2 - The Michigan Daily - Friday, October 26, 2001 NATION/WORLD State Dept. employee has anthrax WASHINGTON (AP) - A State Department mail handler lay ill with inhalation anthrax yes- terday and the besieged Postal Service set up spot checks at facilities nationwide as the bioterror scare widened. "We still don't know who is responsible," said Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge. At a White House news conference, Ridge also dis- closed that the anthrax contained in mail addressed to Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle had been altered to make it more of a threat. "It is highly con- centrated. It is pure and the spores are smaller," he said. "Therefore they're more dangerous because they can be more easily absorbed in a person's respiratory system.' Ridge identified the strain of anthrax used in the U.S. attacks as Ames, a substance named for the uni- versity city in Iowa, and used in American bioweapons research and in vaccine testing. Three weeks into the nation's unprecedented bioterrorism scare, lawmakers were permitted to return to several of their office buildings on Capitol Hill. And White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said there had been no evidence of anthrax exposure i among officials there who came in contact with mail that went through an offsite machine where anthrax was detected earlier in the week. "We are here to conduct the nation's business. We will not be frightened," said Secretary of State Colin Powell as he appeared before a Sen- ate committee. But there were words of caution elsewhere. "We are very concerned about additional letters. We would be naive to think this is over yet," said Julie Gerberding of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. There was further jolting news, a disclosure from officials in New Jersey that a postal worker was being watched for suspected inhalation anthrax,.the discov- ery of two more areas of contamination in a still- closed Senate office building -- and then the announcement fron the State Department. Spokesman Richard Boucher said a department employee who works at a mail handling site in Ster- ling, Va., had become the nation's latest victim of a dis- ease last seen more than two decades ago. Ivan Walks, head of Washington's public health department, said the man was hospitalized in guarded Rumsfeld: airstrikes disa Los Angeles Times WASHINGTON - U.S. airstrikes in Afghanistan have significantly reduced the Taliban's ability to defend itself against Afghan opposition forces but have moved the United States only marginally closer to finding Osama bin Laden, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said yesterday. "The Taliban's ability to effectively oppose the forces on the ground that are in opposition to the Taliban is degraded and diminished,"Rumsfeld said at a Pentagon news conference. Rumsfeld's relatively upbeat assess- ment appeared to contrast with the Pentagon's appraisal only a day before, when Rear Adm. John D. Stufflebeem, a senior official with the Joint Chief's of Staff, said that the United States faces a tough struggle against a sur- prisingly resilient Taliban foe. But with the military campaign still relatively young, both assessments may be true, defense analyst Harlan Ullman said. Progress against Taliban defenses may not lead immediately to the overthrow of the extremist Islamic regime, he said. And progress against Taliban troops does not necessarily mean progress in finding leaders of bin Laden's al-Qaida terrorist network, as Rumsfeld stressed. The defense min lack of good intelligence o ist leader's whereabouts persistent problem. "There isn't any progres have him or you don't,": news briefing. "Until yo you do not have him- progress? Until he is no1 tioning as a terrorist, he is as a terrorist." Rumsfeld said the U.S has succeeded in hitting Taliban's surface-to-air r aircraft, including transpor and Soviet-made MIGs. He acknowledged thatt Unitedarcel Serv ce is seeking an Intern for our Busness Develop'nent ~eam. Working on campus, you wil help set up and maintain iew accounts, answr customer questions and order supplies as needed for existing customers. Students applying for this posoion must be ava table to wor from 1:CCpm - 5:00pm, Monday througn Fr day. Pay will be basec on academic status. To be considered, resumes must be received by October 31, 2001. Fax resumes to the attention of: John Coliton FAX: 734-5231854 PLEASE MENTION THIS EMAIL: detlldm@ups.comFLYER WHEN YOU CALL www.upsjobs.comL UPS s an equal opportunity ernployer condition with inhalation anthrax. Unlike other area residents who have been hit, this patient had been asked whether his job required him to go to the Brent- wood postal facility that serves as the main mail pro- cessing center for the nation's capital. A second man who works at the same mail facility as the infected worker has flu-like symp- toms and is being tested at a hospital, Boucher said last night. Mail to federal agencies passes through the Brent- wood facility, and the latest diagnosis added to the mounting evidence that investigators have not yet found all the anthrax-tainted mail in the area's postal system. Postal Service Vice President Deborah Will- hite said the agency would begin testing all govern- ment mail intake facilities in the region for signs of anthrax. In addition, the State Department announced it would test employees at all of its mail annexes and its main facility several blocks from the White House. In all, he said 250 to 300 people are being tested for anthrax exposure, and about 80 people who work at the Sterling facility are receiving the antibiotic Cipro, Boucher said. ble Taliban ister said the iban Northern Alliance has not made n the terror- significant progress in efforts to cap- has been a ture Kabul, the Afghan capital, or the key northern crossroads town of s. You either Mazar-e-Sharif, despite U.S.-led he said at a airstrikes in these areas. u have him, But the anti-Taliban ground forces - so what is "are better off today than they were longer func- before (the bombing began Oct. 7), functioning and they are in a position to be more successful,"he said. . air attack Haron Amin, spokesman for the many of the Northern Alliance in Washington, on missiles and Thursday continued to criticize the t helicopters United States for a military strategy he said has included only limited assis- the anti-Tal- tance to the opposition army. sraelis continue looking for killers JERUSALEM (AP) - Israeli forces maintained their grip yesterday on West Bank towns but pulled out of a village where a raid a day earlier sparked a bloody gunbattle in which five Palestinians were killed. ' Amid growing U.S. criticism, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon convened his top Cabinet ministers to consider ending the weeklong invasion, which has killed dozens of people but failed to net the assassins of an Israeli Cabi- net minister. A day after the Oct. 17 assassina- tion, Israeli troops moved into parts of six West Bank towns, and violence continued in some of those areas yes- terday. Four Palestinians were killed in -. incidents in Bethlehem and Tulkarem. Israeli troops pulled out of the vil- lage of Beit Rima, where villagers were confined to their homes for more than a day while Israeli soldiers searched for those who killed Rehavam Zeevi, the ultra-nationalist minister of tourism. Five Palestinian policemen were killed Wednesday when the Israeli sweep through the village erupted into a bloody gunbattle. Villagers said three others who were taken to an Israeli hospital also died, but hospital r officials said the three were wounded o-one seriously and two slightly. Two others were being treated at Ramallah hospital, villagers said. The Israelis said they arrested 11 Palestinians, two of them connected to the assassination, which was claimed by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine as vengeance for Israel's Aug. 27 killing of their leader Mustafa Zibri. Zibri was accused of plotting attacks on Israelis. Israeli forces also blew up three houses, including the home of Basel Asmar, the 25-year-old local PFLP leader. Villagers said he left two days before the killing and had not returned. "He called me the day of the assassination and said that he's fine," said his mother Itisam, 50. Another of the houses was home to four families. Ahmed Barghouti, 73, said soldiers kicked a 5-year-old girl, and she had been crying ever since. The Palestinian Cabinet called the Israeli sweep an "ugly massacre" and declared yesterday a day of mourning. Palestinian students stood for a minute of silence, with flags flying at half- staff, and businesses and offices closed. Israel released a statement saying two members of the four-man cell that carried out the assassination were NEWS IN BRIEF HEADLINES FROM AR UN;HEWO L WASHINGTON Low sales, layoffs indicate recession Home sales and orders to factories for big-ticket items plunged in September, and the number of Americans drawing unemployment benefits now stands at an 18- year-high - the strongest evidence to date that the country has entered a recession. "The bad news just keeps on coming," said Melani Jani, an economist at Salomon Smith Barney in New York. "The economy was already weak before Sept. 11, and these figures show the deterioration has become much more intense." The Commerce Department reported yesterday that orders to factories for big- ticket durable goods fell for a fourth consecutive month in September, a decline of 8.5 percent that was six times larger than economists expected. It pushed orders for durable goods down to $165.4 billion, the lowest level'since August 1996. Sales of existing homes, one of the economy's few bright spots, fell by 11.7 per- cent, the biggest one-month drop in six years, the National Association of Realtors reported. The association said the shock of the terrorist attacks caused housing sales, along with a lot of other economic activity, to come to a standstill. The Labor Department said the number of newly laid-off workers filing for unemployment benefits rose to 504,000 last week, a level usually associated with recessions, while the total number of unemployed collecting benefits rose to an 18- year-high of 3.65 million people, 66 percent above the level of a year ago. ZAKI-IAM. Nigeria Nigerian soldiers wipe out rural villages The smell of death lingered yesterday over the deserted streets of this burned out village - one of seven where state officials say soldiers bent on revenge destroyed homes and killed at least 130 people in eastern Nigeria. State officials say the raids were in reprisal for the abduction and killing of 19 sol- diers by Tiv tribal fighters earlier this month in Benue state, where villagers have been waging a decade-long ethnic feud. Uniformed soldiers traveling in armored personnel carriers destroyed seven set- tlements, killing 130 people in just one village, state Gov. George Akume said yes- terday. The figures could not be independently verified. Defense officials deny they ordered any revenge attacks. The soldiers who arrived in Zaki-Biam on Tuesday told residents they were peacekeepers and instructed people to stay in their homes, according to the few resi- dents who started straggling back yesterday. "We thought they were coming here to protect us, but suddenly they took up posi- tions and started firing at us," said Titus Madugu, a nurse, hovering nervously in the garden next to his burned house. HAYWARD, Calif. Settlement reached in suit against Ford Ford Motor Co. agreed yesterday to pay for repairs on millions of cars and trucks prone to stall because of a flawed ignition sys- tem, settling one of the industry's most costly defects cases. The deal approved by a Califor- nia judge could cost the automaker $2.7 billion, the plaintiffs said. Ford attorney Richard Warmer dis- puted that estimate, without offer- ing specifics. "This will not be something that will have a material effect on the company's financial position," Warmer said. As many as I I deaths and 31 injuries have been linked to stalling Ford vehi- cles. Ford has maintained that its igni- tion devices and vehicles are safe and admitted no wrongdoing in the settlement. WASHINGTON Pentagon ostpones missile de ense tests The Pentagon announced yesterday it has put off several missile defense tests this fall in order to avoid being accused of violating the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty that prohibits nationwide missile defenses. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rums- feld made the announcement at a Penta- gon news conference. "We will not violate the treaty Watchful and still, a monster croco- dile waited in the waters of an African river for a large animal to lean over and drink. When the momerit was right, the predator lashed out and grabbed the prey in his toothy jaws. The struggle was brief. That's a scene researchers believe was routine in a lush river valley some 110 million years ago. The prey could have been a large dinosaur, but the crocodile was immense - longer than a school bus and weighing about 10 tons. Dinosaur hunters led by Paul C. Sereno of the University of Chicago uncovered fossilized remains of the giant croc and for the first time. assem- bled them into a replica of the ancient reptile. "When this thing grew into an adult it was really a monster," Sereno said in an interview. "This thing could have easily pulled down a good-sized dinosaur." - Compiled from Daily wire reports. while it remains in force," Rums- feld said. "In recent days, to keep from having it suggested that we might not be keeping that commit- ment, we have voluntarily restrained our ballistic missile defense test program." Rumsfeld described the decision as providing an impetus for further discus- sions. President Bush is scheduled to discuss it with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Texas in mid-Novem- ber. WASHINGTON Bones of prehistoric crocodile discovered 4 6 The Michigan Daily (ISSN 0745-967) is published Monday through Friday during the fail and winter terms by students at the University of Michigan. 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