2A - The Michigan Daily - Thursday, April 15, 2004 NATION WORLD Troops to stay in Iraq longer than previously promised WASHINGTON (AP) - More than 10,000 American soldiers who were to return this month to home bases in Louisiana and Ger- many will have their tour in Iraq extended at least three months to help combat the surge in anti-occupation violence, defense officials said yesterday. The decision, which has not been announced publicly, breaks the Army's prom- ise to soldiers and their families that assign- ments in Iraq would be limited to 12 months. The affected soldiers already have been in Iraq for a year. Welcome-home ceremonies at Fort Polk, La., scheduled for this month, have been canceled. In Baumholder, Germany, some soldiers' families have stopped marking the days off the calendar. The top U.S. commander for the Middle East, Gen. John Abizaid, decided that the increase in violence was so threatening that he needed to have the extra firepower, officials say. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was fine-tuning the new plan yesterday; his AP PHOTO spokesmen declined to discuss details. They said it was possible that Rumsfeld would mpany, make it public today. The tour extensions come at a particularly deli- cate moment. At least 87 troops have been killed in April, the deadliest month since they set foot in Iraq in March 2003. The number of wounded also has skyrocketed. The advantage of keeping soldiers of the 1st Armored Division and the 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment in Iraq for an extra three months - rather than bringing in an equiva- lent number from elsewhere - is that these soldiers have unmatched combat experience in Iraq. The Army is so stretched by its commitments in Iraq, Afghanistan, the Balkans and elsewhere that it has few, if any, forces immediately avail- able to substitute in Iraq for the 1st Armored or 2nd Armored Cavalry. Also, these units have been heavily involved in one of the most important U.S. military missions there: training thousands of Iraqi security forces. Those Iraqi army and civil defense corps mem- bers are central to the Pentagon's plan for eventu- ally turning over military control to the Iraqis and pulling out U.S. troops. Abizaid had planned, as part of the current rotation of fresh forces into Iraq, to reduce the U.S. troop presence from about 135,000 to about 115,000. NEWS IN BRIEF . BEIJING L Cheney urges China to pressure N. Korea Vice President Dick Cheney sought yesterday to prod China to apply more pressure on North Korea to abandon its nuclear program, citing new evidence that it has atomic weapons. He also told China he understands its opposition to U.S. arms sales to Taiwan, but that they are directly related to China's own buildup, said a senior administra- tion official who briefed reporters on Cheney's talks. Cheney also expressed U.S. concern about China's recent steps to restrict self- government in Hong Kong, suggesting it might also have a bearing on the Taiwan issue, the official said. China's treatment of the people of Hong Kong might serve as a bellwether for the people of Taiwan as they consider the "one state, two systems" policy that China applies to Hong Kong. Cheney met separately yesterday with Chinese President Hu Jintao, his predecessor Jiang Zemin and Premier Wen Jiabao. The vice president later flew to Shanghai, the latest stop on a weeklong Asia trip that will also take him to South Korea. WASH INGTON Tenet: 5 years needed to combat al-Qaida The CIA intelligence-gathering flaws exposed by the Sept. 11 attacks will take five years to correct, agency Director George Tenet said yesterday. The chairman of the commission investigating the 2001 hijackings called the time frame frightening. The panel released statements harshly criticizing the CIA for failing to fully appre- ciate the threat posed by al-Qaida before Sept. 11 and questioning the progress of what commissioners say are the FBI's badly needed reorganization efforts. Tenet, appearing before the commission for the second time in three weeks, said that in the 1990s the CIA lost 25 percent of its personnel, was not hiring new ana- lysts and faced disarray in its training of clandestine officers who work overseas to penetrate terror cells and recruit secret informants. Although strides have been made since the attacks, Tenet said it would take five more years to "have the kind of clandestine service our country needs." The National Security Agency, which handles electronic surveillance, and U.S. map- ping and analytic intelligence agencies also need time and sustained funding to improve, he said. Sgt. Jeff Hardy of Colorado Springs, Colorado, carries sandbags to a house roof as he and Marines of Fox Co 2nd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, fortify the area. SHARON Continued from Page 1A favoring of Sharon and a slight to the Palestinians. Palestinian lead- ers had previously said they had been assured by the Bush adminis- tration that they would be consult- ed before any Bush endorsement of Sharon's plan. Bush urged the Palestinians to match Israel's "boldness and courage." Specifically, Bush said a final peace deal should call for Palestinian refugees to be settled in a Palestinian state, not in Israel. Bush said the "realities on the Bush's support, which the Israeli ground and in the region have changed greatly" and should be reflected in any final peace deal - a key concession, sought by Sharon, to the fact that Israel has large groups of settlers in the West Bank. Sharon said he was encouraged by leader had sought as a way to boost his own party's support. The Israeli leader said his "disengagement" plan would improve Israel's security and economy, and set the right con- ditions for negotiations with the Palestinians. JOHANNESBURG, South Africa S. Africa voters favor incumbents to win An elderly woman wrapped in the colors of the governing African Nation- al Congress spoke for millions who lined up yesterday to vote in South Africa's third all-race national election. "The ANC held our hand and brought us through hell," said Noluthando Nok- wando, a 66-year-old woman from the squalid Cape Town township of Khayelit- sha. "We can give them a chance - and our respect - for another five years." Despite lingering poverty, high unem- ployment and an AIDS crisis, a debt of gratitude to the party that toppled apartheid a decade ago still holds sway in South Africa. The ANC has improved living conditions and the economy, but above all, it has presided over a peaceful transition to majority rule that many once thought impossible. In scenes reminiscent of the historic 1994 vote that ended apartheid, long lines formed outside polling stations. MADISON, Wis. Student ch g d in false abduction claim Audrey Seiler, the University of Wisconsin sophomore accused of stag- ing her own disappearance last month, was charged yesterday with two misde- meanor counts of obstructing officers. Each charge carries a jail sentence up to nine months and a maximum fine of $10,000. Dane County District Attorney Brian Blanchard filed the 16-page crimi- nal complaint two weeks after Seiler, 20, was discovered in a marshy area within a mile of her campus apartment, when she told police a man with a knife and a gun was in the area. She was reported miss- ing March 27 and found March 31. When officers attempted to assist Seiler to her feet she said "I can't leave the woods - a bad man will kill me," according to the complaint. BOSTON Better tech leads to fewer multiple births A worrisome national surge in multi- ple births linked to test-tube technology is easing, largely because doctors implant fewer embryos in each attempt to make a woman pregnant, a study suggests. Doctors routinely place several embryos in the womb at once to improve the odds of producinga baby. Technical advances and the advent of professional guidelines appear to have led to more sparing use of embryos, the study's researchers reported in today's New England Journal of Medicine. The findings are likely to stoke the debate over whether the government should put a cap on the number of embryos that can be used for each try. - Compiled from Daily wire reports w 0 a 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. 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