I 2A - The Michigan Daily - Monday, December 1, 2003 NATION/WORLD 4 Syria sends bombing suspects to Turkey NEWS IN BRIEF 22 named in last trying to overthrow Turkey's "constitu- t month's Istanbul suicide bombings ISTANBUL, Turkey (AP) - Syria handed over 22 suspects to Turkey yes- terday in connection with four deadly suicide bombings in Istanbul, the semiofficial Anatolia news agency reported. The suspects, all Turks, reportedly fled the country after the attacks, which targeted two synagogues in near-simultaneous bombings Nov. 15 and the British consulate and a British bank in twin attacks five days later. A total of 61 people were killed. Citing a statement from paramilitary police, Anatolia said the suspects included Hilmi Tuglaoglu, a close associate of Azat Ekinci, a central sus- pect in the blasts. News reports have named Ekinci as a key accomplice in the synagogue bombings, saying he used fake identi- ties and cash to buy pickup trucks that were packed with explosives. The reports said Ekinci had traveled to Iran, received military and explosives training in Pakistan between 1997-99 and fought in Chechnya. The suspects were being questioned, the statement added. There were no details about Tuglaoglu's alleged involvement, though police said his wife was also brought from Syria. The report came amid signs of progress in the investigation. A Turkish court on Saturday charged a key suspect captured last week with tional order" - a crime equivalent to g treason. The first major suspect to be charged in the attacks, he is accused of having given the order to carry out the truck bombing of the Beth Israel syna- gogue. Police identified him by his initials, Y.P., but nearly all major Turkish news- papers said he was Yusuf Polat. The daily Radikal said he was born in 1974 in Turkey's southeastern province of Malatya. The daily Milliyet and other news- papers reported yesterday that Polat and others confessed to belonging to a 10-man cell that was an extension of the al-Qaida terror network. Police also had evidence that the attackers received support domestically and from abroad, Milliyet reported. Newspapers reported that members of the cell, including several of the sui- cide bombers, had met while training in Afghanistan, and that Polat fought in Afghanistan. Istanbul Gov. Muammer Guler did not directly address the news reports but said there were "resemblances to an al-Qaida link" in the attacks. "However, we have to obtain all the official evidence, all the links, all the clues. It wouldn't be right to talk about the links without all the official evi- dence," Guler said. He added there was no evidence yet linking the attacks to the militant Turk- ish Islamic group, Hezbollah, which is not linked to the Lebanese group of the same name. Police refused to comment on the RAMALLAH, West Bankffi".. _ Security wall hinders Israeli, Palestinian talks Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia on Saturday harshly criticized Israel's West Bank security barrier, threatening to pull out of peace negotiations if construc- tion of the structure isn't halted. Qureia's tough words came hours before he traveled to neighboring Jordan for a meeting with U.S. envoy William Burns, who was returned to the region in hopes of reviving the stalled "road map" peace plan. Palestinian officials said Qureia was expected to tell Burns that he is optimistic that he can persuade Palestinian militants, in talks beginning tomorrow in Egypt, to halt attacks on Israel. But Qureia also planned to ask Burns to put pressure on Israel to halt construction of the barrier and to withdraw from Palestinian areas. Qureia did not comment after Saturday night's meeting. He is seeking to present a truce agreement to the Israeli government in hopes of reaching a cease-fire deal that could revive talks on the road map. The U.S.-backed plan calls for a series of steps leading to an independent Palestinian state by 2005. During Saturday's meeting, Burns repeated the U.S. commitment to establishing a Palestinian state, but said the Palestinians must end "terror and violence" against Israel, according to a statement issued by the U.S. Embassy in Amman, Jordan. Burns also repeated President Bush's belief that Israel must "end the daily humili- ation of the Palestinian people and rebuild trust," the statement said. WASHINGTON Parties to use Medicare as issue in elections When it comes to the Medicare bill awaiting President Bush's signature, Republi- cans are eager to cash in their political winnings at the polls in 2004. Democrats want the cards shuffled and dealt again, quickly, for fear of losing a topic that has worked to their advantage for a generation. Either way, the landmark legislation will be an issue next year. While Bush said it means Medicare "will be modern and it will be strong," his Democratic rivals all opposed it. Some sought additional political mileage by joining a futile, last-minute filibuster aimed at killing the bill in the Senate. Like all complex legislation, this one was the result of dozens of compromises, large and small, as well as shifting tactics. As president, Bush decreed that any drug benefit should apply broadly. "All seniors should have the choice of a health care plan that provides prescription drugs," he said in last winter's State of the Union address. That effectively eclipsed the view of many Republicans that only low- AP PHOTO A member of the British police forensic team removes flowers from the gate of the bombed British Consulate as workers clean up the grounds in Istanbul, Turkey yesterday. reports. They said only that Y.P. was arrested Tuesday at an Iranian border crossing in eastern Agri province, and that he had gone to the Beth Israel syn- agogue before the attack and ordered its start. Turkey has long accused Iran's gov- ernment of fueling radical Islam in Turkey and has alleged that members of an Islamic radical group suspected in a series of killings trained in Iran and received support from its government. The daily Hurriyet said Y.P. was tracked down through his cell phone records after allegedly calling a suicide bomber minutes before the attack. The Anatolia news agency reported yester- day that materials used to make bombs were found in a house in Istanbul that he used. Authorities have charged another 20 people in connection with the blasts, but for lesser roles. All the suicide bombers were Turks. U.S. favors N1 BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) - The United States would like NATO eventually to take over the military mission in Afghanistan, where an American-dominated force is still hunting down remnants of the Taliban rule that collapsed two years ago, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said yesterday. In an interview on the eve of a NATO defense ministers conference, Rumsfeld said he had not proposed such a transition from U.S. control but that it was a goal "we certainly have favored," Rumsfeld arrived in Brussels yesterday for NATO talks on a range of defense and security issues, includ- ing the situation in Iraq and the outlook for a realign- ment of U.S. forces in Europe. The latter topic is focused mainly on ways of reducing or shifting U.S. troops in Europe to make the overall American mili- tary more suited to fighting terrorism and other non- traditional threats. Defense ministers were meeting today and tomorrow, followed by talks among foreign min- isters on Thursday and Friday. Asked about deadly attacks in recent days against Spaniards, Japanese and South Koreans in Iraq, Rumsfeld said he did not expect the violence to lead any U.S. allies to abandon the mission. "The countries who have forces there recognize that it's a dangerous place and there are terrorists who are killing people and wounding people - not just coalition forces but Iraqis, in increasing numbers," he said. Commenting on an expanded NATO role in Afghanistan, Rumsfeld praised the alliance for taking a first, limited step: assuming control over income older Americans and those 41T OAfgh" "should be covered. TO to lead Afghan mission "JUAN,Puerto RICO U..to transfer 100 "I'm not predicting anything, but we certainly have favored priSoners from ecam pritohtcmv i"pp llia.I. ove v r ne1 C. - Donald Rumsfeld Defense secretary the International Security Assistance Force that keeps the peace in Kabul, the Afghan capital, and trying to put together even more troops so the peacekeeping mission can be expanded beyond Kabul to as many as six provincial cities. That security force has not been involved in the American-led combat missions against Taliban holdouts. In advance of this week's NATO talks, alliance officials expressed confidence that plans will proceed for a German-led NATO security force to move into the northern Afghan city of Kunduz within weeks. That operation is supposed to be a pilot project for a broader NATO plan to provide protection for "provincial reconstruction teams" in other cities - if it can muster the troops. "I think it's a good thing," Rumsfeld said. "And my guess is it will happen." He added that NATO involvement eventually might expand even further. "At some point the task may mature to the point where NATO would want to take on a still larger responsibility," he said. While the Penta- gon chief did not foresee alliance troops replac- ing U.S. troops entirely, he would not rule out NATO eventually taking primary control of the military mission. "I'm not predicting anything, but we certainly have favored that, over time," Rumsfeld said. The United States has about 10,000 troops in Afghanistan, making it one of the most demand- ing missions the military is executing, along with the effort to stabilize Iraq with 130,000 troops. Looking ahead to the NATO talks, the alliance's top civilian official said the peacekeep- ing mission in Afghanistan was a test of NATO's credibility. "If we do not go to Afghanistan and deal with its problems, Afghanistan and those problems will come again to us," NATO Secretary General Lord Robertson said last week. "Failure would not only be a disaster for Afghanistan. It would be a disaster for Europe and for North America as well," he said, warning that the country could again become a base for international terrorism. During the meetings in Brussels, European allies will be eager to hear Rumsfeld's views on an agree- ment reached over the weekend by the European Union to boost its own defense capability. More than 100 men and boys will be transferred in the next two months from the U.S. jail for terrorism suspects in Cuba, including a teenager who allegedly killed an American special operations soldier, a U.S. military official said. The first of two new transfers is scheduled for the end of December, and the other in January, the official told The Associated Press on condi- tion of anonymity. The detainees would be released from U.S. custody, but it was unclear if any would face further detention or prosecution in their home countries. The official did not say where the pris- oners would be sent and a military spokeswoman declined yesterday to pro- vide details about future transfers from the U.S. base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. "We do expect there will be other transfers but because of operational pro- cedures, I can't talk about any details" Lt. Col. Pamela Hart said. REDMOND, Wash. Microsoft aims to put computers in all cars First Microsoft set out to put a com- puter in every home. Now the software giant hopes to put one in every vehicle, with extraordinarily high drug costs too. "We'd like to have one of our oper- ating systems in every car on earth," said Dick Brass, vice president of Microsoft's automotive business unit. Cars with the Microsoft software will speak up when it's time for an oil change. They'll warn drivers about wrecks on the road ahead and scout alternative routes. They'll pay freeway tolls automatically. The software running their brakes will upgrade itself wirelessly. The Microsoft platform already is in 23 different car models, including the BMW 7 series, Citroen, DaimlerChrysler and Fiat. BOSTON Surgery for obese gains in popularity Ken Powers knew the potential dan- gers of having his stomach stapled, but to a man who had tipped the scales at 475 pounds, those risks didn't much matter. "If I die on the operating table, having the surgery to try to better my life, I thought it was a better thing to do than to live the way I was living,"he said. By the tens of thousands, morbidly obese people who have failed at diets, support groups and exercise programs are turning to sur- gery to lose weight. In 1998, there were 25,800 obesity- related operations, most of them gastric- bypass procedures commonly known as stomach stapling. - Compiled from Daily wire reports. 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The soldiers wounded all four men, and found Kalashnikov rifles and grenade launchers in their car. MacDonald said the attack was the largest faced by his Task Force Ironhorse - whose mission includes the hunt for Saddam. Military officials in Baghdad said they haven't reported a deadlier attack since May 1, when President Bush declared major combat over. U.S. officials have only sporadi- cally released figures on Iraqi casu- alties, and wouldn't say whether there has been a deadlier firefight that went unreported. Samarra is 60 miles north of Baghdad in the so-called Sunni Tri- angle, where opposition to the U.S. occupation of Iraq has been fiercest. CONSUMERS Continued from Page 1A 7.2 percent increase in gross domestic product in the third quarter of this year. But the growing confidence in the economy is still marked by "cautious optimism," which depends on a decrease in the unemployment rate in addition to future economic growth, Curtin said. Hymans said the last three months were the best period of job growth since January 2001. "This is quite a turnaround from what has happened since the recession," he said. The consumer confidence report follows on the heels of a report by Business Prf_ Cla2e Frnell thnt the mmb I rciut E Immm dw WWW.MICHIGANDAILY.COM 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. 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