Greyhound spokeswoman Kristin Parsley said the crash happened near Manchester, 50 miles south-east of Nashville.Speaking by cellular phone from the crash site, passenger Carly Rinearson told WTVF that a man who looked to be 30 to 35 years old kept approaching her front seat in the bus and asking what time it was. The man then asked if he could have her seat, Ms Rinearson said. She refused.Afterward, “he just went up to the bus driver and, like, slit his throat and the driver turned the wheel and the bus tipped over,” she said.The man suspected of attacking the driver was taken into custody It is thought that he is Croatian The driver survived the attack and was taken to hospital.. The United States planned to put a new plan to solve the Israel-Palestinian conflict before the UN General Assembly but it was put on the back-burner because of the 11 September attacks, according to US officials.Details of the initiative were leaked to the US media yesterday, partly to answer European criticism that Washington has shied away from the Middle East problem but also to curry favour among Arab and Islamic nations before the US launches its military counter- attacks. It was also an attempt by the US to pressure Israel’s Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, whose conduct since the US atrocities has caused resentment in Washington.American officials say the US peace moves would have declared support for a Palestinian state, marking the first time that a US Republican president has said this openly. The fact that the proposals would have been outlined by Colin Powell, the US Secretary of State, at the United Nations – an institution treated with disdain by Israel – is also significant.There was never any doubt that the US, like everyone else, saw the Oslo peace process as a path towards the creation of a Palestinian nation alongside Israel.

Yet there is invariably an angry reaction from the Israeli right wing, now in office, when this is acknowledged by its closest ally. Israeli policy makers prefer the notion that Palestinian statehood is still open to negotiation and were furious last week when the Foreign Office placed an article in the Iranian press, under the name of Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, referring to Palestine.President Bush said yesterday that a Palestinian state was “always part of a vision, so long as the right of Israel to exist is respected”, adding that there had been no change in US policy. His administration has so far been divided over how far to venture into the vote-losing Middle East morass.Britain and other European nations have sought to convince the White House that it will be hard for Arab and Islamic nations to weather the domestic fall-out from a US-led attack against Muslims if emotions at street level are stoked up by television images of Israeli soldiers killing teenage Palestinian stone-throwers.Mr Bush’s remarks yesterday suggesthe has taken the point He won swift support from the Prime Minister, Tony Blair. In his speech to the Labour Party conference, Mr Blair emphasised Israel’s right to international recognition, and a terror-free existence, but said the Palestinians “must have justice, a chance to prosper, and to live in their own land as equal partners to Israel”.Since 11 September, the United States has been steadily increasing its involvement in the Middle East. US officials say Mr Bush and General Powell have made dozens of telephone calls urging both sides to enforce a truce and return to negotiations as America seeks to clear the path for coalition building before the forthcoming attacks against Osama bin Laden’s al-Qa’ida movement and the Taliban.. At least one Palestinian guerrilla broke into a Jewish settlement in the Gaza Strip last night, killing two teenage Israeli settlers and blowing another gaping hole in the intensifying efforts by Washington and its allies to calm the Middle East conflict in the aftermath of the US outrages.The militant Palestinian group Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack in a telephone call last night to Hizbollah television in Lebanon.It came as Israel was smarting from public confirmation from President George Bush that the United States supports a solution to the Middle East conflict which includes the creation of a Palestinian state ­ a reaffirmation of US policy which was highly significant because of its timing.The gunman blasted his way into a beachside Jewish settlement in north-west Gaza shortly after dark and was last night bunkered in a building, surrounded by Israeli troops amid reports of heavy exchanges of fire. Officials said two teenagers were killed in the raid ­ a girl and a boy ­ and that at least 10 people, including three Israeli soldiers, had been injured.The Palestinian gunman ­ or possibly gunmen ­ penetrated Elei Sinai, a settlement of some 90 families built by Israel in contravention of international law in the fenced-in strip, home to 1.2 million Palestinians and several thousand Israeli settlers.

The Qatar-based Arabic-language Al Jazeera television station reported that two armed Palestinians took part in the raid. Israel’s Channel One reported that a family of four had been taken hostage, but this remained unconfirmed several hours after the beginning of the raid.The Israeli television station said that Israeli army officers were talking to the Palestinian gunman by megaphone He had been firing at random at surrounding houses. An army spokesman said he was unsure about whether the gunman had seized hostages and that he was checking these reports. The army was patrolling the area, warning settlers to stay indoors. One of the settlers, Eli Bohadana, said: “We heard shooting and we quickly brought the children into the bathroom.” His home is just a few yards from the house the gunman attacked.