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 Y. '.'' 'we 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. 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, star ing 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. 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