2 - The Michigan Daily - Wednesda Peace ac Tape shows four Western civilians taken hostage by group BAGHDAD (AP) - Al-Jazeera broadcast video yesterday of four Western peace activists held hostage by a previously unknown group, part of a new wave of kidnappings police fear is aimed at disrupting next month's elections. The news station said the four were - seized by the Swords of Righteous- ness Brigade, which claimed they were spies working under the cover of Christian peace activists. The cap- tives - an American, a Briton and two Canadians - were members of the Chicago-based aid group Chris- tian Peacemaker Teams, which con- firmed they disappeared Saturday. The footage showed Norman Kem- ber, a retired British professor with a shock of whitethair, sitting on the floor with three other men. The cam- era revealed the 74-year-old Kember's passport, but the other hostages were not identified. Christian Peacemaker Teams iden- tified the other hostages as Tom Fox, 54, of Clearbrook, Va.; James Loney, 41, of Toronto; and Harmeet Singh Sooden, 32, a Canadian electrical engineer. The brief, blurry tape was shown the same day German TV displayed a photo of a blindfolded German archaeologist being led away by armed captors in Iraq. The kidnap- pers threatened to kill Susanne Osthoff and her Iraqi driver unless Germany halts all contacts with the Iraqi government. Also yesterday, two American sol- diers were killed by a roadside bomb north of Baghdad, a Sunni cleric was assassinated as he left a mosque, and six Iranian pilgrims were seized near a Shiite religious shrine. . In a statement, Christian Peace- maker Teams said it strongly opposed the U.S. invasion of Iraq and blamed the kidnapping on coalition forces. "We are angry because what has happened to our teammates is the result of the actions of the U.S. and ay, November 30, 2005 NATION/WORLD ztivists kidnapped in Iraq NEWS IN BRIEF EAD E FM A N 1 ~ 11168 alna d U 6 'a- s.,ia.a a'55 .ik l :.-s.. < . .._. . BISMARCK, N.D. Plains reeling from major blizzard Crewsgradually reopened major highways yesterday that had been closed by the Plains' first blizzard of the season, stranding post-Thanksgiving travelers. Thou- sands of people remained without electricity. Five deaths were blamed on slippery roads in Minnesota, South Dakota, Nebras- ka and Kansas. A sixth person was killed by a tornado spun off by the huge storm system in Arkansas. Remnants of the system headed over the upper Great Lakes on Tuesday after the storm dumped snow as far south as the Texas Panhandle. As much as 20 inches of snow fell at Kennebec, S.D., while Chamberlain, S.D., was choked by drifts up to 8 feet high. Utility officials estimated that 50,000 customers were blacked out across eastern South Dakota yesterday, and many communities in North Dakota had no electricity. Nebraska also had scattered outages. The morning's low at Grand Forks, N.D., was 14 degrees. South Dakota Gov. Mike Rounds said yesterday that electricity might not be restored to some areas for a few days as roads blocked by drifted snow kept utility crews to finding all the damaged lines. Power companies in North Dakota said it could take days to restore power. VATICAN Gay priest document officially published The Vatican published its long-awaited document on gays in the clergy yes- terday, saying men with "deep-seated" homosexual tendencies should not be ordained but those with a "transitory problem" could be if they had overcome them for three years. The official release of the "Instruction" from the Congregation for Catholic Education came a week after an Italian Catholic news agency posted a leaked copy on its Web site. As a result, the document's contents were already known. Reaction has been mixed, with conservatives saying it may help reverse the "gay culture" that has grown in many U.S. seminaries. Liberal critics have complained that the restrictions will create morale problems among existing priests and lead to an even greater priest shortage in the United States. Some observers also have raised questions about exactly what the document means by a "deep-seated homosexual tendency," since a definition isn't provided. The head of the education congregation defended the document as a clear reflection of church teaching, saying "in this field, in today's world, there is some confusion." CHITTAGONG, Bangladesh Two bomb near courthouses kill eight Bombs exploded in two Bangladesh cities yesterday, killing at least eight people and injuring 66 in what appeared to be the latest attack by militant Muslims intent on imposing harsh Islamic law, officials said. No one immediately claimed responsibility, but police investigators suspected the outlawed Islamic militant group Jumatul Mujahideen Bangladesh, blamed for similar attacks this year. The explosions in the main port city of Chittagong and in the town of Gaizipur, just outside the capital, Dhaka, happened just before 9 a.m. and appeared to target courthouses, police said. Three bombs exploded just outside the Chittagong courthouse, killing the alleged suicide bomber and fatally injuring two police officers, police official Mosharraf Hossain told The Associated Press. HARBIN, China Effects of China's toxic spill expected to linger Experts warned yesterday that dangers from a huge chemical spill in this north- eastern Chinese city could last for years because of toxins - including cancer- causing benzene - imbedded in ice and mud at the bottom of the Songhua River. Their concern came as city officials in Harbin and down river in Russia's Far East, where the 50-mile-long chemical slick was headed, sought to reassure resi- dents their tap water was clean. "Harbin's water is now safe to use and drink," Xiu Tinggong, vice director of the city's health inspection bureau, said on local state television. "Everybody can rest assured." 0 AP PHOTO Christian Peacemaker Teams member Tom Fox is seen in this undated photo from Christian Peacemaker Teams. The group has identified Fox as one of the hostages being held in Iraq. U.K. government due to the illegal attack on Iraq and the continuing occupation and oppression of its people. Christian Peacemaker Teams does not consider itself a fundamentalist organization, a spokeswoman said. "We are very strict about this: We do not do any evangelism, we are not missionaries," Jessica Phillips told The Associated Press in Chicago. "Our interest is to bring an end to the violence and destruction of civil- ian life in Iraq." Its first activists went to Iraq in 2002, six months before the U.S.-led invasion, Phillips said, adding that a main mission since the invasion has been documenting alleged human rights abuses by U.S. forces. The German woman and her Iraqi driver were kidnapped Friday, the German government announced. ARD public television said it obtained a video in which the kidnappers made their threats. The station posted a photo on its Web site showing what appears to be Osthoff and her driver blindfolded on the floor, with three masked militants standing by, one with a rocket-propelled grenade. Osthoff's mother told Germany's N24 news station that her daughter was an archaeologist who was work- ing for a German aid organization distributing medicine and medical supplies since before the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq. Germany has ruled out send- ing troops to Iraq and opposed the U.S.-led war, but has been training Iraqi police and military outside the country. Chancellor Angela Merkel appealed for Osthoff's release. "The German government sharp- ly condemns the act and urgently appeals to the perpetrators to return both safely and without delay," Merkel said. "The German govern- ment will do everything in its power to bring both back to safety." Governor halts landmark execution RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - Virginia's governor spared the life of a convicted killer yesterday who would have been the 1,000th person executed in the United States since the Supreme Court allowed capital punishment to resume in 1976. Robin Lovitt's death sentence was commuted to life in prison without parole a little more than 24 hours before he was to be executed by injection tonight for stabbing a man to death with a pair of scissors during a 1998 pool-hall robbery. In granting clemency, Gov. Mark R. Warner noted that evidence from the trial had been improperly destroyed, depriving the defense of the opportunity to subject the material to the latest in DNA testing. "The commonwealth must ensure that every time this ultimate sanction is carried out, it is done fair- ly," Warner said in a statement. Warner, a Democrat, had never before granted clem- ency to a death row inmate during his four years in office. During that time, 11 men have been executed. Virginia is one of the most active death-penalty states, having executed 94 people since 1976. The 1,000th execution is now scheduled for Fri- day in North Carolina, where Kenneth Lee Boyd is slated to die for killing his estranged wife and her father. The 999th execution since capital punishment resumed a generation ago took place Tuesday morning, when Ohio put to death John Hicks, who strangled his mother-in-law and suffocated his 5- "The commonwealth must ensure that every time this ultimate sanction is carried out, it is done fairly." - Mark R. Warner Virginia Governor - Compiled from Daily wire reports year-old stepdaughter to cover up the crime. Lovitt's lawyers, who include former indepen- dent counsel Kenneth Starr, and anti-death penalty advocates had argued that his life should be spared because a court clerk illegally destroyed the bloody scissors and other evidence, preventing DNA test- ing that they said could exonerate him. Ashley Parrish, another of Lovitt's attorneys, called Warner's decision "entirely proper, given the extraordinary circumstances of Mr. Lovitt's case." Lovitt was convicted in 1999 of murdering Clay- ton Dicks at an Arlington pool hall. Prosecutors said Dicks caught Lovitt prying open a cash register with the scissors, which police found in the woods between the pool hall and the home of Lovitt's cousin. Lovitt admitted grabbing the cash box but insist- ed someone else killed Dicks. DNA tests on the scissors at the time of the trial were inconclusive. But more sophisticated DNA techniques are now available. The governor, who is considered a possible Dem- ocratic presidential contender in 2008, said he was "acutely aware of the tragic loss experienced by the Dicks family." "However, evidence in Mr. Lovitt's trial was destroyed by a court employee" before post-convic- tion DNA tests could be done, he said. "The actions of an agent of the commonwealth, in a manner con- trary to the express direction of the law, comes at the expense of a defendant facing society's most severe and final sanction." The state attorney general's office released a statement acknowledging the governor's authority to grant clemency and adding, "Our thoughts and prayers are with the victim's family." In addition to Starr, Republicans such as Mark Earley, Warner's GOP opponent in the 2001 guber- natorial election, had also denounced the planned execution. CORRECTIONS Please report any error in the Daily to corrections@michigandaily.com. 420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1327 www.michigandaily.com 0 0 'Don't let your SHESIE SEARw. H A I R AMATEUR CONTEST ,et ahead o,. s 0WS RTS ATY10 PRa DASCOLA .ARBER$ COLLEGE NIGNT ES T A BLI H E1 939 THURSDAYS I 304 1/2 STATE ST 2ND FLOOR ANN ARBOR, MI 48104 668 9329 W/ LOSLEGE ID WWW.DASCOLABARBERS.COM BY APPOINTMENT 51 N. WASINITAN YSN . 3 ANTI. 1II Sww. 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