2A - TheMichiganDaily-_Monday,_February_7,_2005 NATION/WORLD THIS WEDNESDAY, CAN HOW YOU THE LEAD MOVEMENT TO END EDUCATIONAL INEQUITY. Wednesday, February 9 7 . 30-9:00 pm Michigan Union, Anderson C&D Iraqs Shiites may win landslide BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Facing the prospect of a Shiite Muslim landslide, Sunni politicians offered on Saturday to participate in mapping the nation's polit- ical future. But Sunni rebels showed no sign of compromise, killing three U.S. troops and at least 33 Iraqis in a string of attacks. Officials of the Shiite-led coalition that has rolled up a big lead in last week- end's elections said it wants the prime minister post in the upcoming gov- ernment - casting doubt on chances that U.S.-backed Prime Minister Ayad Allawi can keep his job. Meanwhile, police questioned the driver and translator of Italian journal- ist Giuliana Sgrena, who was seized by gunmen Friday near Baghdad Univer- sity - the first reported kidnapping of a foreigner since the Jan. 30 vote. But police said the two were not suspects in her abduction. Allawi, Whose ticket is running a dis- tant second in election returns so far, had been seen as a possible compromise candidate if the Shiites and their allies don't win the two-thirds of the 275 National Assembly seats needed to pick the government. But the United Iraqi Alliance - a Shiite-led group whose leaders have ties to Iran - appeared confident it would have to be given the top spot. "The Alliance would like to get either the position of the president or the prime minister and it prefers that it be that of the prime minister," Redha Taqi, a top official in one of the coalition factions, told The Associated Press. The presidency is a largely ceremo- nial post, currently held by a Sunni Arab, Ghazi al-Yawer. Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani has announced his can- didacy for president, and the Kurds are likely to end up as one of the top three blocs in the assembly. Shiites and Kurds suffered under Saddam Husse- in's regime and are expected to work together in the assembly. The Iraqi election commission released no new election returns Saturday, but predicted it would announce final vote totals by Thurs- day. The National Assembly must elect a president and two vice presi- dents by a two-thirds majority. The three in turn select a prime minister subject to assembly approval. Partial returns from about 35 percent of the 5,200 polling centers showed the Alliance, which was endorsed by Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, with about two-thirds of the votes to 18 percent for Allawi, a secular Shiite. Shiites are believed to make up two-thirds of Iraq's 26 million people. Most of those returns were from Shi- ite provinces where the Alliance, whose leaders have links to Iran, had been expected to run strong. No returns have been announced from much of Baghdad and from heavily Sunni Arab or Kurd- ish provinces. But many Sunnis apparently stayed at home on election day, heeding boy- cott calls by hard-line clerics or fearing insurgent attacks. That has raised fears that the Sunni Arab minority, estimated at 20 percent of the population, may not accept a new Shiite-dominated govern- ment, fueling the Sunni-led insurgency. In a bid to avoid marginalization, a group of Sunni Arab parties that refused to participate in the election said Satur- day they want to take part in the drafting of a permanent constitution - a chief task of the new National Assembly. "The representatives of these politi- cal bodies that did not participate in the elections have decided in principle to take part in the writing of the perma- nent constitution in a suitable way," a statement from the group said. NEW'S IN BRIEF r. . ..., JERUSALEM Rice to meet with Palestinian PM The United States will ask Israel to make "hard decisions" as it moves toward peace with the Palestinians, and both sides must live up to their prom- ises, Condoleezza Rice said yesterday during her first trip to the Middle East as secretary of state. Rice's two-day visit to Israel and the West Bank headquarters of the newly elect- ed Palestinian government is meant to nudge both sides to take hold of what Rice called. "a time of opportunity" and end four years of war. Rice met privately yesterday with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, the for- mer warrior turned potential peacemaker. Today, she plans to visit with the Pales- tinians' new president, Mahmoud Abbas. "We will ask of our partners and our friends here in Israel that Israel continue to make the hard decisions that must be taken in order to promote peace and help the emergence of a democratic Palestinian state," Rice said yesterday. Rice did not go into specifics. But among the major challenges are what to do about Israeli outposts on land that Palestinians eventually would control; the fate of the contentious separation barrier Israel is building between itself and the West Bank; and new security arrangements with the Palestinians. WASHINGTON Bush to present budget to Congress President Bush's $2.5 trillion budget is shaping up as his most austere, trying to restrain spending across a wide swath of government from popular farm subsidies to poor people's health programs. Vice President Dick Cheney defended the plan yesterday against Demo- cratic criticism that Bush had to seek steep cuts in scores of federal programs because he is unwilling to roll back first-term tax cuts that opponents contend primarily benefited the wealthy. The budget's submission to Congress tomorrow will set off months of 0 intense debate. Lawmakers from both parties can be expected to vigorously fight to protect their favorite programs. "This is the tightest budget that has been submitted since we got here," Cheney told "Fox News Sunday." "It is a fair, reasonable, responsible, serious piece of effort. It's not something we have done with a meat ax, nor are we suddenly turning our backs on the most needy people in our society." LOME, Togo Togo clears legal path for appointed president Togo's parliament hastily amended the constitution yesterday to put a legal veneer on the military's appointment of 39-year-old Faure Gnassingbe to replace his deceased father as president, voiding the need for new elections until 2008. The military, within hours of the announcement of Gnassingbe Eyadema's death on Saturday, named his son president, contravening the country's constitution that called for the speaker of parliament to succeed the head of state until elections could be held in 60 days. The extraordinary session of the 81-member national assembly, dominated by Eyadema's ruling Togo People's Rally party, overwhelmingly approved Gnassing- be as speaker of parliament. It then passed a constitutional amendment allowing him to fulfill his father's term, which expires in 2008. GENEVA Firms may face charges in oil-for-food scam : f , Companies that bought Iraqi oil from traders who allegedly spent billions of dollars to bribe Saddam Hussein for contracts under the U.N. oil-for-food program now could be implicated in the vast web of corruption uncovered in the investiga- tion by former Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker, a Swiss criminal lawyer told The Associated Press yesterday. The alleged payoffs to win Iraqi contracts amounted to as much as $2.5 billion, Mark Pieth said in an AP interview. "We are trying to find out who paid the surcharges eventually," said Pieth, one of three commission members leading a probe into allegations of corruption in the program. Volcker heads the investigation and issued an interim report last week in New York. Pieth was interviewed by telephone in New York where he joined Volcker for the release of the report. 0 - Compiled from Daily wire reports i~ut U tl 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. Additional , copies may be picked up at the Daily's office for $2. Subscriptions for fall term, starting in September, via U.S. mail are $105. Winter term (January through April) is $110, yearlong (September through April) is $190. University affiliates are subject to a reduced subscription rate. On-campus subscriptions for fall term are $35. Subscriptions must be prepaid. The Michigan Daily is a member of The Associated Press and The Associated Collegiate Press. ADDRESS: The Michigan Daily, 420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109- 1327. 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