2 - The Michigan Daily - Friday, March 10, 2006 NATION/WORLD Dubai company relinquishes stake m U.S. ports NEWS IN BRIEF WASHINGTON Bush saves Patriot Act from expiration A day before parts of the USA Patriot Act were to expire, President Bush signed into law a renewal that will allow the government to keep using terror-fighting tools passed after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Bush's signature came two days after the House gave final approval to the leg- islation over objections that it infringes on Americans' privacy. The president said the law has been vital to protecting Americans from terrorists. "The Patriot Act has accomplished exactly what it was.designed to do," Bush said during a signing ceremony in the White House East Room. "It has helped us detect terrorist cells, disrupt terrorist plots and save American lives." Sixteen provisions of the old law were set to expire today. Political battles over the legislation forced Congress to extend the expiration date twice. To get the legislation renewed, Bush was forced to accept new curbs on the Patri- ot Act's powers. WASHINGTON 0 e Announcement may mark end to politically volatile controversy WASHINGTON (AP) - Bowing to ferocious opposition in Congress, a Dubai-owned company signaled sur- render yesterday in its quest to take over operations at U.S. ports. "DP World will transfer fully the U.S. operations ... to a United States entity," the firm's top executive, H. Edward Bilkey, said in an announcement that capped weeks of controversy. Relieved Republicans in Congress said the firm had pledged full divesti- ture, a decision that one senator said had been approved personally by the prime minister of the United Arab Emirates. "The devil is in the details," said Sen- ate Democratic Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, reflecting a sentiment expressed by numerous critics of the deal. The announcement appeared to indicate an end to a politically tinged controversy that brought President Bush and Republicans in Congress to the brink of an election-year veto bat- tle on a terrorism-related issue. The White House expressed satisfaction with the outcome. "It does provide a way forward and resolves the matter,"presidential spokes- man Scott McClellan said. "We have a strong relationship with the UAE and a good partnership in the global war on terrorism and I think their decision reflects the importance of our broader relationship," he said. A leading congressional critic of the ports deal, Rep. Peter King, applaud- ed the decision but said he and others would wait to see the details. "It would have to be an American company with no links to DP World, and that would be a tremendous victory and very grati- fying," said the New York Republican, chairman of the House Homeland Secu- rity Committee. "This should make the issue go away," said Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist. The Tennessee Republican was one of several GOP leaders to tell President Bush earlier in the day that Congress was ready to ignore his veto threat and scuttle the deal. Several Republican officials, speak- ing on condition of anonymity, said Frist and Sen. John Warner, (R-Va.), chairman of the Armed Services Com- mittee, had been privately urging the firm to give up its plans. After weeks of controversy - and White House veto threats that spokes- man Scott McClellan renewed at mid- morning yesterday - the end came unexpectedly. The House Appropriations Commit- tee voted 62-2 on Wednesday to block the deal, and GOP congressional lead- ers privately informed the president yes- terday morning that the Senate would inevitably follow suit. Senate Democrats clamored for a vote, increasing pressure on Senate Republicans to abandon the president. AP PHOTO Longshoremen unload wood pulp from a cargo ship at the Tioga Marine Terminal In Philadelphia. It was unclear how DP would manage the planned divestiture, and Bilkey's statement said its announcement was "based on an understanding that DP World will not suffer economic loss." The firm finalized its $6.8 billion purchase yesterday of Peninsula & Oriental Steam Navigation Co., the British firm that through a U.S. subsid- iary runs important port operations in New York, New Jersey, Baltimore, New Orleans, Miami and Philadelphia. It also plays a lesser role in dockside activities at 16 other American ports. Despite the furor, the company's U.S. operations were never the most prized part of the global transaction. DP World valued its rival's American operations at less than 10 percent of the nearly $7 bil- lion total purchase. But that portion of the deal set off a political chain of events unlike any other in Bush's five years in office. Republicans denounced the deal, saying they were worried about the effects it would have on efforts to make ports safer from terrorist threats. Democrats did likewise, and capitalized on the issue as well as a way to narrow the polling gap with the GOP on issues of national secu- rity. Rumsfeld: Iraqis would handle civil war Dealing with a civil war in Iraq would be the responsibility of Iraq's own secu- rity forces, at least initially, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told Congress yesterday. Testifying alongside senior military leaders and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Rumsfeld said he did not believe Iraq would descend into all-out civil war, though he acknowledged that sectarian strife had worsened. Gen. John Abizaid, the top U.S. commander in the Middle East, said the situ- ation in Iraq had evolved to the point where Sunni-Shiite violence was more of a threat to U.S. success there than the insurgency, which continues taking a deadly toll on Iraqi and American troops, and to impede efforts to stabilize the country. Rumsfeld previously had been reluctant to say what the U.S. military would do in the event of civil war, but in an appearance before the Senate Appropriations Committee he was pressed on the matter by Sen. Robert Byrd (D-WVa). LOS ANGtLES Water spotted on one of Saturn's moons The orbiting Cassini spacecraft has spotted what appear to be water gey- sers on one of Saturn's icy moons, raising the tantalizing possibility that the celestial object harbors life. The surprising images from the moon Enceladus represent some of the most dramatic evidence yet that water in liquid form may be present beyond the Earth. Excited by the discovery, some scientists said Enceladus should be added to the short list of places within the solar system most likely to have extrater- restrial life. Scientists generally agree several ingredients are needed for life to emerge, includ- ing water in liquid form and a stable heat source. But so far, the evidence of any large amounts of water in liquid form on celestial objects beyond Earth is circumstantial and indirect, based on scientists' analysis of rocks and other data. SABLE-SUR-SARTHE, France Teacher who held students hostage surrenders A former teacher armed with a handgun that fires rubber bullets took nearly two dozen people hostage, holding them in a classroom at his former school and freeing them unharmed hours later, officials said. The 33-year-old man, identified as Nicolas Vilpail, was on medication and appar- ently under the influence of alcohol. He surrendered calmly yesterday evening after holding 23 people - 21 of them teenage students - captive for more than four hours, police and local officials said. There were no injuries. Vilpail had taught at the Colbert de Torcy High School, outside Le Mans, until two years ago, school officials said. He was armed with a gun that fires rubber bullets, police said, adding that the weapon was nevertheless dangerous. He sur- rendered after hours of negotiations, said Jean-Luc Prigent, a top aide in the local administration. - Compiled from Daily wire reports CORRECTIONS Please report any error in the Daily to corrections@michigandaily.com. U.S. to hand over notorious prison to Iraqis New lockup near Baghdad airport to house former prisoners within three months BAGHDAD (AP) - The American military said yesterday its new lockup near Baghdad airport to house security prisoners now held at the notorious Abu Ghraib prison should be ready within three months. Once the U.S. moves prisoners to the new prison at Camp Cropper, a process that will take months, Abu Ghraib will be returned to Iraqi prison authorities, said Lt. Col. Barry Johnson, a U.S. mili- tary spokesman in Baghdad. Lt. Col. Kier-Kevin Curry, a spokes- nan for U.S. military detainee opera- tions, said completion of the new prison at Camp Cropper would set the transfer in motion. "We will transfer operations from Abu Ghraib to the new Camp Cropper once construction is completed there. No precise dates have been set, but the plan is to accomplish this (completion of construction) within the next two to three months," Curry said. "Once we transfer operations from Abu Ghraib, the facility will be turned over to the Iraqi govern- ment," Curry said. Abu Ghraib came to symbolize American mishandling of some pris- oners captured in Iraq, both during the U.S.-led invasion three years ago and in the fight to subdue the largely Sunni Muslim insurgency since then. Widely publicized photographs of prisoner abuse by American military guards and interrogators at Abu Ghraib the led to intense global criticism of the U.S. war in Iraq and fueled the insur- Get ready for life after Michigan with Real Life 101. 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"There are other asso- ciations with Abu Ghraib that are more emotional, but the primary reason for us has always been security." Saddam Hussein and his co-defen- dants have been held at Camp Cropper since their capture. Detainees questioned for wearing Casios U .S. military says digital watches worn by prisoners are possible evidence of terrorist ties SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) - Are they bomb timers, or just time pieces? Common Casio watches, some worth less than $30, have become part of the often ambiguous web of evidence against detainees at Guantanamo Bay. The U.S. military cites the digital watches worntbyprisoners when they were captured as possible evidence of terrorist ties. Casios have been used repeatedly in bombs, after all, including one used by the architect of the 1993 World Trade Center attack; the explosive device was set off on a Philippine Airlines flight, killing a passenger. Wearing a Casio is cited among the unclassified evidence against at least eight of the detainees whose transcripts were released by the Pentagon after a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit by The Associated Press. The prisoners, who stand accused of links to al-Qaida or to the Taliban in Afghanistan, say they have been shocked that wearing a cheap watch sold worldwide could be used against them. "Millions and millions of people have these types of Casio watches," Mazin Salih Musaid, a Saudi detainee, told his military tribunal. Even guards at Guantanamo wear Casios, noted Usama Hassan Ahmend Abu Kabir, a Jordanian accused of belonging to a group linked to al-Qaida, the terror organization that carried out the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States. "I have a Casio watch due to the fact that they are inexpensive and they last a long time," the 34-year-old detain- ee told a tribunal. "I like my watch because it is durable. 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