Today Saturday Sunday
High: 56 High: 55 High: 54
Low: 44 Low: 40 Low: 44
Precip: 20% Precip: 20% Precip: 10%
IN BRIEF
U.S. military deaths
in Iraq war total 1,155
As of Thursday, Nov. 11, 2004, at
least 1,155 members of the U.S. mil
itary have died since the beginning
of the Iraq war in March 2003, ac
cording to an Associated Press
count. At least 877 died as a result
of hostile action, the Defense De
partment said. The figures include
three military civilians.
The AP count is six higher than the
Defense Department’s tally, which
was not updated Thursday because
of the Veterans Day holiday.
The British military has reported
74 deaths; Italy, 19; Poland, 13;
Spain, 11; Ukraine, nine; Bulgaria,
seven; Slovakia, three; Estonia,
Thailand and the Netherlands, two
each; and Denmark, El Salvador,
Hungary and Latvia have reported
one death each.
Since May 1, 2003, when Presi
dent Bush declared that major com
bat operations in Iraq had ended,
1,017 U.S. military members have
died, according to AP’s count. That
includes at least 778 deaths result
ing from hostile action, according to
the military’s numbers.
Blair, Bush consult
on peace in Mideast
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Prime
Minister Tony Blair sought consen
sus with President Bush on Thurs
day to make peace in the Middle
East an urgent priority, exploring
whether the death of Yasser Arafat
offers new avenues for restarting Is
raeli-Palestinian talks. The two lead
ers met over dinner at the White
House in an informal start of two
days of talks about the pending
elections in Iraq, Iran’s nuclear am
bitions, trans-Atlantic relations and
Mideast peace. Bush greeted Blair
on the South Lawn with a hearty
handshake and patted the smiling
British leader on the back before
ushering him inside.
— The Associated Press
Oregon Daily Emerald.
A campus tradition—over 100 years of publication.
Arafat's death,
fears of change
trouble Palestine
The nation scrambles to appoint a new leader and
arrange funeral services to accommodate mourners
BY RAVI NESSMAN
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
RAMALLAH, West Bank — Pales
tinians at home and abroad wept,
waved flags and burned tires Thurs
day in an eruption of grief at the death
of Yasser Arafat, the man they consid
er the father of their nation. The quick
appointment of successors did little to
dispel the huge question marks now
hanging over Mideast peace efforts.
Although Arafat’s death at 75 led
some world leaders to talk about
the possibility of a new era, the out
look was also shadowed by fears of
a chaotic transition and a strength
ening of Islamic militants.
The burial arrangements in them
selves showed how disrupted the re
gion is. The international funeral was
to be held in Egypt, because few
Arab leaders would travel to Israeli
controlled Palestinian land; Arafat
was to be buried in the West Bank
town of Ramallah because Israel re
fused to approve interment in
Jerusalem; and most mourners from
the Gaza Strip would be barred from
traveling across Israeli territory to
Ramallah, a security official said.
Workers in Cairo scrambled to
lay new carpet and mow the lawn
at a small mosque near the airport
where dozens of foreign dignitaries
will honor the Palestinian leader in
a modest ceremony Friday morn
ing, before Arafat’s body is flown to
Ramallah for a burial service.
In France, where Arafat died be
fore dawn Thursday after 13 nights
in a Paris military hospital, eight
pallbearers carried his flag-draped
coffin past an honor guard Thurs
day evening as a military band
played the French and Palestinian
national anthems and a Chopin
funeral march.
Arafat’s widow, Suha, stifled sobs
as the coffin was transferred from a
French military helicopter to the offi
cial French airplane heading to Egypt.
Though it had been expected for
several days as he fell into a coma,
Arafat’s death stunned Palestinians
and left them wondering who could
possibly replace their leader of the
last four decades.
Arafat had not anointed a succes
sor, but within hours the Palestine
Liberation Organization elected for
mer Prime Minister Mahmoud Ab
bas to replace him as its new chief,
virtually ensuring he takes over as
Palestinian leader, at least for now.
The Palestinian legislature also
swore in Speaker Rauhi Fattouh as
caretaker president of the Palestinian
Authority, the self-ruling power in
the West Bank and Gaza Strip,
though that position will likely have
far less power than when Arafat held
it. Fattouh is to serve for 60 days until
elections can be held, though the law
may be amended to allow parlia
ment to choose the new president.
Thousands of Palestinians flood
ed the streets, many weeping and
clutching Arafat’s photo. Even
members of the Hamas and Islamic
Jihad militant groups, often critical
of Arafat, mourned his death.
Safra Hassan gave birth to twin
boys in Gaza a few hours after
Arafat died and said she was nam
ing them Yasser and Arafat. "I’m
so proud that the name of Yasser
Arafat will be in my house every
day, just as the name of Yasser
Arafat will be in every Palestinian
house forever," she said.
Black smoke from burning tires
rose across the Gaza Strip and
gunmen fired symbolic volleys
into the air. At Arafat’s battered
Ramallah compound where he
will be buried, flags flew at half
staff. The radio played somber
music, church bells in the partly
Christian city rang out, and
Quranic verses were played for
hours over mosque loudspeakers.
By Thursday evening, though,
the mourning had given way to
subdued candlelight vigils.
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