August 23, 2003

Analysis: Bombing of Israeli bus by Palestinian suicide bomber and return of Israeli troops to their old positions in West Bank and Gaza erase images of peace both sides sought to project, leaving new Palestinian leadership of Prime Min Mahmoud Abbas as last and quickly fading illusion of progress; Bush administration now faces grim reality that his peace plan has produced no basic change (M)

Pres Bush orders Treasury to block and freeze assets of militant Palestinian group Hamas's six top leaders and five charities based outside United States that administration says help finance Hamas; holds Hamas's claim of responsibility for bus bombing in Israel that killed 20 people shows group is terrorist organization committed to undermining peace process; move, which will probably affect small amount of assets in US, is politically important as first by US against Hamas's political wing, which provides social services and relief aid; is victory for Israeli Prime Min Ariel Sharon and other officials who have long argued that charitable groups tied to Hamas are conduit for financing terrorism; risks fueling anti-US anger among Palestinians who see Hamas as integral part of their lives; four of five charities are based in Europe, where leaders have thus far made careful distinction between groups' military and political wings; US scrambles to keep Bush's peace plan from collapsing in bombing's aftermath; chart of charities (M)

City Council is pushing ahead with several changes in New York City's gun-control laws that would make laws, already among toughest in nation, more restrictive; proposals include holding gun makers, dealers and importers liable for damages if their weapons are used to kill or injure people in city, as well as prohibiting gun dealers from selling more than one firearm to same person within 90 days; another proposal would require gun owners in city to obtain liability insurance (M)

American and European officials say American law enforcement officials monitor United States activities of at least six groups they suspect are linked to Al Qaeda; say most of people being watched are believed to be sympathizers of Osama bin Laden who may be engaged in low-level support activities for terrorist network, not planning attacks; decision to monitor rather than detain them reflects strategic shift aimed at learning more about groups; may also reflect growing criticism of Justice Department for casting net of suspicion too wide; assessment of widening presence of Qaeda sympathizers in US has alarmed intelligence and counterterrorism officials in Europe and US (M)

Computer security experts scramble as SoBig.F e-mail worm wreaks havoc on individual computers and corporate computer system to find and seal off from Internet 20 host PC's that worm attachment instructs infected computers to contact; report decrypting virus's software, finding 20 computers and taking at least 17 offline; Symantec Corp's security response team says remaining three host machines, probably infected without their owners' knowledge, redirected computers to pornographic Web site; Federal Bureau of Investigation subpoenas Easynews, Phoenix Internet service provider that could be source of worm; chart of how SoBig worked, spread and was stopped; photo (M)