2 - The Michigan Daily - Friday, September 27, 2002
NATION/WORLD
Bombing leader's fate unknown NEWS IN BRIEF
HEADLINES FROM AROUND THE WORLD
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GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) - Israel tried to kill
the mastermind of the Hamas bombing campaign yes-
terday, firing two missiles into a car in crowded Gaza
City. Two bodyguards died and 35 bystanders were
wounded in the helicopter attack, but the fate of the
Palestinian militant remained uncertain. Hamas prom-
ised revenge.
A senior Palestinian security official said the 37-
year-old Mohammed Deif escaped with moderate
injuries. Israeli police sources said the Israeli military
told them Deif - atop Israel's wanted list for years -
was killed. The military had no public comment.
Hamas official Abdel Aziz Rantisi said Deif was not
even in the car. But he said the group would avenge the
attack nevertheless. "We will hit Tel Aviv. We will hit
everywhere."
In other violence, four Palestinians - including two
gunmen, a civilian and a baby - and one Israeli were
reported killed. Israel maintained its stranglehold on
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's headquarters in the
West Bank town of Ramallah in defiance of Tuesday's
U.N. Security Council resolution to end the siege.
Two helicopters appeared in the sky over Gaza
just after 1:30 p.m., firing missiles that blew apart
a green Mercedes sedan and sent a plume of white
smoke over the Sheik Radwan neighborhood.
"Suddenly we heard the sound of a big 'explosion,"
said. Mohammed Hajar, a hairdresser working in the
area. "When I ran out, a second explosion took place."
Blood, body parts and shrapnel were strewn across a
wide area and nearby windows were shattered.
A large crowd, confused and angry, gathered as res-
cue workers led the wounded to ambulances.
Dems.
f question
judicial
NORFOLK, Neb.
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Gunmen kill five in bank robbery
Three holdup men shot five people to death in a bank robbery yesterday
before fleeing into the Nebraska countryside in a stolen car. A manhunt ended a
few hours later with three suspects in custody and charged with murder.
It was the nation's deadliest bank robbery in more than a decade and it spread fear
across northeastern Nebraska. The men allegedly stole two cars in their bid to
escape, takig one at gunpoint in this small farming town.
Four employees and a customer were killed at the U.S. Bank branch, a one-story
stucco building with twin glass doors in the middle of a strip mall parking lot.
Another customer was wounded in the shoulder by gunfire.
Authorities would not say whether the gunmen got away with any money.
The suspects were stopped in a stolen pickup in O'Neill, a ranch town 75
miles west of Norfolk. They were identified by police as Jose Sandoval,
Jorge Galindo and Erick Fernando Vela. No hometowns or ages were
immediately available.
All are charged with five counts of first-degree murder, which carries a potential
death sentence in Nebraska.
Police Chief Bruce Mizner had tears in his eyes as he read the victims' names at a
news conference.
WASHINGTOlN
01
FBI: Only U.S.-based plotters were hijackers
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The UM School of Music
2002 HALLOWEEN CONCERTS
Sunday, October 27
4:30 PM & 8:00 PM
at the Michigan Theatre
Due to Hill Auditorium's closure for renovations,
tickets for this year's Halloween Concerts will not
be sold by mail order. Tickets will go on sale in
person and by phone at the League Ticket Office
starting Tuesday, October 1, 2002. Tickets may be
purchased by cash, check, and major credit cards.
Limit 10 per customer.
Washington lawyer
Estrada could be third
Bush appellate nominee
rejected since Democrats
regained Senate majority
WASHINGTON (AP) - Miguel
Estrada, hoping to become the first
Hispanic judge on a court that has been
a stepping stone to the Supreme Court,
told senators yesterday he would judge
fairly despite his experience as a politi-
cal lawyer.
However, questions about the Hon-
duran native's past partisanship may
cause him trouble with Judiciary Com-
mittee Democrats, one of whom must
vote for Estrada for his nomination to
move on to the full Senate.
Estrada, a Washington lawyer
who was on President Bush's legal
team in the Florida recount battle
two years ago, wants a seat on the
District of Columbia Court of
Appeals. Three current Supreme
Court justices served there before
being elevated to the high court.
The D.C. appellate court often
decides cases that determine how
federal agencies regulate such issues
as gas prices, clean air and water,
labor practices and campaign
finance reform.
Estrada, who sat alone at a commit-
tee table for more than five hours,
insisted he could set aside any personal
or political opinions if confirmed.
"I'm very firmly of the view that
although we all have views on a num-
ber of subjects from A to Z, the job of a
judge is to subconsciously put that
aside and look at each case - starting
by withholding judgment - with an
open mind and listen to the parties,"
Estrada said.
Senators spent most of the hearing
giving speeches about Estrada or his
critics instead of questioning him.
Republicans accused Democrats of
mistreating Estrada because he is a
conservative Latino and has been
rumored to be a possible Supreme
Court nominee if a position comes
open in Bush's administration.
"He has been subjected so far to the
pinata confirmation process with
which we have all become familiar this
year," said Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah,
the top Judiciary Republican. "The
extreme left-wing Washington groups
go after judicial nominees like kids
after a pinata. They beat it and beat it
until they hope something comes out
that they can then chew and distort."
Democrats repeatedly complained
that Estrada's lack of judicial experi-
ence and refusal to answer questions
about specific cases gave them little to
review. The solicitor general's office
refused to release copies of Estrada's
memos and opinions from when he
worked at that office; Sen. Charles
Schumer (D-N.Y.), called those the
closest things to a judicial opinion in
Estrada's career.
"I think most of us emerged from the
hearing with more questions than we
had at the beginning of the day," said
Schumer.
Estrada said there is plenty of legal
work outside that office that senators
can use to judge his qualifications. "I
am not worried in the least that any-
body could detect any bias or lack of
skill in my legal work," he said.
IRAQ
Continued from Page 1.
cussed safe haven opportunities in
Iraq (and) reciprocal nonaggression
discussions," Rumsfeld told a Penta-
gon news conference.
He cited "solid evidence" of al-
Qaida members in Baghdad, but at
one point he refrained from explic-
itly stating they had received a gov-
ernment-sanctioned grant of safe
haven.
DELACRO . La,
Isidore hits shoreline,
thousands flee homes
Tropical Storm Isidore blew
ashore yesterday with near hurri-
cane-force wind, spinning off torna-
does, swamping the Gulf Coast with
15 inches of rain and knocking out
power to more than 140,000 homes
and businesses.
Thousands fled their homes in
Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama
before the storm reached land at 3 a.m.
Floodwaters swept through houses in
communities across the region and rose
to the windshields of cars in low-lying
New Orleans.
"I don't know whose they are, but
I've got three recliner chairs in my
yard," Susan Serpas said in Delacroix, a
fishing town east of New Orleans,
where screen doors, mailboxes and fur-
niture bobbed in 3 feet of water.
Gov. Mike Foster said the storm did
at least $18 million in damage in
Louisiana, including $3.7 million in
lost sugar cane.
WASHINGTON
Protesters pressed to
find their necessities
Many of the protesters swamping
Washington for the world finance
meetings have little use for the
material world, but they've got a
mountain of practical matters to
look after before they can raise their
banners high.
Locating "anti-authoritarian" child
care is one priority.
So is finding vegetarian eats. Hous-
ing is a headache for the anarchists.
"We're all pretty maxed out on hous-
ing," said Andrew Willis, an American
University student and representative of
the anarchist faction.
To the protesters, the weekend meet-
ings of the International Monetary
Fund and World Bank reek of money
- ill-gotten money, they say. For that
reason alone, even some demonstrators
with enough cash of their own are
reluctant to spend it.
Protesters squatting in an aban-
doned building or using a park
bench for a bed might be able to
afford better, but will give up a pil-
low for their ideals.
LONDON
Lower test scores
upset many British
Never mind Iraq or even the future of
fox hunting. The issue gripping most of
Britain at the moment is a looming
scandal over this year's results in the
standardized tests taken by every stu-
dent hoping to go to college here.
The nation's exam boards, school
principals and politicians are locked
in an emotional dispute over who, if
anyone, gave orders to lower the
grades of an untold number of stu-
dents on the "A-level" exams taken
annually by more than 200,000 stu-
dents.
The dreaded A-levels have long
been considered the gold standard of
British education, and a less-than-
stellar result has ruined many a stu-
dent's dream of entering Oxford,
Cambridge or another of the coun-
try's elite universities.
Politicians who tinker with these
exams risk grave consequences, but the
government revamped the system two
years ago in hopes of broadening educa-
tional opportunities.
- Compiled from Daily wire reports.
t a
The FBI has found no evidence that anyone in the United States other than
the 19 hijackers knew of the Sept. 11 plot ahead of time, Director Robert
Mueller III told the congressional inquiry into the attacks.
The public release of his comments yesterday came as top CIA and FBI coun-
terterrorism officials defended their agencies to lawmakers.
After Sept. 11, authorities rounded up hundreds of people nationwide on sus-
picion of links to al-Qaida, terrorism or the attacks.
"To this day we have found no one in the United States except the actual
hijackers who knew of the plot and we have found nothing they did while in the
United States that triggered a specific response about them," Mueller said in tes-
timony given in secret in June.
While that might seem to indicate that Zacarias Moussaoui was unaware of
the attacks, Mueller prefaced his statement with the caveat that none of his com-
ments were meant to include Moussaoui. The French-Morrocan man was arrest-
ed in Minnesota a few weeks before Sept. 11 and is now charged with
conspiracy in the attacks.
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i
I EIORIA. STFFJoIScwatz SEiriChe
I
Halloween Concert
Tickets on Sale
Tuesday, October 1, 2002
League Ticket Office
911 N. University
M-F 10am-6pm; Sat. 10am-1 pm
734-764-2538
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