2 - The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, March 22, 2006 NATION/ WORLD Israell* bombing foiled by police 0 Explosives intercepted by police was intended to interfere with national elections LATRUN JUNCTION, Israel (AP) - With sirens wailing and blue lights flashing, Israeli police chased avan with-explosives on a main high- way yesterday and captured a group of Palestinians who defense officials say planned a major bombing ahead of national elections. Israel's parliamentary election is set for March 28; Palestinian attacks have altered the outcome of past balloting. After chasing down the bomber half- way from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv, jittery security forces extended a closure on the West Bank and Gaza through elec- tion day. ' AP Television News video showed the 10 Palestinians removed from the van at gunpoint, stripped to their under- wear, and forced to lie face down in a field next to the highway, arms extended. Sappers took away a 15-pound bomb, concealed in a bag. Jerusalem police commander Ilan Franco said the suspected bomber had ties to the militant group Islamic Jihad. Authorities said he planned to blow himself up in central Israel, without pin- pointing the location. Islamic Jihad has been responsible for all seven such attacks during a year- long cease-fire largely observed by oth- ers, including Hamas, the larger Islamic group. Hamas is forming a new govern- nient after sweeping Palestinian elec- ions in January and has indicated it will continue the truce. At midday yesterday, a police heli- copter flew in ever-tightening circles above the four-lane Jerusalem-Tel Aviv highway, looking for the blue van with tile bomb. Based on directions from the sky, police set up roadblocks on the heav- ify traveled highway, snarling traffic for miles. The van was first seen in the hills near the suburb of Mevasseret Zion, and police joined the pursuit. Elite police commandos with auto- matic weapons took part. Oz Eliasi, a police officer involved in the chase, said the van ran two roadblocks before it was stopped by police six miles past the Lat- Tun junction, a main interchange. Eliasi told Channel 2 TV that police initially forced the driver out of the van. Police then saw a Palestinian peeking but the rear window and realized there were passengers, he added. "With guns drawn, we went to the back of the van and began removing everyone, laying them down on the ground," he said. Bomb experts searched the car and found a bag containing the explosives, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said. Police removed the bomb from the car, setting off a panic among nearby 1notorists. NEWS IN BRIEF HEADLINES FROM AROUND THE WORLD WASHINGTON Supreme Court rules against investors The Supreme Court made it harder yesterday for investors to join forces to file high-stakes fraud lawsuits against companies. The 8-0 decision blocks state class-action lawsuits by stockholders who contend they were tricked into holding onto declining shares. Justice John Paul Stevens, writing for the court, said that to rule other- wise would allow "wasteful, duplicative litigation." The decision does not shut the door to lawsuits filed by individual stock- holders, but rather to suits brought on behalf of large groups. "There had been some upswing in these after the Enron and WorldCom tscandals," said Columbia Law School professor John Coffee, who believes it will be too expensive for individual stock owners to pursue such suits. It was a major victory for Merrill Lynch & Co., which faced a spate of lawsuits prompted in part by New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer's 2002 probe into the investment banking firm's practices. 0 President Bush gestures during a news conference at the White House yesterday. Bush says occupation in Iraq will outlast his term TEHRAN, Iran Ayatollah receptive to talks with U.S. Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said yesterday that he approves of talks between U.S. and Iranian officials on Iraq, but warned that the United States must not try to "bully" Iran. It was the first confirmation that Khamenei, who holds final say on all state matters in Iran, is in favor of the talks. His comments came hours after President Bush spoke in favor of such a meeting, saying American officials would show Iran "what's right or wrong in their activities inside of Iraq." Khamenei said that "if the Iranian officials can make the U.S. understand some issues about Iraq, there is no problem with the negotiations." "But if the talks mean opening a venue for bullying and imposition by the deceitful party (the Americans), then it will be forbidden," he said in a speech in the northeastern city of Mashhad, aired on state television. Both the United States and Iran have said the talks will focus solely on stabilizing Iraq and not deal with the heated issue of Iran's nuclear program. FORT MEADE, Md. Abu Ghraib dog handler convicted of abuse A jury found an Army dog handler guilty yesterday of abusing detainees at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison by terrifying them with a military dog, alleg- edly for his own amusement. Sgt. Michael Smith, 24, was found guilty of six of 13 counts. The judge later dismissed one of those six counts, saying it duplicated another. Smith had faced the stiffest potential sentence of any soldier charged so far in the Abu Ghraib scandal - up to 24 1/2 years in prison. Instead, with the five counts, he faced a sentences of up to 8 1/2 years in prison, forfei- ture of pay and allowances and dishonorable discharge. His sentencing was scheduled later yesterday. The military jury deliberated for about 18 hours over three days before announcing its verdict. NEW ORLEANS 01 Bush acknowledges mistakes but maintains American troops must stay WASHINGTON (AP) - Presi- dent Bush stepped before television cameras yesterday for only the sec- ond White House news conference of the year. Question No. 1, 2, 3, 4 and beyond were about the war in Iraq - the single issue likely to define his legacy. With his poll numbers dropping and no end to the war in sight, Bush used the nationally broad- cast appearance to try, once again, to address Americans' doubts and explain why he believes Iraq is so important in the war against terror. Yes, he said, the United States has made mistakes in Iraq. No, he said, Iraq has not plunged into a bloody civil war - an outcome that most Americans fear likely. If the Unit- ed States pulls out of Iraq now, he said, terrorists will use the country as a launching pad to attack moder- ate governments in the Mideast and strike at the United States. "I'm optimistic we'll succeed," the president said. "If not, I'd pull our troops out." He said American forces would remain in Iraq for years and it would be up to a future president to decide when to bring them all home. The president rejected calls for the resignation of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, chief architect of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. "Lis- ten, every war plan looks good on paper until you meet the enemy," Bush said, acknowledging mistakes as the United States was forced to switch tactics and change a recon- struction strategy that offered tar- gets for insurgents. The president spoke for nearly an hour at a White House news confer- ence, part of a new offensive to ease Americans' unhappiness with the war and fellow Republicans' anxiety about fall elections. He faced skeptical ques- tions about Iraq during an appear- ance Monday in Cleveland, and plans another address soon on Iraq. Public support for the war and for Bush himself has fallen in recent months, jeopar- dizing the politi- cal capital he "If I didn't' claimed from his 2004 re-election we had al victory. "I'd say I'm spending that Victory I v capital on the war," Bush said. leave ourI The White House believes that harm's wa people appreciate Bush's plainspoken approach even if they disagree with his decisions. "I understand war creates con- cerns," the president said. "Nobody likes war. It creates a sense of uncertainty in the country." Bush has adamantly refused to set a deadline for the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq. Asked if there would come a day when there would be no more U.S. forces in Iraq, Bush said, "That, of course, is an objective. And that will be decided by future presidents and future governments of Iraq." Pressed on whether that meant a complete withdrawal would not happen during his presidency, Bush said, "I can only tell you that I will make decisions on force levels based upon what the commanders on the ground say." White House officials worried Bush's remarks would be read as saying there would not be signifi- cant troop reductions during his presidency. They pointed to com- ments Sunday by Gen. George Casey, commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, who said he expected a sub- stantial troop reduction "certainly over the course of 2006 and into -- -1 20 believe plan for xouldn't people in ly. g" la th le re ba of The Penta-Lost children program wraps up in Big Easy n announced The largest child-recovery effort in U.S. history is complete after more than six st December months, with 5,192 children missing after hurricanes Katrina and Rita reunited with at U.S. force family members, officials said yesterday. vels would be The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children worked with the FBI, Federal duced from the Emergency Management Agency, U.S. Postal Service, Red Cross and other agencies aseline figure to find the thousands of children separated from their parents or guardians when Hur- about 138,000 ricane Katrina hit Aug. 29 and Hurricane Rita hit just a few weeks later. to about 131,000 by the end of CORRECTIONS - Compiled from Daily wire reports March. The - President Bush total currently is 133,000. In late February the Pentagon told Congress that "it will be possible to consider" additional reductions as the political process moves forward and as Iraqi security forces gain experience. No timetable has been set for deciding on additional cuts. More than 2,300 American troops have died in Iraq. At home, nearly four of five people, including 70 percent of Republicans, believe civil war will break out in Iraq, accord- ing to a recent AP-Ipsos poll. "If I didn't believe we had a plan for victory I wouldn't leave our peo- ple in harm's way." Please report any error in the Daily to corrections@michigandaily.comi. * * ~br1Mkn t C~ 420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1327 www.michigandaily.com mom Californians play Russian roulette with quakes 0 Nearly 90 percent of strike the United States. In the San Francisco Bay area, where California homeowners geologists project a 62 percent probability have no earthquake of a magnitude 6.7 or greater earthquake in the next 26 years, Hurricane Katrina insurance has had a dual effect on homeowners. Some Californians called their insur- SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - When ance agents and signed up for quake cov- Charlie Bott got an offer in the mail erage. But for many others, the billions recently for earthquake insurance, he of dollars in federal aid pouring into the stared long and hard at the bottom line. Gulf Coast merely bolstered a sense that Then he threw it away. the government would come to the res- "It was way beyond anything you cue after a big earthquake. pay for house insurance. Not even in the In the insurance industry this mind-set same league," said Bott, a nuclear engi- is jokingly known as the "Air Force One neer with a baby on the way. Solution" - the notion that the president Now, like millions of others, he is hop- would surely fly over a disaster zone ing that the Big One doesn't strike, and if dropping $100 bills from his plane. it does, that the government will come to "Good luck with that," said Nancy the rescue. Kincaid, director of public policy, nmiti- Californians have built vast metropo- gation and communications for the Cali- lises atop seismic faults, but 86 percent fornia Earthquake Authority. The CEA of the state's homeowners have no quake is the state's privately funded, publicly insurance, a proportion that has crept managed quake insurance provider; its upward as memories of past quakes fade. member companies provide coverage to The number of uninsured was about 65 about 70 percent of Californians who percent in 1996. have such protection. "It's a game of Russian roulette," said Nicol Andrews, a spokeswoman for DoNN M. 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