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Today Wednesday Thursday
High: 72
Low: 54
Precip: 30%
High: 70
Low: 49
Precip: 30%
High: 74
Low: 52
Precip: 20%
IN BRIEF
Car bombs kill 24, wound
more than 100 in Iraq
BAGHDAD, Iraq — Insurgents un
leashed a pair of powerful car bombs
Monday near the symbol of U.S. au
thority in Iraq — the Green Zone,
where the U.S. Embassy and key gov
ernment offices are located — and ho
tels occupied by hundreds of foreign
ers. T\vo other explosions brought the
day’s bombing toll to at least 24 dead
and more than 100 wounded. More
than three dozen car bombings since
the beginning of September illustrate
the militants’ seeming ability to strike
at will despite recent pledges by the
United States and Iraq to intensify the
suppression of insurgents, and the
morale-boosting recapture of Samarra
over the weekend.
First open Saudi
Arabian trial is canceled
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — Saudi
Arabia’s first open trial for democrat
ic advocates was abruptly closed by
the judge Monday, a decision seen by
progressive Saudis as a setback to re
form efforts in the kingdom.
The three defendants are the last re
maining detainees among 13 reform
ers arrested in March after openly criti
cizing the strict religious environment
and slow pace of reform in the king
dom, where the United States has been
pressing for democratic change.
Some of the 13 had signed a
letter to Crown Prince Abdullah
calling for political, economic and
social reforms, including parlia
mentary elections.
Rocket wins $10 million
prize for trip to space
MOJAVE, Calif. - A stout,
star-spangled rocket plane broke
through the Earth’s atmosphere
to the edge of space Monday for
the second time in five days, cap
turing a $10 million prize aimed
at opening the final frontier to
tourists. The privately built
SpaceShipOne took off under
neath the belly of a mother plane
that carried it about nine miles
over the Mojave Desert. From
there, SpaceShipOne fired its en
gine and streaked skyward at
about three times the speed of
sound on a half-hour flight that
took it more than 62 miles high,
generally considered the point
where space begins.
Teachers overlooked
killing warning signs
NAGASAKI — The Nagasaki
prefectural education board said
Tuesday in a report that teachers
had overlooked warning signs
before an 11-year-old girl in the
city of Sasebo killed her class
mate in June because they had
considered the girl to be “an
earnest and hard worker.”
The education board unveiled
the report on its findings about
the incident at the prefectural as
sembly meeting in the morning.
The girl, whose name has
been withheld because she is a
minor, killed Satomi Mitarai, 12,
on June 1, by slashing her neck
with a knife in an empty class
room at Okubo Elementary
School in Sasebo during the
lunch hour and leaving her to
bleed to death.
— The Associated Press
Attack-plagued Indonesia
holds democratic elections
Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to begin president
Oct. 20 after receiving 60 percent of the votes
BY MICHAEL CASEY
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
JAKARTA, Indonesia — Susilo Bam
bang Yudhoyono was declared Indone
sia’s next president Monday and now
faces the tough task of rebuilding a
country plagued by attacks from Al
Qaida-linked terrorists, separatist con
flicts and an economy still reeling from
the 1998 Asian financial crisis.
The U.S.-educated Yudhoyono won
60 percent of the vote compared to
President Megawati Sukarnoputri’s 39
percent in the Sept. 20 runoff election,
final results showed Monday. He will
be inaugurated Oct. 20 and is expect
ed to announce his Cabinet soon after.
Even with his popular mandate, the
55-year-old general, who critics say has
a history of indecisiveness, declined to
declare victory on Monday or give
specifics on how he intended to govern
the world’s largest Muslim nation.
“Our big theme will be reconcilia
tion and working together within
democracy for the country’s future,”
he told reporters in his first com
ments after being declared the win
ner. He did not elaborate.
Yudhoyono was planning to make
an acceptance speech but canceled
after Megawati refused to concede,
his aides said. Megawati’s campaign
spokesman Pramono Anung said she
accepted the results but would
“speak at the right time.”
Analysts said Yudhoyono could
go a long way to shoring up his pop
ularity and pleasing markets in the
first few weeks by picking a Cabinet
of professionals.
He also could unveil a policy agen
da that reflects voters desires for a
crackdown on widespread corruption
and reduction of the country’s dou
ble-digit unemployment rate that has
lingered since the 1997-98 Asian fi
nancial crisis.
He could also take a tougher stand
against hardline Islamic groups by
formally outlawing the Al-Qaida
linked Jemaah Islamiyah terror group
which has been blamed for a string of
bombings, including the Sept. 9 at
tack outside the Australian Embassy
and the Oct. 12, 2002 Bali bombings
that killed 202 people.
Yudhoyono attended officer training
college in the United States and led the
country’s anti-terror effort as
Megawati’s security minister. He is also
credited with attempting to bring peace
to the province of Aceh, where sepa
ratist guerillas have been fighting since
1976 for an independent homeland.
He has said he wants to settle the
conflict peacefully but must contend
with a powerful military that believes
force is the best option.
“We still have a political and eco
nomic crisis in the country so it is
important for us to have a credible
Cabinet,” analyst Eep Saefulloh Fa
tah said.
The election was the first in which
Indonesia’s 210 million people voted
for their president directly. The bah
lot, which was peaceful and free of
irregularities, was praised as a key
step in the country’s transition to
democracy after the downfall of
ex-dictator Suharto in 1998.
Yudhoyono presented few distinct
policies during the campaign, but
voters hungry for change were im
pressed by his grasp of the issues and
his steadfast, honest image.
Analysts said Yudhoyono could
learn much from the largely unsuc
cessful administrations of Megawati
and former president Abdurrahman
Wahid, both of which he served in.
Megawati lost much of her support
early on by allowing corruption to go
unchecked and dragging her feet on
economic reforms. Wahid is remem
bered as an erratic leader who rou
tinely fired Cabinet ministers, issued
contradictory policies and traveled
abroad in times of crisis.
The biggest challenge for Yudhoy
ono will be balancing the expecta
tions of his supporters for far-reach
ing reforms with the political realities
on the ground.
His Democratic Party has less
than 10 percent of the seats in par
liament, meaning he will either
have to forge coalitions with the po
litical elite who he ran against, or go
it alone and risk political gridlock
during his five-year tenure.
An early test of his resolve will be
how he deals with the issue of fuel
subsidies, which have ballooned in
recent months as oil prices reached
$50 per barrel.
Critics say the subsidies mostly
benefit rich car owners, and cutting
them would free up money for edu
cation and programs for the poor.
Megawati cut the subsidies last year
with little notice, prompting nation
wide street protests.
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