2A - The Michigan Daily - Thursday, September 22, 2005 NATION WORLD Rita may NEWS IN BRIEF devastate Texas GALVESTON, Texas (AP) - As many as 1 million people were ordered to clear out along the Gulf' Coast, and hospital and nursing home patients were evacuated yes- terday as Hurricane Rita turned into a Category-5, 165-mph monster that could slam Texas by the weekend and inflict more misery on New Orleans. Forecasters said Rita could be the most intense hurricane on record ever to hit Texas, and easily one of the most powerful ever to plow into the U.S. mainland. Category 5 is the highest on the scale, and only three Category 5. hurricanes are known to have hit the U.S. mainland - most recently, Andrew, which smashed South Florida in 1992. All of Galveston, low-lying sections of Houston and Corpus Christi, and a mostly emptied-out New Orleans were under mandatory evacuation orders, one day after Rita sideswiped the Florida Keys as a far weaker storm and caused minor damage. Having seen what Hurricane Katrina - a Category-4, 145-mph storm - did three weeks ago, many people were tak- ing no chances as Rita swirled across the Gulf of Mexico. "After this killer in New Orleans, Katrina, Ijust cannot fathom staying," 59-year-old Ldyyan Jean Jocque said before sunrise as she waited for an evacuation bus outside the Galveston Community Center. She had packed her Bible, some music and clothes into plastic bags and loaded her dog into a pet carrier. "I really think it is going to be bad. That's really why I'm running. All these years I've stayed here, but I've got to go this time," said 65-year-old Barbara Anders. "I don't have but one life, and it is time for me to go." The federal government was eager to show it, too, had learned its lesson after being criticized for its sluggish response to Katrina. It rushed hundreds of truckloads of water, ice and ready-made meals to the Gulf Coast and put rescue and medical teams on standby. Katrina death toll . Iraqi civilians rally against British Hundreds of Iraqi civilians and policemen, some waving pistols and AK-47s, rallied in the southern city of Basra yesterday to denounce "British aggression" in the rescue of two British soldiers. The Basra governor threatened to end all cooperation with British forces unless Prime Minister Tony Blair's government apologizes for the deadly clash with Iraqi police. Britain defended the raid. In London, British Defense Secretary John Reid and Iraqi Prime Minister Ibra- him al-Jaafari tried to minimize the effect of the fighting, saying it would not undermine the relationship between the two nations or their determination to lead Iraq to peace and democracy. But the fighting raised new concerns about the power that radical Shiite militias with close ties to Iran have developed in the region, questions about the role of Britain's 8,500-strong force in Iraq and doubts about the timetable for handing over power to local security forces. There has been disagreement about just what happened late Monday, when Brit= ish armor crashed into a jail to free two British soldiers who had been arrested by Iraqi police. WASHINGTON Roberts gains support from Senate Dems Chief Justice-nominee John Roberts, his confirmation secure, picked up support from fractured Senate Democrats yesterday as President Bush met lawmakers to discuss a second vacancy on the Supreme Court. The Senate Judiciary Committee's senior Democrat, Patrick Leahy of Vermont, announced his endorsement shortly after leaving the White House. That guaranteed bipartisan backing for Roberts in today's scheduled vote by the committee. But Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid, liberal stalwart Edward Kennedy, former presidential candidate John Kerry and New Jersey gubernatorial candidate Jon Corzine all are opposing Roberts. Their stand is evidence of the split among the Senate's 44 Democrats about whether they can or should mount even symbolic opposition to the successor of the'late Chief Justice William Rehnquist. Because Republicans control the Senate and the committee, majority support was assured for the vote and for confirmation next week in the full Senate. Some of the Democrats' liberal supporters hoped a strong vote against Roberts would signal to Bush that if he were to replace retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor with a far-right conservative, it would lead to a bigger fight in the Senate. VIENNA European Union extends reprieve to Iran Iran gained a reprieve in the standoff over its nuclear program yesterday, with diplomats saying the European Union had decided to postpone its push to refer Iran to the U.N. Security Council. The decision to delay a vote until a later board meeting of the Interna- tional Atomic Energy Agency instead of demanding one this week appeared driven by concerns about strong opposition. More than a dozen of the 35 IAEA board member nations meeting in Vienna - including Security Council members Russia and China - are against the idea. NEW YORK Immigrant accused of funneling money A Yemeni immigrant ice cream shop owner was found guilty yesterday of ille- gally funneling $21.9 million overseas in a case stemming from a major ter- rorism investigation. Abad Elfgeeh, 50, was accused of transmitting money around the world without a license from bank accounts linked to his tiny storefront in Brook- lyn. Elfgeeh was not charged with any terrorism-related crime, although pros- ecutors said his business was used by a Yemeni cleric convicted earlier this year of a scheme to fund al-Qaida and the Palestinian militant group Hamas. 0 01 0 reaches 1,000 - Compiled from Daily wire reports CORRECTIONS Please report any error in the Daily to corrections@michigandaily.com. NEW ORLEANS (AP) - Hur- ricane Katrina's death toll across the Gulf Coast climbed past the 1,000 mark yesterday, with the body count in Loui- siana alone reaching 799. The new figure of 1,036 was released as New Orleans braced for the outside possibility that Hurricane Rita, swirling across the Gulf of Mexico toward Texas with 150 mph winds, could swamp the city's damaged levees and inflict new misery on the Big Easy. Two busloads of people left town on Tuesday, but only one person showed up at the convention center yesterday to catch a bus out, despite Mayor Ray Nagin's mandatory evacuation order for the estimated 400 to 500 residents left in neighborhoods on the hard-hit east bank of the Mississippi River. "The majority of people who are back in the city came with their own vehicle. We expect them to go out in their own vehicle," said Spc. Amber Mangham, an military police officer stationed out- side the convention center. The forecast called for Rita to keep its distance from Louisiana and hit the central Texas coast by the weekend. Still,.the Army Corps of Engineers rushed to fortify the Katrina-fractured levees in case the storm took a sharp right turn. Engineers warned that the patched- up levees can only handle up to 6 inches of rain and a storm surge of 10 to 12 feet. "The protection is very tenuous at best," said Dave Wurtzel, a Corps offi- cial in charge of some of the repairs. Gov. Kathleen Blanco declared a state of emergency and told Louisian- ans to pray for a break from Rita. The death toll in Louisiana rose from 63 to 736, the state Health Department reported. Army Corps spokesman Mitch Fra- zier said the city was only about 10 percent flooded, down from 80 per- cent, with just isolated ponds left in sections of the city. In one area of eastern New Orleans, near the Six Flags amusement park, the 420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1327 www.michigandaly.com JASON Z. 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