2 - The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, November 27, 2002 NATION/WORLD Bush assembles security dept. WASHINGTON (AP) - The deputies to lead t long-sought Department of Home- of Homeland Se land Security will begin taking "united, effective shape March I when the Secret Ser- terrorism on U.S. vice, Customs Service and several Within hour huge agencies will be folded into department into the massive new department. asked the Sena It will be fully operational by hand-picked lea Sept. 30, 2003 - more than two submitted his tra years after the attacks that prompt- Congress. That ed the overhaul. Critics warn there clock ticking aft will be problems along the way. may begin mo "The threat of mass murder on department. our own soil will be met with a uni- The plan calls fied, effective response," President of the departm Bush said Monday as he signed a March 1, when t bill creating the new 170,000-per- Coast Guard, C son agency. Immigration an Bush chose longtime political ally Service and a f Tom Ridge and two high-powered fold their empl President signs bill to al 1nsur'er'S WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush signed legisla- tion yesterday that will "get our economy back on its feet" should another terror attack saddle the insurance industry with catastrophic costs. "With this new law, builders and investors can begin con- struction in real estate projects that have been stalled for too long, and get our hard hats back to work," Bush said in an East Room bill-signing ceremony, his second in two days. "We're defending America by making America more secure." Under the bill, the government wouldn't step in on any claims less than $5 million. Insurance companies would pay a deductible in 2003 equal to 7 percent of the premiums they received the previous year. The deductible would rise to 10 percent in 2004 and 15 percent in 2005. The federal govern- ment would then cover 90 percent of everything above the deductible with insurance companies paying the other 10 percent. Bush said he was tacking on a regulation to "make sure no taxpayer dollars will be spent on legal settlements with- out the approval of the secretary of the Treasury." The secre- tary will have to approve any settlements involving government reimbursements, White House officials said. The criteria by which such settlements will be judged was not clear yesterday. The president created the Homeland Security Department on Monday. The terrorism insurance bill had been a top priority for the president since shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks. From the White House and from the campaign trail, Bush argued that the inability of companies to get affordable insurance for large construction projects was costing the economy thousands of jobs. ' - The GOP's success in this month's midterm elections gave Bush leverage to insist that Congress complete the bill in the lame-duck session before adjourning for the year. The bill passed by a wide margin, with the main opposition coming from Republicans. "Should terrorists strike America again, we have a system in place to address financial losses and get our economy back on its feet as quickly as possible," he said. Federal payments would be capped at $90 billion the first year, $87.5 billion the second year and $85 billion in the final year of the program. The law does not cover the Sept. 11 attacks, which gener- ated an estimated $40 billion in claims. The president bowed to Democratic demands for unlimited punitive damages in civil lawsuits related to terror attacks, which many Republicans consider a boon to trial lawyers usually allied with Democrats. But GOP leaders vowed to take up the issue again next year, when they again will have majorities in the House and Senate. he new Department curity and mount a response" against soil. s of signing the law Monday, Bush te to approve his dership team and nsition -blueprint to started a 90-day ter which agencies ving to the new for a large portion ent to take shape the Secret Service, Customs Service, nd Naturalization ew other agencies oyees and budgets "The threat of mass murder on our own soil will be met with a unified, effective response.P G - President George Bush into the new Cabinet entity. Other changes will continue in phases even as the new agency searches for permanent housing, according to an outline of the shift distributed by the White House. According to the months-in-the-mak- ing plan, the final pieces will be in place by Sept. 30, 2003, more than two years after the attacks that prompted the overhaul and ahead of the year-plus transition process pre- dicted earlier Monday by White House press secretary Ari Fleischer. But even as Bush lauded the, biggest government shake-up in more than a half-century as "his- toric action to defend the United States," he offered a sobering assessment of the terrorist threat. New date planned for general election JERUSALEM (AP) - Palestinian officials acknowledged yesterday that it was increasingly unlikely general elections would be held as scheduled Jan. 20, as Israel's Likud Party pre- pared for a leadership primary this week ahead of a national election also set for January. Both developments could influence international peace efforts. In Israel, political parties that oppose conces- sions to the Palestinians are leading in the polls, while Palestinian elections are a vital part of reforms that Israel and the U.S. government believe are a condition for progress toward peace. Palestinian officials are hesitant to announce a postponement of the Janu- ary election for president and parlia- ment, but the Election Commission has not managed to meet even once to begin organizational work that is expected to take four to five months. Palestinian Cabinet Minister Saeb Erekat said he was "not hopeful" the elections would be held as scheduled and blamed Israel, whose troops have controlled most West Bank cities since mid-June in response to Palestinian suicide bombings against civilians. "The Israeli government has done nothing but obstruct our efforts," Erekat said. "We haven't been able to register voters or train people for this huge process."~ In the West Bank town of Tulkarem, 11I Palestinians were wounded yesterday in clashes with Israeli forces enforcing a curfew. Israel arrested 25 suspected Palestinian militants, officials said. In the Gaza Strip, Israeli troops destroyed the houses of the families of two suspected militants in a late-night raid. For several months, Israel destroys homes as a deterrent - draw- ing condemnation from Palestinians and human rights groups. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and his challenger, Foreign Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, sought last-minute support at rallies and meetings. NEWSIN BRIEF. HEA LIES ., AROUND T EWO: MEXICO CITY. Fox asks for discussions on immigration Mexican President Vicente Fox, insisting that Mexicans in the United States pose no terror threat, called for high-level discussions to give legal status to at least some of the more than 4 million undocumented Mexicans living north of the border. President Bush, in a videotaped message to a cabinet-level meeting of the two countries, agreed that work on migration should continue but did not suggest that an agreement was high on his agenda. Fox told the meeting it was important to establish a migration framework that "clearly distinguishes between those who arrive in that country to work and those who could represent a threat." While the Bush administration has refrained from asserting that Mexicans rep- resent a terrorist threat, the security measures it has adopted generally have not made distinctions between nationalities. Secretary of State Colin Powell, who is heading the U.S. delegation here, made this point to reporters during Monday's flight from Washington. "We have to deal with the whole issue of people coming to our country from elsewhere, and that is taking a lot of time, a lot of effort, a lot of energy," he said. He acknowledged Fox's impatience with the slow progress and promised "to work as hard and as fast as we can." TORONT Chretien spokeswoman resigns over comment Prime Minister Jean Chretien's communications director resigned yesterday over a controversy caused by her private comment last week that President Bush is a moron. Francoise Ducros, who initially offered to quit but was kept on by Chretien, is leav- ing the prime minister's office after all, according to a statement issued by Chretien's chief of staff. In a letter of resignation to Chretien, Ducros wrote: "It is very apparent to me that the controversy will make it impossible for me to do my job." "I would therefore like to leave my position as director of communications imme- diately," the letter said. "I am grateful for the support you have given me during this difficult time." Chretien accepted the resignation this time, responding in a letter: "In your almost four years as director of communications, you have served the government as a whole, and me personally, with extraordinary skill and dedication." The comment made in a discussion with a radio reporter last week at the NATO summit in Prague, Czech Republic, has dominated Canadian media, and opposition politicians have called for herresignation. A French police officer carries documents yesterday related to the arrest of seven suspected terrorists. French detain 7 suspected of terrorstties PARIS (AP) - French police yesterday detained seven suspected Islamic militants with possible ties to the so- called "shoe bomber" - the third anti-terrorism sweep in France in four days. Police have arrested 18 people since Saturday, including an Islamic militant who escaped from a Dutch jail. The inte- rior minister described the arrest of another suspect as "very important" for the fight against terrorism. The push by anti-terrorism investigators comes amid mounting fears of terror attacks in western Europe. In the latest word of caution, Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie said in an interview published yesterday that France "is among the countries most threatened." .Anti-terrorism judges Jean-Louis Bruguiere and Jean- Francois Ricard put out orders for the pre-dawn arrests yesterday of six Algerians and Pakistanis, picked up in the Paris suburbs of Montreuil and Garges-les-Gonesse, police said. Among those detained was an imam at a mosque north of Paris. A seventh suspect who used to run a Paris prayer hall was picked up on Reunion island, a French territory in the Indian Ocean. KINSHASA, Congo 500 reported dead in influenza outbreak The World Health Organization confirmed an outbreak of flu in rebel-controlled northern Congo, and the country's health minister said yesterday more than 500 people have died. Deaths have been recorded in a number of towns - including Bosobolo, Gbadolite and Gemena - in the north of Equateur province, near the border with Central African Republic, Health Minister Mashako Mamba said. He said as many as 566 people have died since the outbreak began in Octo- ber, adding that the figures were "cer- tainly incomplete." WHO officials in the capital, Kin- shasa, confirmed the outbreak but said they could not say how many people had been infected or killed. The illness was apparently spread by people fleeing an Oct. 25 coup attempt in Central African Republic, Mamba said. BEIJING China introduces suicide prevention One day next week, three nurses will sit down at telephones in Beijing and do something that would have been unheard of in China just a decade ago: They'll try to stop anyone who calls from committing suicide. As 1.3 billion people cope with the most sweeping changes their nation has ever experienced, China's first suicide research and prevention center is open- ing in the capital with a lengthy list of priorities - everything from interven- ing in emergencies to changing outdat- ed attitudes about mental health. It's a tall order for a populace accus- tomed to centuries of gritting their teeth through hard times and coping with "chiku" - a traditional metaphor for enduring hardship that means, literally, "eating bitter." MOSCOW Launch disturbs orbit of Russian satellite The world's largest communications satellite was lost yesterday after it went into the wrong orbit following its launch on a Russian rocket, the Russian space agency said. It was the biggest setback yet to Rus- sia's satellite-launching program, which Moscow has seen as a potential cash cow for its depressed space industry. The Astra- 1K satellite was launched atop a Proton rocket from the Baikonur cosmodrome in the former Soviet republic of Kazakhstan. The rocket car- ried it to a preliminary orbit, but the Russian-made DM-3 boosting unit failed to give a secondary impulse to send it to its higher orbit, said Konstan- tin Kreidenko of the Russian Aerospace Agency. - Compiled from Daily wire reports. *I 01 Nigerian provincial offical urges killing The Michigan Daily (ISSN 0745-967) is published Monday through Friday during the fall and winter terms by students 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. 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.michigandally.com. 1 1 ; _ 1 1 1, I Ku I.1i17 .K1 IIT 1 . T~ of local jouralst LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) - The into hiding after being int deputy governor of a largely Islamic by police last week in co state in northern Nigeria has called on with the article, which s Muslims to kill the Nigerian woman Islam's founding who wrote a newspaper article about Muhammed would have ap the Miss World beauty pageant that Miss World and might hav sparked deadly religious riots. to marry one of the contes "Just like the blasphemous Indian religion is unknown. writer Salman Rushdie, the blood of The newspaper has issue Isioma Daniel can be shed," Zamfara apologies for the article, s Deputy Governor Mahamoud Shinkafi offending portions were pub told a gathering of Muslim groups in mistake after earlier being de the state capital, Gusau, on Monday. supervising editor. Rushdie, an Indian-born Briton, ThisDay officials were no went into hiding after Iran's late revo- ately available for comment lutionary leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah But one of the paper's co Khomeini, issued a 1989 fatwa - or Amanze Obi, suggested Da religious edict - against him for have been a victim.of exciter allegedly insulting Islam in his best- "I imagine that she may hx selling novel, "The Satanic Verses." In that line without knowing 1998, the Iranian government declared wrote in yesterday's edition. it would not support the fatwa, but said was innocuous." it could not rescind the edict since, Dangaladima said other under Islamic law, that could be done employees had been spared only by the person who issued it. fatwa, which "applies on Khomeini died in 1989. offending pen." While state officials in Nigeria can- Zamfara was the first of 1 not issue fatwas, the deputy governor, adopt Islamic law, or Sha "like all Muslims," considers the death Nigerian military rule gav sentence against Daniel as "a reality elected government in 1999. 1., - -4 ,.,... ., -r+ - 1,.." ' - - ai h n h vr lil u errogated onnection uggested prophet proved of ve wanted tants. Her d repeated saying the blished by eleted by a t immedi- yesterday. lumnists, aniel "may ment." ave written g it," Obi "The line r ThisDay d from the ly to the 2 states to riah, after ve way to Religious illa th1 w u %gnlt%16 . r rr +vn r7H11 W Q1 46l l Lu av 111 v...IW. NEWS Lisa Kolvu, Managing Editor EDITORS Lisa Hoffman, Elizabeth Kassab, Jacquelyn Nixon, Shannon Pettypiece STAFF: Elizabeth Anderson, Jeremy Berkowitz, Tyler Boersen, Ted Borden, Autumn Brown, Soojung Chang, Kara DeBoer, Margaret Engoren, Rahwa Ghebre-Ab, Megan Hayes, Lauren Hodge, Carmen Johnson, Christopher Johnson, C. 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