2 - The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, November 29, 2000 NATION WORLD New elections to be held in Israel ACROSS THE NATm ff r-- --....,.- t1 JERUSALEM (AP) - Israel's parliament voted overwhelmingly yesterday to hold new elections, after Prime Minister Ehud Barak - his government shaken by two months of street bat- ties with the Palestinians - reluctantly agreed to hard-liners' demands for an early vote. Polls have shown elections would be a risky proposition for Barak, as his minority govern- ment has been steadily losing support from many Israelis who perceive him as ineffective in ending the bloodshed. However, a vote would probably not be held before spring, giving Barak time for a last-ditch effort to forge a peace agreement with the Palestinians. Elections could serve as a referen- dum on the agreement. Palestinian officials said they were hopeful an accord could be reached before the elections. The 120-member legislature voted separately on five bills calling for early elections. Four of the bills were approved by more than 70 mem- bers of the house. Only threelegislators were opposed, and the rest abstained. The date for elections will be set in the com- ing days by party leaders. Barak said the vote could be held as late as nine months from now, while several opposition lawmakers said they expected elections in May, two years after Barak took office. Parliament had settled into a long debate on -the five bills yesterday evening when Barak made an unexpected appearance before the law- makers. In a speech, Barak announced that he would no longer resist the opposition push for elections. "I do not flinch from elections. I say if you, want elections, let there be elections for prime minister and for the Knesset," Barak told parlia- ment. Throughout the day, Barak saw the opposition gain more and more votes, until it became clear that more than half the members would vote against him. In his speech, Barak blamed opposition leader Ariel Sharon for rejecting his offer to create a unity government. However, in a later TV interview, Barak also acknowledged that he had "made mistakes." Recent polls have indicated that if elections were held now, Barak would be defeated by any opposition candidate, including Sharon and for- mer Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Israeli commentators said Barak's only chance to remain in power was to reach a peace agreement."[Thud Barak is running in the ele- tion without a government, without a majority in theKnesset, without a majority inthe polls and without a majority of the public," said Hanan Crystal, a political analyst. "He is run- ning on one issue only, whether he is capable of reaching an agreement with Yasser Arafat by election day." High court limits use of roadblocks WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court strictly limited yesterday the power o police to use roadblocks to track down criminals on streets and highways. By a 6-3 vote, the court ruled that it is unconstitutional for police to stop car randomly at a checkpoint if their purpose is to "uncover evidence of crimina wrongdoing." The ruling came in a case involving the use of a roadblock to find vehicles cz rying illegal drugs, but the court's opinion swept more broadly. The opinion's author, Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, expressed concern tha roadblocks to detect crime, when officers have no reason to believe that someon they stop will turn out to be a criminal, would become "a routine part of Americas life. In the past, the court had upheld roadblocks to check for drunken drivers or t detect illegal immigrants crossing the border into the United States. But it said yesterday that those kind of roadblocks were acceptable, constitution- ally, because the interference with motorists' privacy is closely connected to keep- ing the roads safe or keeping illegal immigrants out of the country. By contrast, the court said, a drug roadblock is used solely "to see if there jusi happens to be" a criminal in a passing vehicle. Unlike the kinds of roadblocks prj viously upheld, one that is done to serve general crime control violates the FourtT1 Amendment ban against unreasonable seizures. AP PHOTO Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak speaks to the Knesset yesterday in Jerusalem where he agreed to call early elections. r-riday, December I ana aturday, December 4, 2UUU Rackham Hall Amphitheatre, 915 E. Washington Street, Ann Arbor, MI Over the course of the 20th century, the average age of death in the U.S. increased from the mid-40s to the mid-70s. New scientific discoveries now open the possibility of dramatic extensions of longevity in the 21st century. Explore the social and ethical implications of these new possibilities December 1 and 2 at the University of Michigan. Conference Speakers Lee C. Bollinger, President, University of Michigan Robert A. Burt, J.D., Alexander M. Bickel Professor of Law, Yale University. Richard A. Miller, M.D., Ph.D., Professor of Pathology and Research Scientist, Institute of Gerontology, University of Michigan Robert N. Butler, M.D., President of the International Longevity Center, Professor of Geriatrics at Mount Sinai Medical Center, New York, and Founding Director, National Institute on Aging of the National Institutes of Health. David Rothman, Ph.D., Bernard Schoenberg Professor of Social Medicine and Director, Center for the Study of Society and Medicine, Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons. Andrew Delbanco, Ph.D., Julian Clarence Levi Professor in the Humanities at Columbia University. To Register Visit our website at www.lifesciences.umich.edu/values/ events.html Email lsvspl@umich.edu Call 734-647-4571 The conference is free and open to the public. but space is limited, so register today! K 1 /' Did~n't get The Michigan Daily today? Fig. 1 Human Circulatory System AIDS on inAfrica Tiel Washington Post The number of people who became infected with the AIDS virus in sub- Saharan Africa decreased this year for the first time since the epidemic began three decades ago, according to a Unit- ed Nations AIDS Program report released yesterday. About 3.8 million people will become infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in sub- Saharan Africa this year, compared to about 4 million last year. Officials of UNAIDS, the joint pro- gram run by the United Nations, World Health Organization and the World Bank, don't know whether the slight decline marks a true turning point in the epidemic or a momentary pause. Never- theless, the data raises the possibility the epidemic may be stabilizing in Africa. Globally, there were 5.3 million peo- ple newly infected with HIV this year, down slightly from 5.6 million last year. The number of people living with the disease rose from 33.6 million last year to 36.1 million this year. MSA Continued from Page 1 Team member Karl Steyaert, spoke to the assembly in the hopes that represen- tatives would support the Proposal for a Sustainable University of Michigan. "It is a student-led initiative moving the University of Michigan toward increased environmental and social awareness through thirty specific points,;Steyaert said. The points include an environmental- ly responsibly purchasing policy and a sustainable campus transportation plan for the University. Later in the meeting, the assembly unanimously passed a resolution to sup- port the "National Summit of the New Civil Rights Movement to Defend. Inte- gration and Affirmative Action" to be held Jan. 12-16 at the University. The assembly also unanimously passed a resolution in support of a two- week outreach and educational program about AIDS in the black and Latino communities sponsored by the Black Student Union. A motion to form a select investiga- tion committee "to investigate possible unethical actions by Curtin in regard to Affirmative Action 102 Week" was withdrawn from the agenda. Curtin sponsored Affirmative Action 102 through PJC. "It was strictly a political attack by opponents on the assembly, Curtin said. "It was really good that they decided to withdraw it." MSA Student General Counsel Alok Agrawal said he co-sponsored the motion because "there were certain loose ends that didn't fit" about the effort of Affirmative Action 102 to get anti-affirmative action speakers in order to represent both viewpoints. The motion was decidedly removed because "it became a 'she said-he said' sort of thing," Agrawal said. COUNCIL Continued from Page 1 represent Ward I, which includes north- Euthanasia approved in the Netherlands THEL HAGUE. Netherlands - The Dutch parliament approved a bill yes- terday to allow euthanasia and physi- cian-assisted suicide, which would make Holland the first country to for- mally legalize the practice. The bill passed by a vote of 104-40. It still needs the approval of the Sen- ate and is expected to enter into force next yeai. Advocates say the law puts the Dutch in the vanguard of patient rights, while opponents say it will replace caring with killing. "Doctors shoud not be treated as criminals. This will create security for doctors and patients alike," said Health Minister Els Borst, who draft- ed the bill. "Something as serious as ending one's life deserves openness," she told The Associated Press after the vote. The legislation mandates strict crite- ria that require doctor and patient have a long-term relationship, making it unavailable to foreigners who want to travel to the Netherlands to end their lives, a government spokesman said. Liberal party wins majority i election OTTAWA - Prime Minister Jean Chretien, enjoying the biggest victo- ry of his career, yesterday described Canada's deepening political divide between east and west as democracy at work. Chretien's Liberal Party registered its third straight majority in Monda4 national'election, getting 173 seats in the 301-member House of Commons to give it a fresh five-year term. The Liberals increased their total by 12 seats, overwhelming the opposition Canadian Alliance in Ontario, battling the separatist Bloc Quebecois to a draw in Quebec and picking up seats in the Atlantic provinces to offset the Alliance's dominance in western provinces. - Compiledfiom Dai/y wie ieports. Researchers defend giving humans toxin LOMA LINDA, Calif. -- Doctors doing a study of a toxic water pollutant defended feeding it to human partici- pants, saying the potential medical ben- efit outweighed the risk. The Loma Linda University Medical Center researchers held a news confer- ence yesterday to respond to media reports raising concerns about people being given doses of perchlorate, a chemical used in rocket fuel that has contaminated ground water in parts of Southern California. The hospital's institutional review board, which oversees clinical trials, concluded that participants would face minimal risk. Researchers said the perchlorate doses being given in the study are about 100 times lower than those given to people who are prescribed perchlorate for thyroid illnesses. Anthony Firek, the study's principal investigator, said the dosages are also lower than those given in a study pub- lished earlier this year by Harvard Uni- versity. Nine men received 10 mil- li grams of perchlorate daily in that study. City to donate land, money for museum NEW YORK - City officials have said they would donate land and money toward the building of a pro- posed new Solomon Guggenheim Museum in lower Manhattan. The new 40-story museum, designed by Frank Gehry, would be located on three piers at the foot of Wall Street. It is expected to cost S678 million. The city intends to provide the lar- and approximately 10 percent of thc construction costs, the New York Times reported yesterday. The proposed 575,000-square- foot museum would be twice as large as the one Gehry designed for the Guggenheim in Bilbao, Spain, and 10 times larger than the muse- um's Frank Lloyd Wright-designed headquarters on Manhattan's Upper East Side. d Ai*OUND THE WORLD t .y41 fJ g[ JIli_ i AAA 3 a . -a I.", .1 1 1- % - -* , . ow r The Michigan Daily (ISSN 0745967) is published Monday through Friday dung 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. 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