4 2A - The Michigan Daily - Monday, December 9, 2002 NATION WORLD Bangladesh cinema blasts kill 18 DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) - Bangladesh authorities questioned movie theater employees yesterday after a string of deadly bomb explo- sions at four crowded cinemas, and the government ruled out al-Qaida involvement in the attacks. The blasts Saturday night tore through movie houses during a 30- minute period, killing 18 people and injuring more than 200 in Mymensingh, a small town 70 miles north of the capital, Dhaka. The government ordered height- ened security at mosques, temples, churches, shopping malls and theaters and appointed a retired judge to launch an investigation. Visiting the attack sites yesterday, Prime Minister Khaleda Zia said police had many leads and that "those who are responsible will be tracked down and put on trial." The bombs were planted in the the- aters' projection rooms, a police officer said on condition of anonymity. They exploded while the cinemas were packed with early evening moviegoers - most of them Muslims celebrating the Eid-ul-Fitr festival marking the end of the fasting month Ramadan. As many as 3,000 people were inside or near the theaters at the time. The army defused a fifth bomb Satur- day night in a theater in the nearby town Gaibandha, wrapped in a plastic bag tied to the back of a seat, police said. Police chief Modabbir Hossain Chowdhury said the blasts were "the work of an organized group," but he stopped short of labeling it an act of terror. Muslim Bangladesh has denied accusations by neighboring India that it has become a safe haven for terror- ists and rejected media claims that it has been used as a base for al-Qaida. "I ... would like to categorically state here that there is no al-Qaida net- work on the soil of Bangladesh," Home Minister Altaf Hussain Chowd- hury told a news conference. No suspects have been identified and no one claimed responsibility for Finding the distance between yourself and your family too expensive to cross this holiday season? The Essex Inn of Chicago has college-budget-friendly rooms from just $89. And our Museum Packages guarantee you'll have plenty to do: visit with us and receive two free passes for every night's stay to the Museum of Science and Industry, the Field Museum, Adler Planetarium, Shedd Aquarium, Art Institute, Chicago Historical Society or the Sears Tower Skydeck. Book your $89 homefo[ the holiddys toddy! Chicago's Your Key To The City 1-800-621-6909 800 South Michigan Avenue, Chicago reservations@essexin n.com the attacks. Police detained 21 theater employees for questioning. The explosions killed 15 people Sat- urday, and three men died of injuries yesterday. Doctors feared the death toll would rise because many wounded were in critical condition. Poorly equipped hospitals appealed for medi- cine and blood donations. Army troops patrolled the small town as thousands of people besieged hospi- tals looking for relatives and friends. Many of the victims were hit by falling bricks and steel, witnesses said. "It was a terrible scene. Doctors were overwhelmed with so many injured," said Muzahed Ahmed, a uni- versity teacher. Ivorias uncover massacre remnants MONOKO-ZOHI, Ivory Coast (AP) - Terrorized villagers on Saturday showed the burnt shops and covered corpses from what appeared to be the worst bloodletting of Ivory Coast's three-month war - a massacre of 120 unarmed civilians by government sol- diers, survivors claimed. Revelations of the mass grave at the central village of Monoko-Zohi came a~iid reports of heavy fighting in west- ern Ivory Coast. Rebels and locals said Saturday that insurgents had taken another town, Blolekin, while pushing east into the heart of Ivory Coast, said Maj. Frederic Thomazo, part of a 1,000-strong French contingent in the former French colony. Meanwhile, the government called for a "general mobilization" Saturday, urging all Ivorians between the ages of 20 to 26 "who have decided to go to the front to defend the republic" to sign up with the army. "In order to finish with these aggres- sors and free our country, I want to appeal solemnly for a general mobi- lization of Ivorians beneath the flag," Defense Minister Bertin Kadet said on state television. Tensions heightened further over emerging allegations of the massacre at Monoko-Zohi. Ivory Coast's army and government strongly denied wrongdoing, insisting Saturday that the dead were not cinil- ians but rebels killed in combat. However, insurgents denied having their militia in the village of Monoko- Zohi and surviving villagers said the massacre victims were merchants and African guest workers on the region's lush cocoa and coffee fields. Villagers said the killing in Monoko- Zohi started when six marked Ivory Coast military trucks arrived Nov. 27 carrying uniformed Ivory Coast sol- diers. Soldiers accused the villagers of feeding rebels and then went house-to- house in the hamlet with a list of names, survivors alleged. "We heard the shooting - we pan- icked, and we all ran," said Kamousse, a merchant who was showing a cus- tomer a radio when the soldiers arrived. "But my brother stayed in the house. He said, 'Maybe it's just someone shooting into the air.' Afterward, they took him behind the house to the latrine and shot him," Kamousse said. French troops, who are in Ivory Coast to enforce a now-shattered cease-fire, first reported the mass grave Friday. The Associated Press viewed the scene Saturday. Monoko-Zohi is about 70 miles northwest of the government-held city of Daloa. A spokesman for President Laurent Gbagbo invited international human rights experts and doctors to the site. He also said rebels dug a mass grave near the rebel-held central city of Bouake. "The French army and the special correspondents of Western media know of the existence of a mass grave near Bouake where the bodies of around 100 soldiers and their families were buried after they were taken and exe- cuted by the rebels," spokesman Tous- saint Alain said. A nearly three-month-old rebellion has torn the once prosperous West African nation into three parts. Rebels hold the north and are struggling now to hold the west and move east against a fierce government offensive. Fierce fighting continued Saturday with the reported rebel capture of the town of Blolekin. The reported NEWS IM BRIEF { GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip Palestinian reportedly slain by Israeli soldiers Israeli soldiers killed a Palestinian woman and wounded her three children as well as a second woman in a refugee camp yesterday, Palestinian witnesses said. Israel said soldiers shot at armed Palestinians trying to infiltrate a Jewish settle- ment and had no information on civilians being shot. Early yesterday, two Israeli soldiers were wounded seriously when a bomb went off on the Israel-Lebanon border. Two other soldiers were wounded, one lightly and another moderately, when a bomb exploded next to their jeep near the West Bank town of Tulkarem, army officials said. There also were Israeli tank movements in the Gaza Strip. The military said soldiers saw a group of Palestinians, some of them armed, approaching the settlement of Rafiah Yam. The soldiers opened fire on the Pales- tinians and saw Palestinians take four wounded people away while two others escaped, the military said. But a Palestinian witness, Samir Abu Shahin, said Israeli soldiers opened fire at the Tel Sultan refugee camp, which is near the settlement. "The woman and her family were walking in the middle of the street, and I saw her fall, and blood covering her body, and not far from her, the two children also fell." GOD A, India India elections threaten peaceful relations Nine months later, a brick maker named Jagdish Prajapati still hears the people who screamed for help as they were burned alive when a mob set fire to their train. The attack killed 60 Hindus and ignited riots that killed more than 1,000 peo- ple, most of them Muslim. Now, just as Hindus and Muslims are struggling to rebuild their shattered trust in each other, an election threatens to rekindle the sec- tarian passions that led to India's worst communal bloodshed in a decade. The legislative elections Thursday in Gujarat, India's largest state, are important for the Bharatiya Janata Party, or BJP, which heads the national coalition government. The Hindu nationalist party has lost power in three of India's 29 states since it came to power at the federal level in 1998, and now holds only four. Losing Gujarat to the secular Congress party would be a serious blow to its credibility. The BJP was accused of tacitly approving the Gujarat violence against Mus- lims. There were calls from some of the party's own coalition partners to oust the BJP leader in Gujarat, Chief Minister Narendra Modi. 6 CARACAS, Venezuela Chavez tries to end truck drivers' strike President Hugo Chavez sent troops to force gas stations to open and threatened to take over private gas delivery companies yesterday amid increasing signs of scarcity due to a strike that has shut down production by the world's fifth-largest oil pro- ducer. Lines of cars stretched for blocks in Caracas yesterday as panic-buying at gas stations began on the general strike's seventh day. Shoppers emptied store shelves, worried about political unrest and Chavez's threat to declare martial law if needed. Last week, Chavez sent soldiers to protect oil wells and refineries from possible sabotage by strikers. Yester- day, he sent soldiers to gasoline sta- tions to ensure continued service and delivered a warning to striking gaso- line truck drivers. NEW ORLEANS Lousiana Senate race taken by Democrat President Bush's midterm election magic failed in Louisiana as Democ- rat Sen. Mary Landrieu defeated a strong challenge from Republican Suzanne Haik Terrell in an unusual December runoff. National Democratic Party leaders saw Landrieu's close victory as salve for their wounded pride after Novem- ber elections that boosted Bush's numbers in Congress and gave the GOP control of the Senate. Sen. Tom Daschle (D-S.D.), soon to lose his job as Senate majority leader, said Landrieu's victory "proves the Democrats are alive and well" and noted that Louisiana voters also chose Democrat Rodney Alexan- der over Republican Lee Fletcher for the open congressional seat in the 5th District. BOSTON Cardinal protested outside cathedral Facing rekindled outrage from priests and parishioners over new revelations of clergy misconduct, Cardinal Bernard Law stayed away from the Cathedral of the Holy Cross yesterday as protesters renewed calls for his resignation. Some400 protesters gathered outside the cathedral, where Law had been expected to celebrate Mass, as they have since the abuse scandal erupted in January. An archdiocese spokeswoman refused to say where Law was, saying only that he had no public schedule. Yesterday's larger-than-usual protest was fueled by last week's release of new internal church documents containing some of the most spectacular allegations yet, suggesting church officials tolerated a wide range of clergy misconduct, and not just sexual abuse of boys. - Compiled from Daily wire reports. Prices and packages are subject to availability, applicable taxes and require advance reservations. Offer good from December 21-January 10. Now A/ B ookstore Se11 u Your Books Now! We Want All Your Books!! Top Dollar For Your Used Books! 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. 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