2 - The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, October 12, 2005 NATION/WORLD U.S. to send aid to flooded zones TAMPA, Fla. (AP) - Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld approved the dispatch of military helicopters, food and other aid to help Central American nations inun- dated by massive mudslides mount recovery operations. Such catastrophes are too much for any country to handle alone, Rumsfeld said yesterday, en route to meetings he is h6sting in south Florida with security leaders from seven Central American countries. "It looks like it's a terrible natural disaster. It's heart- breaking." Rumsfeld said the mudslides were exactly the type of crisis that require the countries in Central America to work more closely together. He said cooperation would also let those nations better handle their security concerns, ranging from terrorism to narcotics and hostage-takings. U.S. assistance on the way to Gua- temala and other parts of the region includes a mix of nine Black Hawk and Chinook helicopters, mostly from bases in the region, with at least six other helicopters getting ready to go soon, Roger Pardo-Maurer, the deputy assistant secretary of defense for Western Hemisphere policy, told reporters. A medical unit from the Arkansas National Guard also was preparing to go. Pardo-Maurer said the United States was sending food, water, plastic sheet- ing, medical supplies and other equip- ment and would be helping to improve communications. The U.S. relief effort is being coor- dinated by Army Gen. Bantz Crad- dock. Rumsfeld was told that rain in the region was expected to continue another seven to 10 days. Rumsfeld also spoke with Gen. John Abizaid, chief of U.S. Central Command, yesterday to coordinate a wide range of additional relief efforts for victims of the deadly earthquake in Pakistan. Abizaid and Rumsfeld met with Pakistan's senior representative to Central Command's headquarters in Tampa, Brig. Gen. Ikram Haq, who told reporters that he believes that the outpouring of earthquake aid from Western nations will have a positive effect on Pakistani public opinion about the West. In addition to the 12 U.S. and four Afghan helicopters already available in Pakistan, the U.S. military had four more heavy lift helicopters en route, and had identified 36 more helicopters that were being prepared to go. The Army later announced at the Pentagon that it was sending 25 CH-47 Chinook helicopters to Pakistan from Fort Sill, Okla., Fort Hood, Texas, and Fort Drum, N.Y. The Army also is sending about 200 soldiers to provide support for the helicopter operations in Pakistan, plus a mobile surgical hospital and a water purification unit from U.S. bases in Europe. Disaster aid and illegal drugs and arms control problems across Central America will be key topics at the two- day conference in Key Biscayne, Fla. Officials also hope to encourage the Central American countries to devel- op a regional peacekeeping unit to help improve coordination on border AP PHOTO Guatemalans wade through floodwaters Monday after receiving food and water in the aftermath of Hurricane Stan. security, crime and disaster response. Rumsfeld stopped in Tampa to speak with troops at a town hall-style meeting at MacDill Air Force Base. He thanked them for the service and assured them that the United States and its allies will prevail in Iraq and Afghanistan. , The Central American ministers meeting, which begins today, comes just days after mudslides caused by torrential rains buried entire Mayan towns in Guatemala and killed hun- dreds of people across the region, including in El Salvador, Nicaragua, Honduras, Costa Rica and Mexico. "The purpose is really to look at regionwide cooperation in Central America," Pardo-Maurer said, adding that there is growing interest in devel- oping coordinated responses to drug trafficking, gang crime and illegal arms sales. Improving security, said Pardo- Maurer, will help boost economic development in the region. NEWS IN BRIEF 3 BAGHDAD Deal reached on Iraqi constitution Iraqi negotiators reached a breakthrough deal on the constitution yester- day, and at least one Sunni Arab party said it would now urge its followers to approve the charter in this weekend's referendum. Meanwhile, suicide bomb- ings and other attacks killed more than 50 people in the insurgent campaign aimed at intimidating voters. Under the deal, the two sides agreed on a mechanism to consider amend- ing the constitution after it is approved in Saturday's referendum. The next parliament, to be formed in December, will set up a commission to consider amendments, which would later have to be approved by parliament and sub- mitted to a referendum. The agreement boosts the chances that the draft constitution will be passed in Saturday's nationwide vote. Shiite and Kurdish leaders support the draft and the United States has been eager to see it approved to avert months more of political turmoil, delaying plans to start a withdrawal of U.S. forces. In return, the agreement guarantees Sunni Arabs the ability to try later to introduce major changes they want, aimed at reducing the autonomous pow- ers that Shiites and Kurds would have under the federal system created by the charter, negotiators said. WASHINGTON Al-Qaida plans to expand war in region In a letter to his top deputy in Iraq, al-Qaida's No. 2 leader says the United States "ran and left" in Vietnam and the jihadists must have a plan ready to fill the void if the Americans suddenly leaveIraq. "Things may develop faster than we imagine," Ayman al-Zawahri wrote in a letter to his top deputy in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. "The aftermath of the collapse of American power in Vietnam - and how they ran and left their agents - is notewor- thy.... We must be ready starting now." In a wide-ranging letter spanning more than 12 typed pages in the English transla- tion, al-Zawahri also recommends a four-stage expansion of the war that would take the fighting to neighboring Muslim countries. "It has always been my belief that the victory of Islam will never take place until a Muslim state is established ... in the heart of the Islamic world," al-Zawahr writes. The letter lays out his long-term plan: expel the Americans from Iraq, establish an Islamic authority and take the war to Iraq's secular neighbors, including Lebanon, Jordan and Syria. KABUL Insurgents ambush Afghan police convoy Suspected Taliban rebels ambushed a police convoy traveling on a mountain road in southern Afghanistan, killing 19 officers in the deadliest attack ever on the fledgling police force, officials said yesterday. Five other officers were missing and feared dead or kidnapped after the attack late Monday on the convoy of 150 police as they drove on a dirt road along the side of a mountain in Helmand province, Interior Ministry spokesman Yusuf Stanikzai said. Dozens of insurgents opened fire on the convoy, sparking a gunbattle that lasted until early yesterday, when the militants fled into the mountains, he said. Among the 19 dead was Helmand's deputy police chief, Stanikzai said. Four police officers were wounded and four police vehicles were destroyed, he said. WASHINGTON Frist held stock in family's hospital chain Outside the blind trusts he created to avoid a conflict of interest, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist earned tens of thousands of dollars from stock in a family-founded hospital chain largely controlled by his brother, docu- ments show. The Tennessee Republican, whose sale this summer of HCA Inc. stock is under federal investigation, has long maintained he could own HCA shares and still vote on health care legislation without a conflict because he had placed the stock in blind trusts approved by the Senate. However, ethics experts say a partnership arrangement shown in documents obtained by The Associated Press raises serious doubts about whether the senator truly avoided a conflict. - Compiled from Daily wire reports CORRECTIONS Please report any error in the Daily to corrections@michigandaily.com. le Alkbigrnlaigr 420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1327 www.michigandaily.com 0 r OW HIRI Start your Career at CarMax as a... 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