2A - The Michigan Daily - Monday, November 14, 2005 NATION/WORLD Iraqi woman confesses on TV Wife of suicide bomber carried explosives that failed to detonate AMMAN, Jordan (AP) - The Iraqi wife of a suicide bomber made a chilling confession on Jordanian state TV yester- day, saying she also tried to blow herself up during a hotel wedding reception last week but the explosives concealed under her denim dress failed to detonate. Sajida Mubarak Atrous al-Rishawi, 35, made her statement hours after being arrested by authorities tipped off by an al-Qaida in Iraq claim that a husband-and- wife team participated in last Wednesday's bombings at three U.S.-based hotels. The attackers killed 57 other people at the Radisson SAS, Grand Hyatt and Days Inn hotels. Al-Rishawi's brother was once the right- hand man to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Jordanian leader of al-Qaida in Iraq, said deputy premier Marwan Muasher. He said the brother, Mubarak Atrous al-Rishawi, was killed in the former terrorist strong- hold of Fallujah, Iraq. Officials believe al-Rishawi, who entered Jordan from Iraq on Nov. 5, may provide significant information about the operations of al-Zarqawi's group, which claimed responsibility for the hotel bomb- ings, Jordan's deadliest terrorist attacks. The group said the attacks were retaliation for Jordan supporting the United States and other Western powers. Al-Rishawi was shown on state televi- sion wearing a white head scarf, a but- toned, body-length dark denim dress, and belts packed with TNT and ball bearings. Muasher told CNN the belts were captured with her. AI-Rishawi said she and her husband, Ali Hussein Ali al-Shamari, 35, were wearing explosive-laden belts when they strolled into a Radisson ballroom where hundreds of guests, including children, were attending a Jordanian-Palestinian wedding reception. "My husband wore a belt and put one on me. He taught me how to use it, how to pull the (primer cord) and operate it," she said, wringing her hands. "My husband detonated (his bomb). I tried to explode (my belt) but it wouldn't. I left, people fled running and I left running with them." Muasher said al-Rishawi's husband noticed her struggle and pushed her out of the ballroom in order not to attract atten- tion before blowing himself up. After a second showing of the tape, a TV announcer cited security officials as saying the woman gave no further details because "she was still suffering from the shock of the blasts and her subsequent arrest." Al-Rishawi was arrested yesterday morning at a "safe house" in the same Amman suburb where her husband and PARIS Rioting in France winding down France's worst rioting since the 1960s seems to be nearing an end, the nation- al police chief said yesterday as fewer cars were torched nationwide and Pais remained calm despite Internet and cell phone messages urging violence in the capital's streets. In scattered attacks, youths rammed a burning car into a center for retirees in Provence and pelted police with stones in the historic heart of Lyon, the country's third biggest city. A firebomb was tossed at a Lyon mosque but did not explode. The nationwide storm of arson attacks, rioting and other violence, often by young people from impoverished minorities, has lost steam since the government declared a state of emergency Wednesday. Youths set fire to 374 parked vehicles before dawn yesterday, compared to 592 the previous night, police said. A week ago, 1,400 cars were incinerated in a single night. If the downward trend continues, "things could return to normal very quickly," National Police Chief Michel Gaudin said, noting that French youths burn about 100 cars on an average Saturday night. BAGHDAD Saddam trial will continue on schedule * Saddam Hussein's trial will resume on schedule despite the slaying of two defense lawyers and the threat by others to boycott the proceedings over an alleged lack rof security, a senior Iraqi judicial official said yesterday. The court is ready to appoint a new team if defense lawyers fail to appear, added Raid Juhi, a judge on the special tribunal trying the former dictator and others. Saddam's team said in a statement earlier in the day that about 1,100 Iraqi lawyers had withdrawn from the defense, arguing that inadequate protection was evident after the killings of two attorneys who were defending co-defendants of the ousted leader. The statement did not say if those lawyers included Saddam's chief Iraqi attorney, Khalil al-Dulaimi, but it said other team members continued their duties "under com- plex and dangerous circumstances." Al-Dulaimi suggested last week that defense law- yers would not show up for the next session Nov. 28. The attorneys who withdrew were among some 1,500 enlisted to help Sadda's defense, mostly researching legal precedents, preparing briefs and performing other tasks outside the courtroom, said Jordanian lawyer Ziad al-Khasawneh. Former President Bill Clinton talks to media while next to his wife, U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton, as they visit the damage of the Radisson SAS hotel, one of the three hotels bombed last Wednesday, in Amman Jordan. the other two bombers rented a furnished apartment, a top Jordanian security official said. Jordanian security was tipped off to her presence by al-Qaida in Iraq's claim of a female bomber, the official added, speak- ing on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to journalists. The group apparently assumed she was killed in the blasts. "There were leads that more people had been involved, but it was not clear that it was a woman and we had no idea on her nationality," the official said. AI-Rishawi, who is from the volatile Anbar province town of Ramadi, west of Baghdad, said on state TV that she entered Jordan from Iraq four days before the attacks with her husband and two other men using fake passports. She said they rode across the border in a white car with a driver and another passenger. KARNI CROSSING, Gaza Strip Mideast envoy says time is running out on deal A top Mideast envoy warned yesterday that time is running out for Israel and the Palestinians to wrap up a deal on opening the Gaza Strip's border crossings, saying it would be a "tragedy" if an agreement were not reached soon. The fate of the border crossings is one of the most important unresolved issues in the wake of Israel's unilateral withdrawal from Gaza in Septem- ber. Israel closed Gaza's border with Egypt shortly before the pullout and has restricted the movement of cargo into Israel, the main market for Pal- estinian goods. The Palestinians say reopening the crossings is essential to rebuilding Gaza's shattered economy, especially with the harvest season approaching. Israel first wants assurances that weapons and militants will not enter Gaza. JERUSALEM Rice rebukes Iranian leader over Israel remarks Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice gave her strongest rebuke yet yesterday t the renewed hardline Islamic leadership of Iran, saying that "no civilized nation"' can call for the annihilation of another. Rice was referring to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's remark last month that Israel is a "disgraceful blot" that should be "wiped off the map." Her words drew applause from politicians, diplomats and others gathered for a U.S.-Israeli symposium. "No civilized nation should have a leader who wishes or hopes or desiresof considers it a matter of policy to express that ... another country should be pushed into the sea," Rice said, speaking slowly and sternly. "It is unacceptable in the international system." - Compiled from Daily wire reports B CORRECTIONS ku Please report any error in the Daily to corrections@michigandaily.cqm. wr £ilbignBaIu 420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1327 www.michigandaily.com 'S JASON Z. 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