2A - The Michigan Daily - Monday, March 13, 2006
NATION/WORLD
Milosevic autoposy suggests heart attack NEWS IN BRIEF
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Report ends speculation
that former Yugoslav
leader killed himself
THE HAGUE,Netherlands(AP) - A
heart attack killed Slobodan Milosevic
in his jail cell, according to preliminary
findings from Dutch pathologists who
conducted a nearly eight-hour autopsy
on the former Yugoslav leader yester-
day, an official at the U.N. war crimes
tribunal said.
The official, who agreed to discuss
the autopsy only on condition of ano-
nymity because he was not authorized
to release the information, commented
after a day of speculation on the cause
of death that swirled from ill health to
suicide to poison.
A tribunal spokeswoman said the
court had no immediate comment on
the official's report.
Found dead in his cell Saturday
morning, the 64-year-old Milosevic
had suffered from heart ailments and
high blood pressure, and his bad health
caused numerous breaks in his four-
year, $200 million trial before the tri-
bunal.
Some wondered if suicide might
have been an out for the man accused of
causing wars that killed 250,000 people
during the breakup of Yugoslavia in the
1990s. And a legal adviser said the 64-
year-old Milosevic feared he was being
poisoned.
An official in Serbia-Montenegro
said Milosevic's body, was to be deliv-
ered to his family by Monday. But there
was disagreement among relatives
about whether he should be buried in his
homeland of Serbia or in Russia, where
his wife and son live in exile.
In Serbia, Milosevic loyalists burned
candles in memory of their fallen hero
at branches of his Socialist Party. Elderly
women sobbed and kissed his photographs
adorned with black cloth, while national-
ists signed condolence books declaring
him a defender of "Serb honor."
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
would have none of that, calling Milos-
AP PHOTO
A supporter of former Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic touches Milosevic's photograph in front of the Socialist
Party of Serbia's headquarters in downtown Belgrade yesterday.
evic "one of the most malign forces in
Europe in quite a long time."
"Some feel that they wish there had
been the opportunity to bring him to jus-
tice and to have the final verdict of history
be in the courts, but I think the final ver-
dict of history about Milosevic is pretty
clear," Rice said after visiting Chile.
The president of the U.N. tribunal,
Fausto Pocar, said he ordered the autop-
sy after a Dutch coroner failed Satur-
day to establish the cause of death. A
pathologist sent by Serbia observed the
procedure at the Netherlands Forensic
Institute, an agency of the Dutch Justice
Ministry.
Outside the tribunal's offices, Milos-
evic's legal adviser showed reporters a
six-page letter that he said the former
leader wrote the day before his death
claiming traces of a powerful drug used
to treat leprosy or tuberculosis had been
found in his bloodstream.
Zdenko Tomanovic said Milosevic
was seriously concerned. "They would
like to poison me," he quoted Milosevic
as telling him.
A Dutch state broadcaster, NOS, said
later that an adviser to the tribunal con-
firmed such a drug was found in a blood
sample taken in recent months from
Milosevic. The report said the adviser,
who was not identified, said the drug
could have had a "neutralizing effect" on
Milosevic's other medications.
Doctors found traces of the drug
when they were searching for an answer
to why Milosevic's medication for high
blood pressure was not working, the
NOS report said.
Milosevic had appealed to the war
crimes tribunal last December to be
allowed to go to a heart clinic in Mos-
cow for treatment. The request was
denied. He repeated the request as late
as last month.
The tribunal spokeswoman, Alexan-
dra Milenov, said she could not comment
on the NOS report. "We don't have any
information. We simply have to wait for
the results" of the autopsy, she said.
WASHINGTON
Public's views on abortion contradict
For all the recent tumult over abortion, one thing has remained surprisingly
stable: Americans have proved extremely consistent in their beliefs about the pro-
cedure - and extremely conflicted in their views.
A solid majority long have felt that Roe v. Wade should be upheld. Yet most
support at least some restrictions on when abortions can be performed. Most think
having an abortion should be a personal choice. But they also think it is murder.
"Rock solid in its absolutely contradictory opinions" is how public opinion
expert Karlyn Bowman describes the nation's mind-set.
If public opinion is stable, the political landscape is anything but.
The arrival of two new justices on the Supreme Court has stoked speculation
about how abortion laws could be affected. Also, there has been a flurry of action
at the state level to ban or sharply restrict access to the procedure.
In 2005, states enacted 52 measures to restrict access to abortion, according to
the private Guttmacher Institute, and more are pending.
BAGHDAD
Saddam's co-defendants to testify in court
Saddam Hussein's trial entered a new phase yesterday as three of his co-defen-
dants testified for the first time, denying they had any role in the killings and arrests
of Shiite Muslims in the 1980s.
All eight defendants are to be brought before the court, one by one, for direct
questioning. The ousted leader was expected to go last, possibly today, though it
was up to chief judge Raouf Abdel-Rahman to decide when to call him.
Saddam and the other defendants have spoken up often during the five-month
trial, casting doubt on witness testimony or making speeches, but those were iso-
lated outbursts.
The direct questioning by the judge and prosecutors will give the court the
chance to try to draw Saddam out on the crux of the trial: how much he knew of
and directed the crackdown in the Shiite town of Dujail, launched in the wake of a
1982 assassination attempt against him.
KABUL, Afghanistan
Parliament chief escapes deadly bombing
A roadside bomb killed four U.S. troops passing by in an armored vehicle in
eastern Afghanistan yesterday, the deadliest attack on coalition forces in a month.
In Kabul, a suicide bombing yesterday killed two people and narrowly missed
the chief of Afghanistan's upper house of parliament, and he accused Pakistani
intelligence of trying to assassinate him.
The two bombings were the latest in a series of militant attacks that appear to be
gathering intensity four years after the ouster of the hard-line Taliban regime.
The four American troops died when their vehicle was hit by an improvised
explosive device in the Pech Valley in Kunar province as they patrolled to keep a
road open to civilian and military traffic, military spokesman Col. Jim Yonts said.
BAGHDAD
Bombers kill 44, wound 200 in Shiite slum
The feared resumption of mass sectarian violence erupted yesterday in a Bagh-
dad Shiite slum when bombers blew apart two markets shortly before sundown,
killing at least 44 people and wounding about 200.
The bloody assaults on Sadr City came only minutes after Iraqi political leaders
said the new parliament will convene Thursday, three days'earlier than planned, as
the U.S. ambassador pushed to break a stalemate over naming a unity government.
The attackers struck with car bombs, including a suicide driver, and mortars
at the peak shopping time, destroying dozens of market stalls and vehicles as the
explosives ripped through the poor neighborhood as residents were buying food for
their evening meals.
- Compiled from Daily wire reports
CORRECTIONS
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Uncle Sam wants you
Despite famous saying, most
young Americans inelligible for
military service
WASHINGTON (AP) - Uncle Sam wants YOU,
that famous Army recruiting poster says. But does
he really?
Not if you're a Ritalin-taking, overweight, Gen-
eration Y couch potato - or some combination of
the above.
As for that fashionable "body art" that the mili-
tary still calls a tattoo, having one is grounds for
rejection, too.
With U.S. casualties rising in wars overseas and
more opportunities in the civilian work force from
an improved U.S. economy, many young people are
shunning a career in the armed forces. But recruit-
ing is still a two-way street - and the military, too,
doesn't want most people in this prime recruiting
age group of 17 to 24.
Of some 32 million Americans now in this group,
the Army deems the vast majority too obese, too
uneducated, too flawed in some way, according to
its estimates for the current budget year.
"As you look at overall population and you start
factoring out people, many are not eligible in the
first place to apply," said Doug Smith, spokesman
for the Army Recruiting Command.
Some experts are skeptical.
Previous Defense Department studies have found
that 75 percent of young people are ineligible for
military service, noted Charles Moskos of North-
western University. While the professor emeritus
who specializes in military sociology says it is "a
baloney number," he acknowledges he has no fig-
ures to counter it.
"Recruiters are looking for reasons other than
themselves," said David Segal, director of the Cen-
ter for Research on Military Organization at the
University of Maryland. "So they blame the pool."
The military's figures are estimates, based partly
on census numbers. They are part of an elaborate
analysis the military does as it struggles each year
to compete with colleges and companies for the
nation's best and brightest, plan for future needs
and maintain diversity.
The Census Bureau estimates that the overall
pool of people who would be in the military's prime
target age has shrunk as American society ages.
There were 1 million fewer 18- to 24-year olds in
2004 than in 2000, the agency says.
The pool shrinks to 13.6 million when only high
school graduates and those who score in the upper
half on a military service aptitude test are consid-
ered. The 30 percent who are high school drop-
outs are not the top choice of today's professional,
all-volunteer and increasingly high-tech military
well, maybe
force.
Other factors include:
the rising rate of obesity; some 30 percent of
U.S. adults are now considered obese.
a decline in physical fitness; one-third of teen-
agers are now believed to be incapable of passing a
treadmill test.
a near-epidemic rise in the use of Ritalin and
other stimulants to treat attention deficit hyperac-
tivity disorder. Potential recruits are ineligible for
military service if they have taken such a drug in
the previous year.
Doctors prescribe these drugs to about 2 million
children and 1 million adults a month, according
to a federal survey. Many more are believed to be
using such stimulants recreationally and to stay
awake longer to boost academic and physical per-
formance.
Other potential recruits are rejected because they
have criminal histories and too many dependents.
Subtract 4.4 million from the pool for these people
and for the overweight.
Others can be rejected for medical problems,
from blindness to asthma. The Army estimate has
subtracted 2.6 million for this group.
That leaves 4.3 million fully qualified potential
recruits and an estimated 2.3 million more who
might qualify if given waivers on some of their
problems.
t
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