2 - The Michigan Daily - Friday, September 16, 2005 NATION/WORLD Taxes cut for Katrna s " victims WASHINGTON (AP) - The House and Senate each passed tax cut bills yes- terday aimed at helping victims of Hur- ricane Katrina as government money continues to flow in response to the dev- astation. The tax cuts are designed to give people affected by the hurricane easier access to their retirement savings and to encourage charitable giving, among other incentives aimed at easing suffer- ing from Katrina. Each chamber passed its bill by a voice vote. Lawmakers still need to reconcile the minor House-Senate differences in the legislation before it can be sent to Presi- dent Bush for his signature. Lawmakers worked on the aid for New Orleans and other stricken areas as Bush prepared for his fourth trip to the region to give a nationally televised address yesterday night on his recovery and reconstruction plans. The House and Senate tax plan, among other steps, waives penalties for hurricane victims who tap into their retirement savings accounts, helps the working poor hold onto an earned income tax credit, and provides a tax AP PHOTO Sen. Barack Obama (D-ll.) discusses Hurricane Katrina relief efforts on Capitol Hill on Wednesday. Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) is at left and Sen. Thomas Carper (D-Del.) at right. break to anyone who houses evacuees for two months or more. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles Grassley also hoped to pass a bipartisan $5 billion to $7 billion plan to speed health care to those displaced by Katrina by easing rules for the Medic- aid federal health care program, though objections from unnamed senators had snagged the bill as off midday. And the Senate is likely to pass and send to Bush a House-passed bill to temporarily ease rules requiring wel- fare recipients to work 30 hours a week for their benefits while extending the overall welfare program through the end of the year. Separately, an amendment adopted Wednesday by the Senate on a voice vote would provide more than 350,000 families left homeless by Katrina with emergency housing vouchers averaging $600 a month for up to six months. Any displaced family, regardless of income, would be eligible for the pro- gram, which is slated to cost $3.5 billion over six months. The measure was attached to a spend- ing bill covering the departments of Commerce and Justice. The Senate was to pass the overall bill yesterday; a final version needs to be worked out with the treatment k x~ U i's S 5.,. $N#'"D. House, which has not voted on the hous- ing amendment. But Democratic and GOP aides said the expensive housing plan might not survive talks with the more conservative House. Also yesterday, Michael Brown, who resigned under fire as director of the Federal Emergency Management Agen- cy, was quoted criticizing the state of Louisiana's response to Katrina. "I never received specific requests for specific things that needed doing," Brown told The New York Times. Hours after the hurricane struck, Brown said, he told the White House that the situation was "out of control." 31 kiled mnew Baghdad attacks BAGHDAD (AP) - Suicide bomb- ers inflicted another day of mayhem in the capital yesterday, killing at least 31 people in two attacks about a min- ute apart that targeted Iraqi police and Interior Ministry commandos. The carnage left nearly 200 people dead just two days. A dozen bombings during a nine-hour spate of terror Wednesday killed at least 167 people and wounded nearly 600 - Baghdad's worst day of bloodshed since the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003. U.S. officials blamed the bombing onslaught on efforts by the Sunni Arab- dominated insurgency to answer the Iraqi army's successful offensive in the northern city of Tal Afar and to under- mine the Oct. 15 referendum on Iraq's new constitution. "These spikes of violence are predict- able around certain critical events that highlight the progress of democracy," said Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, the chief American military spokesman. "Remember, democracy equals fail- ure for the insurgency. So there has to be heightened awareness now as we work our way toward the referendum. That's power, that's movement toward democracy." Al-Qaida in Iraq, headed by Jorda- nian terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, claimed responsibility for the bombing campaign launched after an Iraqi-U.S. force of 8,500 soldiers stormed Tal Afar, an insurgent bastion, this week. NEW ORLEANS French Quarter set to reopen soon In a big step toward restoring the pulse and soul of flood-battered New Orleans, the mayor announced plans yesterday to reopen over the next week and a half some of the Big Easy's most vibrant neighborhoods, including the once-rollicking French Quarter. The move could bring back more than 180,000 of the city's original half-million residents and speed the revival of its economy, which relies heavily on the bawdy, Napoleonic-era neighborhood that is the home of Bourbon Street, Mardi Gras, jazz and piquant food. "The city of New Orleans ... will start to breathe again," a beaming Mayor Ray Nagin said. "We will have life. We will have commerce. We will have people get- ting into their normal modes of operations and the normal rhythm of the city." Nagin said the "re-population" would proceed ZIP code by ZIP code, starting Monday in the Algiers section, a Creole-influenced neighborhood across the Mis- sissippi River from the French Quarter. RAFAH, Egypt Palestinians breach wall, infiltrate Egypt Palestinians blasted holes in an Israeli-built wall and overwhelmed Egyptian troops on the Gaza border to flow by the hundreds into Egypt yesterday, foiling attempts to impose control after days of unhindered crossings. Israeli and Palestinian leaders expressed fears that militants and al-Qaida ter- rorists will infiltrate Gaza and Israel through the border, which has been open since Israeli troops withdrew from the Palestinian territory. Egypt had promised to reimpose border controls by yesterday evening, and in the morning several hundred policemen were deployed at the main crossing points - more than the few dozen seen over the past days. They allowed Palestinians to return to Gaza and managed to slow the number entering Egypt to a trickle for part of the day. But after hours of pushing and shoving at the Saladin border crossing in Rafah, the police line broke and hundreds of Palestinians crossed the border. Faced with the large crowds, many policemen gave up and the crossing became almost as open as it was in the past days. SALTER PATH, N.C. Hurricane Ophelia lingers at Outer Banks Hurricane Ophelia crawled along the North Carolina coast yesterday, prolonging its punishment of the Outer Banks with rain and wind as coastal residents else- where returned home to damaged homes and businesses. While the weakening storm's center was expected to stay just off shore, the northern side of Ophelia's eyewall, the ring of high wind surrounding the eye, could remain over the Outer Banks until midday today, the National Hurricane Center said. Ophelia was "just beating us to death," said Alton Ballance, who lives on the Outer Banks' Ocracoke Island, just south of Hatteras. TIJUANA, Mexico Tijuana passes new regulations for prostitutes Tijuana is cracking down on prostitutes by requiring them to pass monthly exams to detect sexually transmitted diseases, part of new standards aimed at protecting them and their clients and putting unsafe brothels out of business. The regulations amount to an open, official acknowledgment of what has long been a fact of life in this Mexican border city. Before, the few standards that existed were unwritten, which authorities say made them difficult to enforce. They includ- ed requiring prostitutes to submit to regular health exams, including three AIDS tests a year. - Compiled from Daily wire reports CORRECTION An editorial in Tuesday's edition of the Daily should have said the University of Wisconsin birth-control ban was passed by the state Assembly and is pending in the state Senate. The bill only explicitly addresses emergency contraception, although Wis- consin Attorney General Peggy Lautenschlager said it could be interpreted to include other forms of birth control. Please report any error in the Daily to corrections@michigandaily.com. 420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1327 www.michigandaily.com U 4 a I JASON Z. 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