2 - The Michigan Daily - Friday, September 27, 2002 NATION/WORLD Bombing leader's fate unknown NEWS IN BRIEF HEADLINES FROM AROUND THE WORLD I,' , : S 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. 5.- t { R J 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 i i V i i i JLJL JL %me %d 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. 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 Collegiate Press. ADDRESS: The Michigan Daily, 420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-1327. PHONE NUMBERS (All area code 734): News 76-DAILY; Arts 763-0379; Sports 647-3336; Opinion 764-0552; Circulation 764-0558; Classified advertising 764-0557; Display advertising 764-0554; Billing 764-0550. E-mail letters to the editor to letters@michigandaily.com. World Wide Web: www.michigandaily.com. 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 NEWS Lisa Koivu, Managing Editor EDITORS: Lisa Hoffman, Elizabeth Kassab, Jacquelyn Nixon, Shannon Pettyplece STAFF: Jeremy Berkowitz, Tyler Boersen, Ted Borden, Soojung Chang, Kara DeBoer, Margaret Engoren, Hiba Ghalib, Rahwa Ghebre-Ab, Rob Goodspeed, Megan Hayes, Carmen Johnson, Christopher Johnson, C. Price Jones, Shabina S. Khatri, Kylene Kiang, Tomislav Ladika, Andrew McCormack, Louie Me zlish, Jennifer Mistral, James Ng, Jordan Schrader, Stephanie Schonholz. Karen Schwartz, Maria Sprow, Kara Wenzel, Samantha Woll, Alson Yang EDITORIAL Johanna Hanink, Editor ASSOCIATE EDITORS: Aubrey Henretty, Zac Peskowitz, Jess Piskor STAFF: Sravya Chirumarnilla, Howard Chung, John Honkala, Garrett Lee, Christopher Miller, Paul Neuman, Ari Paul, Laura Platt, Lauren Strayer CARTOONISTS: Sam Butler, Chip Cullen, Thomas Kulijurgis COLUMNISTS: Peter Cunniffe, David Enders, David Horn, Jon Schwartz, Luke Smith SPORTS Steve Jackson, Managing Editor SENIOR EDITORS: David Horn, Jeff Phillips, Naweed Sikora, Joe Smith NIGHT EDITORS: Chris Burke, Seth Klempner, Courtney Lewis, J. 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Janet Yang PHOTO David Katz, Editor ASSISTANT EDITOR: Danny Moloshok ASSOCIATE EDITORS: Brendan O'Donnell, Alyssa Wood STAFF: Lauren Braun, Laurie Brescoll, Tony Ding, Tom Feldkamp, Emma Fosdick, Patick Jones, Ryan Leventhal, Kelly Lin, John Pratt, David Rochkind, Jonathon Triest, Jessica Yurasek ONLINE Paul Wong, Managing Editor STAFF: Marc Alien, Soojung Chang, Chuck Goddeeris, Melanie Kebler, Timothy Najmolhoda DISPLAY SALES Anne Sause, Manager SPECIAL SECTIONS MANAGER: Jessica Cordero m i I Aw