; photos (M)

US considers sending 'sizable' number of Special Operations forces to former Soviet republic of Georgia to help train its military in counterterrorism tactics; aim is to prepare Georgian troops to combat foreign fighters who are operating in mountainous region and may have links to Osama bin Laden's network; new front in war against terrorism would build on operations in Afghanistan and involve 100-200 Special Operations forces who would not take part in direct combat but would defend themselves against attack (M)