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6A THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
NEWS
THURSDAY JANUARY 20, 2005
Violence escalates in Iraq as election approaches
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
BAGHDAD. Iraq
BAGHDAD, Iraq Insurgents unleashed a wave of five car bombings across the capital yesterday, killing about a dozen people, despite stepped-up U.S. and Iraqi measures to protect this month's elections. North of Baghdad, insurgents killed a British security officer.
Iraiq police also said insurgents kidnapped a Japanese engineer, but today officials in Tokyo cast doubt on the report, saying they had no information on the incident.
Gunmen also fired on the Baghdad office of a major Kurdish party and two senior officials escaped assassination in separate attacks in the north.
The U.S. military put the death toll from the day's Baghdad bombings at 26, saying the number was based on initial reports at the scene. Iraqi officials gave a lower toll
12 people killed in the bombings and one at the Kurdish office.
Sunni Muslim insurgents have threatened to disrupt the elections, and the five car
bombings — four within a span of 90 minutes — underscored the grave threat facing Iraqis at this watershed in their history. U.S. and Iraqi forces have stepped up raids and arrests in Baghdad, Mosul and other troublespots as the elections approach.
Nevertheless, the attacks had little effect on preparations for the Jan. 30 balloting, in which Iraqi will choose a 275-member National Assembly and regional legislatures. At Baghdad airport, Iraqi authorities yesterday received the largest shipment of
Elections official Farid Avar said 90,000 ballot boxes had already been flown to Iraq along with millions of ballots printed mostly in Canada and Australia.
ballot boxes and other elections equipment to date.
Throughout the morning yesterday, the routine clatter of big city traffic was punctuated by the crisp sound of distant explosions. U.S.military helicopters rattled low overhead, roaming the bright blue sky for any sign of trouble.
Al Qaeda's branch in Iraq claimed responsibility for the
first of the day's blasts, which occurred about 7 a.m. at the Australian Embassy in the capital. A truck packed with explosives blew up outside the concrete barriers in front of the embassy, killing two people and wounding several, including two Australian soldiers.
"A lion of monotheism and faith ... carried out a martyrdom operation nearby the Australian Embassy," the group Al Qaeda in Iraq said in an Internet statement. The group is led by Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who has allied himself with Osama bin Laden's terror network.
Lt. Col, Steven Boylan, director of the U.S. military press center, said U.S. officials could not explain the discrepancy between the American and Iraqi figures "but we are holding to our numbers."
A half-hour after the embassy blast, another car bomb exploded at a police station next to a hospital in eastern Baghdad. The U.S. military said 18 were killed there, but the Iraqi Interior Ministry put the death toll at six, including a police woman.
HALL CENTER: New home adds needed space
CONTINUED FROM 1A
$260,000 came from private donations, Bailey said. The Center was moved into the new structure by Ian. 10.
Victor Bailey, director of the Hall Center, said lack of space was the main reason to construct the new building, located southwest of Watson Library. "It's quite frustrating creating a seminar and finding a location," Bailey said. "If you can just hold more and tell people it's in the Hall Center would be nice."
To solve this problem, contractors built a 25-person seminar room, where speakers can give lectures, in addition to a 120-seat conference hall along the Powerhouse's original west wall.
The new building, at 14,700
square feet, is double the size of the old Hall Center.
Built in the 1880s, the Powerhouse was the primary source for heating and electricity for the University, according to kuhistory.com.
On March 22, 1898, lightning struck the building and burned it to the ground. Only the stone arcade and its smokestack survived the fire. Before the new Hall Center took over the site, the building was used by Facilities Operations.
The Hall Center supports interdisciplinary research in the humanities, arts and social sciences among faculty members and graduate students at the University of Kansas, according to the center's mission statement. The center will not be used for classroom
teaching.
The center includes additional space in the the basement, and there is a vacant room on the second floor. Bailey said that room could turn into another conference room or three more offices.
The room would have to remain vacant, however because the department ran out of funding, Bailey said.
Amy Potter, a Hall Center graduate student assistant, said the larger building would be a great place to hold lectures.
"I think it allows for more opportunity for the center," said Potter, Overland Park graduate student in geography. "It's a larger space, it can allow for more people."
Edited by John Scheirman
CONTINUED FROM 1A
He said he heard of protests such as "Not One Damn Dime Day," but had never seen them have any economic effect.
PROTEST: Economic boycott for symbolic effect
"You would still be paying for heat, DSL and water," Haider-Markel said. "I guess that is the great trap of our economy. You can't live for free in civilization."
But Hanson said a total lack of spending or forcing a drag in the economy was not the focus of protest.
"I don't think it will have any lasting impact on the economy, but that is not the point," he said. "It's a symbolic effect. It should show the great number of people that are still dissatisfied with Bush."
Many students may join in the
protest without even knowing it.
Brandon Gay, December graduate, said he didn't plan on participating in the protest, but would not spend money anyway.
"I'm broke," said Gay, former member of the KU Young Democrats. "So I'll probably partake involuntarily."
Instead of protesting, Elizabeth Moss, vice president of the KU College Republicans, said she and other members would spend today watching the inauguration with the Douglas County Republics.
Moss said she favored people expressing their opinions but would not participate in the boycott.
"I would be very hesitant of any kind of protesting that limited free trade," Moss said. "It's something that is so against my
mindset that I don't think I would ever do that."
Although the boycott is a quieter form of protest, Hanson said he would still be out on the streets organizing group protests.
Hanson said the Lawrence Coalition for Peace and Justice would partake in a mock inaugural of its own.
The coalition will hold its "I Have A Dream" inauguration at 5:30 p.m. today on the steps of the Douglas County Courthouse.
The event will involve an inaugural speech addressing what action the coalition would like to see taken during the next four years.
— Edited by Laura Francoviglia
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