2A - The Michigan Daily -- Thursday, February 21, 2002 NATION/WORLD Israel sees bloodiest week of conflict NEWS IN BRIEFi ! JERUSALEM (AP) - After losing 13 soldiers in the past week, Israel is changing its military tactics and will focus on small-scale actions to deal with what it views as a guerrilla war, a top Israeli official said yesterday - a day during which air strikes and raids killed 18 Palestinians. The violence raged into this morning as Israeli tanks rolled into Gaza City for the first time in the conflict. Troops also killed four Palestinians in the Rafah refugee camp near the Egyptian border, wit- nesses said. The tanks went into the Sejaieh neighborhood of Gaza City and blew up a local radio station, witnesses said. The Israeli military had no immediate comment. The past week has been one of the bloodiest since Israeli-Palestinian fighting began in September 2000. Seventeen Israelis and 51 Palestinians were killed. Yesterday, Israeli troops fired missiles, tank shells and machine guns at Palestinian Authority positions in reprisals for a Palestinian ambush that killed six Israeli soldiers. In a later clash, Israeli soldiers killed two Palestinian militants who were about to fire rockets at Israel, according to media reports and Palestinian officials. Warplanes pounded Palestinian targets into the night - even as Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's spokesman, Raanan Gissin, said Israel would focus on "small-scale counter-guerrilla, counter-terrorist operations." Meanwhile, Palestinians asked for an urgent U.N. Security Council meeting, moving to hold Israel accountable for what they said was a "crisis situa- tion." Diplomats said consultations could be held this morning in New York. The ambush Tuesday night at an Israeli military checkpoint near the village of Ein Arik, west of Ramallah, sparked a debate on the wisdom of main- taining the scores of military roadblocks throughout the West Bank and Gaza. The Palestinians might be changing their tactics, as well. Several Palestinians close to the militant groups said the checkpoint assault reflected a new focus: targeting Israel's occupation in the West Bank and Gaza as opposed to attacks within Israel itself. The Palestinians said on condition of anonymity that the aim is to focus attention on the lands Pales- tinians claim for a state and rally world support. Both sides buried their dead yesterday. Thousands of angry Palestinians marched behind coffins throughout the Palestinian areas, pledging revenge, while weeping Israelis buried their soldiers amid calls for new, harsher measures to stop the violence. After a meeting of top ministers yesterday, Sharon announced a "different course of action." He gave no details, but his spokesman Gissin said Israel would reduce the number of large operations and in favor of smaller-scale actions "with the purpose of really try- ing to tip the terrorists off-balance." Gissin said that would include a continuation of the targeted killings of militants suspected of involvement in terrorism against Israelis, but that Israel would not target Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat - even though it blames him for failing to stop the violence. Arafat has been trapped in his West Bank head- quarters in the town of Ramallah, surrounded by Israeli tanks, for more than two months. Gissin sug- gested Israel might also stop the stream of foreign diplomats going to meet him there. Sharon said that Israeli pressure on Arafat is meant to speed his replacement by other leaders. REQA AL-GHARBIYA, Egypt Railway inferno kills 370 passengers Fire whipped by strong winds raced through a train packed with Egyptians headed home for a Muslim holiday yesterday, creating an inferno that forced des- perate passengers to leap from the speeding cars. At least 370 people died in Egypt's worst rail disaster. Scores of people were trapped inside, some by window grills, as the burning train barreled along the tracks. The engineer drove on for 2 1/2 miles before learning of the fire, and even after he brought the train to a halt, the fire went on for hours, destroying seven of the train's 11 cars. When it was over, rescue workers pulled out charred bodies, some from under seats where they were curled up. The cause of the fire was not known. Suspicion fell on gas containers that pas- sengers often bring with them to cook food or make tea on the long journey. Ahmed Adil, the Health Ministry undersecretary, put the death toll at 370. Police said 65 people were being treated for injuries. That made it the deadliest accident in 150 years of Egyptian railroad history and one of the worst train fires anywhere in the world. In 1989, about 600 people were killed when a gas pipeline explosion blew apart two trains stopped in Russia's Ural Mountains. WASHINGTON Enron CEO says jail sentences are likely@" Former Enron chairman Kenneth Lay offered a seat on the company's board in 1999 to Robert Rubin, who was then treasury secretary, and lobbied Rubin and his successor on issues affecting Enron, documents obtained yesterday show. The notes and letters show that Lay pressed Enron's interests to Clinton administra- tion officials. Last month, the Bush administration disclosed a series of telephone calls from Lay, one of President Bush's biggest campaign contributors, to members of the Bush Cabinet as the company was sliding toward bankruptcy last fall. The new documents were provided by the Treasury Department under a Free- dom of Information Act request by The Associated Press. Stephen Cooper, Enron's current chief executive officer, meanwhile, said yester- day that someone could end up in jail on charges stemming from the government's* investigation of the collapsed energy-trading company and the web of partnerships, used to hide more than $1 billion in debt, that eventually brought it down. "Given the enormity of the damage that's been created, I think it's going to be difficult to not hold one or more people accountable" Cooper said. Milosevic receives praise for defense THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) - Slobodan Milosevic has won praise from critics in his debut performance as a trial lawyer, conducting a tough but focused cross-examination of the first witness at his war crimes trial. Both Milosevic and his opponent, a Kosovo Albanian politician, drew blood Tuesday in a fierce four-hour courtroom confrontation that ranged from politics to personal attacks. It was the former Yugoslav presi- dent's first sparring match with a pros- ecution witness since his war crimes trial opened at the U.N. tribunal on Feb. 12. In the coming year, he will have the opportunity to cross-examine up to 350 prosecution witnesses and to call his own. Milosevic graduated from a Bel- grade law school in 1964, but went into politics without ever practicing law. He is defending himself against 66 counts of war crimes, including geno- cide charges, and faces a maximum life sentence if convicted on any count. What he lacked in experience he made up in vigor as he opened an unrelenting attack on the first prosecu- tion witness, Mahmut Bakalli, a for- mer head of the Communist Party in Kosovo. He displayed an extensive knowl- edge of prewar Albanian politics, including details that showed insight into the Kosovar government's inner- circle. "He was very well-prepared and did an excellent job. But, it will be difficult for him to claim later that he didn't know" about crimes in the Balkans, said Heikelien Verrijn Stuart a legal analyst. "He showed that he was or is in a position to gather lots of informa- tion, and in the long run, that may work against him." To win a conviction, prosecutors need only to prove that Milosevic knew crimes were being committed and failed to prevent them or punish those responsible. Citing 20-year-old . newspaper reports, Milosevic worked through a pile of handwritten questions, jotting notes as he went along. His question- ing was sometimes terse and focused on fact, at others personal and aggres- sive. "Why do you keep making gri- maces, as if you don't understand the translation, when you studied in Bel- grade like me and understand very well what I am saying?" Milosevic asked irritably. Bush wil Learn more at www.sph.umich.edu/hmp The University of Michigan Master's Program in Health Management and Policy has been ranked #1 nationally by U.S. News & World Report since 1993. To learn more WASHINGTON Supreme Court may approve vouchers Several Supreme Court justices seemed sympathetic yesterday to the idea that government can help pay tuition for children at religious schools and stay within constitutional bounds. Again and again during a spirited argument, four justices suggested that a school tuition voucher program can pass muster if it gives parents lots of choices, both religious and nonreligious. "Unless there's an endorsement of religion, I don't see why it matters if (government) money goes to a religious school" said Justice Antonin Scalia. The court's answer, expected by sum- mer, could remap the educational land- scape. Numerous states and school districts are awaiting word firom the high court about whether there is a way to set up a voucher program that does not violate the constitutional principle of separation of church and state. ' and to apply, see our website or phone 734.763.9900 today. x _ x embassy and surrounding neighbor- hoods. One of the four suspects, the reports said, is believed to have ties to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida terrorist network. There were conflicting accounts,@0 however, about whether the plastic bag's contents could have harmed anyone. The powder-filled bag, said to weigh nearly nine pounds, was seized from a suburban Rome apartment Tuesday in an early-morning police raid. WASHINGTON Court debates death. penalty for disabled When the Supreme Court last considered executions of the mental- ly retarded, only two states banned the-practice. Now, 18 states prohibit it, and that math will weigh on the court as it reconsiders the issue and the fate of a condemned man with an IQof 59. """1'' The court debated yesterday how much public standards have changed since 1989, when the court upheld those executions on a 54 vote. Justice Sandra Day O'Connor wrote then that there was "insuffi- cient evidence of a national consen- sus" against the executions to determine that they were unconstitu- tionally cruel and unusual punish- ment. That question has been settled, the lawyer for convicted Virginia killers Daryl Renard Atkins told the court. - Compiled from Daily wire reports. .w - ----= - ..:...- -- . mom,-. .11 ggk; I ':, 7 y 4 F 0 ROME Men with cyanide rn apprehended in Italy Italian authorities said yesterday they had arrested four Moroccans in in a possession of a plastic bag containinga cyanide compound, along with maps cyaidecopoudalon thmapsL--- y n a if for I $10 I I I Are you a mess? I Knock us out with a brief description and up to four color photos of your messy apartment. You could walk away filthy rich!! apartMents.Con TM college apartment contest Go to www.apartments.com I OSAN AIR BASE, South Korea (AP) - On the final leg of his Asian trip, President Bush said yesterday that China, Japan and South Korea are lending "steady and strong support" to the U.S.-led war on terrorism. China has provided the United States intelligence and other help that has gone a long way toward muting differ- ences. Still, there are divisions. Bush, beginning a two-day visit to Beijing, urged Chinese President Jiang Zemin to respect religious freedoms and consider the Vatican's plea to free Catholic bishops, sticking points in otherwise improving U.S.-Chinese relations. He said he hoped that Jiang, "as a president of a great nation, would understand the important role of reli- gion in an individual's life." In addition to human rights, Bush and Jiang are at odds over U.S. missile defense plans, the fate of Taiwan, nuclear proliferation, trade and Bush's claim that North Korea, Iran and Iraq form "an axis of evil." Yet their meetings are unlikely to be contentious, at least partly because of the new U.S.-China alliance against terrorism. Before leaving South Korea, Bush told several hundred fatigue-clad U.S. troops at Osan Air Base that despite their regional differences, the three Asian leaders he has met on his six-day tour are united in backing his coalition against the al-Qaida network and other terrorist groups. "All three governments are lending their support in our war against ter- ror," Bush said. Each stop of his jour- ney, Bush said, gave him a chance "to look the leaders in the eye, to thank them on behalf of a grateful nation, for their steady and strong support as 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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