2A - The Michigan Daily - Monday, December 2, 2002

NATION/WORLD


Palestinians escape Israeli missile NEWS IN BRIEF
HEADL11 INEFRMA UN THWRD

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JERUSALEM (AP) - Palestinians
in a car near Gaza City yesterday nar-
rowly escaped an Israeli helicopter mis-
sile attack on their vehicle, blasted into a
heap of smoldering metal seconds after
they jumped out, witnesses said.
The attack was an apparent attempt to
kill Palestinian militants belonging to
the Islamic Jihad group, Israeli media
reported. The Israeli army would not
comment.
During two years of Palestinian-
Israeli violence, Israel has killed dozens
of suspected militants in what it calls

"targeted attacks," claimi
venting terror strikes
charge that the practi
assassination of thei
human rights groups c
execution without judicia
The two passengers o
sedan saw the Israeli h
head and managed to f
before it was hit, witness
"Suddenly I saw a M
fast down the road an
flames coming from
Amina Daalasa, who li

ing that it is pre- missiles hit the car and one missed, hit-i
. Palestinians ting the road, Daalasa said.t
ce amounts to The air strike came after two t
r leaders, and Palestinians were killed Saturday
all it summary night as Israeli tanks and troops 1
al process. entered the northern Gaza town of
)f the Mercedes Beit Lahiya and demolished three
elicopters over- homes. One of the Palestinians, a 70-
flee the vehicle year-old man, unable to leave a home
es said. before Israeli bulldozers began top-
[ercedes driving pling it, was buried under the rubble,c
d it was hit by witnesses said.
the sky," said An army spokesman, Capt. Jacob
ves nearby. Two Dallal, said soldiers routinely call on l
ieque,

residents to evacuate buildings and
troops search the premises before struc-
tures are destroyed.
The forces demolished three homes
belonging to militants of the Islamic
Jihad group who were responsible for
attacks that killed 24 Israelis, the
army said.
One Palestinian bystander who was
watching from his balcony was shot
dead during an intense exchange of gun-
fire, Palestinian witnesses said. The
army said soldiers shot at and hit armed
Palestinians.
kills 47

CAPE TOWN, South Africa

Fire destro)
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) - Flames quick-
ly engulfed a tiny, downtown nightclub packed1
with hundreds of dancers but lacking emergency
exits, triggering a panicky stampede and killing
47 people early yesterday, fire officials and vic-
tims said.
Twelve people were injured in the late Satur-
day night blaze at La Guajira discotheque.
Faulty wiring, a kitchen fire or even a care-
lessly discarded cigarette were all possible caus-
es of the blaze, which erupted near the club's
entrance just before midnight yesterday local

time, said Fire Chief Rodolfo Briceno. Nearly all
the dead succumbed to the smoke.
As many as 400 people were inside the dis-
cotheque, housed in the basement of the Hotel
Venezuela in a densely packed commercial dis-
trict, when someone yelled "Fire!," victims said.
The club was in two rooms with a total of
about 1,000 square feet.
"The fire began at the entrance. At first we
thought it was a joke, but it seems the fire extin-
guishers didn't work and the blaze grew fast,"
said Jenny Cisneros who suffered burns to her



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Winter Commencement
Sunday, December 15, 20(

arms and legs.
"Everything went up in flames. There were, so
many people, everyone was trampled as they
tried to get out. Nobody could breathe," Cisneros
told The Associated Press from her hospital bed.
Her sister, who also suffered leg burns, was
next to her at the western Caracas clinic. Jenny
Cisneros said tearfully that a girlfriend of hers
was among the 17 women who died.
Firefighters using oxygen tanks rescued peo-
ple trapped inside the club and extinguished the
flames early yesterday.
Kerry says
he may go
T for 2004
Dem. bid
WASHINGTON (AP) - Massachu-
setts Democrat John Kerry, a leading
Senate liberal and decorated gunboat
officer during the Vietnam War, said
yesterday he is taking a first step toward
running for president in 2004.
He took aim at President Bush's poli-
cies on taxes, education, Iraq and the
Middle East, saying, "There is a better
choice for this nation."
Kerry, a 58-year-old former prosecu-
tor first elected to the Senate in 1984,
has said for the past year that he was
seriously thinking about a run in 2004.
He was unopposed for re-election in
November to a fourth term - the first
Massachusetts senator in 80 years with
no major-party opposition.
"I'm going to file this week an
exploratory committee, a formal com-
mittee, and I'm going to begin the
process of organizing a national cam-
paign," Kerry said on NBC's "Meet the
Press."
An official announcement of his can-
didacy is months away, Kerry said.
Exploratory committees are estab-
)2 mlishedby budding candidates mainly to
raise money, finance travels around the
country and help gauge voter support.
"When you really get into the formal
stage, which I am now entering, you find
out who's prepared to be there, you see if
you can raise the money," Kerry said. "It
becomes real."
The best-known Democrat to emerge
from Massachusetts is President John
Kennedy - and Kerry did not shy from
invoking his memory. But other Bay
State Democrats have not fared as well
in national elections.
Kennedy's brother, Sen. Edward
Kennedy, failed in 1980 to win the presi-
dential nomination, as did Paul Tsongas
in 1992. Gov. Michael Dukakis - a
Kerry mentor - won the 1988 nomina-
tion, but lost by a wide margin to Bush's
father.
Democrats are expected to have a
crowded field of candidates, with the
party convention to be held in Boston.
Vermont Gov. Howard Dean already
is running. Former Vice President Al
Gore, the 2000 nominee, and North Car-
olina Sen. John Edwards expect to dis-
close their plans after the Christmas
holidays. Outgoing House Democratic
leader Dick Gephardt of Missouri is
expected to begin telling colleagues
whether he plans to run. Also consider-
ing the race is Gore's running mate from
two years ago, Sen. Joseph Lieberman
of Connecticut, who has said he would
not run if Gore does.
A recent Los Angeles Times poll of
Democratic National Committee mem-
bers showed Gore and Kerry topped lists
when people were asked their favorites.
During the NBC interview, Kerry
repeatedly mentioned his service in Viet-
nam. He was an officer on a gunboat in

the Mekong Delta and received numer-
ous decorations for his combat experi-
ence, including a Silver Star and three
Purple Heart awards. He later led
demonstrations against the war after he
returned home.
"I served in the armed services - I
love this country," he said. "I have a
great sense of what this country can be
and what it is."

WASHINGTON
Kissinger speaks on
Sept. 11 commission
Henry Kissinger, chairman of the
commission to investigate the Sept.
11 attacks, said yesterday he will
have no qualms recommending an
examination of possible involvement
by foreign countries if facts point
that way.
"If they lead in the direction of
the need for looking into the actions
of foreign countries or what foreign
countries knew, my personal recom-
mendation will be to explore that,"
the former secretary of state said on
CNN's "Late Edition."
"But I would like to wait until we
have the commission together," he
added.
President Bush appointed
Kissinger on Thursday and congres-
sional Democratic leaders named the
vice chairman, former Sen. George
Mitchell (D-Maine). The panel's
other e.ight members will be
appointed by Dec. 15.
ABIDJA, Ivory Coast
Foreigners flee from
Ivory. Coast violence
Foreigners evacuated from western
Ivory Coast said yesterday that rebels
were looting houses and shooting ran-
domly in the streets in violence that
appeared to involve Liberian militants.
French forces flew 160 people, mostly
French and Lebanese merchants and

Groups raise awareness with AIDS Day
Southern African countries marked World AIDS Day yesterday with hopes
that the region, which has the highest rate of HIV positive people on the planet,
can slow the spread of the disease.
There are 42 million HIV positive people worldwide, with sub-Saharan
Africa home to 75 percent of them, according to UNAIDS, the U.N.'s AIDS
agency.
South Africa has more HIV positive people than any other country in the
world. Figures released by the government more than two years ago showed that
4.7 million people - one in nine - were infected, and the figure today is
believed to be substantially higher.
The number of people with AIDS in Asia threatens to reach epidemic levels,
and activists there also tried to raise awareness of the disease and how to pre-
vent it. Events were also held in Cuba, Brazil, Peru and several other countries.
South Africa's government had come under fire for not doing enough to com-
bat the AIDS epidemic, and it has recently shown signs of taking the issue more
seriously.
This year the government almost tripled its anti-AIDS budget to $108 mil-
lion, and plans to increase it to $194 million in the next financial year.
KHAN BAI SA'AD, Iraq
U.N. inspectors visit decrepit Iraqi airfield
U.N. disarmament teams inspected a shabby, seldom-used airfield in corn country
north of Baghdad yesterday, a place where Iraqi experts engineered devices for bom-
barding an enemy from the air with sprays of killer microbes.
The U.N. inspectors checked on equipment sealed and tagged by U.N. teams
in the 1990s and pored over paper and computer files, the airfield's director
said. But they apparently found none of the advanced spray systems, unaccount-
ed for since the Gulf War.
"We showed them everything," said the director, Montadhar Radeef Mohammed.
The inspectors, as usual, kept their findings confidential, pending later for-
mal reports.
In their first week of inspections, the U.N. monitors paid unannounced visits to a
dozen Iraqi sites with a wide variety of specialties and links to weapons programs in
the 1980s.
Those ranged from an animal vaccine plant that brewed lethal toxins for bombs, to
an industrial complex planned to house hundreds of gas centrifuges producing
enriched uranium for Iraqi nuclear weapons.

business people, from the key cocoa city
of Man near the border with Liberia to
Ivory Coast's commercial capital, Abid-
jan yesterday
"The groups from Liberia are unbear-
able," said Ashkar Louis Michel, a
Lebanese man who has lived in the city
for 38 years. "They enter the homes and
steal. The others don't do that."
Others among the refugees said Ivo-
rian rebels had gunned down at least two
Liberians who were caught looting.
"They were shooting in the streets,"
said Fatme Mhana, a Lebanese woman.
DENVER
'Fightin' Whites' gain
funds for scholarship
What started out as an attempt to
shame a local high school into dropping
a mascot name viewed as racist has
raised at least $100,000 for scholarships
for Native American college students.
The effort began last winter when stu-
dents at the University of Northern Col-
orado asked officials at nearby Eaton
High School to change the school's mas-
cot from "Fighting Reds" because the
name was offensive. The school refused,
and members of the UNC intramural bas-
ketball team, made up of Native Ameri-
cans and whites, took action.
They named themselves the "Fightin'
Whites" and began wearing T-shirts bear-
ing the name. After getting national
media attention they began selling the
shirts, which also bear the slogan
"Everythang's going to be all white."
More than 15,000 shirts and hats have
been sold, raising at least $100,000.
- Compiled from Daily wire reports.

*

Crisler Arena


Doors open at 1:15 p.m.

01

Ceremony begins at 2:00 p.m.
and lasts about two hours.

I "r,

Eligibility
Summer Term 2002 and Fall Term 2002 graduates and candidates
are eligible to participate in Winter Commencement.
Ticket Distribution
Tickets will be distributed Monday, December 9 through Thursday,
December 12 between 8:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. in the Pond Room
of the Michigan Union. Graduates and candidates are eligible to
receive up to six (6) tickets during this time. Additional tickets will
be distributed on Friday, December 13 from 8:30 a.m.to noon in
the Pond Room of the Michigan Union.
Academic Attire (Cap & Gown)
Michigan Book & Supply, Michigan Union Bookstore and Ulrich's
Bookstore all carry Bachelor's attire. Both Michigan Book & Supply
and the Michigan Union Bookstore carry Master's attire, while
Doctoral attire is only available from the Michigan Union Bookstore.

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