2 - The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, October 24, 2001 NATION/WORLD ongress trng to resume work NEWS IN BRIEF ARUDHEADLINES FROM ARUDTH OL The Washington Post WASHINGTON - Expressing more frustration than fear, members of Congress returned to work yes- terday, holing up in makeshift accommodations with skeletal staffs as environmental technicians continued to scour six House and Senate office buildings for anthrax contamination. So far, authorities said, the contamination appears to be limited to four sites ---- none in the Capitol itself-- and congressional ofticials announced yesterday night that the Russell Senate Office Building will reopen today. But with five new cases of inhalation anthrax among postal workers reported since Sunday, includ- ing two fatalities, the mood was somber and restrained as the House dispensed with several noncontroversial matters and the Senate broke a logjam holding up action on spending bills. On the sidelines, the office shutdowns continued to create massive headaches for lawmakers and aides cut off from computer hard dri- ves, important documents and normal contact with constituents and others. While most senators worked out of the Capitol - some in their private "hideaways", others in the Demo- cratic or Republican cloakrooms - many House members took temporary refuge in the imposing head- quarters of the General Accounting Office at 4th and G Streets NW. The GAO cleared two entire floors, dis- placing 1,200 employees, to make way for all 435 members, each of whom was allotted two laptop com- puters and cramped space for three aides. Congressional leaders said the Cannon, Longworth and Rayburn House office buildings and two on the Senate side - the Dirksen and Hart buildings - will remain closed pending the results of environmental tests. The Hart building - where anthrax spores were released Oct. 15 when a junior staffer opened a letter to Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) - could remain closed for weeks. "The Hart and Dirksen buildings will reopen as soon as environmental remediation to remove the evi- dence of anthrax spores is completed, or until those areas that have been tested positive have been sealed to allow for remediation without exposing other areas to contamination," Daschle and Senate Minority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) said in a statement yesterday. For all the inconveniences and anxiety, lawmakers expressed confidence in the decision by congressional leaders to call them back into session as well as the environmental measures that they say have sharply reduced the anthrax threat on Capitol Hill. "People are aware of the fact that somebody tried to commit homicide against members of the Capitol Hill family, so that's a serious truth," Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Bob Graham (D-Fla.) said in an interview. "But most of the people here are mature adults who've had some previous experience in dealing with stressful circumstances and I do not believe that they've succumbed to emotional meltdown over this." Following the discovery of the anthrax spores in Daschle's office last week, medical personnel swabbed the nasal cavities of 5,000 congressional staff, Capitol police, reporters and others to determine how far the bacteria had spread. So far, 28 people have showed evi- dence of exposure to the spores, although that does not mean they will get anthrax. BELFAST, Northern Ireland IRA begins disarming for first time The Irish Republican Army announced yesterday that it has begun to disarm for the first time, saying it wants to prevent the collapse of the peace process, long threatened by the impasse over IRA weapons. There was no immediate word on the number of weapons being put out of use or the method. The IRA said only it had "implemented the scheme" accepted by an international disarmament commission in August, the details of which were never made public. The announcement came one day after Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams and his deputy, Martin McGuinness, urged their allies in the IRA to make good on their long-delayed promises to put their weapons "beyond use." "Our motivation is clear. This unprecedented move is to save the peace process and to persuade others of our genuine intentions," the IRA statement said. "The political process is now on the point of collapse. Such a collapse would certainly, and eventually, put the overall peace process in jeopardy," it said. The IRA pledged in May 2000 to put its weapons "beyond use," a euphemism for disarmament. But its failure to fulfill the promise has constantly angered Protestants ---- to the point that now the impasse threatened to bring down the Protestant-Catholic government. 0 Three letters that contained anthrax were dated Sept. 11 The University of Michigan Department of Dermatology is currently offering a new investigational treatment for Psoriasis. For more information, please call: (734) 764-DERM Ofre viits and medicaior, ae proided Iree of charge to eligible participants. If you are 18 years of age or older, you may be eigi ble, WASHINGTON (AP) -- Three let- ters contaminated with anthrax all were dated the same day as the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington and contained anti-American and anti- Israel messages, officials said yester- day. The Justice Department released copies of the letters as it sought help from the public in identifying those responsible for the mail attacks that have killed three people and poisoned more than a dozen others. The identical dates are yet another indication that the anthrax attacks were coordinated. Authorities have already said the strain of anthrax in the New York and Washington letters and bacte- ria found at a Florida publishing com- pany were similar. And the three letters were all postmarked from Trenton, N.J. Letters sent to NBC's Tom Brokaw and The New York Post appeared iden- tical. Both warned recipients to "Take penacilin now," an apparent mis- spelling, and also said, "Death to Amer- ica," "Death to Israel" and "Allah is Great." The envelope that contained the New York Post letter was written in the same sort of block letters, slanted to the right, as two envelopes addressed to Brokaw and Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, released earlier. The letter to Daschle contained seven lines written in block letters similar to the other two. "You can not stop us. We have this anthrax. You die now. Are you afraid? Death to America. Death to Israel. Allah is great." Atop all three notes was the date "09- 11-01" in identical handwriting. The letters to Brokaw and the New York Post were postmarked Sept. 18. rThe I Daschle letter was postmarked Oct. 9. Attorney General John Ashcroft said investigators hope to garner new leads by releasing photographs of the letters and to warn Americans of mail to be wary of. "All of these ... we hope will alert citizens and others to the kind of thing to look for," said Ashcroft. Despite the dates on the letters, Ashcroft said authorities can't prove a link to the men who carried out the air- liner attacks last month. The FBI is investigating whether additional anthrax-laced letters have been sent. The White House yesterday said anthrax was discovered in an off- site mail facility. The origin of the anthrax was unknown. Mail handled at the off-site facility is processed through a postal facility on Capitol Hill that processed the Daschle letter. Bush tells Israel to withdraw its troopns Los Angeles Times WASHINGTON - President Bush demanded yesterday that Israel with- draw its troops from Palestinian-run parts of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, delivering the stern message personally to Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres. Bush's personal intervention, fol- lowing warnings by lower-ranking White House officials, underlined concerns that Washington's custom- ary support for Israel could hurt U.S. efforts to retain Arab and other Mus- lim countries as allies in the war on terrorism. Although Bush and Peres had not been scheduled to meet, the president joined talks between the Israeli offi- cial and National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice. He stayed 25 min- utes, an extraordinarily long time for a drop-in visit. White House spokesman Sean McCormack said Bush asserted that he is Israel's best friend, but the pres- ident called for an immediate end to the Israeli invasion of Palestinian ter- ritory launched last week after the assassination of a member of the Israeli Cabinet. During his three days in Washing- ton, Peres has assured members of Congress, reporters, Jewish groups and other audiences that Israel will pull back its troops as soon as the Palestinian Authority arrests the assassins of Tourism Minister Rehavam Zeevi. But the administra- tion told him that isn't good enough. Secretary of State Colin L. Powell told Peres that the forces should be withdrawn "immediately," regdless of whether the Palestinian authorities move against the assassins, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said. McCormack said he didn't know if Bush used the same words, but "that is our position." The exchange clearly came as a surprise to Peres, who has long been able to persuade U.S. officials to soft- en criticism of Israeli actions. Peres' center-left Labor Party has threat- ened to abandon Israel's coalition government if the Israeli army doesn't withdraw soon. Administration officials applauded the strong support Peres offered the I R miitarv actions in Afghanistan. WASH[ NGTON Pilot error blamed for 1999 plane crash The pilots bringing American Air- lines Flight 1420 into Little Rock, Ark., in June 1999 failed to set the wing pan- els that would have helped slow the plane down on the slick runway, federal safety investigators said yesterday. Staff investigators for the National Transportation Safety Board said at a hearing that neither the pilot nor the co-pilot set the switch for the spoilers, and neither checked with the other to make sure the panels would operate. The safety board was meeting to approve a final report on the crash of Flight 1420, which killed I1 people including the captain when itran off the runway, injuring roughly 100 people. Since then, American has changed its procedures and requires the pilot and co-pilot to acknowledge the spoiler switch has been turned on, When turned on, the spoilers automatically deploy when the plane lands on the runway. WASHINGTON , Corporations would benefit from stimulus General Motors, IBM and Kmart are among corporations that would receive billions of dollars in tax refunds under a $100 billion House Republican econom- ic stimulus package. Democrats say it is far too generous to companies and does too little for individuals. Seven compa- nies would get a total of $3.3 billion in refunds of alternative minimum taxes they .paid as far back as 1986. The tax, which the House legislation also would repeal outright, is intended to ensure a basic minimum income tax is paid by companies and individuals that claim numerous deductions and credits. IBM would get a $1.4 billion refund, according to the nonpartisan Congres- sional Research Service, while GM would get $832 million, Kmart $102 million and General Electric $671 mil- lion. Others specified for big refunds include Enron, $254 million; U.S. Steel, $39 million; and Kroger, $9 million, PASADENA, Calif. Odyssey successfully enters Mars orbit NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey space- :raft successfully entered orbit late yesterday around the Red Planet, where the space agency ~uffeied embarrassing back-to-back failures on its previous two missions. Engineers and scientists-at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory received pre- liminary indication shortly before 8 p.m. that a programmed engine firing had slowed the spacecraft and allowed Mars to capture it into an egg-shaped orbit. Mission control erupted in cheers as officials exchanged hugs and hand- shakes after tense minutes of waiting. "Right now is just a fulfillment of many years of effort by a lot-of peo- ple," said Roger Gibbs, deputy project manager. The spacecraft will take until late January to settle into a final, circular mapping orbit 250 miles above the planet. - Compiledfrom Daily wire reports. BOGOR. Indonesia Hundreds of refugees die when ship sinks * Dreams of a new life in Australia ended in death for hundreds of refugees after a worn-out pump draining water from their leaky Indonesian boat broke down in the Indian Ocean. As the wooden vessel filled with water, dozens of men bailed frantically, some with their bare hands. Terrified women and chil- dren were trapped in the overcrowded hold. The boat sank in 10 minutes as heavy rain fell on the otherwise placid sea. Of the 418 people aboard - mostly refugees from Iraq, Afghanistan and other countries -- only 44 survived the disaster Friday. Yesterday, stunned survivors were recovering in a refugee hostel in Bogor, about 40 miles south of Jakarta. Many were injured, and some cried as they recounted their ordeal. The youngest survivor, 8-year-old Hussein Jawad, lost his parents and 13 other relatives. While many who escaped the sinking boat drowned, he clung to a piece of, the wreckage for two days until fishermen came. "It was like doomsday," said Bahram Khan, a farmer from Jalalabad, Afghanistan, who lost four brothers.."I can still hear the screams." 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 $105. Winter term (January through April) is $110, yearlong (September through April) is $190. University affiliates are subject to a reduced subscription rate. On-campus subscriptions for fall term are $35. Subscriptions must be prepaid. 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