2 - The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, September 29, 2004
NATION/WORLD
Hamas may be
challenging
Arafat in election
NEWS IN BRIEF
'HEADLINES FROM A
.
Y . .
RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP)
- Palestinians marked the fourth anni-
versary of their uprising yesterday amid
signs that the extremist Hamas group is
preparing a political challenge to Yasser
Arafat despite a series of Israeli military
blows at the movement's leadership.
Hamas published newspaper ads urging
supporters to vote in upcoming municipal
elections, saying "it's time for change." A
Hamas leader indicated the group might
try to unseat Arafat in presidential elec-
tions, which have not yet been scheduled.
Meanwhile, Palestinian militants
released an Arab-Israeli television pro-
ducer for CNN a day after his abduction
in the Gaza Strip. It remained unclear
why he was taken hostage.
The kidnappingcoupled with Hamas's
electoral challenge, were apt reflections
of the state of affairs in the West Bank
and Gaza Strip after four years of fight-
ing with Israel. The violence has left
Arafat's Palestinian Authority severely
weakened, leading to widespread chaos
and boosting Hamas' popularity.
"We need an evaluation of these
four years," Palestinian Prime Minis-
ter Ahmed Qureia said. "Where have
we been right and where have we been
wrong? What did we achieve and what
didn't we achieve?" Qureia also called
on Israel to reassess its policies.
The uprising erupted on Sept. 28, 2000,
after Ariel Sharonthen Israel's opposition
leader, visited a sensitive Jerusalem hilltop
revered by both Jews and Muslims. Pal-
estinian riots broke out, and five months
later Sharon defeated Ehud Barak in a
special election for prime minister.
The fighting has taken a heavy toll on
both sides, killing more than 3,000 Pal-
estinians and nearly 1,000 Israelis.
In the latest violence, about 30 Israeli
tanks moved into northern Gaza yes-
terday night and fired several shells,
witnesses said. The military said the
purpose was to try to stop militants
from shooting rockets at nearby Israeli
towns. Earlier, the Israelis blew up a
building next to the Gaza settlement of
Netzarim, sa ying it contained a tunnel
used by militants. No casualties were
reported in either incident.
Israel appears to have the upper hand in
the fighting. It has confined Arafat to his
West Bank headquarters for three years
and killed hundreds of leading militants.
The Palestinian economy is in tatters.
In a sign of Palestinian weariness, a
recent opinion poll by An-Najah Uni-
versity found that two-thirds of Pales-
tinians support a cease-fire with Israel.
"The uprising has not been defeated,
but it has not brought victory. Frankly,
it is now closer to defeat than victory,"
commentator Hani al-Masri wrote in
the Palestinian daily Al Ayyam.
BAGHDAD, Iraq
Seven hostages freed by insurgents
Kidnappers released two female Italian aid workers and five other hostages
yesterday, raising hopes for foreigners still in captivity. But insurgents showed
no sign of easing their blood-soaked campaign against the U.S. presence in
Iraq, staging a show of defiance in Samarra and striking twice with deadly
force in Basra.
Three Egyptian telecommunications workers abducted last week were among
those freed yesterday, their parent company, Orascom, announced in Cairo. A fourth
Egyptian in the group was released Monday and two others remain hostage.
It was unclear what prompted the two separate groups of kidnappers to release
their captives, including two Iraqis who had been seized with the Italian women,
and whether any ransom was paid.
The Italians were wearing full black veils that revealed only their eyes as they
were received by the Italian Red Cross in a Baghdad neighborhood, according
to video broadcast by the Arab news station Al-Jazeera.
Looking dazed but smiling, Simona Torretta lifted her veil and repeated,
"Thank you," in Arabic. Simona Pari hesitated before also lifting her veil.
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla.
Mental health centers filled after hurrcane
It's not just roofs that have come apart and walls that are falling down. After four
AP PHOTO
CNN producer Riad All is greeted by members of his family upon his arrival
in Mrar, his village in northern Israel, late yesterday, a day after being kid-
napped.
N. Korea claims to have nuclear arms
hurricanes in six weeks, many people in Florida are suffering emotional break-
downs. Mental health centers have been flooded with calls from people distraught,
depressed or anxious, and authorities say suicides and domestic violence are up in
some places.
At an enormous, crowded relief station at a fairgrounds, one woman climbed out
of her car before she reached the end of the line and began screaming, "I can't take
this anymore! I don't want to do this anymore!" Relief workers calmed her before
taking her to a hospital for treatment.
For another woman, Delores Davis, the stress started taking its toll three weeks
ago after Hurricahe Frances smashed her windows, flooded her carpets and forced
her to throw away food she could not afford to replace.
This week, after Hurricane Jeanne took a swipe at her apartment over the week-
end, she found herself waiting again at a relief station under a relentless sun. She
managed to get a bag of ice, but wondered where she might find water or a meal for
her three children. Relief workers had no answers.
WASHINGTON
Court to decide on gov't seizure of property
The Supreme Court agreed yesterday to decide when governments may seize peo-
ple's homes and businesses for economic development projects, a key question as cash-
strapped cities seek ways to generate tax revenue. At issue is the scope of the Fifth
Amendment, which allows governments to take private property through eminent
domain, provided the owner is given "just compensation and the land is for public use."
Susette Kelo and several other homeowners in a working-class neighborhood
in New London, Conn., filed a lawsuit after city officials announced plans to raze
their homes to clear the way for a riverfront hotel, health club and offices. The resi-
dents refused to budge, arguing it was an unjustified taking of their property.
They argued the taking would be proper only if it served to revitalize slums or
blighted areas dangerous to the public.
WASHINGTON
New $50 bill released, changes pled to $10
Coming to cash registers near you: Colorful new $50 bills sporting splashes of red,
blue and yellow. Next up for a makeover, the government said yesterday: $10 bills.
That would bring to three the number of greenbacks to undergo the color treat-
ment in an effort to thwart counterfeiters. The new $10 is expected to be unveiled
this spring and put into circulation in fall 2005, Thomas Ferguson, director of the
Bureau of Engraving and Printing, said.
Alexander Hamilton, the nation's first treasury secretary, is expected to stay on the
front of the new $10, officials said. Various efforts have emerged toput former Presi-
dent Ronald Reagan on either the $10 bill or the $20 bill, or possibly the dime.
01
UNITED NATIONS (AP) - North
Korea says it has turned the plutonium
from 8,000 spent nuclear fuel rods into
nuclear weapons to serve as a deterrent
against increasing U.S. nuclear threats
and to prevent a nuclear war in north-
east Asia.
Warning that ue
the danger of war --. We hav
on the Korean
peninsula "is
snowballing," wasted fue
Vice Foreign
Minister Choe and transf
Su Hon provided
details Monday them into
of the nuclear
deterrent that he
said North Korea
has developed for Vice
self-defense.
In Washington,
a State Department
official said the administration takes
Choe's claim seriously but added that
it is impossible to verify in the absence
of independent inspectors at North
Korea's nuclear sites.
The official, asking not to be identified,
noted that the administration has said
previously that North Korea has enough
plutonium for the manufacture of several
nuclear bombs.
alreadyChoe told
the U.N. Gen-
ve
Zd 8,000
l rods
ormed
arms.
- Choe Su Hon
e Foreign Minister,
North Korea.
eral Assembly's
annual ministe-
rial meeting that
Pyongyang had
"no other option
but to possess a
nuclear deter-
rent-' - because
of U.S. policies
that he claimed
were designed to
"eliminate"North
Korea and make
it "a target of pre-
to cope with the ever increasing U.S.
nuclear threats and further, prevent a
nuclear war in northeast Asia," he told
a news conference after his speech.
The United States has said it has no
plans to attack the communist country.
In his General Assembly speech and
at the press conference with a small
group of reporters, Choe blamed the
United States for intensifying threats
to attack the communist nation and
destroying the basis for negotiations to
resolve the dispute over Pyongyang's
nuclear program.
He said North Korea is still ready to
dismantle its nuclear program if Wash-
ington abandons its "hostile policy"
and is prepared to coexist peacefully.
At the moment, however, he said
"the ever intensifying U.S. hostile
policy and the clandestine- nuclear-
related experiments recently revealed
in South Korea are constituting big
stumbling blocks" and make it impos-
sible for North Korea to participate in
the continuation of six-nation talks on
its nuclear program.
North Korea said earlier this year
that it had reprocessed the 8,000 spent
nuclear fuel rods and was increasing
its "nuclear deterrent" but did not pro-
vide any details.
Choe was asked at the news confer-
ence what was included in the nuclear
deterrent. "We have already made clear
that we have already reprocessed 8,000
wasted fuel rods and transformed them
into arms," he said, without elaborat-
ing on the kinds or numbers.
When asked if the fuel had been
turned into actual weapons, not just
weapons-grade material, Choe said,
"We declared that we weaponized this.",
South Korean Deputy Foreign Min-
ister Lee Soo-hyuck said in late April
that it was estimated that eight nuclear
bombs could be made if all 8,000 spent
nuclear fuel rods were reprocessed.
Before the reprocessing, South Korea
said it believed the North had enough
nuclear material to build one or two
nuclear bombs.
0
emptive nuclear strikes." Y
"Our deterrent is, in all its intents
and purposes, the self-defensive means
- Compiled from Daily wire reports
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