Hamas operative arrested

A MAN described as a high-ranking Hamas operative was arrested after he drove across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge while his wife videoed close-up shots of the structure, it emerged yesterday.

Ismael Selim Elbarasse, long suspected by US authorities of having financial ties to the Palestinian extremist group, was taken into custody last week and held as a material witness in an unrelated terrorism case in Chicago. Neither he nor his wife was charged with any wrongdoing in connection with the videotaping.