2A - The Michigan Daily - Thursday, March 10, 2005 NATION/WORLD Women, children among corpses found by security forces in Iraq NEWS IN BRIEF I I ' 1 11CL- V L' U1' 1\V - Cl\w V 1 L I E vv "A~Alt IW Suicide bomber, gunman blast hotel. wound 30 Americans BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Iraqi authorities found 41 decomposed bodies - some bullet-riddled, others beheaded - at sites near the Syrian border and south of the capital, and said yesterday they included women and children who may have been killed because insurgents thought their families were collaborating with U.S. forces. In Baghdad, a suicide bomber driving a garbage truck loaded with explosives and at least one other gun- man shot their way into a parking lot in an attempt to blow up a hotel used by Western contractors. At least four people, including the attackers and a guard, were killed. The U.S. Embassy said 30 Americans were among 40 people wounded in the blast. No Americans were killed. In an Internet statement, al-Qaida in Iraq pur- portedly claimed responsibility for the attack on the Sadeer hotel, calling it the "hotel of the Jews." While Sunni Arab insurgents have repeatedly targeted Westerners in Iraq, Shiite Muslims, top Iraqi offi- cials and civil servants, even Muslim women are no longer safe. Decapitated bodies of women have begun turning up in recent weeks, a note with the word "collaborator" usually pinned to their chests. Three women were gunned down Tuesday in one of Baghdad's Shiite neighborhoods for being alleged collaborators. And in the northern city of Kirkuk, a woman identified as Nawal Mohammed, who worked with U.S. forces, was killed in a drive-by shooting, police said. The decomposed bodies were found Tuesday after reports of their stench reached authorities. Twenty-six of the dead were dis- covered in a field near Rumana, a village 12 miles east of the western city of Qaim, near the Syrian border. Each body was riddled with bullets. The dead were found wearing civilian clothes and one was a woman, police Capt. Muzahim al-Karbouli said. The other site was south of Baghdad in Latifiya, where Iraqi troops found 15 headless bodies in a building at an abandoned army base, Defense Min- istry Capt. Sabah Yassin said. The bodies included 10 men, three women and two children. Their iden- tities, like the others found in western Iraq, were not known, but insurgents may have viewed them or their rela- tives as collaborators. JERICHOWest Bank Jericho handover remains unresolved Israeli and Palestinian security commanders failed in two meetings to reach agreement yesterday on the handover of this West Bank town to Palestinian security control. The dispute, which threatens to deal a setback to a Feb. 8 truce agreement, cen- ters on the scope of the Israeli pullback, particularly whether Israel would remove the main army checkpoint at the entrance of town. With a new envoy heading to the region, an American official raised the possibility of U.S. intervention. Plans to hand over Jericho and the town of Tulkarem in the coming days were announced Tuesday, after a late-night meeting between Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas. Security commanders met for just 20 minutes yesterday to discuss the details of the Jericho handover. Ismail Jaber, the Palestinian commander, said disagreements remained, and that negotiations would continue. A second meeting broke up at nightfall with no agreement. Israeli forces had rarely operated in Jericho and Tulkarem in recent months. The Palestinians want surrounding areas to be included as well, but Israel has balked at removing major army checkpoints on the outskirts of these towns. BELFAST, Northern Ireland U.S. envoy to IRA: It is time to disband In its bluntest criticism yet of the Irish Republican Army, the Bush administra- tion told the IRA it should disband following the outlawed group's offer to shoot four men - including two recently expelled members - responsible for killing a Catholic civilian. Yesterday's call from the U.S. envoy to Northern Ireland, Mitchell Reiss, came a week ahead of St. Patrick's Day when, for the first time in a decade, leaders of the IRA's Sinn Fein party will not be guests of the White House. This year, the invitations are going elsewhere - to the five sisters of the IRA's most recent victim, Robert McCartney, a 33-year-old forklift operator and nightclub bouncer. "It's time for the IRA to go out of business. And it's time for Sinn Fein to be able to say that explicitly, without ambiguity, without ambivalence, that criminality will not be tolerated," Reiss said. He particularly questioned Sinn Fein's claim that most IRA activities - including robbing banks and shooting petty criminals in the limbs - should not be considered crimes. AP PHOTO Louise Fawcett, right, of Bettendorf, Iowa, embraces her boyfriend, Army com- bat engineer, Pfc. Sean Frantz, 19, of Davenport, Iowa, Sunday. a-- - - a a - - - Pro-Syrian official to forSOLebaneseWoscow PgovtBasayev may undermine chance for peace 0 Unofficial vote gives former premier Karami backing of legislature BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) - Leba- non's pro-Syrian prime minister, who was forced to resign last week by oppo- sition protests, was virtually assured of being asked to form the next govern- ment after a majority of lawmakers backed him yesterday. An unofficial count gave Omar Karami more than half the votes in the 128-member legislature. A formal announcement by President Emile Lahoud, who consulted with legisla- tgrs is expected very soon. By early evening, 70 of the 78 legislators who met with Lahoud advised him to restore Karami, according the legislators as they left the presidential palace. Opposition lawmakers only sent two representatives and did not put forward a name when they met with Lahoud. Instead, they reiterated their demands for the new government: the complete withdrawal of Syrian troops and intelligence officials from Leba- non, the resignation of Lebanese secu- rity officials they deem as negligent and a thorough investigation into the Feb. 14 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. Nominating Karami again as prime minister is sure to enrage the opposi- tion, who led weeks of protests against Syria. Karami has been leading a care- taker government since then. Damascus is eager to keep its hold on the Lebanese leadership as it pulls its forces back to the Bekaa Valley, near the Syrian border, and negotiates with the government in Beirut on the troops' full removal. "Nobody can get Syria out from Lebanon's heart and mind." - A banner at the protest rally in Beirut, Lebanon In Damascus, tens of thousands of people took over the main streets, sing- ing national songs and proclaiming their loyalty to President Bashar Assad. One banner addressed to the president read: "We are all with you, who makes the right decisions." Thousands of Syria's red, white and black flags with its two green stars streamed in the wind. "We sacrifice obr blood and our souls for you, oh Bashar!" chanted marchers in the upscale Mez- zeh neighborhood, "Nobody can get Syria out from Leb- anon's heart and mind," a banner read., "No for antagonist pressures against Syria," another said. The rally came a day after Syria's allies in Lebanon made a thundering show of their strength, with hundreds of thousands turning out for a protest orga- nized by the Shiite Muslim Hezbollah guerrilla group to denounce pressure from the United States, France and the United Nations. The redeployment was the first phase of a plan announced Monday by Assad and Lahoud. The 14,000 Syrian troops in Lebanon are to pull back to the east- ern Bekaa Valley, then to the border before both sides work out their depar- ture from Lebanon. The killing of top Chechen rebel Aslan Maskhadov leaves the insurgency largely in the hands of Shamil Basayev, the most brutal of the warlords - a development that could undermine any chance of peace even as the Kremlin celebrates a success in the long conflict. Yesterday, there was uncertainty over what the death might mean, with Russia facing the fundamental question of how much an insurgency depends on its leaders - a dilemma faced by Israel in the targeted killings of key Palestinian militants and the United States in the hunt for the top men in al-Qaida. Russia hopes the Chechen insurgency might be hobbled, with a series of militant leaders systematically eliminated over the years. SANTA MARIA, Calif. Accuser testifies against Michael Jackson Michael Jackson's young accuser took the witness stand yesterday, facing the singer in court for the first time as he described looking at pornography with the pop star accused of molesting him. With an expression that appeared to verge on a sneer, the young cancer survivor said yes when District Attorney Tom Sneddon asked him if he recognized the defendant. The 15-year-old accuser followed his 14-year-old brother, who testified he saw Jackson grope his sibling in 2003. The boy gave the same account his brother had of looking at sexually explicit Web sites on their second night at Neverland after their parents gave them permission to sleep in Jackson's room. He said it was Jackson's idea that they sleep in his room. a - Compiled from Daily wire reports -44 . 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. 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