6A
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
WORLD
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THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2005
MURDER
Soldiers deployed after nun's death
Paulo Santos/ THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Federal policemen examine the burned car used by the killers of American missionary Dorothy Stang in the town of Anapu, Brazil yesterday. Stang was killed on Feb. 12, 2005.
Violence in Brazil prompts mobilization
BY MICHAEL ASTOR THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
ANAPU, Brazil — About 2,000 soldiers headed to a lawless Amazon rainforest region yesterday, where an American nun was shot to death last weekend amid escalating violence between peasants and loggers vying for the area's vast natural resource riches.
The troops were sent to restore order hours after thousands of people converged on this remote Amazon town to bury the bullet-riddled body of Dorothy Stang, the 73-year-old nun who was killed trying to defend the jungle where she had lived for decades.
As mourners paid their last respects to Stang, a peasant and a former union president were found shot to death in the rural state of Para, where Anapu is located.
The soldiers were mobilized by Vice President Jose Alencar. Alencar is also Brazil's defense minister. Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva cut short a visit to Suriname to return home and deal with the conflict.
Advocates for poor settlers in the region said the soldiers' presence will probably calm tensions for now. But they warned the violence in Para could easily spiral out of control again without solid steps to resolve the bitter disputes among settlers, land speculators and loggers and ranchers who hire gunmen to eliminate opponents.
"How long are these troops going to stay?" asked Bishop Tomas Balduino, president of the Roman Catholic Church-linked Land Pastoral group, which helps landless farmers throughout Brazil. "As soon as they leave, we'll be back in the same situation."
Hoping to restore order to an area where slave-labor and illegal logging is rife, the troops were to deploy in Anapu,
Paraupebas and Altamira, a small city along the Trans-Amazon Highway about 59 miles from Anapu, the official Agencia Brasil news agency reported.
Environmentalists, however, were doubtful that the soldiers alone could solve the region's problems. They were recently angered when the government quietly restored some logging permits in Para after loggers and ranchers staged protests by blocking roads
the root problems," said Nilo D'Avila, a coordinator for Greenpeace's Amazon Project.
It's an emergency and the Army has to go in to guarantee security, but we have to resolve
In the latest attacks, assailants gunned down Daniel Soares da Costa, the former president of Rural Workers Union in Paraupebas, about 210 miles from Anapu. Police said they did not know if there was a connection between his death and Stang's.
In addition, a farmer was found shot to death in an area where Stang had been trying to establish a sustainable development project for poor Brazilians, according to the O
Estado de Sao Paulo newspaper.
Estado de São Paulo, the Amazon, which covers more than half the country, has for centuries been a source of pride and problems for Brazilians as they tried to manage a region where oversight is as difficult as travailing its overgrown and treacherous territory.
Brazil's 1964-85 military government built the Trans-Amazon Highway and gave people free land in an attempt to populate the region. The plan drew settlers from the arid northeast as well as land speculators who took control of much of the timber.
Stang, a naturalized Brazilian originally from Dayton, Ohio, was attacked Saturday in a settlement 30 miles from Anapu. A witness said she began to read from a Bible before being shot at close range six times by two gunmen.
The Amazon is also a battleground between poor residents and ecologists on the one hand, and the logging companies and wealthy ranchers who have steadily pushed deeper into the world's largest rain forest. Development, logging and farming has already destroyed as much as 20 percent of the Amazon's 1.6 million square miles.
Stang, a Dominican nun, spoke out against the destruction and warned that land speculators were arming themselves.
Police were searching for four suspects in her death: two hired gunmen, an intermediary and the man they say ordered the killing.
MILITARY
Iran on the defense, confirms U.S. spying
BY ALI AKBAR DAREINI
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
TEHRAN, Iran — An explosion in a southern city prompted instant fears yesterday of a missile attack in an area where Iran has a nuclear facility, and Iranian authorities gave conflicting explanations for the blast — including Iranian friendly fire in a military area and construction work.
The explosion came hours after the country's intelligence chief confirmed U.S. drones have been flying over Iran for months to spy on nuclear and military facilities.
U. S. and Israeli officials denied involvement with the blast, but it spiked oil prices and showed how jittery the world is that growing international pressure would lead to an attack on Iran.
The explosion near the southwestern port city of Deylam, about 110 miles from the Bushehr nuclear facility, was reported by Iranian state television, which said it may have been caused by a fuel tank dropping from an Iranian plane. A government spokesman said the blast may have been caused by
"T there is a big possibility that it was a friendly fire by mistake."
Jahanbakhsh Khanjani Interior Ministry spokesman
friendly fire
Later, a top security official said the blast was part of construction work on a dam. The official, Ali Agha Mohammadi of the Supreme National Security Council, said Iran's enemies were not in a position to attack Iran.
"Such reports are mostly a psychological war," he said.
The United States accuses Iran of having a secret program to make nuclear weapons. Iran insists its nuclear activities are for peaceful energy purposes.
The report of the explosion spread quickly, with some Iranians calling friends to tell them there had been an attack.
Reza Moghaddam, an engineer in the central city of
Isfahan, called a friend in Tehran about rumors that the United States and Israel were attacking the Bushehr nuclear power plant.
power plant. Iran has been on the defensive recently about the possibility of military action by either the United States or Israel. Israel has warned that it may consider a preemptive strike against Iranian nuclear installations along the lines of its 1981 bombing of an unfinished Iraqi nuclear reactor near Baghdad.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has said a military strike against Iran was "not on the agenda at this point," but President Bush has said his administration wouldn't take any option off the table.
However, Interior Ministry spokesman Jahanbakhsh Khanjani dismissed rumors of a hostile attack and noted that Iranian military aircraft routinely fly in the area.
"There is a big possibility that it was a friendly fire by mistake," he told The Associated Press. "Several such mistaken friendly fire incidents have been reported there in recent days."
ing on condition of anonymity, denied there had been any anti-aircraft fire and said there were no military exercises in the area at the time. The official also said the explosion did not stem from a hostile attack.
"It's not very unusual that planes drop their additional fuel tank while flying but the general public assume it's a bomb or missile attack. The army is investigating the incident," he said.
NATION
A senior army official, speak-
White House press secretary Scott McClellan said there was no U.S. involvement, and CIA Director Porter Goss said he knew nothing about it.
Earlier yesterday, Iran's Intelligence Minister Ali Yunesi publicly confirmed for the first time that the United States has been flying surveillance drones over Iran's airspace to spy on its nuclear and military facilities.
"Most of the shining objects that our people see in Iran's airspace are American spying equipment used to spy on Iran's nuclear and military facilities," the minister told reporters.
His remarks confirmed a Sunday report in The Washington Post that quoted unidentified U.S. officials as
saying the drones have been flying over Iran for nearly a year to seek evidence of nuclear weapons programs.
"These activities won't reveal anything to them," Yunesi said of the Americans. "Our nuclear activities are open and very transparent. Our military activities are all legal."
"If any of the bright objects come close, they will definitely meet our fire and will be shot down. We possess the necessary equipment to confront them," Yunesi said.
Last month, Yunesi said the United States had been conducting aerial surveillance, but he mentioned neither drones nor nuclear and military sites.
Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom told reporters in London yesterday that Iran will have the knowledge to build nuclear weapons within six months.
U.S. ambassador pulled from Syria
WASHINGTON — The United States pulled its ambassador from Syria on Tuesday, expressing "profound outrage" over the assassination of a Lebanese leader who had protested Syrian influence in his country.
In Lebanon, noisy street processions mourned former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri a day before the funeral that will bring international leaders to Beirut. Angry Lebanese attacked Syrian workers in his hometown of Sidon, injuring several and shattering the windows of a Syrian-owned bakery.
The Associated Press
"We believe the Lebanese people must be free to express their political preferences and choose their own representatives without intimidation or the threat of violence,"State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said in announcing the imminent return of U.S. Ambassador Margaret Sobey.
WORLD
Shiite candidate seeks Iraqi office
BAGHDAD, Iraq — The shy family doctor who became the leading candidate for prime minister Tuesday says ending the nation's rampant 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 crackdown by Saddam Hussein in 1980, also talked about drafting a constitution that will draw not only on Islam for inspiration.
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. The Associated Press
The Associated Press
Kyoto Pact signers want U.S.to join
KYOTO, Japan — Amid fanfare marking the enactment of the Kyoto global warming pact, leading proponents laid out their next goals Wednesday: persuading the United States to join the world crackdown on emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases.
But the largest emitter of such gases, the United States, has refused to go along with the restrictions, saying they are flawed and could hurt its economy.
We have your Official Grad. Announcements, Caps, Gowns & Class Rings
The United States argued that it was being environmentally responsible despite its opposition to Kyoto, with White House spokesman Scott McClellan saying Tuesday "we are still learning" about the science of climate change.
The Associated Press
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