2 - The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, April 9, 2003 NATION WORLD U.S. bombing kills three journalists NEWS IN BRIEF J Tank shell, bomb hit 14th and 15th floors of the Palestine Hotel BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - A U.S. tank shell hit a hotel where hundreds of journalists were staying and a U.S. bomb landed on the office of an Arab television network in the Iraqi capital yesterday, killing a total of three jour- nalists and wounding three others. A statement from U.S. Central Com- mand in Doha, Qatar, said U.S. forces fired on the Palestine Hotel- after Israeli air JERUSALEM (AP) - A dispute over forming a new Palestinian Cabi- net could delay a U.S.-backed Mideast peace plan, officials said yesterday, while Israel mounted its first air strike since the Iraq war began, killing a Hamas commander and six other peo- ple in Gaza City. The slow pace of Palestinian politics provoked some impatience from Presi- dent Bush, who has said he will not make public a U.S. supported "road troops received "significant" enemy Protsyuk, fire from the 18-story hotel just off other Reut Firdos Square along the Tigris River. ed. Span Journalists who were standing on Telecinco balconies of the hotel taking pictures Couso, 37. said they witnessed no signs of firing died after& from the hotel before seeing the tank The tan] open fire from a bridge a little over the 3rd Inf half a mile away. U.S. Arr The tank shell hit balconies on the mander of 14th and 15th floors of the hotel, 2nd Brigad spraying glass and shrapnel into a reporter as corner suite used by the Reuters fired roc news agency. tanks from A Ukrainian cameraman, Taras Hotel, and strikeleaes 35, was killed and three ers employees were wound- ish television network said its cameraman, Jose hit in the leg and jaw, also surgery. k that fired was attached to antry Division. my Col. David Perkins, com- the 3rd Infantry Division's de, told an Associated Press signed to the unit that Iraqis ket-propelled grenades at m in front of the Palestine [the military, scanning the area for observation posts, saw binocu- lars and fired. The tanks were also tak- ing fire from mortars, he said. "There must have been 50 cameras on the balconies," said AP photogra- pher Jerome Delay, who was on top floor. "How can they spot someone with binoculars and not cameras?" Delay said that he watched the tanks which had taken up positions on the bridge from his vantage point on the top floor of the hotel. "All the shooting was concentrated on the bridge and across the river," where U.S. forces were located, he said. D 7 dead, 50 hurt map" for peace until a Palestinian gov- ernment takes office. Until the Gaza strike, Israel had scaled back its military operations, even though a suicide bombing, billed by Islamic Jihad as a gift to the Iraqi nation, wounded 30 people March 30. In yesterday's attack in Gaza, witness- es said, an F-16 warplane fired a missile at a car in Gaza City, turning it into a mass of charred metal. The mangled bodies of the people inside were brought to Shifa Hospital in Gaza. One of the dead was identified as Saed Arabeed, 38, a senior Hamas commander. Doctors said seven people were killed and about 50 wounded. They said all of the wounded were civilians, ranging in age from six to 75 years old. Two of the other dead were also identified as Hamas activists and another was a child. Israeli security sources said Arabeed, the main target, was respon- sible for a string of deadly attacks against Israelis, dating back a decade. The attack was in the Zeitoun neighborhood of Gaza City, known as a stronghold of the Islamic mili- tant Hamas, responsible for dozens of attacks. Israel has carried out many similar attacks during the Palestinian-Israeli violence, targeting suspected Pales- tinian militants. Palestinians and human rights groups have con- demned the practice. Iraqis say Basra jail used for torture BASRA, Iraq (AP) - Iraqis showed journalists a white stone jail where they claim Saddam Hussein's secret police for decades tortured inmates with beatings, mutilations, electric shocks and chemical baths. The jail, known as the "White Lion," was charred and half-demolished yes- terday after two days of bombing by British forces fighting for control of Basra, Iraq's second-largest city. People taken behind the jail's sand- stone facade usually did not come out, residents said. Hundreds of Iraqis came to see the now-empty jail, according to British press reports. Relatives of missing sinmates checked fingerprinted files and lists of names found amid the fall- en bricks. "It was a place of evil," resident Hamed Fattil said. Hamed told British reporters that Iraqi police locked him and his two brothers in a jail dungeon in 1991, and that he was freed after eight months but his brothers were still missing. "They used to strap a leather cord around our head, hands and shoulders and hoist us two feet off the ground. Then they would beat us as we hung there," Hamed said. "They did unthinkable things - electrocution, immersion in a bath of chemicals and ripping off people's fin- ger and toenails." The jail basement was a warren of cells, chambers and cages where the ground was strewn with an insect- eaten gas mask and bottles, according to Associated Press Television News footage. For the cameras, two men re- enacted how jailers allegedly tor- tured prisoners. One man, hands tied behind his back with a rope attached to a hook on the ceiling, bent over while another man pantomimed hitting him on the back and the face with his hands and a long, white rod. One man shuddered while the other gave him a pretend electric shock. Outside the jail, a man showed APTN his mangled ears. Hamed took British reporters into a yard behind the jail into a set of white boxy cells, surrounded by red wire mesh with a low, wire roof. WAR Continued from Page 1 seized the airport and an ammunition dump without resistance. In Basra, a southern city of 1.3 mil- lion people under British control at last, military officials appointed a local sheik as a civilian commander, the first replacement administration put into place anywhere in the country. Postwar government was a key topic for a summit meeting that brought President Bush and British Prime Min- ister Tony Blair to Northern Ireland. Both men talked of a U.N. role inside Iraq once the fighting is over, and sought to minimize splits on who should govern and rebuild the country. In the meantime, they trumpeted the battlefield successes of the American and British forces, and said Saddam's lavs were numiehred WASHINGTON Crude oil, gas prices continue to drop After falling nearly a dime in three weeks, gasoline prices are expected to keep sliding to a national average of $1.56 a gallon this summer thanks to lower oil prices and optimism about the war in Iraq, the government says. The Energy Department's statistical agency revised its price forecast sharply downward yesterday to reflect the recent fail in crude oil prices. It also warned of uncertainties that could cause prices of both crude oil and gaso- line to rebound The price of crude, which hit a high of nearly $40 a barrel on Feb. 27, was around $28 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange yesterday. It has dropped by about 20 percent since the war began in Iraq. A month ago, before the war in Iraq, the agency predicted gas prices would average more than $1.70 a gallon through the summer, hitting 1.76 this month. DENVER Colorado to use new schoool vouchers Colorado will soon become the first state with public school vouchers since a U.S. Supreme Court ruling declared such programs constitutional. Republican Gov. Bill Owens is expected to sign a bill into law this month that will allow public schools to pay private or religious schools to edu- cate low-income children. Other states, including Texas and Louisiana, are con- sidering similar plans. Owens, who campaigned for vouch- ers as a legislator, said approval of the plan was a milestone. "It sends a powerful message that our education system exists for one simple reason, to provide access to a quality education for every child," he said. A goal of conservatives for years, vouchers were twice rejected by Colorado voters. But the bill was pushed through the Legislature after Republicans won control in Novem- ber's elections. CHICAGO Childhood obsesity linked to depression A study has found a startling level of despair among obese children, with many rating their quality of life as low as that of young cancer patients on chemotherapy. The research published in today's Jour- nal of the American Medical Association offers a glimpse of what life is like for many obese youngsters nationwide. They are teased about their size, have trouble playing sports and suffer physical ailments linked to their weight.The study was published in an edition of the journal devoted to obesity research. It also comes amid growing concern about the nation's obesity epidemic and recent data sug- gesting 15 percent of U.S. youngsters are severely overweight or obese. Obesity researcher Kelly Brownell, who runs a Yale University weight disor- ders center, said the increasing preva- lence of obesity hasn't made it any less stigmatizing. - Compiled from Daily wire reports. ISLAMABAD, Pakistan Bin Laden tape ca for suicide bombi An audiotape purportedly from Osama bin Laden exhorts Muslims to rise up against Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and other governments it claims are "agents of America," and calls for suicide attacks against U.S. and British interests to "avenge the innocent children" of Iraq. The 27-minute tape quotes extensively from the Muslim holy book, the Quran, and says jihad, or holy war, in this context is the "only solution to all the problems." The tape was obtained Monday by The Associated Press from an Alger- ian national, known as Aadil, who said he had slipped across the border from Afghanistan, where the tape was apparently recorded. There was no way immediately to confirm that the voice on the tape was that of the al-Qaida chief. But it was translated by an Arabic-speaking Afghan who met with bin Laden years ago and said he believed the voice was his. There also was no clear indication of when the tape was made, although it references the war in Iraq and the leaders who launched it, President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair. "You should avenge the innocent children who have been assassinated in Iraq. BELGRADE, Serbia-Montenegro Radical Serbian group pegged as assassins The assassination of Serbia's prime minister was orchestrated by a shadowy group that wanted to replace the pro-Western government with allies of Slobodan Milosevic, investigators said yesterday. The group behind Zoran Djindjic's March 12 killing - called the "Hague Brotherhood" - hoped the assassination would create widespread chaos and planned to follow with a coup against Serbia's government, the officials told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. But Djindjic's Democratic Party quickly named a successor after his death and police cracked down hard, arresting 7,000 people, effectively spoiling the plan. The assassins also may have been caught off-guard by the huge public outpouring of grief over Djindjic's death - nearly 1 million people attended his funeral. Police believe a feared paramilitary group known as the Unit for Special Opera- tions, formed during Milosevic's rule, played a large role in the Hague Brother- hood. Its deputy commander, Zvezdan Jovanovic, was arrested soon after Djindjic's slaying on suspicion of being the assassin. 0 S The University of Michigan-Dearborn invites you to be a guest student for the Summer 2003 semester. We have three options to accommodate students who are home for summer vacation: The Michigan Daily (ISSN 0745-967) is published Monday through Friday during the fall and winter terms by stu- dents at the University of Michigan. One copy is available free of charge to all readers. Additional copies may be picked up at the Daily's office for $2. 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. 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