2A - The Michigan Daily - Friday, September 21, 2001
NATION/WORLD
4
Arafat tries to maintain relations
TEL AVIV, Israel - When an Israeli mother of
three was killed yesterday in a drive-by shooting in
the West Bank, U.S. Consul Ronald Schlicher, the
Jerusalem'based diplomat who maintains U.S. con-
tacts with Palestinian leaders, quickly called Yasser
Arafat to ask what he was going to do about it.
Arafat, desperately trying to remain in the Bush
administration's good graces, said his Palestinian
Authority's security services would hunt down and
arrest the perpetrators, U.S. sources said.
The incident reflected Washington's determination
to keep alive the tenuous calls for a truce issued
Tuesday by Arafat and Prime Minister Ariel Sharon
of Israel. It also was the latest example of serial U.S.
efforts to pressure Arafat and Sharon to get new
peace talks underway in hopes of making it easier
for Arab governments to join President Bush's cam-
paign against terrorism.
But the killing yesterday morning of Sarit Amrani,
25, near the West Bank settlement of Tekoa consti-
tuted a severe challenge to the U.S. goal. Sharon
called for a security meeting late yesterday night to
discuss whether to maintain his restriction on offen-
sive Israeli military actions. He and his spokesmen
made it clear that, in their view, Arafat has not kept
his word to end violence.
"I am very sorry that the Palestinian Authority is
not keeping its commitments," Sharon said early in
the day.
After nightfall, the Israeli army reported numerous
shooting incidents, hand-grenade attacks on Israeli
outposts in the Gaza Strip and the detonation of a
roadside bomb as a military vehicle passed.
For the time being, the United States was reserv-
ing judgment. "If the shooting was an aberration,
then it will fade away. If not, it means Arafat is not
serious, and a negative scenario is in play: a higher
level of violence," said a Western diplomat.
Since the Sept. 11 suicide attacks on New York
and Washington, Secretary of State Colin Powell has
intervened numerous times to persuade Arafat and
Sharon to stop the clashes that have raged here for
almost a year. He has made 19 telephone calls spread
among Arafat, Sharon and Israeli Foreign Minister
Shimon Peres to promote negotiations.
Powell's goa is to end the violence and get talks
started on security cooperation, the end of Israeli
blockades on Palestinian towns and, eventually,
Israeli withdrawals from still-occupied parts of the
West Bank and Gaza Strip.
So far, Arafat has expressed eagerness to sign
onto the U.S. campaign against terrorism, albeit for
his own interests, a diplomat here said.
The Palestinian leader wants to avoid being seen
by the United States as on the "wrong side" of the
terrorist divide, inviting a heavy assault from Sharon
in the name of fighting a global scourge. Arafat has
indicated he will rein in Islamic militant groups that
have initiated terrorist assaults inside Israel. But
from the U.S. point of view, that is not enough.
Diplomats are pressuring himalso to curb military
attacks on Israeli soldiers and settlers by Fatah, the
main component of Arafat's Palestine Liberation
Organization.
Members of two Palestinian Authority forces in
Bethlehem, Force 17 and the Preventive Security
Unit, said they have been ordered to prevent firings
on Israeli targets, but that persuasion was their main
method. They are supposed to make arrests only as a
last resort.
This soft approach seems to suggest Arafat fears
repercussions of cracking down hard. Many Pales-
tinians considered the attacks on Washington and
New York as, at least, a due lesson in the kind of suf-
fering that has long afflicted Palestinians.
"Terrorism
ERS increases
n the
Society deficit
[ION
actor
spending
n
n Arbor SO WASHINGTON (AP) - A poten-
ancisco SO tial $100 billion price tag for Ameri-
n Arbor So ca's response to terrorism plus a limp
Detroit so economy hobbled further by last
week's attacks could revive federal
deficits next year for the first time
es it all! since 1997.
as Sheets, The return of federal red ink would
n appears end a string of four straight annual sur-
th major pluses and mark a stunning turnaround
critically from May, when the Congressional
f choral Budget Office envisioned a 2002 sur-
cert Choir plus of $304 billion. The nonpartisan
; and our CBO downgraded its projection to
ill appear
with the $176 billion last month to account for
Scholars. the costs of President Bush's tax cut
and an economy that was already
on about becoming weaker. The abrupt bud-
ehearsals getary reversal has been accompanied
Language by an equally dramatic transformation
Monday of the capital's politics.
30 p.m. The partisan duel over leaving Social
Security surpluses alone that dominated
Washington until the Sept. I11 hijack-
ings and crashes has Peen silenced.
hedu Replacing it is a consensus between
tion.html Democrats and Republicans that
improving national security and taking
other steps is far more important.
"We're dealing with a national
emergency, and we're going to spend
and do what it takes to deal with it in
the most effective way," House Minor-
ity Leader Dick Gephardt (D-Mo.)
said yesterday. "We're going to do
what we need to do."
"For the most part, that's suspended,
at least for now," House Majority
Leader Dick Armey (R-Texas) said of
lawmakers' concerns about spending
down the surplus. He said a re-emer-
gence of deficits, however, would be a
problem for many legislators.
Underlining the economy's dire situ-
ation, Federal Reserve Chairman /Jan
Greenspan told lawmakers yestei day
that the Sept. 11 assaults had dealt a
major blow to the nation's businesses,
consumers and financial markets.
4,
SFAA bans
all flights
close to
stadiums
WASHINGTON (AP) - The gov-
ernment has banned all aircraft from
flying within 3 miles of major profes-
sional and college sporting events and
any other large open air gathering.
The Federal Aviation Administra-
tion's notice to pilots became effective
at noon yesterday, said spokeswoman
Laura Brown. The "no-fly zone"
extends up to an altitude of 3,000 feet.
The notice applies to all types of air-
craft including small planes, blimps,
balloons and gliders, she said.
"We issued this to cover every-
thing," Brown said. "It's a blanket
order so that it would include a state
fair, a high school football game"
The alternative was issuing an array
of specific restrictions, she said.
The first major outdoor sporting
event in New York since the attacks
will be Friday night when the
Atlanta Braves play the Mets at
Shea Stadium, which is across
Flushing Bay from LaGuardia Air-
NEWS IN BRIEF
HEADLINES FRM ROUND THE WORLD ms .
NEW YORK
Stocks plummet for third day this week
Wall Street hastened its retreat from the economic damage of last week's terrorist
attacks, sending stocks tumbling yesterday in their third steep decline in four days.
The Dow Jones industrial average fell 382 points, bringing its loss so far this
week to 1,229 points - nearly 13 percent - and putting the blue chip index in
line for its biggest one-week point drop.
"It's rollercoastering down," said Matt Brown, head of equity management at
Wilmington Trust.
The market's anxiety surged yesterday as Federal Reserve Chairman Alan
Greenspan told Congress the terrorist attacks have hurt the economy in a num-
ber of ways, including a drop in consumer spending and travel and last week's
four-day shutdown of the stock market.
While the Fed chairman also said, "I am confident that we will recover and
prosper as we have in the past," the Dow still fell sharply -- down 382.92, or 4.4
percent, to 8,376.21.
And, unless the blue chips rally substantially Friday, they are likely to have their
biggest one-week point drop, eclipsing the 821.21 they fell in the week ending
March 16. As of now, the Dow's percentage loss for the week is its ninth largest.
The Dow-also closed below 8,400 for the first time since October 1998.
MOSCOW
Russia permits its citizens to own property
More than eight decades after the Bolsheviks banned private property, Russia's ,
parliament voted yesterday to permit Russians to buy, own and sell land.
Although the new law applies only to urban and industrial land - about 2 per-
cent of the country - the law is a watershed for Russia.
Foreign and domestic investors have long listed the ban on land ownership as
one of the most odious ideological and bureaucratic barriers to economic devel-
opment still lingering 10 years after the Soviet collapse. The new law, for the
most part, treats foreigners and Russians alike.
Economist Otto Latsis compared the symbolism of the vote to "the storming
of the Bastille."
"It shows that the resistance of the left-wing (pro-Communist) forces has been
overpowered and broken, and a resolute step has been made toward introducing
private ownership on all types of lands in Russia," Latsis said.
The new land code was approved by a 250-137 vote in the lower house of par-
liament, the State Duma. It still needs to pass the upper house and be signed into
law by President Vladimir V. Putin, but those are considered formalities.
WASHINGTON
Microsoft, Justice to
continue talks
Microsoft and the Justice Department
told the new judge in their antitrust case
yesterday that they want to stick with
private settlement talks and do not need
a mediator. Analysts said a settlement
could be important to the flagging econ-
omy.
The computer industry has continued
its decline despite the imminent release
of a major update to Microsoft's flag-
ship Windows operating system. Like
the stock market overall, Microsoft's
stock dropped yesterday afternoon, to
$51.35 per share, a decline of $2.52.
The jointly filed status report was the
first substantive discussion by the soft-
ware giant and the government with U.S.
District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly.
Microsoft and the Justice Department
"will continue to seek settlement of this
matter through private discussions,
which are ongoing and should contin-
ue," the report said.
ASTANA Kazakstan
Papal visit prompts
tightened security
Across a broad square from the
turquoise, yurt-shaped altar where Pope
John Paul II is to celebrate Mass on Sun-
day, Kazak police prepared wide-ranging
security measures for one of the most
sensitive state visits this young capital
has ever seen.
In addition to President Nursultan
Nazarbayev's presidential guard and the
pontiff's own bodyguards, the Kazak
Interior Ministry will deploy 3,342 offi-
cers afld 600 student volunteers to keep
order, Deputy Interior Minister Ivan
Otto said yesterday. All transit traffic
through Astana will be banned, except
for buses carrying worshippers and offi-
cial vehicles.
The ministry has posted notices on
radio, television and posters around
the city asking for cooperation dur-
ing the pope's four-day visit that
begins Saturday, especially during
the Mass Sunday.
WASHINGTON
Overpayments for
Medicare studied
Medicare paid $1.9 billion more
than necessary for 24 popular pre-
scription drugs last year, according to
congressional auditors.
The overpayments are the result of
rules put in place by Congress at the
urging of drug companies, according
to the inspector general of the Depart-
ment of Health and Human Services,
which oversees the government's
health insurance program for senior
citizens.
The system "allows the price to be
set arbitrarily by drug manufacturers,
not the marketplace," George F Grob
said in testimony prepared for delivery
today.
Two House subcommittees planned
a joint hearing to investigate why
Medicare pays so much more than
other agencies, such as the Depart-
ments of Defense and Veterans
Affairs.
- Compiled from Daily wire reports.
6
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