2 - The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, October 25, 2005 NATION/WORLD Courtney Watson, 14, surveys her neighborhood in Everglades, Fla., which was flooded by the waters of the Gulf of Mexico driven in by Hurricane Wilma on Monday. Wilma devastates with winds over NAPLES, Fla. (AP) - Hurricane Wilma plowed into southwest Florida early yesterday with howling 125 mph winds and dashed across the state to the Miami-Fort Lauderdale area, blowing out windows in skyscrapers, peeling away roofs and knocking out power to millions of people. At least one death in Florida was blamed on the storm. The same storm that brought ruin over the weekend to resort towns along Mexico's Yucatan Coast came ashore in Florida as a strong Category 3 hur- ricane, but within hours had weakened into a Category 2 with winds of 105 mph. Early in the afternoon, it was back up to Category 3 with 115 mph winds as it swirled out in the open Atlantic. As it made its away across the state, Wilma caused widespread damage, flat- tening trees, tearing off screens, break- ing water mains, littering the streets with signs and downed power lines, and turn- ing debris into missiles. Officials said it was the most damaging hurricane to hit the Fort Lauderdale area since 1950. "We have been huddled in the liv- ing room trying to stay away from the windows. It got pretty violent there for a while," said Eddie Kenny, 25, who was at his parents' home in Plantation near Fort Lauderdale with his wife. "We have trees down all over the place and two fences have been totally demol- ished, crushed, gone." In Cuba, rescuers used scuba gear, inflatable rafts and amphibious vehicles to pull nearly 250 people from their flooded homes in Havana after Wilma sent huge waves crashing into the capital city and swamped neighborhoods up to four blocks inland with 3 feet of water. In Cancun, Mexico, troops and fed- eral police moved in to control looting at stores and shopping centers ripped open by the hurricane, and hunger and frustration mounted among Mexicans and stranded tourists. President Vicente Fox announced plans to start evacuating some 30,000 frazzled tourists even as he worked to restore the profitable image of a carefree beachfront paradise. Wilma, Florida's eighth hurricane in 15 months and the 21st storm in the busi- est Atlantic hurricane season on record, came ashore in Florida at 6:30 a.m. EDT near Cape Romano, 22 miles south of Naples, spinning off tornadoes and bringing a potential for up to 10 inches of rain, the National Hurricane Center said. The hurricane is expected to race up the Atlantic Seaboard and reach the coast of Canada by early tomorrow. Forecasters said that it should stay largely offshore along most of the East Coast, but another storm system com- ing in behind it from the west could bring heavy rain to New England and Florida L2,5 mph the Mid-Atlantic states today. The storm flooded large sections of Key West and other areas and knocked out power to up to 3.2 million homes and businesses as it rushed across the state and buffeted heavily popu- lated Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties on the Atlantic coast with gusts of more than 100 mph. In Fort Lauderdale, the hurricane blew out windows in numerous sky- scrapers. In downtown Miami, broken glass from skyscrapers littered some streets and sidewalks in the Brickell Avenue financial district. A broken water main sprayed about 15 feet in the air, flooding four or five blocks of the avenue with up to 6 inches of water. A gust was clocked at 104 mph at the National Hurricane Center in Miami, causing howling even in the bunker-like building. In Weston, near Fort Lauderdale, Kim DuBois sat in her darkened house with her two children and husband, with the power out and the storm shutters up. For light they used a battery-powered pumpkin lantern they bought for Halloween. "I could hear tiles coming off the roof," she said. "There are trees on cars and flooding at the end of our street." She added: "Really what I'm afraid of is tornadoes." Bombing near hotel m hu 02 Iraq's national security advisor said the attackers were deliberately trying to take over hotel BAGHDAD (AP) - Three mas- sive vehicle bombs exploded yesterday near the Palestine Hotel, home to many Western journalists, killing at least 20 people. Dramatic TV pictures showed one of the bombers driving a cement truck through the concrete blast walls that guard the hotel, then blowing up his vehicle. Iraq's national security adviser, Mou- wafak al-Rubaie, said the attack - which appeared well-planned - was a "very clear" effort to take over the hotel and seize journalists as hostages. One of the car bombs exploded near the police position on the northeast side of Firdous Square, where a statue of Saddam Hussein was toppled in April 2003 shortly after the fall of Baghdad, and more than 100 yards east of the hotel. Security officials said a third bomb struck the area around the same time. All three were believed to be sui- cide attacks. "Three cars came from three differ- ent roads in succession to create secu- rity breaches for terrorists," al-Rubaie told The Associated Press in a telephone interview, adding that they were armed with rocket-propelled grenades and light arms. "The plan was very clear to us, which was to take security control over the two hotels, and to take the foreign and Arab journalists as hos- tages to use them as a bargain." The U.S. military said no U.S. troops were injured. It counted 10 dead Iraqis. A U.S. Bradley Fighting Vehicle parked inside the compound was destroyed in the blast. No one was inside at the time. The security adviser said at least 40 people were injured, most of them pass- ers-by. Another official, Deputy Interior Minister Hussein Kamal, said four or five Iraqi police were among the dead. APTN footage showed that one of three vehicle bombers had penetrated the concrete blast walls surrounding the hotel compound before exploding. The cement mixer exploded in a huge ball of flame and a cloud of smoke. Iraqi security officials said the blasts occurred two minutes apart, not long before Muslims marking the Islamic holy month of Ramadan were prepar- ing to break their daylong fast. Shortly before the explosion, a truck came under fire nearby, according to APTN. The attacks caused heavy damage to the south side of the 18-story Palestine Hotel, forcing journalists, including those from AP, Fox News and the U.S. government-funded Alhurra TV station to take refuge in the corridor. Fox and Alhurra said their employees were safe. An AP photographer at a checkpoint at the northwest corner of the hotel said at least three photographers from other media outside the hotel were injured and taken away by ambulance. Two AP employees and three other journalists inside the hotel suffered minor injuries. The AP counted six wounded inside the hotel, which was last hit in an insur- gent rocket attack on Oct. 7, 2004. Inside the hotel, light fixtures were blown out, pictures were blasted off the walls and windows were shattered. Moments before the second blast, journalists, photographers and techni- cians were walking up and down hazy corridors in a state of confusion, urging each other to remain calm, put on flak jackets, and to stay away from windows. Thicker clouds of smoke filled the far end of one hallway, with many people coughing and waving their hands. The second explosion shook the building momentarily. Confusion and panic again set in, with those inside debating whether to exit, but all eventually deciding to stay in the corridor and sit propped against walls, most in flak jackets. Sounds resembling gunshots could be heard outside. Strips of floorboards were strewn about and air vents were blown in. Capt. Patricia Brewer, a U.S. mili- tary spokeswoman in Baghdad, said they could hear the blasts from their headquarters. A Pentagon spokes- man, Lt. Col. Barry Venable, said the U.S. military sent in a quick reaction force to the site to assist the police. Elsewhere in Baghdad, suspected insurgents opened fire at two civilian cars, killing three municipal workers 'H A LNSWASHINGTON Bernanke nominated for Fed Chair President Bush yesterday selected Ben Bernanke, chairman of the president's Council of Economic Advisers, to replace Alan Greenspan as Fed chairman, an administration official said. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the nomination had not yet been announced. Bush was to announce his choice at 1 p.m. EDT, said White House spokesman Scott McClellan. Greenspan, who took over in August, 1987, wraps up his term as chairman Jan. 31. Asked about Greenspan's successor, Bush said, "We'll be making an announce- ment soon." Bernanke, 51, is a former member of the Fed board. He also was a professor at Princeton University and chairman of the economics department. Bernanke and Greenspan differ on whether the Fed should set targets for infla- tion, but otherwise they share a similar philosophy. In fact, while he was at the Fed, market observers would often look at Bernanke's speeches for insight into Greenspan's thinking. WASHINGTON Report looks into deaths of detainees WASHINGTON (AP) - At least 21 detainees who died while being held in U.S. custody in Iraq and Afghanistan were killed, many during or after interroga- tions, according to an analysis of Defense Department data by the American Civil Liberties Union. The analysis, released yesterday, looked at 44 deaths described in records obtained by the ACLU. Of those, the group characterized 21 as homicides and said at least eight resulted from abusive techniques by military or intelligence officers, such as strangulation or "blunt force injuries," as noted in the autopsy reports. The 44 deaths represent a partial group of the total number of prisoners who have died in U.S. custody overseas; more than 100 have died of natural and violent causes. In one case, the report said, a detainee died after being smothered during inter- rogation by military intelligence officers in November 2003. In another case cited by the report, a prisoner died of asphyxiation and blunt force injuries after he was left standing, shackled to the top of a door frame, with a gag in his mouth. WASHINGTON Bush will not release conversation records President Bush said yesterday that he will not release any records of his conversations with Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers that could threaten the confidentiality of the advice that presidents get from their lawyers. And a Democratic senator called on the beleaguered nominee to give the Senate her income tax records. Both Republicans and Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee are demanding more documents about Miers, including from her work at Bush's counsel. "It's a red line I'm not willing to cross," Bush said of White House records. JERUSALEM Palestinian fugitive killed in West Bank violence Israeli troops killed a top Palestinian fugitive and a close accomplice in a West Bank shootout yesterday, prompting threats of "unprecedented" revenge by the violent Islam- ic Jihad group. The wanted man, Luay Saadi, was the leader of Islamic Jihad's military wing ir the West Bank and was blamed for the deaths of 12 Israelis in a series of attacks it recent months. Saadi, 30, was killed in a hail of bullets as he fired on troops during at attempted escape from a hide-out, an Israeli army commander said. - Compiled from Daily wire reports CORRECTION A story in Monday's edition of the Daily (Icers tie Spartans in tough 'battle') incorrectly stated that Travis Turnbow had a short-handed chance in Saturday's hockey game. The story should have said that Travis Turnbull created the short-handed opportunity. Please report any error in the Daily to corrections@michigandaily.com. 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