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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (May 20, 2005)
| Global update Today Saturday Sunday High: 64 High: 72 High: 70 Low: 47 Low: 51 Low: 46 Precip: 60% Precip: 10% Precip: 30% IN BRIEF Measure would create lieutenant governor post SALEM — Oregon voters could have another choice to make on elec tion nights to come. The House on Thursday approved a proposed ballot measure that would create the post of lieutenant governor. The bill, approved 41-15 without de bate, now goes to the Senate. If approved there, the measure to create what would become the state’s second-highest office would be on the May 2006 primary election ballot. The bill was sponsored by Rep. John Lim, a Gresham Republican who also has served eight years in the state Senate. Lim has long campaigned to create a lieutenant governor’s office, which exists in every state except Ore gon, Arizona and Wyoming. Lim said the measure would make the lieutenant governor the state’s di rector of international trade. That posi tion already exists, so the move would n’t mean additional expense, Lim said. “We’re not creating more govern ment, we’re creating more jobs,” Lim said. “We export $11 billion a year, mostly to Asia. We need to do a better job in international trade.” Lim, a native of Korea, said the lieu tenant governor could perform cere monial as well as trade duties and that visiting foreign dignitaries appreciate meeting with top-ranking state leaders. The lieutenant governor would re place the secretary of state as first in line of succession to the governor if the governor died, resigned or became unable to fulfill the office’s duties. No one spoke against the meas ure. Rep. Mark Hass, D-Portland, said after the vote that the measure is a low priority given the state’s other needs. “We need to elevate the quality of education before we elevate a politician to a new office,” he said. Bill: Proof of citizenship required to vote SALEM — People registering to vote in Oregon for the first time would have to show proof of citi zenship under a bill narrowly passed Thursday by the House. Supporters say the step is need ed to prevent illegal aliens from fraudulently registering and voting, but opponents contend there’s little or no evidence that it is happening. The measure passed 31-25 and now goes to the Senate. The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Linda Flores, R-Clackamas, said there are no procedures to ensure that only legal citizens are registering be cause little or no checking is done. The bill requires first-time regis trants to produce evidence of citi zenship, such as a birth certificate, naturalization papers or a passport. “We need checks and balances before the voting begins,” Flores said. But foes said it would discour age voting by putting needless burdens on citizens who might have problems locating birth records or other documents. Opponents also said there’s no evidence of any non-citizen risk ing criminal penalties by illegally voting in Oregon. “This is a misguided and unin formed response to a problem that doesn’t exist,” said Rep. Pe ter Buckley, D-Ashland. “Why would an illegal immigrant jeop ardize himself by trying to regis ter to vote?” —The Associated Press Robinson Theatre Production ]$ic£cets UO ticket Office r EMO Main Floor • 346-4363 V. uV Box Office Evenings of^Performance TERRITORIAL Vineyards & Wine Company Friday, May 20th - The Shedd, 434-7000 Tickets: $29, 25, 20 OsuP&D 1 More than 16 people killed as terrorists infiltrate Iraq BY BASS EM MROUE THE ASSOCIATED PRESS BAGHDAD, Iraq — Iraq’s prime minister called on Syria on Thursday to block the infiltration of foreign fight ers trying to start a civil war. More than a dozen Iraqis, including an Oil Min istry engineer, and four U.S. soldiers were reported killed in the ongoing daily bloodshed. In the day’s deadliest incident, a Sunni lawmaker said 10 of his private guards were killed during a chaotic battle with insurgents and Apache hel icopter-backed U.S. forces, whom he accused of killing several of his aides. The U.S. military said it was investigat ing the incident, which it called a ter rorist attack on Fawaz al-Jarba’s home. In a message aimed at Syria, Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari said non Iraqis in neighboring countries filtering across the border were responsible for carrying out “sabotage activities.” His government will do its best “to preserve relations between us and our neighbors, but there are red lines — which are that they don’t interfere in our internal affairs, or allow people to cross” into Iraq, he said after a meet ing with visiting Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick. Earlier this week, al-Jaafari pledged to use “an iron fist” to prevent an out break of sectarian violence which he has accused supporters of Iraq’s top al Qaida terrorist, Abu Musab al-Zar qawi, of trying to foment. Zoellick said he and al-Jaafari dis cussed the issue of insurgents cross ing into Iraq “and he was quite strong in his statements about the need for Iraq’s neighbors, and par ticularly Syria, you know, not to un dermine stability here.” Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice made it “quite clear that we, and oth ers, are watching how Syria behaves it self,” Zoellick told reporters. “Part of these attacks stem from the successes of the new govern ment. The insurgents wanted to stop the elections and failed. The insur gents wanted to stop the formation of a new Iraqi government and they failed, so now they are trying to split the society,” Zoellick said. Another insurgent goal, he said, is to “disrupt the reconstruction so that people lose confidence in the future.” The Syrian government has not commented on allegations that foreign fighters are both slipping into Iraq across its shared border and holding clandestine planning meetings in its country. But in February, Syria cap tured and handed over Saddam Hus sein’s half brother in what Iraq called a gesture of goodwill. A U.S. official said Wednesday that Syria was the site of a key meeting last month in which al-Zarqawi lieutenants were ordered to carry out more attacks in Iraq. More than 520 people have been killed since the country’s new Shiite-dominated government was an nounced April 28. On Friday al-Jaafari is slated to start a two-day visit to neighboring Tlirkey, his first foreign trip since becoming prime minister. The insurgency is ex pected to top the agenda. The campaign of violence has made the threat of civil war increas ingly tangible. A number of clerics, both Shiite and Sunni, have been killed, and on Thurs day three of Iraq’s most influential Sunni Muslim organizations called on mosques to shut for three days follow ing Saturday’s dawn prayer to protest alleged Shiite violence against them. In the attack on National Assembly member Fawaz al-Jarba, the Sunni lawmaker said a group of insurgents started shooting at his house in Mosul, 225 miles northwest of Baghdad, around midday. His personal security men returned fire, sparking a clash that raised the at tention of U.S. soldiers in the area, al Jarba told The Associated Press. “The firing was coming from all di rections, and the Apaches were bomb ing,” said al-Jarba. “The terrorists were firing at me. Why did the Americans start doing this too?” Al-Jarba, a recent candidate for parliament speaker, said one Apache helicopter flying over his home fired at it, leaving a large hole in his ceil ing. Eight of his bodyguards were killed during the initial battle and two died from their wounds later Thurs day in hospital, he said. The U.S. mil itary said three terrorists were also wounded in the incident. One U.S. soldier was killed when his convoy struck a roadside bomb and another two died from wounds suf fered when insurgents fired on their convoy Thursday, the U.S. military said. Both incidents occurred in Bagh dad. Another American soldier was killed and five wounded late Wednes day in a rocket attack on Camp Ar Ra madi, 70 miles west of Baghdad. The soldiers’ names were being held pend ing notification of family. Three American soldiers were wounded when a roadside bomb blast struck their patrol in Dujayl, 35 miles north of Baghdad, said military spokesman Sgt. David Rhodes. At least 1,627 members of the U.S. military have died since the Iraq war started in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. 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