Oregon daily emerald., April 27, 2005, Page 3, Image 3

| National update |
Today Thursday Friday
High: 70 High: 60 High: 60
Low: 47 Low: 45 Low: 45
Precip: 30% Precip: 50% Precip: 30%
IN BRIEF
Where the buffalo roam is
in a suburb of Baltimore
PIKESVILLE, Md. — A herd of buf
falo somehow got loose and wandered
around an upscale neighborhood Tues
day, disrupting traffic and alarming
homeowners before officers managed
to corral them in a tennis court.
More than a dozen police cars and a
police helicopter were used to herd the
roughly 10 animals, authorities said.
“Somehow they figured it out; I’ve
got to give a lot of credit to the creativi
ty of our officers,” police spokesman
Shawn Vinson said.
The officers used lounge chairs be
side the tennis court as shields and
formed a human chain to corral the
wayward buffalo. One buffalo was
seen leaping over one of the tennis
nets in an effort to evade capture.
The animals came from a farm in
Stevenson, nearly three miles away,
Vinson said. They were returned to the
farm later in the day.
Residents in Pikesville, a Balti
more suburb, first reported that buf
falo were meandering along the
road about 7 a.m.
Party differences solidifying
on Social Security policies
WASHINGTON, D.C. — From the
buttoned-down confines of a Senate
hearing room to a boisterous outdoor
rally nearby, Democrats took on Presi
dent Bush and his Social Security pro
posals with gusto on Tuesday and re
buffed pleas for bipartisanship from
frustrated Republicans.
“If he’s going out to push for privati
zation, let’s help him pack,” Sen. Dick
Durbin of Illinois said to cheers from a
sun-splashed crowd on the lawn
across the street from the Capitol. He
was ridiculing Bush’s heavily publi
cized 60-day tour to build support for
his proposals.
“Personal accounts unravels the So
cial Security safety net in a way that
makes it hard to find common
ground,” said Sen. Ron Wyden of Ore
gon, one of several Democrats who
criticized the president’s recommenda
tions at a lengthy Senate Finance Com
mittee hearing.
Terrorist suspect eluded
U.S. military, official says
WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. forces
in Iraq believe they just missed captur
ing most-wanted terrorist Abu Musab
al-Zarqawi in a February raid that net
ted two of his associates, a senior U.S.
military official said Tliesday.
The official, who discussed the op
eration on the condition of anonymity,
could provide no details on how Zar
qawi escaped. U.S. forces recovered a
computer belonging to Zarqawi, the
official said, although he did not say
how it was obtained.
Iraqi officials announced the Feb. 20
raid at the time but did not say Zar
qawi was the target.
At a Pentagon news conference,
Gen. Richard B. Myers, chairman of
the Joint Chiefs of Staff, would only
say, “we were close,” but he declined
to elaborate, citing concerns about dis
closing operational details.
“I think in general the intelligence is
getting better. Having said that, we still
don’t have Zarqawi,” Myers said.
Woman in Wendy's finger
case waives extradition
LAS VEGAS — The woman who
was arrested after claiming she bit into
a human finger in a bowl of Wendy’s
chili waived extradition Tliesday,
telling a judge she was eager to return
to California to face charges.
Anna Ayala, 39, appeared before the
same judge who issued a warrant for
police to search her home outside Las
Vegas on April 6. Records from that
raid are sealed.
Outside court, Ayala’s lawyer, Fred
erick Tait Ehler of San Jose, derided
charges against his client as baseless.
“Anna says they’re ridiculous,”
Ehler said of the charges of attempted
grand larceny. “She’s eager to go back
to San Jose.”
Ayala was arrested late Thursday,
and San Jose police on Friday called
her claim a hoax. Authorities said the
attempted grand theft charge relates to
millions in dollars of financial losses
Wendy’s has suffered since news
broke of her claim.
Consumer confidence
down, new home sales up
NEW YORK — Consumer confi
dence declined in April for the third
consecutive month, signaling Ameri
cans’ concerns that economic growth
is leveling off. But one area of the
economy is still white hot: The gov
ernment said sales of new homes
shot up 12.2 percent last month to
the highest level in history.
The Conference Board said Tues
day that its Consumer Confidence In
dex fell 5.3 points to 97.7 for April,
down from a revised reading of 103.0
in March. The new reading was
slightly lower than the 98.0 forecast
by analysts.
The new figure takes the index to
its lowest point since last November,
when it registered 92.6. The confi
dence index peaked most recently in
January when it registered 105.1.
Stocks, which seesawed after re
lease of the report, were lower in af
ternoon trading. The Dow Jones in
dustrial average was down 30.94 to
10,211.53. The Standard & Poor’s
500 index fell 2.97 to 1,159.13, and
the Nasdaq composite index lost
8.00 to 1,942.78.
— The Associated Press
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