2 - The Michigan Daily - Friday, February 8, 2002 NATION/WORLD Bush unwilling to sever ties to Arafat rS LEl" . .'1T'es NEWS IN BRIEF'',; :- s WASHINGTON (AP) - Israeli Prime Minis- ter Ariel Sharon expected a boost yesterday from President Bush in his struggle with terror attacks, but he also was due for a polite letdown on trying to isolate Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat from the United States. Sharon, who has imposed virtual house arrest on Arafat in the West Bank, wanted Bush to cut more than a decade of U.S. contact that followed the Palestinian leader's public repudiation of ter- ronsm. But that is a door the Bush administration does not want to shut - yet - even as it applies heavy pressure on Arafat to curb Palestinian attacks on Israel, to make more arrests and to take responsibility for trying to smuggle in 50 tons of Iranian rockets, mortar and explosives. Still, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said before yesterday evening's meeting that "the president believes Chairman Arafat knows what he needs to do to crack down on the terrorist activities in the Middle East, and that the United States was looking to Chairman Arafat to do more to demonstrate his opposition to terrorism and the concrete steps he'll take." Fleischer's description of Bush's take on Arafat is one the White House and State Department have advanced for months. But it has not stopped the bloodshed. Bush also planned to tell Sharon that he had "deep concern about the plight of the Palestinian people, and he'll discuss what steps might be taken to ease the situation for the people," Fleis- cher said. AP PHOTO Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, left, talks to reporters, after a meeting with President Bush in the Oval Office. BUENOS AIRES, Argentina Man attempts to break into cockpit A passenger tried to force his way into the cockpit of a United Airlines plane carrying 157 people yesterday on a flight from Miami but was subdued after the co-pilot hit him over the head with a small ax. Pablo Moreira, a banker from Uruguay, was restrained by the flight crew and later arrested by police after the flight landed as scheduled in Buenos Aires at 10:30 a.m. local time, said Judy Orihuela, an FBI spokeswoman in Miami. "No information at this time indicates it's a terrorist incident. But, of course, the FBI is investigating," said Gordon Johndroe, spokesman for Presi- dent Bush's Homeland Security Council. United Airlines Flight 855 took off from Miami at midnight with 142 pas- sengers and 15 crew members aboard. The flight originated in San Francisco but Moreira boarded in Miami. The 28-year-old Uruguayan began kicking the cockpit door of the Boeing 777 about five hours into the flight, as the jetliner flew over Brazil, Orihuela said. He kicked in a small breakaway panel across the bottom half of the door and then stuck his head inside the cockpit, said United spokeswoman Chris Nardella. WASHINGTON Bush: Geneva does not apply to al-Qaida President Bush has determined that the Geneva Convention applies to Taliban sol- diers in Afghanistan, but not al-Qaida terrorists, the White House said yesterday, as aides insisted the decision would have no impact on the treatment of Afghan detainees. "It will not change their material life on a day to day basis. They will continue to be treated well, because that's what the United States does," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said. The decision resolves a technical legal argument regarding the detention of 150 fighters held at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba, but does not change the key point: The U.S. does not consider the detainees prisoners of war, a designation that would give them a wide range of rights. "Al-Qaida is an international terrorist group and cannot be considered a state party to the Geneva Convention,"Fleischer said. Bush, under criticism from human rights groups, felt the move would underscore his commitment to the Geneva Convention and preserve protections afforded U.S. troops if they are captured in Afghanistan or elsewhere during the war on terrorism, officials said. 4 Militia retaliations, attacks escalate JERUSALEM (AP) - Israel struck a Palestin- ian government complex in the West Bank with missiles twice in retaliation for an Islamic mili- tant's assault on a Jewish settlement that killed three Israelis. Palestinian militiamen said they would increasingly target settlements. Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, meanwhile, addressed a prickly subject he has long evaded - who will succeed him in the key posts of Palestin- ian Authority president and PLO chief. But Arafat, 72, who has no plans to step down, sowed rather than dispelled confusion, suggesting two different confidants to head the authority and the PLO. The Islamic militant group Hamas claimed responsibility for Wednesday's attack on Hamra, an isolated Jewish settlement of 40 families in the West Bank's Jordan Valley. The assault marked the first time in 16 months of fighting that Israeli civilians were killed in their home, further raising the level of the nation's anxiety. In the 30-minute assault, Hamas gunman Mohammed Ziad Khalili, 26, from Nablus, cut through the settlement fence, killed an Israeli soldier, then entered a house and took Miri Ohana, 50, and her 11-year-old daughter hostage. The gunman killed the girl and wounded Ohana before soldiers killed him with several shots to the head, said an army commander in the area, Brig. Gen. Udi Shani. Ohana died en route to a hospital. In response, Israel launched two air strikes against the main government and prison complex in Nablus. Early yesterday, F-16 warplanes struck the site, injuring 11 Palestinians; 20 hours later, helicopters fired two more missiles. Neither strike caused major damage. After the first air strike, Palestinian wardens released 25 Hamas and Islamic Jihad prisoners to get them out of harm's way, while 103 suspected inform- ers for Israel remained in custody. In Jenin, dozens of gunmen stormed a makeshift prison in an apartment building and freed seven detainees, meeting no resistance from police. Among those freed in Nablus were Mahmoud Tawalbeh and Ali Safouri, two Islamic Jihad leaders appearing on a list of 33 top militants the United States wants to see behind bars. Tawalbeh is suspect- ed of having sent more than a dozen assailants into Israel in recent months. A leader of the Al Aqsa Brigades, a militia linked to Arafat's Fatah movement, said yester- day that the group was escalating its attacks. WASHINGTON Council calls for railroad competition Countering Amtrak's pleas for more money, a congressional advisory panel said yesterday that private companies should be given the chance to make passenger trains more efficient and suc- cessful. The Amtrak Reform Council, called for competition in passenger rail, cur- rently the exclusive domain of Amtrak. Two companies expressed some inter- est. "The system we have today, the old Amtrak, has not worked and is not working," said Gilbert Carmichael, chairman of the reform council. The council finished nearly four years of work by sending a 111-page report to Congress and briefing offi- cials from the Bush administration. Amtrak, in a statement, said the report sidestepped questions about what kind of rail system Americans want. how much it will cost. KARACHI, Pakistan E-mails traced to journalist kidnappers Police have recovered e-mails linked to the kidnapping of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl from the computer hard drive of a suspect in the case, officials said yesterday. The discovery of the e-mails is a major breakthrough in the case, pro- viding a link to the chief suspect, Ahmad Omar Saeed Sheikh, a young Islamic militant and suspected mem- ber of a radical group linked to al- Qaida. The officials, speaking on condi- tion of anonymity, said investigators traced e-mails sent by the kidnap- pers to U.S. and Pakistani media a few days after the journalist disap- peared to a service provider in an apartment complex in Karachi. The e-mails included photos of Pearl in captivity. I WASHINGTON White House open for public e-mails Uncle Sam is getting a lesson injunk e-mail, compliments of the Microsoft antitrust case. For the first time, the gov- ernment opened its required public com- ment period in a case to allow citizens to use e-mail rather than letters to sound off. The result: 30,000 messages that ranged from 2,800 form letters to pranksters' pornography to the blunt and brief: "I hate Microsoft." Only about 10 percent had anything substantive to say, officials said. They added that the volume of mail received was unpre~edented. E-mail lets regular people get into the act, said Dana Hayter, a former Justice Department antitrust lawyer. "You're more likely to get a higher volume of comments from people who are not as likely to have legal or econom- ic training, but who likely have a strongly held view of Microsoft or on the condhct I of the investigation," Hayter said. Compiled from Daily wire reports. 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