Today Thursday
High: 56
Low: 43
Precip: 30%
High: 56
Low: 39
Precip: 10%
Friday
High: 57
Low: 43
Precip: 20%
IN BRIEF
Ashcroft, Evans resign
from Bush cabinet
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Attorney
General John Ashcroft, a favorite of
conservatives, and Commerce Secre
tary Don Evans, one of President
Bush’s closest friends, resigned Tues
day, the first members of the Cabinet
to leave as Bush heads from re-elec
tion into his second term. Both
Ashcroft and Evans have served in
Bush’s Cabinet from the start of the
administration.
Arafat clings to life
as condition worsens
PARIS — A deeply comatose
Yasser Arafat clung to life Tuesday
after suffering another downturn,
his major organs still functioning
but his survival dependent “on the
will of God,” a Palestinian foreign
minister said. Palestinian leaders
made preparations for Arafat’s
eventual death. They said they
would bury Arafat at his sand
bagged headquarters in the West
Bank and turn the site into a shrine.
Thai militants behead
Buddhist laborer
BANGKOK, Thailand — Suspect
ed Islamic militants beheaded
a Buddhist laborer in Thailand’s
tumultuous south, police said Tues
day, the second such killing in
retaliation for the deaths of 85 Mus
lims at the hands of security forces
last month.
The attackers left notes with the
60-year-old man’s body threatening
further revenge attacks. Officials
identified the victim only as Kaew.
An analyst warned that the grue
some nature of the killing signaled
that violence in the region had
reached a new level of brutality.
At least 85 Muslim protesters died
on Oct. 25 when security forces
cracked down on a violent demon
stration outside a police station in
Narathiwat’s Tak Bai district. Most of
the victims suffocated or were
crushed after they were arrested and
crammed into army trucks.
The crackdown and deaths trig
gered a new round of violence in the
Muslim-majority southern provinces,
where a deadly separatist insurgency
has simmered for years.
Thirty-six people, including 25
Buddhists, have been killed in bomb
ings and shootings since the Tak Bai
incident. More than 500 people have
been killed this year.
Russian protesters call
for resignation of official
ROSTOV-ON-DON, Russia — Hun
dreds of protesters ransacked and oc
cupied the regional administration
building in a southern Russian
province Tuesday, demanding the
resignation of the region’s president,
whose former son-in-law has been
linked to a multiple slaying.
Hundreds of armed riot police
were standing guard outside the of
fice of regional President Mustafa
Batdyev, a duty officer for the
Karachayevo-Cherkessiya regional in
terior ministry said.
The protesters got into the building
by battering down the doors with
metal barriers. Television footage
showed men and women inside
breaking windows, pulling down cur
tains and window frames and throw
ing papers and potted plants out the
windows as uniformed police fled.
Thirty people were injured in the
melee, including six law-enforcement
officers who were hospitalized, one
in serious condition, said the duty of
ficer, who declined to give his name.
One woman was seen wielding a po
lice truncheon against an interior
ministry soldier.
Nearly 1,000 people, most elderly
women, were occupying the building
late TUesday, the duty officer said.
Airlines agree to
test drinking water
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The gov
ernment and a dozen airlines struck
a deal Tuesday requiring sanitation
improvements and increased testing
of drinking water aboard aircraft af
ter officials found evidence of harm
ful bacteria in the water of one in
every eight planes tested. At the same
time, the Environmental Protection
Agency announced it would perform
random water quality tests on 169
domestic and international passenger
aircraft at 14 airports throughout the
United States and publish the results
by the end of the year.
Judge removes juror
in Scott Peterson case
REDWOOD CITY, Calif. — A juror
in the Scott Peterson murder trial
who apparently did her own research
on the case was removed and re
placed with an alternate Tliesday,
and the judge ordered the panel to
start over with its deliberations.
“We’re going to send you back.
Start all over again and keep in
touch,” Judge Alfred A. Delucchi
told the panel on the fifth day of
deliberations.
— The Associated Press
Fallujah offensive
moves to day two;
10 U.S. troops die
Insurgents move to the south as military officials
report U.S. forces control about a third of the city
BY JIM KRANE
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEAR FALLUJAH, Iraq — U.S.
troops powered their way into the
center of the insurgent stronghold
of Fallujah on Tuesday, over
whelming small bands of guerril
las with massive force, searching
homes along the city’s deserted,
narrow passageways and using
loudspeakers to try to goad mili
tants onto the streets.
As of Ttiesday night, the fighting
had killed 10 U.S. troops and two
members of the Iraqi security
force, the U.S. military an
nounced. The toll already equaled
the 10 American military deaths
when Marines besieged the city
for three weeks in April.
As the offensive moved into a
second full day, up to eight attack
aircraft — including jets and heli
copter gunships — blasted guerril
la strongholds and raked the
streets with rocket, cannon and
machine-gun fire ahead of U.S.
and Iraqi infantry who were ad
vancing only one or two blocks be
hind the curtain of fire.
Small groups of guerrillas,
armed with rifles, rocket-propelled
grenades, mortars and machine
guns, engaged U.S. troops, then
fell back. U.S. troops inspected
houses along Fallujah’s streets and
ran across adjoining alleyways,
mindful of snipers.
A psychological operations unit
broadcast announcements in Ara
bic meant to draw out gunmen.
An Iraqi translator from the group
said through a loudspeaker:
“Brave terrorists, I am waiting
here for the brave terrorists. Come
and kill us. Plant small bombs on
roadsides. Attention, attention,
terrorists of Fallujah.”
Faced with overwhelming force,
resistance in Fallujah did not ap
pear as fierce as expected, though
the top U.S. commander in Iraq
said he still expected “several
more days of tough urban fight
ing” as insurgents fell back toward
the southern end of the city, per
haps for a last stand.
Some U.S. military officers esti
mated they controlled about a third
of the city. Commanders said they
had not fully secured the northern
half of Fallujah but were well on
their way as American and Iraqi
troops searched for insurgents.
The move against Fallujah
prompted influential Sunni Muslim
clerics to call for a boycott of na
tional elections set for January. A
widespread boycott among Sunnis
could wreck the legitimacy of the
elections, seen as vital in Iraq’s
move to democracy. U.S. com
manders have said the Fallujah in
vasion is the centerpiece of an at
tempt to secure insurgent-held
areas so voting can be held.
Prime Minister Ayad Allawi de
clared a nighttime curfew in Bagh
dad and its surroundings — the first
in the capital for a year — to prevent
insurgents from opening up a “sec
ond front” to try to draw American
forces away from Fallujah. Clashes
erupted in the northern city of Mosul
and near the Sunni bastion of Rama
di, explosions were reported in at
least two cities, and masked militants
brandished weapons and warned
merchants to close their shops.
In Fallujah, U.S. troops were ad
vancing more rapidly than in April,
when insurgents fought a force of
fewer than 2,000 Marines to a
standstill in a three-week siege. It
ended with the Americans handing
over the city to a local force, which
lost control to Islamic militants.
This time, the U.S. military has
sent up to 15,000 U.S. and Iraqi
troops into the battle, backed by
tanks, artillery and attack aircraft.
More than 24 hours after launching
the main attack, U.S. soldiers and
Marines had punched through in
surgent strongholds in the north
and east of Fallujah and reached the
major east-west highway that bi
sects the city.
Lt. Gen. Thomas Metz, the senior
American commander for the Fallujah
operation, said although capturing or
killing the senior insurgent leadership
is a goal of the operation, the most
wanted man in Iraq, Abu Musab al
Zarqawi, had escaped Fallujah.
It was unclear how many insur
gents stayed in the city for the fight,
given months of warnings by U.S.
officials and Iraqis that a confronta
tion was in the offing.
Choosing a Major
Thursday, November 11, 3:30 p.m., 360 Oregon Hall
This popular workshop will help you devise concrete decision
making strategies and identify campus-wide resources to assist you.
Learn about National Student Exchange (NSE)
Wednesday, November 17,4:00 p.m., 360 Oregon Hall.
Yearning for a change of scenery next year? ^8*8^
Discover the possibility of attending one of
175 U.S. and Canadian universities. v.- jf
364 Oregon Hail * 346-3211 * http://advising.uoregon.edu
" *■'■•;• • >,,Vv "'•"' . ■ ’• '.*■
Career Experience: Get an Internship
Career ^^OnTer ^20 Hendricks Hall • (541)346-3235 • http://uocareer.uoregon.edu _ —
r.NiVFRMTY
OF OREGON