2 - The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, February 3, 2004
NATION/WORLD 4
An Israeli soldier keeps watch yesterday at a machine gun post atop a guard tower overlooking the Jewish
settlement of Netzarim and surrounding Palestinian lands, several kilometers inside the Gaza Strip.
Sharon emo nearly
all settlements inGaza
Reformist
party to
boycott
elections
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Iran's
largest pro-reform party announced
yesterday it will boycott the Feb. 20
parliamentary elections, saying it no
longer has hope for a free and fair
vote. An emergency Cabinet meeting
backed calls for a postponement of
the balloting.
Unless hard-liners in charge of the
elections bend to the pressure to rein-
state thousands of disqualified candi-
dates quickly, they may be forced into
the extraordinary position of requiring
military help to hold the vote.
In prior elections, senior military
officials appointed by hard-liners sup-
ported them, while the bulk of military
personnel voted for the reform camp.
Yesterday's developments leave Iran
at a crossroads: rule by the hard-liners
or a path toward greater democracy.
Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali
Khamenei, may risk losing legitimacy
altogether unless he supports
reformists' calls for a democratic vote.
Mohammad Reza Khatami, the pro-
reform party leader and brother of
Iran's reformist president, Mohammad
Khatami, said his Islamic Iran Partici-
pation Front would not field any can-
didates.
"With an overwhelming majority of
the votes, our party decided not to par-
ticipate in the February 20th elections,"
he told a news conference after an
emergency meeting yesterday.
"We have no hope for the possibility
of free and fair elections. All legal
opportunities have been killed," Khata-
mi said.
He won the biggest number of votes
in the 2000 legislative elections.
Nearly all the Front's candidates
have been barred from running in the1
election - some of them sitting law-
makers, including Khatami, who is
also a deputy speaker of parliament.
Without the Front's participation,
hard-line candidates likely would easi-1
ly retake control of parliament.1
Reformists had won the parliament in
2000 for the first time since the 1979
Islamic Revolution, and used it as a
platform to press for social and politi-;
cal reforms.
NEWS IN BRIEFj
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HEWUWEADINES.UFROM AND EUWORLD Ix]
WASHINGTON
Possible toxin found in senator's office
A white powder, which preliminary tests indicated could be the deadly sub-
stance ricin, was discovered yesterday in the office of Senate Majority Leader Bill
Frist (R-Tenn.) in the Dirksen Senate Office Building.
A government official said further tests were being conducted at Fort Detrick
in Maryland, with more definitive results expected by today.
The powder was found in an envelope in Frist's office suite on the fourth floor
of the Dirksen building, one of three structures occupied by senators and their
staffs, said a congressional source speaking on condition of anonymity.
Sgt. Contricia Ford, spokeswoman for the Capitol Police, said authorities were
conducting more extensive tests. The Homeland Security Department is monitor- 4
ing the situation, spokesman Brian Roehrkasse said.
Ricin, derived from the castor bean plant, can kill within days. Twice as deadly
as cobra venom, ricin is relatively easily made. It may be inhaled, ingested or
injected.
Police found traces of ricin in a north London apartment last January and
arrested seven men of North African origin in connection with the virulent toxin
that has been linked to al-Qaida terrorists and Iraq.
IR BIL, Iraq
Kurds blame al-Qaida for attacks k*ling 674
Kurds blamed Ansar al-Islam, an al-Qaida-linked militant group, for suicide
bombings that killed at least 67 people, saying yesterday its members increasingly
have been slipping into Iraq since Saddam Hussein's ouster.
Thousands gathered to mourn at Irbil's largest mosque, where the two main
Kurdish parties - both U.S. allies, but often at odds with each other - held a
joint memorial in a show of unity. The attacks Sunday devastated the Kurdish par-
ties' offices in the northern city, the heartland of the Kurdish self-rule region.
One of the parties, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, or PUK, said a video cam-
era captured images of the man who blew himself up inside its office, slipping in
alongside hundreds of well-wishers greeting PUK officials on the first day of the
Muslim holiday Eid al-Adha.
Only the back of the bomber's head was visible in the footage. The man, appar-
ently in his 20s or 30s, shook hands with one of the Irbil office's deputy chiefs,
then stepped forward and put his hand in that of another, Shakhwan Abbas.
. ,
..9. -
JERUSALEM (AP) - Prime Min-
ister Ariel Sharon said yesterday he
wants to remove nearly all the Jewish
settlements in the Gaza Strip without
waiting for a peace deal, outlining his
go-it-alone plan and prompting threats
from far-right allies to bring down his
government.
Sharon, for nearly three decades the
most powerful patron of the settlement
movement, told his Likud Party in a
closed-door meeting yesterday that the
17 settlements he wants removed are a
"security burden" and a "source of
continuous friction."
The prime minister's about-face was
met by widespread skepticism, both
from Palestinian leaders and Israeli
politicians. Critics noted that Sharon's
government has failed at a presumably
easier task, the dismantling of dozens
of small settlement outposts, as
required by a U.S.-backed peace plan.
Others said Sharon may be trying to
deflect attention from his legal trou-
bles. Sharon is to be questioned again
by police Thursday in a widening cor-
ruption probe.
The Gaza settlements, home to about
7,500 Israelis, have been frequent tar-
gets of Palestinian militants during
more than three years of violence. Infil-
tration attempts and rocket attacks come
almost daily. An estimated 1.3 million
Palestinians live in Gaza.
There was confusion about whether
any settlements would remain in Gaza
under Sharon's plan.
Although Sharon indicated he was
referring to all the settlements, his
"I do not know if it will be done in one go,
or gradually, but over the course of time, it
will not be right to continue Jewish
settlements in Gaza.'
- Ariel Sharon
As quoted by a Likud Party official
spokesman, Raanan Gissin, said late
yesterday that three at the northern tip
of the territory, close to Israel, would
remain. Though most lists count 17
settlements, Gissin said there were 21.
Dror Etkes, who monitors settle-
ments for the dovish Israeli Peace Now
group, said there are 20 official settle-
ments in Gaza and "one or two" unof-
ficial sites.
Gissin said there were three plans
but that none called for removing all
the settlements. The ones in northern
Gaza would remain, he said, because
"there is not the element of friction"
there. Earlier, Sharon had been quoted
as saying it's possible all Israelis would
have to leave Gaza.
Sharon has been preparing Israelis
for what he said would be unilateral
measures in the West Bank and Gaza,
including redeploying Israeli troops,
uprooting some settlements and impos-
ing a boundary on the Palestinians.
Sharon has said he would go ahead
once he concludes there is no point in
negotiating with the Palestinians. Late
yesterday, Vice Premier Ehud Olmert
said the government was aiming for
June or July to begin implementation.
However, yesterday's announcement
took Israel by surprise.
It began when Sharon invited a sen-
ior Israeli columnist, Yoel Marcus from
the Haaretz daily, : his official
Jerusalem residence to outline his
plans for Gaza. Marcus, one of
Sharon's staunchest critics, quoted the
prime minister as telling him that he
has "given an order to plan for the
evacuation" of the settlements.
Haaretz ran excerpts from the inter-
view on its website just before the start
of a closed-door meeting of Likud leg-
islators°.At the meeting, Sharon con-
firmed what he told Haaretz, but said
the plan hasn't been finalized.
"I don't know if it will be done in one
go, or gradually, but over the course of
time, it will not be right to continue
Jewish settlement in Gaza," a Likud
official quoted Sharon as saying at the
meeting. Sharon said he would seek the
approval of parliament and would also
consult with President Bush, partici-
pants in the Likud meeting said.
WASHINGTON
Blood test may show
early signs of cancer
Imagine a blood test that could detect
the earliest signs of ovarian cancer to
help far more women survive. Or one
that could prevent thousands of aging
men from undergoing unnecessary
biopsies for prostate cancer.
Those tests are moving toward reali-
ty, thanks to new technology that can
spot early signals in drops of blood.
The National Cancer Institute has
begun a major study to prove if the
blood test detects early relapse in
ovarian cancer patients. Relapse
occurs dismally often, and if the test
works as well as earlier research sug-
gests, it could win Food and Drug
Administration approval for that use
within a few years.
in January from a revised 63.4 in
December. The reading signals a recov-
ery that is broadening across manufac-
turing industries, although it is still not
generating many new jobs, analysts said.
In other economic news, the Com-
merce Department reported that con-
sumer spending rose by 0.4 percent in
December, after a 0.5 percent rise the
previous month. The November reading
was better than the government previ-
ously estimated.
BOSTON
Low-carb craze may
eliminate pizza bread
4
4
Va. ban on NEW YORK
U U
Would you sti
I
I
consider
a e-term
abortion
repealed
RICHMOND, Va. - A federal
judge struck down Virginia's ban on a
type of late-term abortion yesterday,
saying the law violated privacy rights
and failed to make an exception for
the health of the woman.
U.S. District Judge Richard L.
Williams called the ban on what
opponents call partial-birth abortion
"impermissibly void for vagueness."
The judge blocked the law last July,
the day it went into effect, calling it a
"no-brain case." He also has challenged
the use of the term "partial birth infanti-
cide" by the law's backers, saying it was
an attempt to alarm the public.
Virginia's law outlawed a procedure
generally performed in the second or
third trimester in which a fetus is par-
tially delivered before being killed.
Lawyers for the Center for Repro-
ductive Rights, who filed the suit,
argued that the law was unconstitu-
tional because it disregarded a four-
year-old Supreme Court ruling
allowing the procedure when the
health of the mother is threatened.
The state law contained no such
health exception.
"Courts across the country -
including the U.S. Supreme Court -
have been clear that such bans are an
unconstitutional threat to women's
health and lives," Nancy Northup,
president of the center, said in a state-
ment yesterday.
The group said the lawsuit was a
precursor to a challenge to the limited
federal ban, which is already being
challenged in Nebraska, New York
and California. About 30 states have
enacted versions of partial birth abor-
tion bans, but in many cases they have
been overturned in court.
Virginia Attorney General Jerry Kil-
gore said yesterday's decision was not
unexpected, but he plans to appeal.
"This ruling is not surprising, given the
number of times we have had to appeal
Manufacturgsector,
spending rise in Jan.
The economic recovery is showing
new signs of staying power, a trio of
reports said yesterday, with a pickup at
the nation's factories complemented by
robust consumer spending and con-
struction activity.
The Institute for Supply Management
said its manufacturing index rose to 63.6
Pizza might be hailed as the food
of the gods, one of America's best-
loved meals - a hearty delectable
dish that fills the stomach and seems
to soothe the soul.
But to low-carb dieters, it's just a
gut-busting disk of dough.
And that has caused pizza makers
around the nation to wonder if the
low-carb craze will force changes in
one of America's best-loved foods.
They're saying, "Hey, we've got a
problem here. Pizza's built on bread.
It's the No. 1 enemy of the
Atkinites," said Tom Boyles, the
senior editor of PMQ Magazine, a
publication that follows the pizza
industry.
- Compiled from Daily wire reports.
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Psych 111 the Best Blow-Off
Class if you got a B minus?
Feel free to discuss amongst
your multi ple-personalities.
- ~ a. a - . I
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