2A -The Michigan Daily - Monday, September 12, 2005 NEWS Ie*tdL The Pentelligent Choice' www.pentel.com New Orleans turning corner Reopening of airport, receding waters counted as signs of progress NEW ORLEANS (AP) - Workers here were picking up trash yesterday, a small miracle under the circum- stances. The airport opened to cargo traffic. A bullhorn-wielding volun- teer led relief workers in a chorus of "Amazing Grace." Nearly two weeks after Hurricane Katrina's onslaught, the day was marked by signs that hopelessness was beginning to lift in this shattered city. While the final toll from the disaster remains unknown, there were indica- tions New Orleans had begun to turn a corner. "You see the cleaning of the streets. You see the people coming out," said the volunteer with the bullhorn, Nor- man Flowers. "The people aren't as afraid anymore." Flowers, deployed by the Southern Baptist Convention, stood in the bed of a pickup truck on Canal Street, leading police, firefighters and relief workers in song, punctuated by the exuberant honk of a fire truck nearby. "This is a sign of progress," said New Orleans resident Linda Taylor, gesturing at the impromptu gather- ing. "Last Sunday, I couldn't find any church services. This Sunday, people have gathered together to worship." Numerous residents were able to visit their homes for the first time, however briefly, as floodwaters reced- ed and work crews cleared trees, debris and downed telephone poles from major streets. Albert Gaude III, a Louisiana State University fisheries agent, was among those returning for the first time since the storm. "They wouldn't let us in before, but we made it now and we could drive all the way here with no prob- lem," he said. President Bush planned to fly to New Orleans late yesterday and spend the night. Today, he plans to tour the devastated town of Gulfport, Miss. The Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport reopened for cargo traffic yesterday, and limited passenger service was expected to resume tomorrow, airport director Roy Williams said. Williams said he expects about 30 departures and arrivals of passenger planes a day - far below the usual 174 - at the airport, where a week ago ter- minals became triage units and more than two dozen people died. Trash collection began over the weekend, a service unimaginable in the apocalyptic first days after Katrina's fury battered the Gulf Coast and broke holes in two levees, flooding most of New Orleans. Mayor C. Ray Nagin was asked on NBC's "Meet the Press" whether New Orleans could stage Mardi Gras in February 2006. "I haven't even thought that far out yet," he said. But he added, "It's not out of the realm of possibilities. ... It would be a huge boost if we could make it happen." Nagin declined to say when the city might be drained of floodwaters. "But I always knew that once we got the pumps up, some of our sig- nificant pumps going, that we could accelerate the draining process," he said. "The big one is pumping sta- tion six, which is our most powerful pump, and I am understanding that's just about ready to go." The city's main wastewater treat- ment facility will be running today, said Sgt. John Zeller, an engineer with the California National Guard. "We're making progress," Zeller said. "This building was underwater yesterday." David Smith, a volunteer firefighter from Baton Rouge, said it's a sign of progress that people like him are now in New Orleans aiding the city's recovery. "We are helping people get the medicine they need," Smith said. "People who haven't been able to get prescriptions filled. That's a big step forward." r """"-""""-"-"""" ""- I WASHINGTON Specter: Abortion won't be litmus test WASHINGTON (AP) - The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee said yesterday he will not ask chief justice nominee John Roberts whether he would vote to overturn Roe v.s. Wade, the decision that legalized abortion. Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) did say he planned to ask Roberts, the president's pick to succeed the late William H. Rehnquist as chief justice, whether there is a right to privacy in the Constitution. Roberts's confirmation hearing to be the nation's 17th chief justice will begin this afternoon. The first day, however, is expected to be taken up by the opening statements of the committee's 18 senators. Roberts is not expected to speak late this afternoon. Specter said yesterday he was uncertain whether Roberts would favor overturning the Roe v.s. Wade decision from 1973 that established a right to abortion. Specter supports a woman's right to choose to end her pregnancy. "I think it is inappropriate to ask him head-on if he's going to overturn Roe, but I believe that there are many issues close to the issue, like his respect for precedent," Specter said. TOKYO Koizumi's party headed for landslide * Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi scored a political triumph yesterday as the long-ruling Liberal Democratic Party headed for a landslide win in an election touted as a referendum on his push to privatize Japan's cash-swollen postal system. Initial returns and exit polls by major Japanese media had Koizumi's party . on course to possibly win its biggest-ever proportion of seats in parliament's W lawmaking 480-seat lower house. As of early Today, public broadcaster NHK gave the LDP 291 seats, far more than the 241 needed for a majority. Combined with the allied New Komei Party, the ruling coalition had more than 320 seats - a two-thirds majority that would let it override votes by the upper house, the body that blocked postal restructuring last month. NHK predicted the LDP could win as many as 309 seats, far more than the 249 it held when Koizumi dissolved the chamber Aug. 8. The most it ever held was 300 of the body's then-512 seats in 1986. NEVE DEKALIM, Gaza Strip Israel decides not to raze Gaza synagogues Israeli troops lowered their nation's flag and snapped farewell photos in the final phase of the historic Gaza pullout yesterday, as thousands of Palestinian troops, onlookers and gunmen assembled nearby, eager to take control after 38 years of Israeli military occupation. The first army convoys left Gaza after sundown yesterday. Military jeeps and armored bulldozers drove slowly through the Kissufin crossing point, marking the beginning of the end of Israel's presence in Gaza. But the withdrawal, code-named "Last Watch," was overshadowed by { Israeli-Palestinian disputes, including those over border arrangements and Israel's last-minute decision not to demolish Gaza synagogues. The army was forced to cancel a formal handover ceremony, initially set for yesterday, after angry Palestinians said they would not show up. There also was concern about last-minute bloodshed. A 12-year-old boy was among four Palestinians wounded by Israeli army fire when a crowd got 0 too close to the abandoned Gush Katif bloc of Jewish settlements. TAL AFAR, Iraq U.S. forces kill 150 in insurgent stronghold TAL AFAR, Iraq (AP) - Insurgents staged a classic guerrilla retreat from Tal Afar yesterday, melting into the countryside through a network of tunnels to escape an Iraqi-U.S. force that reported killing about 150 rebels while storming the militant bastion. With the city swept clear of extremists for the second time in a year, Iraqi and U.S. military leaders vowed to redouble efforts to crush insurgents operating all along the Syrian frontier and in the EuphratesRivervalley. "Tal Afar is just one piece of an overarching operation. We are not going to tolerate a safe haven anywhere in Iraq," said Army Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, deputy chief of staff for coalition forces in Iraq. - Compiled from Daily wire reports. I 01 420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1327 www.michigandaily.com JASON Z. 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