2 - The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, December 5, 2001 NATION/WORLD M I 2 die from Israeli missile attack NEWS IN BRIEF1" HEDINE FRO ARUDTH O yy.-- -4I RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) - Israel used bombs and missiles yesterday to pressure Yasser Arafat to move against Palestinian militants, striking just yards from the Palestinian leader's West Bank offices and in the Gaza Strip. Two Palestinians were killed and about 150 were injured in the attacks. The campaign stirred opposition from moderate Labor Party members of Israel's ruling coalition, who boycotted a Cabinet vote on tougher action against the Palestinians. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's government said it was sending a stern warning-to the Palestinian leader that there would be even harsher reprisals if he did not crack down on militants who have been attacking Israelis. "The purpose was to send a clear military message ... 'Friends, we've had enough, take the responsibili- ty that you have and stop the terrorism," said the Israeli army spokesman, Brig. Gen. Ron Kitrey. The air attacks came in response. to weekend bombings and shooting attacks on Israelis by Islamic militants that killed 26 people and wounded nearly 200. Kitrey said yesterday's raids targeted Palestinian Authority installations because the Islamic militants' headquarters "are secret and cannot be hit in this type of attack." Arafat, speaking to CNN after the airstrike on his Ramallah compound, accused Sharon of trying to undermine his efforts to combat terrorism. The Palestinian Authority has rounded up some 130 members of the militant Islamic Jihad and Hamas groups since the weekend, and Palestinian officials said the sweep would continue despite the Israeli raids. "They (the Israelis) don't want me to succeed and for this he (Sharon) is escalating his military activi- ties against our people, against our towns, against our cities, against our establishments," Arafat said. "He doesn't want a peace process to start." Israel has dismissed the arrest sweeps as win- dow dressing, saying Arafat was only targeting secondary activists, not the real planners of terror attacks. The deadliest Israeli strike came in Gaza City, where F-16 warplanes dropped three bombs that flat- tened a building of the Preventive Security Service in a residential neighborhood. The blasts sent debris and shrapnel flying in a wide radius, and hundreds of panicked school children ran for cover, engulfed by a cloud of smoke. Doctors said a 15-year-old boy and a member of the Preventive Security Service were killed in the attack, and 150 bystanders were injured, including dozens of youngsters. "Sharon has declared war on us. God help us," screamed 13-year-old Ayman Abdul Jawad as he ran in the street with friends, blood on his head. The Palestinian Health Ministry said 38 people were still hospitalized several hours after the attacks, and five were in serious condition. KOENIGSWINTER, Germany ;7 Afghans close to power-sharing deal I Riding the momentum of a deal outlining Afghanistan's post-Taliban political course for the next 2 1/2 years, a U.N. spokesman said yesterday Afghan nego- tiators were near agreement on a power-sharing plan for the future of the coun- try. U.N. envoy Lakhdar Brahimi has been meeting separately with the four fac- tions to cull the list of 150 candidates put forward for 29 Cabinet posts for a new interim administration. Delegates and observers at the talks said the factions had agreed the interim premier would be Hamid Karzai, a leading anti-Taliban commander who is fighting near Kandahar. "The parties have made progress toward whittling down the list and agreeing on the head of the interim administration," U.N. spokesman Ahmad Fawzi said. "We await a meeting of the four groups to ratify the final short list." That includes confirming Karzai. "This is a very difficult hurdle," Fawzi said. A consensus on the Cabinet could trigger a speedy transfer of power from the northern alliance in Kabul - with Dec. 22 envisioned as a target date - and secure billions in promised aid to reconstruct the country. 0 Bush addresses jobless WASHINGTON Postal Service ends year with heavy losses on economi ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) - Just one highway exit away from Walt Disney World, President Bush assured unemployed Americans yesterday that he feels their hurt but doesn't support gov- ernment help for the struggling tourism indus- try. He pushed Congress to "stop fussing" and pass a broad package to stimulate the economy. "There's nothing that hurts me more than to know as we head into the holiday season that some of our citizens and some of their families hurt because they've been laid off" in the wake of September's terrorist attacks, Bush said, microphone in hand as he answered questions at a town hall forum. He recalled the last time he was in Florida, on the morning of Sept. 11, and what went through his mind when the first plane hit New York's World Trade Center: "I used to fly myself, and I said, 'Well, there's one terrible pilot."' As he strolled a convention center stage with microphone in hand, fielding questions from 19 people in the audience, Bush posed one to him- self - setting up a chance to defend his inten- LC recove tion to try noncitizen terrorist suspects in secret military tribunals. "In the court of law, there would be all kinds of questions that might compromise our ability to gather incredibly important intelligence to prevent the next attack from happening to America," Bush said. "It seems like to me that the president of the United States ought to have the option to protect the national security interests of the country and therefore protect America from further attack." In an hourlong performance that was, by turns, both passionate and playful, the president cracked jokes about his mother's cooking, said he dreams of peace for Israel and ruled out gov- ernment aid to hotels and restaurants suffering from the drop in tourist travel after the Sept. 11 suicide hijackings of four commercial airplanes. One man in the audience pointed out that the Bush administration gave airlines billions of dollars of help after Sept. 11. Could the hospitality industry get similar grants or loans? "To answer your question directly, no," Bush said. Battered by the terrorist attacks and a declining economy, the Postal Service saw its first drop in volume in a decade and finished the fiscal year with a $1.68 billion loss. Managers are scrambling to cut expenses, seeking help from Congress and discussing the possibility of speeding up a rate increase. "The economic recession, the Sept. 11 attacks and the anthrax attacks tossed our financial situation up in the air," Postmaster General John Potter said yesterday. Figures for the year that ended Sept. 30 show the agency with income of $65.8 billion and expenses of $67.5 billion. It was the second consecutive year the agency finished in the red, after making profits for five years. Mail volume for the year totaled 207 billion items, down about 400 million from the year before. In the first two months of this fiscal year, volume remains sharply lower. The faltering economy and increased competition were the primary causes of the losses, along with the September terror attacks, said postal Chief Financial Officer Richard Strasser. lp DEFAULT PETE YORK The Fallout Musiforthemorningafter AP- PHOO President Bush holds a town hall meeting for about 4,000 displaced workers and business owners at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida yesterday. Economic stimulus legislation debated WASHINGTON (AP) - Republi- can insistence on speeding up future income tax cuts and Democratic desire to guarantee health insurance for the unemployed were the main stumbling blocks yesterday in nego- tiations on econ'omic stimulus legis- lation. Both sides nonetheless expressed optimism that the talks between three Republicans and three Democ- rats that were scheduled to begin last night with an organizational session will produce a compromise that President Bush would sign into law. "There is no reason we can't get it done," said Ways and Means Com- mittee Chairman Bill Thomas (R- Calif.), the chief House negotiator. The Bush administration was not represented in this initial round, which Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) said could make reaching a final deal more difficult. "We're only going to negotiate this once," Daschle said. "They have to be in the room for that to happen." Ways and -Means Committee spokeswoman Barbara Clay said the House-Senate agreement on who would be in the room did not include administration officials, but she added: "We will certainly include the administration when it's appropri- ate" On many issues, the two sides are not far apart. For instance, there is general agreement that unemploy- ment benefits should be extended for 13 weeks and that lower-income workers should get a tax break, prob- ably a new round of rebate checks. Republicans and Democrats both support some form of temporary bonus depreciation and enhanced expensing for business, which allow faster tax write-offs for investments such as equipment purchases. Some Republicans are cooling to the idea of repealing the corporate alternative minimum tax, especially the House-passed provisions giving big companies billions of dollars in rebates for taxes paid as far back as 1986. That leaves individual tax cuts and health insurance. On tax cuts, the $100 billion House-passed stimulus bill would cut the 27 percent rate to 25 percent in 2002, four years ahead OKLAHOMA CITY Ground broken for new federal building Workers broke ground for a new federal building yesterday, with the mayor saying he hoped the project would send a message of hope to New Yorkers recovering from the Sept. 11 attack. "We're farther down the road than them," Mayor Kirk Humphreys said. "We have rebuilt and they need to know, they will too." The 3 1/2-story structure will be built just north of where the nine-story Alfred P. Murrah Building stood before April 19, 1995. The building was destroyed by a fertilizer bomb concealed in a truck parked nearby by Timothy McVeigh. The blast killed 168 people and injured hundreds of others. Former workers at the building and others who lost loved ones in the explosion attended the groundbreaking ceremony. WASHINGTON House passes bill to limit telemarketers Telemarketers would be prohibited from blocking their identification on a consumer's caller ID box under a bill passed by the House yesterday. . The bill, which passed by a voice vote, comes after people who use caller ID devices to screen or trace calls complained that many telemar- keters' numbers did not appear on the devices. Without the name of a com- pany or the number, the person target- ed by a telemarketer cannot follow up with a complaint. Rep. Billy Tauzin (R-La.) said the House measure takes "consumer com- plaints seriously." "No longer will telemarketers be able to hide behind anonymous telephone calls," said Tauzin, the chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee. The House passed a similar bill last year. The Senate has yet to take up the measure. MIAMI Oj. Simpson's house searched by FBI Federal agents searched O.J. Simp- son's home for more than six hours yesterday as part of an investigation into an Ecstasy drug ring also suspect- ed of laundering money and stealing satellite TV equipment. Nine people were arrested in Miami and two in Chicago as part of Opera- tion X, FBI spokeswoman Judy Ori- huela said. Simpson was not among those arrested, and the FBI refused to discuss why he was involved. Simpson's attorney, Yale Galanter, said no drugs or large amounts of money were found at the home and that his client had done nothing wrong. He said two boxes removed from the home contained legal satellite television equipment. He said Simpson's only connection to the case is that his name was mentioned in a phone conversation involving some members of the ring that was taped by federal authorities. - Compiled from Daily wire reports. 0 0 0 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. Subscrip- tions must be prepaid. The Michigan Daily is a member of The Associated Press and The Associated Colle- giate Press. ADDRESS: The Michigan Daily, 420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-1327. 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