| Global update |
Today Thursday Friday
High: 53 High: 53 High: 55
Low: 30 Low: 34 Low: 35
Precip: 10% Precip: 10% Precip: 30%
IN BRIEF
Prime minister candidate
promises moderation
BAGHDAD, Iraq — The shy fami
ly doctor who became the leading
candidate for prime minister Tlies
day says ending the nation’s ram
pant violence is his top priority and
that U.S. troops would remain as
long as they are needed to achieve
that goal.
In an exclusive Associated Press
interview, Ibrahim al-Jaafari, a
58-year-old moderate Shiite Muslim
politician who fled a brutal crack
down by Saddam Hussein in 1980,
also talked about drafting a constitu
tion that will draw not only on Islam
for inspiration.
“Islam should be the official
religion of the country and one of
the main sources for legislation,
along with other sources that do not
harm Muslim sensibilities,” said al
Jaafari, who currently serves as
Iraq’s interim vice president and
was living in London until Hussein’s
regime was overthrown.
He said he supports women’s
rights, including the right to be the
president or prime minister, as well
as self-determination and individual
freedoms for all Iraqis.
U.S. pulls ambassador
from Syria on Tuesday
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Unit
ed States pulled its ambassador from
Syria on Tuesday, expressing
“profound outrage” over the assassi
nation of a Lebanese leader who
had protested Syrian influence in
his country.
In Lebanon, noisy street proces
sions mourned former Prime Minis
ter Rafik Hariri a day before the fu
neral that will bring international
leaders to Beirut. Angry Lebanese
attacked Syrian workers in Hariri’s
hometown of Sidon, injuring sever
al and shattering the windows of a
Syrian-owned bakery.
Many Lebanese are pressing Syria
to withdraw its 15,000 soldiers, who
have been in the country for more
than a decade.
“We believe the Lebanese people
must be free to express their politi
cal preferences and choose their
own representatives without intimi
dation or the threat of violence,”
State Department spokesman
Richard Boucher said in announcing
the imminent return of U.S. Ambas
sador Margaret Scobey.
Appeals court rules against
reporters in CIA leak case
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A federal
appeals court on Tuesday upheld
a ruling against two reporters
who could go to jail for refusing
to divulge their sources about
the leak of an undercover CIA
officer’s name.
The three-judge panel of the
U.S. Court of Appeals for the District
of Columbia Circuit sided with
prosecutors in their attempt to
compel Time magazine’s Matthew
Cooper and The New York Times’
Judith Miller to testify before
a federal grand jury about their
confidential sources.
“We agree with the District
Court that there is no First Amend
ment privilege protecting the infor
mation sought,” Judge David B.
Sentelle said in the ruling, which
was unanimous.
Floyd Abrams, the lawyer for
both reporters, said he would ask
the full appeals court to reverse
Tuesday's ruling. “Today’s decision
strikes a heavy blow against
the public’s right to be informed
about its government,” Abrams said
in a statement.
Stocks make gains ahead
of Greenspan testimony
NEW YORK — Investors cautious
ly bid stocks higher Tuesday,
pleased by growth in retail sales but
wary about Federal Reserve Chair
man Alan Greenspan’s congression
al testimony starting Wednesday.
The Dow Jones industrials and Stan
dard & Poor’s 500 index reached
new 2005 highs.
Wall Street welcomed the Com
merce Department’s report that
overall retail sales fell 0.3 percent in
January, less than the 0.5 percent
economists expected. Taking slug
gish auto sales out of the equation,
retail sales rose 0.6 percent, also bet
ter than expected.
Some investors, however, re
mained hesitant prior to
Greenspan’s take on the economy
and monetary policy, coming today
and Thursday on Capitol Hill.
While most on Wall Street expect
Greenspan to reiterate the Fed’s
current stance, calling for measured
interest rate hikes, some analysts
believe the markets’ recent gains
may prompt Greenspan to sound a
cautionary note.
The Dow rose 46.19, or 0.43 per
cent, to 10,837.32, its best close
since Dec. 28. The Dow is up 0.5
percent for the year.
The Associated Press
Venezuelan, Colombian
presidents resolve dispute
The two leaders said they will share intelligence
to improve security along their common border
BY FABIOLA SANCHEZ
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
CARACAS, Venezuela — The
presidents of Venezuela and Colom
bia said Tliesday they had resolved
a diplomatic dispute caused by the
capture of a prominent Colombian
rebel in Venezuela and would work
together to improve border security
by sharing intelligence.
After emerging from a meeting
that lasted more than four hours,
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez
said his country would do every
thing possible to prevent Colombian
rebels from seeking refuge in
Venezuelan territory.
“We decided to turn the page, to
clear things up,” Chavez said.
Colombian President Alvaro
Uribe said he and Chavez “have a
commitment” to increasing security
along their common border. “This
implies cooperating so sovereignty
is not affected,” Uribe said.
Chavez said commercial
agreements — including the construc
tion of a gas pipeline connecting the
two nations — that had been frozen
for weeks would be “reactivated. ”
Chavez, a fervent nationalist, had
claimed the capture of Colombian
rebel Rodrigo Granda for a bounty off
the streets of Caracas in mid-Decem
ber violated Venezuela’s sovereignty.
Uribe had expressed concerns about
Colombian guerrillas seeking refuge
in Venezuelan territory and said both
nations should cooperate in denying
them safe haven.
“We are dedicated to fighting ter
rorism, in any form,” Chavez said
after the meeting.
Both leaders have expressed con
cern about the relative ease with
which rebels can come across their
1,400-mile border, which runs
through mountains and thick jungle.
Chavez and Uribe acknowledged
that Cuban President Fidel Castro
played a role in lowering tension,
and they thanked the leaders of Peru
and Brazil.
Chavez has accused the United
States of having a hand in Granda’s
capture to provoke Venezuela, an ac
cusation the U.S. State Department
has denied. U.S. officials, meanwhile,
have said Venezuela should investi
gate whether other Colombian rebels
are hiding within its borders.
Sitting next to Uribe at a news con
ference following their talks, Chavez
rejected concerns raised by officials in
Washington that 100,000 assault rifles
that Venezuela plans to purchase
from Russia could fall into the hands
of Colombian rebel groups.
“We want to replace arms. No
body should be worried about that,”
said Chavez, an outspoken critic of
U.S. foreign policy.
The State Department said Thurs
day it is “extremely troubled” by
Russian arms deliveries to
Venezuela, signaling concern that
some of the weapons might be
turned over to leftist rebels in neigh
boring Colombia.
“If we were buying from them,
they wouldn’t be so worried be
cause they love to sell arms,”
Chavez said of the Americans.
203 killed in China's worst
mining disaster in 56 years
BY STEPHANIE HOO
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
FUXIN, China — Three years after
a promised overhaul of China’s
workplace safety system, an explo
sion deep in a coal shaft killed 203
miners and left 12 more missing, the
government said Tuesday. It was Chi
na’s worst reported mining disaster
since communist rule began in 1949.
Dozens of rescuers worked
through the night in freezing temper
atures to try to reach the miners who
may have been trapped by Monday’s
blast in the Sunjiawan coal mine in
northeastern Liaoning province.
The cause of the gas explosion,
which went off about 794 feet below
the surface, was under investiga
tion, state media said.
A thick cordon of men in match
ing dark coats and helmets stood
side by side, blocking the entrance
to the mine late Tuesday, as cars full
of paramilitary police patrolled the
site. A line of vans waited to trans
port any wounded to hospitals in
Fuxin, a gritty, soot-covered city
where mining is the main industry.
“Mining is just too dangerous, but
it’s a struggle to find work here,”
said Zhang Qiang, a Fuxin native
who said he performs odd jobs to
make ends meet.
Fuxin, a city of about 1 million
people, lies in China’s northeastern
rust belt, a region that teems with
inefficient state-owned industries
saddled with outdated equipment.
The government has said it would
do more to ease unemployment in
the region, amid rising discontent.
Twenty-eight injured miners lay
in hospital beds Tliesday, suffering
from carbon monoxide poisoning,
burns and fractures. All were in sta
ble condition, except for one in a
coma because of a head injury
caused by flying debris, the Xinhua
News Agency said.
Some 30 family members of the
victims were also hospitalized “due
to deep grief,” it said. A police van
stood outside the hospital.
State television showed Hua Jian
wen, a member of China’s Cabinet,
watching as rescuers descended into
the mine to look for survivors and lat
er standing over the hospital bed of a
miner with severe bums on his face.
In October 2002, the government
created China’s first safety laws and
launched a nationwide effort that in
cluded workplace inspectors. De
spite those efforts, deadly accidents
have continued to plague the coun
try’s coal mines and factories.
Experts say the new laws have not
been matched with adequate educa
tion or enforcement, and many blame
China’s booming economy, and its
demand for coal, for tempting mine
owners and workers to cut corners
when it comes to safety.
“If they can produce more coal,
then they make more money,” said
Tsuyoshi Kawakami, an occupation
al safety specialist at the Interna
tional Labor Organization, the Unit
ed Nations’ labor agency. “That is,
of course, the underlying cause, be
cause they take less time (for) and
pay less attention to safety issues.”
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