2A - The Michigan Daily - Monday, March 13, 2006 NATION/WORLD Milosevic autoposy suggests heart attack NEWS IN BRIEF ?fi -; w _ ' ~ ,.vr" _, i ' 'r 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 Please report any error in the Daily to corrections@michigandaily.com. 420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, M148109-1327 www.michigandaily.com 0 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 DoNN M. 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