2 - The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, April 12, 2000 NATION/WORLD Fujimori moves closer to victor LIMA, Peru - With President Alberto Fujimori just shy of the majority of votes needed to win an unprecedented third term, details surfaced yesterday of voting irregularities and possible fraud. Opposition parties said ballots with the names of other candidates were waxed over, allowing only Fujimori's name to be marked. Poll watchers also reported finding ballots favoring opposition candi- dates that appeared to have been sabotaged to invali- date them and newspapers said the election board's computers may have been tampered with. Rafael Roncagliolo, head of the private monitor- ing group Transparencia, decried a "volume of irreg- ularities and contamination without precedent." Fujimori denied any fraud at a news conference Monday night, his only appearance since Sunday's elections. "The process has been clean, free and fair," he said. "There were small incidents that did not affect the process." Officials said yesterday that with 86.7 percent of the ballots counted, Fujimori had 49.96 percent of the vote, compared to 40.28 for Alejandro Toledo. Exit polls and unofficial vote tallies by indepen- dent monitors after the election had indicated Fuji- mori received significantly less support and projected he would not reach the 50 percent plus one vote needed to avoid a runoff. If no candidate wins a majority of valid votes, a runoff would be held in late May or early June. At a news conference yesterday, Toledo said he and his Peru Posible party would not accept the elec- tion results "if there is no second round." In Washington, Clinton administration spokesman Joe Lockhart said the White House was aware of reports of irregularities. "We expect it will be a runoff, and I think serious questions will be raised if the vote count indicated something otherwise," he said. Transparencia and the Council for Peace, a human rights organization, reported various irregularities, including the discovery of ballots already marked ahead of time for Fujimoni near a polling station in a working-class neighborhood of Lima. Similar marked ballots were found in the town of San Mar- cos. Poll watchers also reported finding ballots favor- ing opposition candidates that appeared to have been sabotaged to invalidate them. "There have been innumerable accusations ... the most general being the distribution of copies of pre- marked ballots," the National Ombudsman Office said. ACROSS THE NATION House approves mandatory sentences WASHINGTON - Rushing to dress up its resume on gun control before the one-year anniversary of the Columbine High School shootings, the House yesterday overwhelmingly approved legislation that would provide $100 million to states that impose mandatory prison terms on gun-toting criminals. The bill would funnel the money over five years to states imposing mand ry minimum five-year sentences on anyone who uses or carries a firearm in a o- lent crime or serious drug trafficking offense or for a violent convict who is caught with a gun. Some Democrats attacked the Republican-sponsored legislation as a "fraud" that would do little to reduce gun violence, unless coupled with stronger gun laws, such as background checks of all buyers at gun shows. Republican leaders are "trying to look like they're doing something about gun violence when, in fact, they're not," said Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) Still, a majority of Democrats joined Republicans in passing the bill, 358-60. It now goes to the Senate, where it is expected to be approved. White House press secretary Joe Lockhart declined to say whether President Clinton would sign the bill into law. Lockhart discounted the measure's i nr- tance, accusing Republicans of playing "a cruel political trick on the Amean public" because the bill falls short of what is needed to stem gun violence. $ If your plans for May include the GRE time is running OUT! Congress passes asset forfeiture bill WASHINGTON - Parents whose kids get caught growing marijuana at home will be among those in less dan- ger of losing their property under legis- lation Congress completed yesterday that would make it harder for the feder- al government to seize assets connected to crime. The legislation, supported by groups ranging from the American Civil Liber- ties Union to the National Rifle Associ- ation, passed the House yesterday on a voice vote. The bill has already won Senate approval and is expected to be signed by the president. The legislation would shift the bur- den of proof in asset forfeiture cases from the property owner, where it now lies, to the government. Key sponsors, including the chair- men and ranking Democrats of both the House and Senate Judiciary commit- tees, have argued that while civil forfei- ture isa valuable law enforcement tool, particularly against drug traffickers, changes are needed to stop abuses that victimize innocent property owners. "Who would have believed that under. our current law the government could confiscate a person's private property on a mere showing of proba- ble cause?" said Rep. John Conyers of Michigan, top Democrat on the Judicia- ry Committee. Date, time set for custody exchange WASHINGTON - The Justice Department has set 10 a.m. tomorrow as the moment when custody of Elian Gonzalez will be transferred to his father from relatives in Miami. In a letter to be sent to the relatives by his morning at the latest, they wilfe instructed to bring the boy to Opa Locka airport, near Miami. Attorney General Janet Reno, who met here yesterday with the mayors of Miami and Dade County, planned to travel to Miami today to talk with Cuban American community leaders - and possibly with the relatives - in an attempt to head off a violent reaction by protesters. 0 Courses start: May 6th & May 2th 800-2-R EVIEW www.review.com Prineton Univesity JOSTENS RING DAYS. April 10, 11, and 12 and jos-ens April 26, 27, 28, and 29 Michigan Book and Supply from 11:00 AM to 4:00 PM DO YOU WANT BUSINESS EXPERIENCE? SYes,Gargoyle Magazine offers you a real world business experience while you work towards your degree, right here on campus. Students with business and organi- zational talents are invited to apply for the position of business manager of- The Gargoyle. The Gargoyle is a magazine of humor with commercial publishing goals, produced by undergraduate students at the University of Michigan. Interested students may apply by submitting a brief biography and an essay on why they would like to be business manager and why they would be successful.hCandidates will be evaluated on the basis of their demonstrated talents and emerging skills in business and evidence of organizational skills. Duties include recruiting, sales and sales training. On the basis of the written applica- tion, candidates will be invited to an interview. Here's an opportunity to meet a great group of people, learn practical skills and burnish your resume. Send applications or direct questions to the Board for Student Publications, Room 210E, 420 Maynard Street, Ann Arbor Mich. 48109-1327 (764-0550). (740 5) A nondiscriminatory, affirmative action institution I I The Princeton Review is not affiliated wih .LSAC or Princeton AROUND THE t I I 3 children killed in mine field accident SARAJEVO - Helpless to save her, NATO peacekeepers and townspeople watched from the edge of a minefield as a dying 11-year-old girl waved and pleaded for hours to be rescued. Erma Alic and two other youngsters died Monday after venturing into the minefield on the outskirts of the capital, the latest casualties of the Bosnian war that ended five years ago. "For two hours, the girl was show- ing signs of life, waved her hand and called for help. Then she went quiet," said eyewitness Nenad Krestalica. His wife, Stana, said she was gar- dening when she heard the explosion. "We all started running. We heard a child's voice screaming for help," she said. "We called the police and they came, but nobody could approach the children." Police identified the other dead children as Goran Biscevic, 12, and Haris Balicevac, 12. Dozens of people are killed and injured every month in explosions of some of the millions of land mines strewn across Bosnia. As the rescue team carried the bodies of the children from the minef d, Ema's father broke into tears, turn o his wife and said, "It's our child," other witnesses recalled. The woman fainted. Clinton, Barak meet to rejuvenate talks WASHINGTON - With the peace process deadlocked and the Arab- Israeli mood growing increasi*y sour, President Clinton and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak met at the White House yesterday to discuss ways to rejuvenate talks that hold the key to Barak's political future and to Clinton's peacemaking legacy. The White House meeting came at a time of unusual tension in U.S.-Israeli relations over the Barak government's decision to sell a sophisticated air- borne radar system to China. - Compiled from Daily wire reports. (J, I The Michigan Daily (ISSN 0745-967) is published Monday through Friday during the fall and winter terms by students at the University of Michigan. Subscriptions for fall term, starting in September, via U.S. mail are $100. Winter term (January through April) is $105.'yearlong (September through April) is $180. On-campus subscriptions for fall term are $35. Subscriptions must be prepaid. The Michigan Daily is a member of the Associated Press and the Associated Collegiate Press. ADDRESS: The Michigan Daily, 420 Maynard St.. Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-1327. PHONE NUMBERS (All area code 734): News 76-DAILY; Arts 763-0379; Sports 647-3336; Opinion 764-* ; Circulation 764-0558; Classified advertising 764-0557; Display advertising 764-0554; Billing 764-0550. E-mail letters to the editor to daily.letters@umich.edu. World Wide Web: www.tnichigandaily.con. NEWS Jewel Gopwani, Managing Editor EDITORS: Nick Bunkley, Michael Grass, Nika Schulte, Jaimie Winkler STAFF: Eddie Ahn, Lindsey Alpert. 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