6A
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
NEWS
THURSDAY, MARCH 10.2005
WORLD
Israel admits illegal activity
BY KARIN LAUB
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
JERUSALEM — Israeli governments have helped build and expand 105 illegal West Bank settlement outposts in a flagrant violation of official policy and promises to the United States, an official inquiry found yesterday. This confirms long-standing complaints by the Palestinians.
However, the report stopped short of blaming Prime Minister Ariel Sharon or other leading politicians, who settlers said gave them support and money for outposts in the past decade.
The study recommended investigating civil servants involved in what was described as systematic deception by several government ministries that funneled large sums of public funds to the outposts.
Settlers established the outposts — usually starting with a few mobile homes, a generator and a water tank — to break up Palestinian areas and prevent the creation of a Palestinian state. In 1998, as foreign minister, Sharon exhorted them to seize West Bank hilltops and build more outposts.
Today, about 235,000 Israelis settlers live in some 150 veteran
settlements in the West Bank and Gaza. About 2,000 live in the outposts, according to the Israeli settlement watchdog group Peace Now. U.S. officials reiterated Wednesday that they expected Israel to dismantle the outposts immediately, in line with the internationally backed "road map" peace plan.
Welcome back
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice denied that she agreed to delay the dismantling of outposts until after the planned Gaza withdrawal this summer. However, it remains unclear how much pressure Washington will exert on Israel to remove the outposts quickly. Sharon is battling hardliners over the planned Gaza pullout, and the dismantling of outposts could increase his troubles at home.
However, Deputy Defense Minister Zeev Boim said Israeli troops would be busy in coming months evacuating Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip and four veteran West Bank settlements. "I don't think this report will be implemented immediately," he told Army Radio.
The 340-page study was written by former chief state prosecutor Talia Sasson, at Sharon's request.
A robin rests in a bush outside Robinson Center yesterday afternoon. Birds have filled bushes and sidewalks all over campus since the weather has warmed up in the past few weeks.
WORLD
Women, children in Iraqi mass grave
BAGHDAD, Iraq — Iraqi authorities found 41 decomposed bodies — some bullet-riddled, others beheaded — at sites near the Syrian border and south of the capital, and said yesterday they included women and children who may have been killed because insurgents thought their families were collaborating with U.S. forces.
In Baghdad, a suicide bomber driving a garbage truck loaded with explosives and at least one other gunman shot their way into a parking lot in an attempt to blow up a hotel used by Western contractors. At least four people, including the attackers and a guard, were killed.
The U.S. Embassy said 30 Americans were among 40 people wounded in the blast. No Americans were killed. In an Internet statement, al-Qaida in Iraq purportedly claimed responsibility for the attack on
the Sadeer hotel, calling it the "hotel of the Jews."
While Sunni Arab insurgents have repeatedly targeted Westerners in Iraq, Shiite Muslims, top Iraqi officials and civil servants, even Muslim women are no longer safe. —The Associated Press
Rebels to fight on after loss of leader
death of their leader, Aslan Maskhadov, after Russian special forces cornered him in an underground bunker deep within northern Chechnya.
Russian legislators hailed Maskhadov's killing as a sign that Russia was on the right track in its anti-terrorist campaign, as they call the fight against Islamic militants in Chechnya and neighboring regions.
MOSCOW — Chechen rebels vowed yesterday to carry on their separatist fight against Russia despite the
Russia's Federal Security Service chief announced Tuesday that Maskhadov had
been killed in a special operation in the town of Tolstoy-Yurt.
Russian television stations broadcast footage of a shirtless, gray-bearded corpse, and the rebel leader's envoy in London, Akhmed Zakayev, confirmed the 53-year-old guerrilla commander's death.
"When terrorists feel they are literally being trailed, fighting groups are systematically being detained, when in fact a top leader is eliminated, this creates an atmosphere in which there's no place for terrorist attacks," said Vladimir Vasilev, head of the security committee of the lower house of parliament.
But Chechen rebels vowed to continue fighting.
With Maskhadov's "violent death ... a new period has begun in the modern history of the Russian-Chechen military confrontation, which not only allows for no negotiations, but also for no end to the war," rebel ideologue Movladi Udugov wrote on a rebel Web site, Kavak-Zenter.
The Associated Press
kansan.com
Great people. Fun lifestyle.
Individual Leases
Pool Plaza and Jacuzzi
Fitness Center
Washer/Dryer in Every Apartment
Cable with HBO, MTV, and ESPN
Amenities, Rents and Incentives subject to change
WWW.JEFFERSONCOMMONS-LAWRENCE.COM
Internet Access
Lighted Basketball Court
2511 West 31st Street Lawrence, KS 66047
785-842-0032
VISA ACCEPTED