1 Palestinian police arrested 90 more suspected militants in raids throughout the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, the second day of a crackdown ordered by PLO chief Yasser Arafat.
2 Arafat also ordered the establishment of a special court that would try Palestinians charged with security crimes, including bombing and shooting attacks on Israelis, an Arafat aide said.
3 'We mean business,' said Arafat spokesman Marwan Kanafani, commenting on the arrests and the new court.
4 Most of those detained Wednesday were followers of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a radical Damascus-based group opposed to reconciliation with Israel.
5 A secretary at the DFLP's office in the town of Abasan said police carried out the arrests overnight, bringing the two-day total of the group's members in detention to 150.
6 The sweep came a day before a crucial Arafat meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. Israel has said it would block expansion of Palestinian self-rule to the West Bank until Arafat did more to foil attacks by militants on Israelis.
7 Arafat warned Tuesday he would not allow 'fanatic and extremist forces' to sabotage the peace agreement.
8 The new court for security crimes will have as judges members of Arafat's security forces, Kanafani said.
9 'The Supreme Court of State Security will specialize in dealing with crimes that harm security, both here and outside,' read an order signed by Arafat on Tuesday evening.
10 The judges would be members of Arafat's security forces, the aide said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
11 Rabin had complained to Arafat last week that even though dozens of militants were rounded up in previous sweeps, none were ever charged with or convicted of attacking Israelis.
12 The DFLP has claimed responsibility for Monday's roadside ambush in Gaza in which a private Israeli security guard was killed and another wounded.
13 In Gaza City, police raided a press office run by the fundamentalist Islamic Jihad group and detained a leading ideologue, Ala Saftawi. Islamic Jihad is responsible for a Jan. 22 bombing that killed 21 Israelis.
14 In all, 55 Israelis have been killed in the latest series of attacks that started in October. Most of the assailants were from Islamic Jihad and its larger sister organization, Hamas.
15 In the Israeli-occupied West Bank, meanwhile, troops detained about 30 Hamas activists in raids in four towns late Tuesday and early Wednesday, Palestinian reporters said.
16 Since the Jan. 22 bombing, Israel has rounded up more than 200 militants.

Palestinian police arrested 90 more suspected militants in raids throughout the Gaza Strip on Wednesday , the second day of a crackdown ordered by PLO chief Yasser Arafat .
crackdown ordered by PLO chief Yasser Arafat
Why was there a crackdown?