2 - The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, January 11, 2005 NATION/WORLD Calif. mudslide leaves 12 missing NEWS IN BRIEF mum 'ubiU mia3'l1 I mIm umae- - rs '. LA CONCHITA, Calif. (AP) - A huge mudslide crashed down on homes in a coastal hamlet with terrifying force yesterday, killing at least one person and leaving up to 12 missing as a Pacific storm hammered Southern California for a fourth straight day. Ventura County Fire Department spokesman Bob Roper said at least six and as many as a dozen residents were missing in the mudslide that pummeled a four-block area of homes in tiny La Conchita, about 70 miles northwest of Los Angeles. Fifteen people were injured, some of whom were strapped into gurneys and car- ried to safety. The mudslide brought the number of dead from the latest wave of California storms to 10. The storms have sent rain- fall totals to astonishing levels, turning normally mild Southern California into a giant flood zone. The hillside in La Conchita cascaded down like a brown river as authorities were evacuating about 200 residents from the area. Trees and vegetation were carried away, leaving huge gashes of raw earth on the bluff. Some residents made their way from the area clutching pets, luggage or cloth- ing as the huge mass of mud bore down. Some huddled together or cried as they talked on cell phones. Fifteen to 20 houses were hit by the slide. La Conchita is a slip of a town pressed between a highway and a tow- ering coastal bluff. Several houses were damaged by a mudslide here during powerful storms in the 1990s. The destruction at La Conchita was the worst disaster of the storms to date, but mudslides and flooding were report- ed throughout the region, blocking road and rail travel and forcing a shutdown of interstate petroleum supply lines. The death toll also includes a 2- year-old girl who slipped from her mother's grasp as rescuers tried to hoist them from a car submerged on a road outside Los Angeles. Ava- lanches killed two people in Utah and one in Nevada - a 13-year-old snowboarder who was swept off a ski lift to his death. From the start of the latest dose of vio- lent weather on Friday through midday Yesterday, several mountainous areas in Southern California had recorded more than 20 inches of rain, including 26 inches in Nordhoff Ridge in the Ventura County mountains. The rain came on the heels of stormy weather that blasted the state earlier last week. The average amount of winter rainfall in downtown Los Angeles is 15 inches, but about 21 inches had fallen as of Yes- terday, including a Jan. 9 record of 2.6 inches, said National Weather Service meteorologist Bruce Rockwell. "I've never seen such a sustained event like this," Rockwell said. To the north in the Sierra Nevada, the storm produced heavy snow "I've never seen such a sustained event like this" - Bruce Rockwell National Weather Service meteorologist during the weekend that stalled an Amtrak train, shut down the airport at Reno, Nev., for the second time in a week, and halted highway travel across the mountain range. Since Dec. 28, up to 19 feet of snow has fallen at elevations above 7,000 feet in the Sierra Nevada, with 6 1/2 feet at lower elevations in the Reno area. Meteorologists said it was the most snow the Reno-Lake Tahoe area has seen since 1916. KABUL, Afghanistan Bin Laden may be hidig in .Afghanistan Osama bin Laden may be hiding in Afghanistan, while followers of the former rul- ing Taliban who once harbored the al-Qaida leader appear to be fragmenting, a U.S. commander said yesterday. Col. Gary Cheek, who controls U.S. forces in eastern Afghanistan, told The Associ- ated Press that bin Laden and other key militant leaders could be in his area of respon- sibility, a swath of the country flanking the rugged Pakistani border. Cheek said the number of foreign fighters facing his forces was not "significant" and that most operated near the rugged Pakistani frontier, the zone most widely touted as a hiding place for bin Laden and his right-hand man, Ayman al-Zawahri. Forces loyal to Taliban commanders such as Jalaluddin Haqqani and renegade war- lord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, who has joined the ousted militia in vowing to drive out foreign troops, pose a larger military threat than the foreign fighters Cheeck said. BAGHDAD, Iraq Al-Qaida bombing kills police deputy Gunmen yesterday assassinated Baghdad's deputy police chief and his son, police said, and al-Qaida in Iraq later claimed responsibility. Elsewhere in the capital, a huge roadside bomb destroyed a U.S. armored vehicle and killed two American sol- diers, the military said. The Bradley Fighting Vehicle is one of the more heavily armored U.S. military vehicles, suggesting that the roadside bomb was more powerful than those typically used in recent months. The Defense Department said last week that insurgents were increasing the size and power of the bombs they plant as they escalate their attacks before the Jan. 30 election. Four American soldiers also were wounded in the blast. It came four days after another powerful roadside bomb hit a Bradley, killing all seven U.S. soldiers inside and destroying the vehicle. Bush says Abbas welcome in U.S. WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush offered yesterday to meet at the White House with newly elected Pales- tinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, putting out a welcome mat that was never there for Yasser Arafat. Bush also congratulated Abbas in a telephone call and said, according to a spokesman, that he envisioned "a day when he and president-elect Abbas and Israel's leaders could stand together and say, 'We have peace.' " Still, Bush gave no sign that he was relenting in the demands he had made of Abbas's late predecessor - that the Palestinian leader fight terror against Israel and put together a strong security system to support that stance. Bush extended an invitation for Abbas to visit the White House when Abbas "felt it was a good time to come," said press secretary Scott McClellan. They did not discuss specific dates. Proposals by Europeans and others that Bush jump in quickly to press for an Israeli rollback on the West Bank appar- ently did not impress the administration, despite the emergence of a Palestinian leader who has called for an end to the violent uprising against Israel. British Prime Minister Tony Blair's offer during a visit to Ramallah to host a one-day Mideast conference did draw support from the administration as a way to promote Palestinian democracy. The president does not plan to attend but is likely to send a top official to London for the parley, a U.S. official said. Bush is hopeful the conference will help inspire democratic change within the Palestinian movement, said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity. An Abbas meeting with Bush at the White House would not be their first. When Abbas was prime minister of the Palestinian Authority, before a falling out with Arafat, he visited the White House for a working lunch and news conference in July 2003. He also attended a summit with Bush and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in Aqaba, Jordan, that June. Still in place after Sunday's election is the U.S.-backed "roadmap" for peace- making, which former U.S. mediator Dennis Ross said could be a vehicle for progress if more of its principles were implemented. These include Palestinian arrests of violent militants and the elimination of illegal Israeli outposts on the West Bank, Ross said at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. Bush, at the White House, said, "I think it's going to be very important for Israel to fulfill its obligation on the withdrawal from the territories that they have pledged to withdraw from." FORT HOOD, Texas Guard testifies in Abu Ghraib prison case A military guard testified yesterday that he saw Spc. Charles Graner Jr. punch an Iraqi detainee in the face a moment after a notorious photo was taken at Abu Ghraib prison. Another witness said Graner was "laughing and having a good time" while mak- ing naked prisoners pose. Spc. Matthew Wisdom, the first witness in Graner's prisoner abuse court-mar- tial, said Graner was among a number of guards who roughed up detainees on Nov. 7, 2003. Graner is the first soldier to be tried in the case, and prosecutors say he was the ringleader of the abuse. Testimony got under way yesterday after opening statements. Wisdom described a prominent photo from Abu Ghraib that showed the muscu- lar Graner holding a detainee as if he were about to strike him in the face. NEW YORK CBS fires four over National Guard story CBS issued a damning independent review yesterday of mistakes related to last fall's "60 Minutes Wednesday" report on President Bush's National Guard service and fired three news executives and a producer for their "myopic zeal" in rushing it on the air. The review said CBS compounded the damage with a circle-the-wagons mental- ity once the report came under fire. The independent investigators added, however, that they found no evidence of a political bias against Bush. CBS News President Andrew Heyward and Dan Rather, who announced in November he was stepping down as the anchor of "CBS Evening News," escaped without any disciplinary action. But Rather, who narrated the Sept. 8 story and subsequent follow-ups, was criticized by CBS chief executive Leslie Moonves. - Compiled from Daily wire reports MARKET UPDATE MON. CLOSE CHANGE DOW JONES 10,621.03 + 17.07 NASDAQ 2097.04 +8.43 S&P 500 1190.25 +4.06 0 6 A Newly elected Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas waves as be arves at Yasser Arafat's former headquarters Sunday. al J'I3hat I~tt 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. 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