Fugitive Spurs Manhunt, Curfew

Palestinian security forces imposed a curfew on Jericho in a hunt for a Muslim militant who escaped from jail a day earlier in the self-ruled West Bank town. Security officers, some carrying guns, ordered owners to close their shops until further notice as an open-ended curfew was announced. Fugitive Imad Awadallah of the fundamentalist Islamic group Hamas is accused of killing Hamas bomb maker Mohiedin Sharif on March 29 in an internal power struggle. A Palestinian security source said Awadallah might have escaped with the help of prison officials.