2A - The Michigan Daily - Thursday, February 2, 2006 NATION/WORLD Proceedings in disarray at Saddam's trial NEWS IN BRIEFf. NASHVILLE Bush: Don't expect oil price breaks S President Bush defended the huge profits of Exxon Mobil Corp Yester- day, saying they are simply the result of the marketplace and that consumers socked with soaring energy costs should not expect price breaks. In an interview with The Associated Press, Bush also addressed oil's future, offering a more ambitious hope than in his State of the Union speech for cutting imports from the volatile Mideast. However, he said his oft-stated goal of a Palestinian state in the region cannot be realized if a Hamas-led government refuses to renounce its desire to destroy Israel. Bush, a former Texas oilman, said of oil costs: "I think that basically the price is determined by the marketplace and that's the way it should be." CHICAO United finally flying out of bankruptcy Court hears graphic testimony from controversial witness BAGHDAD (AP) - A female wit- ness, testifying yesterday at Saddam Hussein's trial, said she was stripped naked in prison, hung by her feet and kicked in the chest by the former Iraqi leader's half brother. The woman provided some of the most gripping testimony so far in the trial, which went ahead despite a boy- cott by Saddam and four other defen- dants, who demanded the removal of the chief judge. Weeping several times during her testimony, the woman described being stripped naked, hung by her hands, beaten and given electric shocks. Then, she told the court, Barzan Ibrahim - Saddam's half brother and the top co-defendant in the trial - told guards to instead hang her from her feet, then he kicked her three times in the chest. "I told him (Ibrahim), 'For God's sake, I'm a woman. Master, I have nothing to confess. Why are you doing this to me?"' said the woman, who spoke from behind a beige curtain to protect her identity. The woman was one of five wit- nesses who took the stand during yesterday's 4 1/2-hour session - all of whom were hidden behind the curtain. The woman's testimony directly implicated Ibrahim, Saddam's one- time head of the Mukhabarat intel- ligence agency. She recounted her torture at the Mukhabarat's Baghdad headquarters, where she said she and family members were taken after being arrested in a crackdown fol- lowing a 1982 assassination attempt against Saddam in the Shiite village of Dujail. She said she was later taken to the notorious Abu Ghraib prison. One day, she was driven back to the Mukhabarat headquarters for interrogation with her father, when guards threw a dead baby into the car and ordered it taken "to the Mukhabarat garage." "What crime have we all commit- ted to go through this agony?" she asked, sobbing. Chief judge Raouf Abdel-Rahman, who took over last week, pressed ahead with the proceedings yester- Following a closed session of court, the chair of Saddam Hussein remains empty. His co- defendants stood trial without him, while the court heard testimony from a new witness. day at a rapid pace, taking advantage of the calm in a courtroom that has been plagued by shouting matches, scuffles and protests since the trial began Oct. 19. But the boycott by five of the case's eight defendants and their defense team was likely to further undermine the trial, which has been cast as a key plank in Iraq's transition from dicta- torship to democratic rule. President Bush said yesterday he was not worried about the disarray surrounding the Saddam trial. "Hopefully the trial will resume and be conducted in a fair" way, Bush told The Associated Press in an interview. "It certainly stands in a stark contrast to how Saddam treated his people. I'd like to see the trial move forward, ... That's what democracies do. They give people a fair trial." Abdel-Rahman, a Kurd, appointed new defense attorneys, and the three defendants who accepted them and attended yesterday's proceedings sat quietly, surrounded by the empty chairs left by Saddam and the others. United Airlines finally left bankruptcy yesterday, a leaner and more cost-effi- cient carrier after a painful restructuring that began in 2002 and lasted an indus- try record 1,150 days. The nation's No. 2 airline announced it had filed its exit documents in U.S. Bankruptcy Court yesterday afternoon, officially ending the longest and costliest bankruptcy of any airline. United marked the event in low-key fashion, sending top executives to airports around the country to thank United employees and customers for their patience. "We have achieved a great deal in our restructuring to reposition this com- pany and build upon our assets, an unrivaled global network and our dedicated employees," said Glenn Tilton, CEO of United and parent UAL Corp., in a state- ment accompanying the announcement. AMONA, West Bank Israeli police clear Jewish settlement Israeli riot police wielding clubs and water cannons cleared out part of this ille- gal Jewish settlement outpost yesterday, as resisters fought back with sticks, stones, bricks and paint. More than 200 were injured, one-quarter of them officers. In anguished scenes reminiscent of last summer's Gaza withdrawal, the security forces dragged hundreds of protesters from rooftops barricaded in barbed wire and flattened empty homes with bulldozers and heavy machin- ery. The military said 32 people were arrested at the scene along with "doz- ens of other rioters" in the area. HOUSTON Ex-exec: Enron fudged earnings reports Bent on matching or beating Wall Street expectations, Enron Corp. fudged its earnings figures with the knowledge of executives Jeffrey Skilling and Kenneth Lay, the company's former chief contact for investors testified yesterday. Leading off the government's case in Skilling and Lay's fraud trial, Mark Koenig told jurors the two men were closely involved in company operations and sought to boost Enron's stock price, which required impressing stock analysts. 0 Iran likely to be reported to Security Council Negotiations between Iran and European Nations remain ineffective VIENNA, Austria (AP) - After months of fruitless negotiations, Euro- pean nations set the stage yesterday for reporting Iran to the powerful U.N. Security Council by the end of the week because of concerns the Islam- ic country's nuclear program is not "exclusively for peaceful purposes." Iran remained defiant, warning such action will provoke it into doing exactly what the world wants it to renounce - starting full-scale uranium enrichment, a possible pathway to nuclear weapons. Positions appeared to be hardening on the eve of an International Atomic Energy Agency meeting after Euro- pean nations formally submitted a U.S.-backed motion for the IAEA's 35-nation board to refer Iran to the Security Council. The two-day board meeting was to start today. "Nuclear energy is our right, and we will resist until this right is fully real- ized," President Mahmoud Ahmadine- jad told a crowd of thousands in the southern Iran city of Bushehr, site of a Russian-built power plant. "Our nation can't give in to the coercion of some bully countries who imagine they are the whole world." Speaking a day after President Bush declared in his State of the Union address that "the nations of the world must not permit the Iranian regime to gain nuclear weapons," Ahmadinejad derided the Unit- ed States as a "hollow superpower" and vowed to pursue the nuclear program. The IAEA board was expected to approve the motion easily because Russia and China - which both have veto power on the Security Council - now support reporting Iran follow- ing months of opposition. "Iran will find itself before the Security Council," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said in Washington. "Iran is working to devel- op a nuclear weapon." The developments were a boost to the United States, the main proponent of referral. Washington has waited years for international suspicions of Iran's nuclear ambitions to translate into support among board nations. Iran's decision Jan. 10 to restart small-scale uranium enrichment - and Ahmadinejad's calls for Israel to be wiped off the map - apparently rat- tled Beijing and Moscow. Iran became more insistent on its right to pursue a nuclear program and less coopera- tive in talks with European negotia- tors after the election of the hard-line Ahmadinejad last June. The call for referral was contained in a confidential resolution obtained by The Associated Press. It "requests the director general to report to the Security Council" on steps Iran needs to take to dispel international suspicion it could be seeking to make nuclear arms. If the board approves referral as expected, it will launch a protracted process that could end in Security Council sanctions for Tehran. Still, any such moves are weeks or months away. Moscow and Beijing support referral only on condition that the council take no action until at least March, when the board next meets to review the status of an IAEA probe into Iran's nuclear program and recom- mends further action. Ali Larijani, Tehran's top nuclear negotiator, warned that Iran would start large-scale uranium enrichment at its Natanz plant and stop intrusive U.N. inspections of its facilities if reported to the Security Council. "Natanz is ready for work. We only need to notify the IAEA that we are resuming (large-scale) enrichment. When we do that is our call. If they (report Iran to the Security Council), we will do it quickly." Larijani said. - Compiled from Daily wire reports CORRECTIONS 0 I A story in Tuesday's Daily (Hollywood alum gives back to 'U') incorrectly stated that Peter Benedek, a University alum who is now an influential Hollywood agent, was the first person from his high school to attend college. The article also misspelled his name as "Benedict" in one place. A story in Tuesday's Daily (Students, community voice off on ordinance) incor- rectly stated that if City Council approved the proposed housing ordinance at a meet- ing in February. it would appear on a citywide ballot in March. The story should have said that if the measure is approved by City Council the ordinance will take effect 10 days after being passed. Please report any error in the Daily to corrections@ imichigandaily.com. 420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1327 www.michigandaily.com DoNN M. 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