2 - The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, January 21, 2004 4 NATION/WORLD Palestinians claim Israeli army destroyed mosque RAFAH REFUGEE CAMP, Gaza Strip (AP) - Israeli army bulldozers flattened 30 houses and a mosque in this refugee camp yesterday, Palestinian officials said, accusing Israel of systematically razing homes to widen a military buffer zone. The military said it only targeted buildings from which shots were fired overnight at Israeli forces, but did not know how many structures were demolished. Frantic residents threw mattresses and blankets from second-floor windows as beams and walls came crashing down around them. One woman, standing near a bulldozer, waved a white flag in a failed attempt to slow the demolition and buy time to sal- vage her belongings. A crying girl helped her mother carry a mattress. Army officials initially insisted the razed houses had been empty, but then said the claim was still being checked. The governor of Rafah, Majed Agha, said about 400 people were left homeless. Israel has demolished hundreds of houses in Rafah, near the Egyptian border, in more than three years of fighting, saying the buildings gave cover to gunmen and weapons smugglers. The Palestinians say Israel is clearing large swaths in the camp to distance built-up areas from the narrow strip Israeli troops patrol along the Egyptian border. Israel has erected a tall metal barrier south of the camp as a shield for troops. The destruction is part of a plan by Israel "to create a wide buffer zone and consolidate Israeli military control in the area," Agha said. Alsorazed yesterday was a neighborhood mosque, Al Tawhid, which had been partially demolished Sat- urday, residents said. The mosque is about 70 yards from the Israeli metal barrier. "This is a crime against God's law and human law as well," said preacher Ibrahim Abu Jazar. The military said it was still checking the report on the mosque. In the past three years, troops have gen- erally stayed clear of holy sites. In the West Bank, Israeli security forces trying to dismantle a synagogue in a West Bank settlement outpost wrestled with dozens of settler activists. Troops left half a dozen trailer homes at West Tapuah outpost untouched. It was the first attempt by the army to remove a structure from a populated outpost since June. Dror Etkes of Peace Now, an Israeli group that opposes the settlement movement, said the demolition was a meaningless display, noting that settlers simply rebuild such structures after soldiers leave. Under the U.S.-led "road map" peace plan, Israel has to remove dozens of settlement outposts, but has taken down only a few. The Palestinians have also failed to meet their first obligations, including a clampdown on militant groups. Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia, mean- while, asked foreign diplomats to urge their govern- ments to speak out against Israel's separation barrier in the West Bank, ahead of a Feb. 23 hearing by the world court. The Palestinians have asked the International Court of Justice to rule on the legality of the barrier, which has severely disrupted the daily lives of tens of thousands of Palestinians. The Palestinians say the barrier amounts to a land grab and will make it impossible to create a viable Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza. "We ask the entire world to restrain the Israeli NEWS IN BRIEF 7:F HEADLINES FROM AROUND THE WORLD UNITED NATIONS U.N. election experts likely off to Iraq U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan is likely to approve within days sending elec- tion experts to Iraq to study whether the country could have quick, direct elections for a transitional government, U.N. diplomats said yesterday. The team - which the U.S.-led coalition and Iraqi leaders sought from Annan in a meeting Monday - would head to Iraq soon after the decision is made, the diplomats said on condition of anonymity. Iraqi leaders and the Coalition Provisional Authority want the U.N. team to assess whether it's possible to hold elections for a transitional legislature set to take power by June 30. Iraq's most prominent Shiite leader, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Husseini al-Sistani, has demanded direct elections to choose a provisional gov- ernment. But the coalition wants to keep to a handover plan agreed to on Nov. 15 that calls for caucuses to choose a provisional assembly. The election team is separate from a four-person mission the United Nations plans to send to Baghdad within a week to assess overall security conditions for a possible large-scale, permanent return of U.N. staff. That team would work out of the so-called "green zone," a barricaded area in Baghdad that houses the head- quarters of the U.S.-led coalition, and would focus on upgrading U.N. facilities that are outside the protected area. WASHINGTON FBI: Potential terrorist almost entered U.S. A man who may have been the intended 20th hijacker in al-Qaida's Sept. 11 terror attack was prevented from entering the country by a U.S. immigration agent, federal officials said yesterday. The man, identified only by his last name of al-Qahtani, was turned away by the agent Jose Melendez-Perez at Orlando International Air- port in late August 2001, according to two senior law enforcement officials who spoke on condition of anonymity. FBI and Justice Department investigators say al-Qaida was attempting to bring additional operatives into the United States only a few weeks before the attacks, perhaps to join the hijacking plot or to launch a second wave of terror. As many as a dozen names are being examined through immigration records, the officials said. It was unclear whether any of these others were stopped from entering the United States. The agent in Orlando became suspicious when al-Qahtani provided only vague answers to questions about what he was doing in the United States and could not provide names of people meeting him at the airport or describe where he was staying, one official said. A ralesiunian woman runs witn some o ner belongings as an Israeli army bulldozer destroys houses in a refugee camp yesterday. madness of expansion," Qureia said after meeting with more than a dozen diplomats. "This is a wall of annexation and expansion, not for security." Israel says it needs the divider to keep out Palestin- ian attackers who have killed hundreds of Israelis in bombings since September 2000. On Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon ordered a review of the barrier, saying minor changes in the route and technical arrangements could be made to lessen the hardship it creates for Palestini- ans. Israel has been looking for ways to deflect grow- ing international criticism of the barrier. Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said yester- day he opposes any revisions. WANT TO TRAVEL TO THE DEMOCRATIC CAUCUSES? COME WRITE FOR THE DAILY. MASS MEETINGS TOMORROW AND JAN. 26 AT 7 P.M., 420 MAYNARD ST. I Meditate Workshop Sundays, Jan 25 & Feb 1 11:30 am -1:30 pm Crazy Wisdom Bookstore Free of charge For Information/Registration call 994-7114 800 feet of Gulf Beach Frontage " 2 Large Outdoor Swimming Pools Sailboat, Jet Ski & Parasail Rentals . Lazy River Ride & Water Slide Huge Beachfront Hot Tub " Volleyball " Suites up to 12 people World's Longest Keg Party * Live Band & DJ Wet T-Shirt, Hard Body & Venus Swimwear Contests Iraqis want Saddam kiled withff no trial BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Shiite Muslims marched through-Baghdad for a second day yesterday, this time demanding the execution of Saddam Hussein. Five thousand people joined the march that wound its way from Sadr City, a poor Shiite neighborhood in northeastern Baghdad, to Firdous Square, the plaza-in the center of the capital where Saddam's statue was pulled down April 9, marking the ouster of the Baathist regime. Saddam was captured Dec. 13 and the Pentagon has designated him a prisoner of war. "The butcher of Iraq is not a POW. He must be punished," read a banner waved by some demonstrators. "Saddam is a war criminal, not a POW. Execute Saddam," the crowd chanted, waving huge green flags, the color of Islam. The march, which coincided with smaller protests in two other cities, came a day after a much larger demon- stration of 100,000 Shiites in Baghdad to demand direct elections to replace the U.S.-led interim administration. Shiites were kept out of power dur- ing Saddam's 35-year rule by the minority Sunni Muslims. Thousands of Shiites were murdered by the regime. Victims often were buried in mass graves. Since the fall of Saddam, the Shi- ites have begun asserting their numer- ical superiority. Generally supportive of the U.S. invasion last year, Shiite leaders now pose the biggest political challenge to the U.S.-led occupation and its plans for a power transfer this summer. Leading Shiite cleric Grand Aya- tollah Ali al-Husseini al-Sistani opposes the U.S. plan that envisages holding 18 regional caucuses in May to choose a transitional legislature. The assembly would then appoint a provisional government to take power on July 1, formally ending the U.S. occupation. Al-Sistani wants early, direct elec- tions for the new government. But Washington says it is impossible to hold elections before June 30 because there has been no census and there are no true voter lists. The precarious security condition makes elections even less feasible, U.S. Russia read to go to Mars wit U. S. Russia's space engineers spent years designing futuristic spacecraft for missions to Mars with little hope they would survive the financial melt- down of the nation's once-glorious space program. But President Bush's announce- ment of a new thrust into space has awakened hopes that these dreams could come true in a new*alliance with the United States. From giant booster rockets to tiny robots, Russia has developed a range of cutting-edge space technologies it now hopes to share with the United States to send humans to the moon and Mars. It would offer the cash-strapped space industries an alternative to China, which put a man in orbit last year, envisages conquering the 'moon and hat sought Russian tech- nology and know-how for its space program. NEW YORK Stewart pleads 'not guilty' as trial begins Martha Stewart waved to her sup- porters, strode into a Manhattan courthouse and repeated a plea of innocent at the formal start of her stock-trading trial yesterday. The 62-year-old millionaire gra- cious-living guru stood in court and nodded at the first batch of jurors, who were interviewed one by one in a judge's private robing room. "Not guilty," Stewart said five times, speaking almost inaudibly and nodding as she re-entered her plea to five criminal counts related to her 2001 sale of nearly 4,000 shares of ImClone Systems. NEW YORK Court strikes down imitation Klan masks A group that mimics the Ku Klux Klan in robes, hoods, masks and beliefs cannot cloak itself in the First Amend- ment to escape a state law banning masks at public gatherings, a federal appeals court ruled yesterday. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan issued the ruling more than four years after 17 members of the Church of the American Knights of the Ku Klux Klan rallied outside a state court without masks. Although a lower court judge had decided they could wear masks, the appeals court suspended the effect of U.S. District Judge Harold Baer's ruling until it could decide the issue itself. Compiledfrom wire reports 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. ADDRESS: The Michigan Daily, 420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-1327. E-mail letters to the editor to letters@michigandaily.com. SPEND A SEMESTER OVERSEAS (and stay in the U. S.) 3 { .. / .- III " - ...:: Learn in the vibrant, multi-cultural community of Honolulu. Enjoy a university experience like no other. Be far away, but at home with the lanauaae and customs. It all adds up to a semester you'll never forget. NEWS Shabina S. Khatri, Managing Edito 763.2459, newsfimlchganda/ly.com EDITORS: C. 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