2 - The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, October 27, 2004 NATION/WORLD Gaza withdrawal plan approved NEWS IN BRIEF .AL Z i. JERUSALEM (AP) - Prime Min- ister Ariel Sharon won a historic vic- tory yesterday whentparliament voted to approve his plan to withdraw from the Gaza Strip and parts of the West Bank - the first time lawmakers have authorized the removal of Jewish set- tlements from lands the Palestinians claim for a state. The 67 to 45 vote, with seven absten- tions, gave strong backing to Sharon's plan to evacuate 21 settlements in the Gaza Strip, where 8,200 Jewish settlers live amid 1.3 million Palestinians, and four in the West Bank. "I think that the prime minister of Israel had a great victory tonight," Vice Premier Ehud Olmert told CNN. Sharon won with the help of dovish opposition parties. Many members of his center-right coalition, as well as religious opposition parties, voted against him. Sharon had hoped a strong victory such as the one he securedyesterday would allow him to fend off settlers' calls for a national referendum on the plan - something the prime minister has denounced as a delaying tactic by his opponents. However, immediately after the vote four key Likud ministers who had voted in favor demanded Sharon call a refer- endum or said they would resign from the government. Sharon's victory came a day after he surprised both detractors and supporters by giving a speech accusing settlers of suffering from a "messianic complex" and telling Palestinians that Israel has no desire to rule over them. Thousands of Jewish settlers demon- strated outside the Knesset, or parliament, in a boisterous show of force yesterday, denouncing Sharon as a traitor. "I came here to tell the people of Isra- el that this is our land and my home," said David Pinipnta, 31, of the Gaza settlement of Neve Dekalim. "No power on earth can move me from it." Sharon entered the parliament build- ing surrounded by an unprecedented 16 bodyguards - reflecting security offi- cials' fears of an attack by right-wing extremists who believe the prime min- ister is forsaking God's will by giving up parts of the biblical Land of Israel. Posters outside the Knesset declared that "Sharon has disengaged from real- ity" and "the evacuation of settlements is a victory for terror." The parliament vote took place on the anniversary of two events that embodied the Jewish state's history of bloodshed and yearning: the assassina- tion of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin nine years ago on the Jewish calendar and the Israel-Jordan peace treaty, signed on Oct. 26, 1994. Notably absent from Israel's debate on withdrawing from Palestinian ter- AP PHOTO A Palestinian man prays over bodies of 12 men, killed in an Israeli army operation, during their funeral yesterday in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip. Israeli troops withdrew from the refugee camp yesterday. ritories are the Palestinians themselves, whom Israel accuses of being unreliable negotiating partners. Palestinian Cabinet Minister Saeb Erekat said Israel should not be making unilateral decisions about the Palestin- ians' future. "Now the seriousness of the Israeli government will depend on resuming negotiations with the Pales- tinian Authority," he said. Justice s cancer highlights election s impact on court PATTANI, Thailand Police arrest Muslims after riot; 78 die @ At least 78 Muslim detainees suffocated or were crushed to death after police rounded up 1,300 people and packed them into trucks following a riot in south- ern Thailand. Islamic leaders accused troops yesterday of overreacting and warned the deaths could worsen sectarian violence. The arrests followed a melee outside a police station, where protesters had demand- ed the release of six Muslim men accused of giving weapons to Islamic separatists. Six people were shot to death during the riot Monday, apparently by security forces. Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, speaking to reporters as rumors of the suf- focations circulated but before the 78 deaths were officially announced, tried to blame the casualties on dawn-to-dusk fasting during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. "There are some who died because they were fasting, and they were crammed in tight," Thaksin said. "It's a matter of their bodies becoming weak. Nobody did anything to them." But the death toll shocked moderate Muslim leaders who accused security forces of overreacting - a charge they have repeatedly made as the government has failed to halt the violence that has claimed more than 400 lives this year in the southern region. BAGHDAD, Iraq Allawi blames U.S. for soldiers' deaths Iraq's interim prime minister blamed the U.S.-led coalition yesterday for "great negligence" in the ambush that killed about 50 soldiers heading home after graduation from a U.S.-run training course, and warned of an escalation of terrorist attacks. Underscoring the warning, insurgents made a new threat of nationwide attacks against U.S. and Iraqi forces "with weapons and military tactics they have not experi- enced before" if American forces try to storm the militant stronghold of Fallujah. Prime Minister Ayad Allawi told the Iraqi National Council, a government over- sight body, that coalition forces' negligent handling of security was responsible for Saturday's deadly ambush along a remote highway near the Iranian border. "It was a heinous crime where a group of National Guardsmen were targeted," Allawi said. "There was great negligence on the part of some coalition forces." He said the Defense Ministry began an investigation into whether insurgents had infiltrated military ranks to obtain information about troop movements. KABUL, Afghanistan Counting ends in election with Karzai winner More than two weeks after Afghanistan's first presidential election, vote counting wrapped up yesterday and interim leader Hamid Karzai emerged with a resounding victory. With his inauguration to a five-year term a month away, the U.S.-backed Karzai already is under pressure to ditch his coalition with powerful warlords and tackle a booming narcotics industry that has become a major economic force in one of the world's poorest nations. Officials declared the vote count complete yesterday afternoon, giving some 1,500 weary staff at eight counting centers a well-earned rest in the middle of the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan. Investigators were still examining about 100 suspect ballot boxes, but the election's chief technical officer said the count was effectively "over and done." "It's just these last dribs and drabs to be approved," David Avery said. HAVANA Cuba to phase out reliance on U.S. currency Communist Cuba said "adios" to the Yankee dollar that shored up its strug- gling economy for a decade, launching a two-week process yesterday to elimi- nate the U.S. currency from its stores and businesses in response to stepped-up American sanctions. President Fidel Castro said widespread use of the currency of his country's No. 1 enemy, once seen as a necessary evil to stay afloat after losing Soviet aid and trade, would be halted to guarantee Cuba's economic independence. Cuba is "protecting itself from external economic aggression," Castro said in a statement he asked his top aide to read on state television Monday nightTh 78-year-old Castro was also there, looking animated despite falling last week. - Compiled from Daily wire reports MARKET UPDATE TUE. CLOSE CIANGE Dvw JoNEs 9,888.48 + 138.49 NASDAQ 1,928.79 + 4.75 S&P 500 1,111.09 + 16.29 WASHINGTON (AP) - Chief Justice William Rehnquist's hospitalization for cancer brings with it the prospect of the first Supreme Court vacancy in a decade and is prompting speculation about who might take his place. Rehnquist has been the court's conservative anchor for a generation. Even before his thyroid can- cer diagnosis, most believed the 80-year-old would step down in the next presidential term. The illness could speed that up, possibly even before the end of the Supreme Court's current term next sum- mer. If Rehnquist retires, whoever wins the presiden- tial election would pick the next leader of the court. "Since it's the chief justice who's ill, it suggests that conservatives have more to lose than liberals," said Douglas Kmiec, a Pepperdine University law professor and legal adviser for the Reagan and first Bush administrations. The Supreme Court had no more information yes- terday on Rehnquist's cancer, which was announced Monday in a brief statement. The type of cancer, how advanced it is and Rehnquist's prognosis have not been disclosed, though -the statement said the chief justice is expected on the bench when the court returns Monday. The court said Rehnquist underwent a tracheot- omy over the weekend at a hospital outside Wash- ington as part of his cancer treatment. Yosef Krespi, chairman of otolaryngology at St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital in New York, said only aggressive or com- plicated thyroid cancers require a tracheotomy. The court is weighted with more conservatives than liberals - but barely. Many of the closest cases, like the 2000 Bush v. Gore decision that gave Bush the presidency, are decided on 5-4 votes. If Bush wins, and Republicans keep their narrow control of the Senate, a Rehnquist retirement would give Bush the opportunity to promote a sitting jus- tice to chief justice, and put a new face on the court. Three of the court's conservative members would be good prospects: Sandra Day O'Connor, Clarence Thomas and Anthony Kennedy. While Thomas would be Bush's preferred candidate, the confirma- tion likely would be at least as brutal as in 1991 when Thomas was nominated by Bush's father and barely survived accusations of sekual harassient. U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist has been hospitalized with thyroid cancer., I Snier.. avoids death row with plea SPOTSYLVANIA, Va. (AP)-Teen- age sniper Lee Boyd Malvo accepted a deal yesterday in which he avoided the death penalty and was sentenced to life in prison without parole for one of 10 slayings that terrorized the Washington area in October 2002. Malvo, 19, is already serving a life sentence for another one of the killings, and dropped his appeals of that convic- tion in connection with yesterday's plea bargain. Malvo could still face a death penalty prosecution for other slayings. Malvo was sentenced yesterday for the Oct. 11, 2002, killing of business- man Kenneth Bridges. Under the plea deal, he also received an additional life sentence for the shooting of Caroline Seawell on Oct. 4, 2002. She recovered from her wounds. Malvo's guilty plea took the form of an Alford plea, in which Malvo did not admit factual guilt but acknowledged the government has sufficient evidence to convict him. He cannot appeal the sentence. Malvo declined to make a statement before he was sentenced. Spotsylvania Commonwealth's Attorney William Neely said he con- sulted with the victims' families and they supported the plea bargain. "He's spending the rest of his life in a maxi- mum security prison where he'll be locked down 23 hours a day, seven days a week for the rest of his life," Neely said. Malvo was convicted last year and sentenced to life in prison for the Oct. 14, 2002, murder of FBI analyst Linda Franklin, one of the sniper killings over a three-week span in Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C. His accomplice, John Allen Muhammad, is on Virginia's death row for one of the slayings. Neely said after yesterday's hearing that Malvo appeared to be heavily influ- enced by Muhammad. When Malvo was tried last varr his cawvers nut on www.michigandaily.com The Michigan Daily (ISSN 0745-967) is published Mondays during the spring and summer terms by students at the University of Michigan. Subscriptions for fall term, starting in September, via U.S. mail are $110. Winter term (January through April) is $115, yearlong (September through April) is $195. 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