I 2 - The Michigan Daily - Friday, April 16, 2004 NATION/WORLD Iranian diplomat killed in Baghdad NEWS IN BRIEF _. . NAJAF, Iraq (AP) - Gunmen assassinated an Iranian diplomat in Baghdad yesterday just as Iran, with tacit U.S. approval, attempted to mediate with a radical Shiite cleric defying American forces in this southern Iraqi city. The slaying of diplomat Khalil Naimi, shot in the head by unknown gunmen while he drove near his embassy, cast a shadow over yester- day's unusual negotiating mission to Najaf by the envoy from neighbor- ing Iran, which fought an eight-year war with Iraq in the 1980s and does not have diplomatic relations with Washington. Iranian Embassy officials were investigating whether there was a link between the assassination and the envoy's visit. Naimi was not a member of the Iranian negotiating team. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said "it's probably premature to draw any conclusions about whether it reflects anything about the role that Iran has played one way or the other in Iraq." The Iranian effort to mediate with anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr was arranged by Britain and appeared to have the approval of the United States, reflecting an eagerness to find a solution that would avert a U.S. assault on Najaf - the holiest Shiite city - aimed at capturing al-Sadr. But it was not clear whether al-Sadr would agree to meet with Iranian envoy Hossein Sadeghi. Al-Sadr was accepting mediation only by an Iraqi political party picked by Iraq's top clerics, said al-Sadr aide Sheik Qays al-Khaz'ali. Shiite Governing Council member Ibrahim al-Jaafari said he saw "flexi- bility from al-Sadr's side" and called on the Americans to show "similar flexibility." Meanwhile, kidnappers freed three Japanese hostages whom they had threatened to kill unless Japan with- drew its troops from Iraq. At least 19 foreigners remained unaccounted for following a wave of abductions that accompanied the worst violence Iraq has seen since U.S. forces invaded Iraq. An Italian hostage was killed by gunmen who threatened to kill three other Italian captives. Iraq's top U.S. administrator, L. Paul Bremer, was involved in "multiple channels" to try to negotiate an end to the standoff in the south and in the central city of Fallujah, said Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Myers warned there is a limit to how long the Marines can put off a resump- tion of offensive operations in Fallujah. "At some point somebody has to make a decision on what we're going to do, and we certainly can't rule out the use of force there again," he told a news conference. After relative peace during the day, gunfire and explosions resumed after sundown yesterday - as they have nightly as Sunni insurgents and Marines exchange fire over relatively fixed positions. WASHINGTON CIA cautioned about terrorism in '95 Palestinians angered at U.S. endorsement The CIA warned as early as 1995 that Islamic extremists were likely to attack U.S. aviation, Washington landmarks or Wall Street and by 1997 had identified Osama bin Laden as an emerging threat on U.S. soil, a senior intelligence offi- cial said yesterday. The official took the rare step of disclosing information in the closely held National Intelligence Estimate for those two years to counter criticisms in a staff report released Wednesday by the independent commission examining pre-Sept. 11 intelligence failures. That staff report accused the CIA of failing to recognize al-Qaida as a formal terrorist organization until 1999 and mostly regarding bin Laden as a financier instead of a terrorist leader during much of the 1990s. But the U.S. intelligence official, who spoke only on condition of anonymity, said the 1997 National Intelligence Estimate produced by the CIA mentioned bin Laden by name as an emerging terrorist threat on its first page. The National Intelligence Estimate is distributed to the president and senior executive branch and congressional intelligence officials. WASHINGTON Nearly 500 counties fail air quality standards Counties in 31 states are flunking air-quality standards, drawing a federal warning to clean up industrial plants, put new restrictions on cars and take other action to make their air less polluted. Nearly 500 counties, mostly in California and the eastern third of the country, were cited yesterday as having too much smog-causing pollution in violation of the federal clean air law. The Environmental Protection Agency told state and local officials to develop new pollution controls to reduce ground-level ozone, a precursor of smog. Some 159 mil- lion people, about half the U.S. population, live in areas singled out by the govern- ment for contributing to unhealthy air. Acting under court order, the EPA identified all or parts of 474 counties that either have air that is too dirty or have pollution that causes neighboring counties to fail the air quality test. Despite having some of the toughest air pollution requirements, California still has the worst air, the EPA said. The Los Angeles basin was designated as having severe air pollution, the only one in the category. The area has until 2021 to comply with the federal standard. 0 0 JERUSALEM (AP) - The strong U.S. endorsement of Israel's "disen- gagement" plan left angry Palestinian leaders scrambling to galvanize inter- national opposition yesterday. Yasser Arafat vowed to "defend our land and sacred places," and to stand by a demand that Palestinians be allowed to return to their homes in Israel. Also yesterday, Israel's attorney gen- eral ordered an unprecedented freeze on funding for settlement construction, saying the government broke a promise not to divert money to unauthorized settlement outposts in the West Bank. In Gaza, 20 Palestinians were hurt, four of them critically, when an Israeli helicopter gunship fired a missile during a raid of a refugee camp, doctors said. Sharon's disengagement plan won strong backing Wednesday from Presi- dent Bush. Israel would withdraw from all of the Gaza Strip and four small West Bank settlements, and impose a boundary on the Palestinians. While voicing support for an inde- pendent Palestinian state, Bush also gave unprecedented U.S. backing for Israel to hold on to some settlements in the West Bank. He also ruled out allow- ing Palestinian refugees to return to Israel after a Palestinian state is created. Those concessions enraged the Palestinians, who want an independent state in all of the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem, area Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast war. Arafat did not directly refer to Bush's speech yesterday, but said that "our destiny is to defend our land and sacred places and our rights in freedom and independence and the return of the refugees ... to their homeland." Palestinian leaders held a series of meetings to try to gather interna- tional support. AP PH-OTOI A Palestinian supporter of Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement bums a Israeli flag yesterday afternoon during a demonstration in the Bureij Refugee Camp in central Gaza Strip. t9$ fewest e4partment l&~mmunity in e/nn eAr/or * Minutes from U of M, downtown, and major freeways * 1-2-3 bedroom apartment homes (with 1-3 bathrooms!) * Unique, Spacious floor plans with vaulted ceilings and wood-burning fireplaces * Pool, hot tub, dry sauna, tennis court, 24/7 fitness center, in home washer/dryer * On the bus route ra ouor someone youl care about We are here *been sexually ~ fr you- SAPAC: (734) 936-3333 (24- hours) or (734) 998-9368 (days) CAPS: (734) 764-8312 (days) SAFE House (24-hours): (734) 995-5444 Ask about UM Business School Specials! Appartments starting at $900 Check us out on the web at www.habitat.com OpenSa Fam -pm Sa loa - 4{ The U of M Men's Glee Club ad in April 15th edition of The Michigan Daily contained an error. The ad should have read: Professor Stephen Lusmann, Director We apologize for our error. The Michigan alyA dvertising Department LONDON Europe rejects truce offer from bin Laden Key European nations, including Iraq war opponents Germany and France, vigorously rejected a truce offer purport- edly from Osama bin Laden yesterday, saying there could be no negotiating with his al-Qaida terrorist network. Many saw the audiotaped offer as an attempt to drive a wedge between the United States and its European allies, and one analyst said it might contain a message to militants to hold back on attacks against Europe. The tape, which the CIA said is likely to an authentic recording of bin Laden, was broadcast on Arab TV stations offer- ing "a truce ... to any country which does not carry out an onslaught against Muslims or interfere in their affairs." In Italy, a nation shocked by the killing of an Italian civilian captured by mili- tants in Iraq, Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said it was "unthinkable that we may open a negotiation with bin Laden." SEOULI VP challenges Asia to pressure N. Korea Vice President Dick Cheney chal- lenged Asian powers yesterday to do more to contain North Korea's nuclear program, saying that letting it grow unchecked could spark a new arms race in the region and create a weapons bazaar for terrorists. "We must see this undertaking through to its conclusion" Cheney told a university audience in Shanghai, China. "Time is not necessarily on our side." He expressed clear frustration with the current diplomatic stalemate before flying to South Korea, his last stop of a weeklong Asia trip. The speech was carried by China's state television without deletions or blackouts, which U.S. officials took as an encouraging sign of change. WASHINGTON FBI warrants have risen since 2001 The number of secret surveillance warrants sought by the FBI has increased 85 percent in the past three years, a pace that has outstripped the Justice Depart- ment's ability to quickly process them. Even after warrants are approved, the FBI often does not have'enough agents or other personnel with the expertise to conduct the surveillance. The"FBIstill is tying tbVtatiklV a cadre of translators who can under- stand conversations that are intercept- ed in such languages as Arabic, Pashto and Farsi. These findings are among those of investigators for the commission investi- gating the Sept. 11 attacks. - Compiled from Daily wire reports 0 0 6 ,t ake ./utage RB # OF ANN /ARBOR..'., I tiitt U Itl 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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