*I 2A - The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, April 20, 2004 NEWS Bush appoints U.N. diplomat as Iraq ambassador Negroponte to become main lason to Baghdad once US. hands overpower to interim Iraqi government WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush named John Negroponte, the United States's top diplomat at the Unit- ed Nations, as the U.S. ambassador to Iraq yesterday and asserted that Iraq "will be free and democratic and peaceful ." Bush announced the nomination in an Oval Office cer- emony. At the United Nations, Negroponte, 64, was instru- mental in winning unanimous approval of a Security Council resolution that demanded Saddam Hussein com- ply with U.N. mandates to disarm. While the resolution helped the Bush administration make its case for invading Iraq, the Security Council eventually refused to endorse the overthrow of Saddam, opting instead to extend U.N. weapons searches. "John Negroponte is a man of enormous experience and skill" and "has done a really good job of speaking for the United States to the world about our intentions to spread freedom and peace," Bush said. Regarding Negroponte's new post, the president said there is "no doubt in my mind he can handle it, no doubt in my mind he will do a very good job and there's no doubt in my mind that Iraq will be free and democratic and peaceful." Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Dick Lugar (R-Ind.) supports the nomination and said he will work with Secretary of State Colin Powell to provide a prompt public hearing for Negroponte. If confirmed by the Senate, Negroponte would head a U.S. embassy in Baghdad that will be temporarily housed in a palace that belonged to Saddam. When up and running, the embassy will be the largest in the world. Negroponte would become ambassador in Baghdad when the United States hands over political power to an interim Iraqi government by a June 30 deadline. The current top U.S. official in Iraq, L. Paul Bremer, is expected to leave the coun- try once the political transition is completed. Thousands of U.S. troops will remain in the country even after the political transition is complete. As U.N. ambassador in New York, Negroponte also helped win approval of a resolution to expand the mandate of an international security force in Afghanistan after the overthrow of the Taliban government. Before that, he worked in private business. Negroponte's nomination for the U.N. post was con- firmed by the Senate in September 2001, but that confir- mation didn't come easy. It was delayed a half-year mostly because of criticism of his record as the U.S. ambassador to Honduras from 1981 to 1985. In Honduras, Negroponte played a prominent role in assisting the Contras in Nicaragua in their war with the left- wing Sandinista government, which was aligned with Cuba and the Soviet Union. For weeks before his Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing, Negroponte was questioned by staff members on whether he had acquiesced to human rights abuses by a Honduran death squad funded and partly trained by the Cen- tral Intelligence Agency. Negroponte testified that he did not believe the abuses were part of a deliberate Honduran government policy. "To this day," he said, "I do not believe that death squads were operating in Honduras." NEWS rIN ;BRIEF HEADLINES FROM AROUND THE WORLD WASHINGTON Court may overturn 100 death sentences A case considered by the Supreme Court yesterday could overturn death sentences of more than 100 inmates, the most far-reaching capital punishment issue this term in a follow-up to a 2002 ruling that made juries, not judges, final arbiters of the death penalty. Capital punishment cases often are the most dramatic at the high court, but the justices were subdued as they contemplated ordering new sentences for convicted killers in at least four states. The court ruled two years ago that the constitutional right to a trial by jury means that jurors should weigh factors that determine whether a particular killing merits death or life in prison. Now the court must decide whether to apply that to old cases. Justice Stephen Breyer said he worried about "the spectacle of the man going to his death having been sentenced in violation of that principle." The court will settle the matter in the case of Arizona prisoner Warren Wes- ley Summerlin, sentenced more than 20 years ago by a judge who later lost his job because of a drug problem, one of several elements that makes the case read like pulp fiction. WASHINGTON Report suggests McVeigh had accomplices A Secret Service document written shortly after the 1995 Oklahoma City bomb- ing described security video footage of the attack and witness testimony that sug- gested Timothy McVeigh may have had accomplices at the scene. "Security video tapes from the area show the truck detonation 3 minutes and 6 seconds after the suspects exited the truck," the Secret Service reported six days after the attack on a log of agents' activities and evidence in the Oklahoma investigation. The government has insisted McVeigh drove the truck himself and that it never had any video of the bombing or the scene of the Alfred P. Murrah building in the minutes before the April 19, 1995, explosion. Several investigators and prosecutors who worked the case told The Associated Press they had never seen video footage like that described in the Secret Service log. The document, if accurate, is either significant evidence kept secret for nine years or a misconstrued recounting of investigative leads that were often passed by word of mouth during the hectic early days of the case, they said. AP PHOTO An Iraqi man searches through the rubble of his mortar bombed house In Faliujah, Iraq, yesterday. Civic leaders in Fallujah joined American officials in calling for insurgents to agree to peace yesterday. Iratqi officials, U.S. call for peace agree-ment BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Fallujah's civic lead- ers joined American officials yesterday in calling for insurgents battling Marines here to surrender their heavy weapons in return for a promise not to resume the U.S. offensive against the city, accord- ing to a U.S. spokesman. The commitments appeared to be the first fruits of direct negotiations between U.S. officials and a group of civic leaders and professionals represent- ing Fallujah residents. They have influence with Sunni insurgents who have been fighting Marines, who have besieged the city. Much now depends on how guerrillas respond. Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt warned that if the deal falls apart, Marines are prepared to launch a final assault, meaning a resumption of heavy fighting after days of calm. "It would appear there is an agreed political track," he told reporters. "There is also a very clear understanding ... that should this agreement not go through, Marines forces are more than prepared to carry through with military operations." President Bush scolded Spain's new prime minister for his swift withdrawal of Madrid's 1,300 troops from Iraq and told him to avoid actions that give "false comfort to terrorists or "There is also a very clear understanding ... that should this agreement not go through, Marines forces are more than prepared to carry though with military operations.' - Brig. Gen Mark Kimmitt enemies of freedom in Iraq." Late last night Honduras followed Spain, with President Ricardo Maduro announcing the pull- out of his troops "in the shortest time possible," confirming U.S. fears. Also yesterday Albania pledged more soldiers, but U.S. officials are brac- ing for further withdrawals. Bush expressed his views in a five-minute telephone call with Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, who on Sunday ordered the 1,300 troops to return home as soon as possible. The troops will withdraw in four to five weeks, according to Polish Gen. Mieczyslaw Bieniek, the commander of a multinational peacekeeping force. He told Poland's PAP news agency that soldiers from El Salvador, Honduras and the Dominican Republic would take over Spanish duties. Bush "expressed his regret to President Zapatero about the decision to abruptly announce the pull- out of Spanish troops from Iraq," White House press secretary Scott McClellan said. Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Moratinos told the newspaper El Pais that Zapatero's government will honor Spain's pledges at the recent Iraq Donor's Conference and help in Iraq's reconstruc- tion and transition to democracy. PITTSBURGH Airport may receive security exemption Pittsburgh International could become the nation's first major airport to get the OK to abandon the post-Sept. 11 rule that says only ticketed passengers are allowed past security checkpoints. Federal security officials are consid- ering allowing people once more to say their hellos and goodbyes to friends and loved ones at the gate. Airport officials and western Pennsyl- vania's congressional delegation have pushed for two years for the change for reasons of money and passenger conven- ience. What happens here could become a model for other airports. "This is new, this is exciting, because we're basically rewriting the security directives in order to allow nonticketed passengers to go through security," said JoAnn Jenny, spokeswoman for the Allegheny County Airport Authority. THE HAGUE, Netherlands Court reduces Serb, gene's sentence In a historic verdict that will resonate in the trial of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, a U.N. appeals court affirmed yesterday that Bosnian Serbs committed genocide at the U.N.- protected zone of Srebrenica in 1995, but cleared a Serb general of being a "principal perpetrator" and reduced his sentence. The war crimes tribunal, however, convicted Gen. Radislav Krstic of the lesser crime of "aiding and abetting genocide." It found that he assisted in the massacre of thousands of Bosnian Muslims but did not intend to wipe out the Muslim community. Krstic's August, 2001 genocide con- viction was the first in Europe by an international court since the destruction of European Jewry in the Holocaust by the Nazis. LONDON Shell execs 'tired' of lying about reserves A top executive of Royal Dutch/Shell Group of Cos. wrote in an e-mail that he was "sick and tired about lying" about the company's inflated oil and gas reserves estimates, an investigation com- missioned by Shell reported yesterday. The inquiry found some Shell bosses knew for almost two years the company had publicly overstated the size of its reserves. The shaken oil giant also announced its chief financial officer had stepped down, the latest in a string of high-level casualties since Shell's announcement in January that its confirmed oil and gas holdings were much smaller than claimed. - Compiled from Daily wire reports t£ o4 V an' I-oP\ a~wa .tuatc- zr rcua tcKasdanS Arthur M VChambe The Den Helen S. 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