Gaza newspaper tests Abbas

Buoyed by newly—elected Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas's pledge to stamp out corruption, a Palestinian newspaper in Gaza City on Wednesday published a story about a civil lawsuit filed by a local resident against PA Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath.

The report, the first of its kind in a Palestinian newspaper, is seen as a test case for Abbas, whose election platform openly promised to put an end to widespread financial corruption in PA ministries and institutions. Details of the case, which was filed with a magistrate's court in Gaza City on Tuesday, appeared in the independent newspaper Donia al—Watan.

Dr. Ala Abu Amer, a former senior official with the PA Ministry of International Planning and Cooperation, is seeking $1.5 million in compensation for "moral damage" from Shaath, who previously served at the head of the ministry.