8 - The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, September 25, 1996
NATION
Israel
completes
d1sputed
tunnel
The Washington Post
JERUSALEM - Israel conducted
a surprise predawn excavation under
heavy guard yesterday to complete a
long-disputed tunnel below the edge
of the Temple Mount, .a site sacred to
Jews and Muslims alike. Arab leaders
reacted in outrage, and stone-throw-
ing Palestinian youths battled police
through much of the day, briefly dri-
ving Jewish worshippers from the
Western Wall.
It was the latest of several military-
style operations by Israel's new Likud
Party-led government to alter the face
of eastern Jerusalem, where the Arab
population is predominant and
Palestinians seek to build the capital
of their hoped-for state.
The political stakes were higher
today because the Temple Mount,
where the Al-Aqsa Mosque and gold-
leafed Dome of the Rock rise over the
remains of Judaism's Second Temple,
is the rallying point for religious
nationalists on both sides.
The rival claims have a recent his-
tory of bloodshed exceeded only by
Hebron's Tomb of the Patriarchs,
where adherents of the two faiths are
also struggling for control of ancient
real estate.
"If there's a message here, the only
message is that, 'Hey guys, we are nct
Israeli soldiers keep guard and an unidentified Israeli man looks on as workers compl
that connects the Western Wall with the Via Dolorosa yesterday.
playing games here,"' Jerusalem
Mayor Ehud Olmert, a senior Likud
figure, told reporters yesterday after
posing hoe in hand for photographers
during the night. "We will not agree
that everything that happens in
Jerusalem will be subject to negotia-
tion, because we are the sovereign of
the city."
There were no serious injuries in
yesterday's fighting, which began
when crowds of young Palestinians
challenged Israeli police guarding the
newly cut tunnel exit in the Old City's
Muslim Quarter.
Palestinians later burned a car and a
truck on Salahedin Street in the com-
mercial heart of East Jerusalem and
heaved stones from atop the Temple
Mount toward Jews praying at the
Western Wall.
Similar clashes in. 1990, which
began with a plan by Jewish extrem-
ists to lay a symbolic cornerstone for
new construction on the Temple
Mount. This clash ended in the
deaths of 17 Palestinians under
police gunfire.
Israeli security forces continued to
deploy in unusual numbers yesterday
night.
Jerusalem police commander Arye
Amit predicted further violence today.
The manner of yesterday's excava-
Short-term interest rates remain u
The Washington Post
WASHINGTON - Federal Reserve
officials, apparently convinced that
U.S. economic growth is already slow-
ing enough to check inflation, made no
change in short-term interest rates at a
policy-making session yesterday.
. The Fed's decision to hold monetary
policy steady followed weeks of specu-
lation on Wall Street that a hike in inter-
est rates was imminent. Many analysts
had expected the Fed to raise its 5 per-
cent target for overnight rates by a quar-
ter percentage point, which would have
boosted interest rates charged by
lenders on many business and con-
sumer loans, including home mort-
gages.
Instead, with the economic outlook
unusually uncertain and a presidential
election around the corner, Chairman
Alan Greenspan and other Fed policy-
makers chose to leave rates alone. They
did so even though rapid economic
growth in recent months has driven the
nation's unemployment rate down to 5.1
percent, a level that in the past has often
been associated with worsening infla-
tion.
While wages have been increasing in
this tight labor market, the Fed evident-
ly decided that this doesn't threaten a
new inflationary spiral - because there
are no signs yet that the wage increases
are being passed along in higher prices.
In fact, except for food and energy
prices, which have been going up
because of supply problems, consumer
prices rose only 2.6 percent over the
past 12 months, the smallest increase in
three decades.
Financial markets did not react
strongly to the announcement that the
Fed's meeting had ended with no
change in rates. Stock prices spiked up
briefly but quickly lost their gains and
the Dow Jones average of 30 industrial
stocks closed down 20.71 points at
(WORLD
Heart surgeons
concerned about
r Yeltsin's operation
The \shington Post ticipated in meetings on government
MOSCOW - As the Kremlin went decisions and he has not been seen i
on a counteroffensive yesterday against public.
demands that President Boris Yeltsin Meanwhile, the Russian surgeor
step aside because of his heart troubles, expected to perform bypass surgery o
cardiac surgeons visiting Moscow for a Yeltsin renewed his earlier warning that
conference expressed concern about it may have to be postponed. Yeltsin
the prospects for Yeltsin's bypass originally said he wanted the operatiai:
surgery. at the end of September.
One day after Communist Party Renat S. Akchurin, appearing at the:
leader Gennady Zyuganov called on international conference here on the.
Yeltsin to resign, the Prime Minister, history of heart surgery, was quoted by
Viktor Chernomyrdin, delivered an interfax news agency as saying that a
angry retort. Speaking to journalists in delay was necessary to restore the sup
Vyshny Volochyok, northwest of ply of blood and "beating capacity" of;
- Moscow, he said Yeltsin "reacts painful- the heart muscle.
ly" to such talk and "does not accept it Akchurin said Sunday that the opeA-:
W PHOTO at all, and in general such a thing is out tion may be postponed for six to eiht
ete the entrance to a 500-yard tunnel of the question now." weeks.
The Russian constitution requires a Vladimir Rabotnikov, a professor:
_____ - new election to be held within three and heart specialist at the Bakoulev
tion, which was concealed from the months if the president suffers a "sus- Institute of Cardiovascular Surgery in
Islamic religious trust that runs the tained inability due to health to dis- Moscow, told reporters that the dela;
mosques atop the Temple Mount, charge his powers." may help calm Yeltsin and reduce pos-
reflected Prime Minister Benjamin Uncertainty over Yeltsin's operation sible stress before the surgery. The
Netanyahu's preference for displays of and its aftermath has swept the political problem is "more in the sphere of psy--
power on matters touching the gover- elite this week, and caused Russian cliology than just medicine in itself,"
nance of Jerusalem. stock prices to sag. he said.
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, "I feel uncomfortable talking about "If you give him a month and a half
speaking to reporters in Gaza, said he it," Chernomyrdin said. "The president two months, he'll more or less calmly.
had been unable to sleep after learning is undergoing treatment getting ready walk around, deal with his problems'
of the excavations. for an operation. he said of
He described them as "extremely Instead of wish- Yeltsin. "Th
dangerous." ing him health The president js task of the
Arafat also said they were part of and a quick doctors is in
an ongoing campaign to "change the recovery, we all undergoing this way to
characteristics of the city" and appro- engage in some preserve the
priate Muslim sites. intricate maneu- treatm ent getting central ner-
vers. It's not very vous system of-
ethical." ready for an the patient, so
i c aeThe Kremlin that he isn't
nchanged made available a operation.C ms
videotape of .dadditional
Chernomyrdin -Viktor Chernomyrdin stress."
5874.03. Yields on short-term securities meeting with Russian prime minister The presi
such as three-month Treasury bills fell Yeltsin at the dent has bee
by more than an eighth of a percentage Central Clinical Hospital here, where hospitalized three times over the last 1'
point, but yields on long-term bonds the president has been undergoing months for heart trouble. Yeltsin suffers
declined only slightly, tests for l1 days in advance of a deci- from a clogged vessel bringing blood to
The decision whether to raise rates sion on whether to proceed with coro- the heart muscle.
was a close call for the Fed, analysts nary artery bypass surgery. Yeltsin was Neither Akchurin nor others have
said, and several noted that the close- shown sitting in a chair, slightly provided details about the extent of
ness of Election Day may have tipped hunched, wearing a pale blue sweater, damage to Yeltsin's heart in the previ-
the balance in favor of leaving them As in past Kremlin videotapes, ous episodes.
unchanged. Yeltsin's voice was not audible. Such damage is a critical issue far
In 1984 and 1988 the Fed raised rates The Kremlin spokesperson, Sergei the surgeons, since the bypass opera
just before the election, and it would Yastrzhembsky, denied a report in the tion involves stopping the heart tem-
have done so again if policy-makers Financial Times on Monday that Yeltsin porarily, and it must be strong enough
had been convinced it was necessary, had suffered a stroke and heart attack to resume functioning after the bypl
the analysts said. before the second round of last sum- is completed.
mer's presidential election. Today, Russian and foreign doctor
The story also said that Yeltsin is able are to begin meeting at the Central
to work only 15 minutes a day and can- Clinical Hospital to discuss the
not sign documents, and that all the results of recent tests on Yeltsin and
ordershe has approved in recent the prospects for the operation.
on this year's months were inked by a rubber stamp Akchurin has said they will present:
used by his chief of administration, their conclusions to Yeltsin for a fina
election eoVerage. Anatoly Chubais. decision.
Yastrzhembsky confirmed that They will be joined by Michael
Read the Daily. Yeltsin's workload has been reduced. DeBakey, the 88-year-old Houston-
He said Yeltsin is working between a based heart surgery pioneer, who
half hour and 2 1/2 hours a day on doc- refused to discuss details of the case at
uments. Yeltsin apparently has not par- a news conference yesterday.
\ver4je LL LON V 0(451
The University of Michigan
HOCKEY
. I i I
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I
9 9
The MTV Choose or Lose Bus rolls into town on
Friday, September 27, 11 AM to 2PM on the service
drive between Shapiro Library and West Hall.
Volunteers will be on hand to register new voters.
Stop by and receive a Continental Cablevision/MTV
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