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