What does 2005 have in store?

Osama Bin Laden will be captured, Saddam Hussein will be executed, both Abu Mazen and George Bush will be assasinated, an attempted assasination of an Iraqi Muslim cleric will plunge the region into warfare, Donald Rumseld will resign as a result of an Iraq-based scandal and Israel and Syria will be at war. So predicts “noted” Tunisian astrologer Hassan Al Sharibi, who shot to fame by predicting the deaths of both Princess Diana and Sheikh Ahmed Yassin. He also predicted when the Gulf War would start.

The Jerusalem Post reports that as a result of these predictions, security around Abu Mazen has been increased. For real.

“Abu Mazen is in danger. That is why he is being kept away from the public,” a senior Palestinian official told The Jerusalem Post over the weekend. “The people closest to him are highly concerned about his safety.”

The official, a member of Fatah for the past 30 years, characterized the threat emanating from Sharibi’s charts as “very serious.” The source added that Abbas’s aides put a “great deal of credence” in the Tunisian soothsayer.

Good grief.