The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Tuesday, January 9, 2007 - 3
NEWS BRIEFS
WASHINGTON
Bush expected to
call for more troops
in national address
President Bush will address the
nation at 9 p.m. tomorrow about
his new approach for the war in
Iraq, the White House said. Bush is
expected to announce an increase
of up to 20,000 additional U.S.
troops.
Bush's decisions, more than two
months in the making, already
are drawing criticism from new
Democratic leaders in Congress
who say it is time to begin ending
the war, not to send in more U.S.
forces.
Now in its fourth year, the war
has claimed the lives of more
than 3,000 members of the U.S.
military and was a major factor
in the Republicans' loss of Con-
gress in the November election.
Senate Majority Leader Harry
Reid (D-Nev) and House Speaker
Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif) told Bush
in a letter last week that "we do
not believe that adding more U.S.
combat troops contributes to suc-
cess."
DETROIT
Former Ohio imam
arrested by Israeli
authorities
The former imam of Ohio's larg-
est mosque who was deported to
his native West Bank last week
because of his aid to a group clas-
sified as terrorist was arrested by
Israeli authorities after crossing
from Jordan, his brother said yes-
terday.
Fawaz Damra, 47,hadbeenjailed
in Monroe County for a year while
awaiting deportation for conceal-
ing his ties to Islamic Jihad when
he applied for U.S. citizenship in
1994.
U.S. Immigration and Cus-
toms Enforcement announced his
removal Friday.
His brother, Nabil Damra, said
the Red Cross and the Center for
the Defense of the Individual, an
Israeli advocacy group for Palestin-
ians in Israeli-occupied territories,
informed him that Fawaz Damra
was in custody and had been taken
to Israel's Al Jalameh detention
facility near Jenin in the northern
West Bank.
NABLUS, West Bank
Gunmen release
deputy mayor
Fatah gunmen released the dep-
uty mayor of Nablus unharmed yes-
terday, two days after kidnapping
him in a wave of factional violence
spreading through the West Bank.
But new unrest erupted else-
where in the West Bank, as Fatah
militants torched stores of Hamas
supporters in Ramallah and shot at
the house of a top Hamas official.
The kidnapping of Mahdi al-
Khamdali, a top Hamas official in
the West Bank's commercial center,
had raised fears that the violence
could soon spin out of control. Al-
Khamdali, unshaven and his shoes
covered in mud, said he was not
hurt in captivity.
AUSTIN, Texas
Streets closed after
63 birds found dead
Police shut down 10 blocks in
downtown Austin for several hours
yesterday after 63 birds were found
dead in the street, but officials said
preliminary tests found no threat
to people.
Workers in yellow hazardous-
materials suits tested for contami-
nants in a cordoned-offsection near
the state Capitol and the governor's
mansion before authorities finally
gave the all-clear in the afternoon.
- Compiled from
Daily wire reports
SOUL SHOPPING
At auto show, Big Three
compete with Liebao
Importer of Yugo
looks to bring SUVs
from China to U.S.
DETROIT (AP) - A year ago, a
lone Geely Automobile Co. sedan
sitting outside the main exhibit
halls marked the first time a Chi-
nese automaker displayed at the
North American International
Auto Show.
This year, Geely was absent from
the Detroit show. But another Chi-
nese automaker - Hunan Chang-
feng Motor Co. Ltd. - was showing
its cars in a more polished display,
albeit one in a basement exhibit
hall.
Changfeng's Liebao brand cars,
including a pair of small sport util-
ity vehicles, are being built for the
growing Chinese market. But the
company is looking for a way to get
them on U.S. roads.
Regardless of whether Geely or
Changfeng themselves make the
jump, the Chinese auto industry
represents a tenacious future com-
petitor in America. Roadblocks
remain, such as the cost of getting
them here and consumer worries
about the quality of Chinese cars,
butsome observersexpectChinese-
built cars to be competing for driv-
ers before the end of the decade.
"One of these days you're going
to see Chinese cars all over the
place," said American entrepreneur
Malcolm Bricklin, who brought the
Yugo and Subaru to this country
and wants to export luxury vehicles
from China to the U.S. as soon as
2009.
While the U.S. market likely will
be important for Chinese carmak-
ers, surviving in their home mar-
ket may be a shorter-term focus.
Foreign automakers are compet-
ing aggressively in China, where
sales are expanding at double-digit
annual rates and major U.S., Euro-
pean and Asian producers have set
up factories.
The industry estimates that
vehicle sales in China this year
are expected to rise by 15 percent
to 8 million, up from an estimated
7 million in 2006, compared with
predictions the U.S. sales will be
flat to lower after dropping to about
16.5 million in 2006 from just under
17 million in 2005.
Africa, Asia and the Middle
East have been major markets for
Chinese exports. And Rebecca
Lindland, an auto analyst at Global
Insight, an economic research and
consulting company, said Chinese
companies need to balance efforts
to satisfy their growing domestic
market while looking to expand
exports.
"You need to see it as a credible
- if long-distance - threat," Lind-
land said yesterday at the Detroit
show.
Chris Bednash browses for books at Crazy Wisdom Bookstore on Main Street last
eight. The bookstore specialzes in spirituality and alternative medicine materials.
The store also hosts lioe moorc in its Tea teem.
Bush to no-minate
Iraq envoy to U.N.
Pakistan ambassador
Crocker to replace
Khalilzad in Baghdad
WASHINGTON (AP) - Presi-
dent Bush will nominate Zalmay
Khalilzad to be the U.S. envoy to
the United Nations and veteran
diplomat Ryan Crocker to replace '
him as ambassador to Iraq, the .
administration said yesterday.
Both changes had been revealed
in news reports last week.
"If confirmed, Ryan and Zal will
have two of the hardest and most
consequential jobs in the world,"
Secretary of State Condoleezza
Rice said, announcing the chang-
es. White House spokesman Tony
Snow had confirmed the plans ear-
lier yesterday.
Khalilzad, who was born in
Afghanistan, has also served as
ambassador to Afghanistan. He
will replace John Bolton, who
could not win Senate confirmation I
and resigned last month as his tem-
porary appointment as U.N. ambas-
sador was about to expire.
Crocker, a four-time ambassador
who is now U.S. envoy to Pakistan,
will replace Khalilzad in Baghdad.
Bush is shuffling his teams of
military and diplomatic advisers
as he plans to announce a new Iraq
strategy tomorrow.
"The next two years may well
be the most significant ones in this
mission so far," Rice said. "New
challenges on the ground call for
changes to our strategy."
"There will be new leadership
in both our military and our diplo-
matic efforts, and the person Pres-
ident Bush wants to lead Embassy
Baghdad is Ryan Crocker," she
said.
Gen. John Abizaid, the top U.S.
commander overseeing the mili-
tary theater that includes Iraq, will
be succeeded by Adm. William Fal-
lon, now Abizaid's counterpart in
the Pacific.
Mysterious odor wafts
over N.J., Manhattan
Natural gas-like
smell dissipates by
early afternoon
NEW YORK (AP) - They bom-
barded 911 with calls, crowded the
sidewalks in front of evacuated
buildings and tuned to the news
for word of what was happening.
The question on the minds of many
New Yorkers yesterday morning
was: "What's that smell?"
A natural gas-like odor hung over
much of Manhattan and parts of
New Jersey, confounding authori-
ties. The smell seemed to be gone
by early afternoon.
New York City Mayor Michael
Bloomberg said there was no indi-
cation the air was unsafe. "It may
just be an unpleasant smell," he
said. He said sensors did not show
an unusually 'high concentration
of natural gas, and the city's major
utility company reported it found
no gas leaks.
The mayor said the smell may
have been caused by a leak of a
substance called mercaptan that is
added to natural gas for safety rea-
sons to give it a recognizable odor.
By itself, natural gas is odorless.
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