tuesday,september 9,2003
news
the university daily kansar
7A
Speaker tapped to replace Abbas
Palestinian parliament speaker nominated following prime minister's resignation
The Associated Press
RAMALLAH, West Bank Yasser Arafat tapped the Palestinian parliament speaker, an architect of peace with Israel, to take over as prime minister Sunday after a day of intense backroom politicking that followed the resignation of Mahmoud Abbas.
Meanwhile, Israeli helicopters launched a missile attack at the home of Hamas militant Abdel Salam Abu Musa in the Gaza Strip, wounding at least 11 people. The army said the target was a Hamas weapons warehouse inside the building, in the Khan Younis refugee camp.
Sunday's attack came hours after Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said all Hamas militants were "marked for death."
Several leaders of Arafat's rul.
ing Fatah party confirmed the nomination by consensus of parliament speaker Ahmed Qureia, though it remained unclear if he would accept. Qureia attended the meeting Sunday night but did not comment, Fatah officials said. The parliament speaker "is our only nominee," said Abbas Zaki, a member of the Fatah central committee.
Palestinian officials agreed on Arafat's suggestion of Qureia and asked him to form a new government within 48 hours, said Hanna Amireh, a member of PLO executive committee.
The developments came during a day of heated negotiations set off by Abbas' resignation Saturday. Arafat had refused to grant him more power over the Palestinian security services, capping four months of wrangling
between the two since Abbas took office.
Qureia, a moderate who helped cobble together the 1993 Oslo accord between Israel and the PLO, was considered a top candidate to replace Abbas because he has led past negotiations and has credibility with Israel. Israeli officials didn't immediately respond to the development.
Earlier in the day, there were conflicting signals about whether Abbas might be pressured to stay on.
A source close to Abbas, speaking on condition of anonymity, said he would serve again only if he could work out a firm deal with Arafat beforehand on what his powers would be and who would serve in his government. Abbas himself sent mixed
signals when asked about heading a new government. "It's something premature to talk about. My resignation is final," he said.
The resignation dealt a serious blow to the U.S.-backed "road map" plan for establishing a Palestinian state by 2005; Israel and the United States have refused to deal with Arafat, whom they accuse of fomenting terrorism, and made Abbas, a critic of terror attacks against Israelis, their partner in peace efforts.
her peace efforts.
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said any Palestinian prime minister must have clear control over security forces and use them to crack down on militant groups like Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
"That person has to have political authority and the determination to go after terrorism," Powell said on ABC's "This Week."
Music trade group files 261 lawsuits
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The music industry's largest trade group filed 261 copyright lawsuits across the country yesterday against Internet users who trade songs online, an aggressive campaign to discourage piracy through fears of expensive civil penalties or settlements.
The Recording Industry Association of America warned it ultimately may file thousands of cases. Its first round was aimed at what it described as "major offenders" illegally distributing on average more than 1,000 copyrighted music files each.
Durwood Pickle, 71, of Richardson, Texas, said his teenaged grandchildren downloaded music onto his computer during their visits to his home. He said his grown son had explained the situation in an e-mail to the recording industry association.
recordings I made,
"I didn't do it, and I don't feel like I'm responsible," Pickle said. "It's been stopped now, I guarantee you that."
Pickle, who was unaware he was being sued until contacted by The Associated Press, said he rarely uses the computer in his home.
"I'm not a computer-type person," Pickle said. "They come in and get on the computer. How do I get out of this? Dadgum it, got to get a lawyer on this."
An estimated 60 million
Americans participate in file-sharing networks, using software that makes it simple for computer users to locate and retrieve for free virtually any song by any artists within moments. Internet users broadly acknowledge music-trading is illegal, but the practice has flourished in recent years since copyright statutes are among the most popularly flouted laws online.
"Nobody likes playing the heavy," said RIAA President Cary Sherman, who compared illegal music downloads to shoplifting. "There comes a time when you have to stand up and take appropriate action."
Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., has already promised
"They have a legitimate interest that needs to be protected, but are they protecting it in a way that's too broad and over-reaching?" Coleman said. "I don't want to make criminals out of 60 million kids, even though kids and grandkids are doing things they shouldn't be doing."
congressional hearings into how the music industry has identified and tracked the Internet users it's suing.
they shouted. The RIAA did not identify for reporters which Internet users it was suing or where they live. Federal courthouses in New York, Boston, Chicago, San Francisco, Dallas and elsewhere reported receiving some lawsuits.
Sen. Edwards: not going to seek re-election
The Associated Press
RALEIGH, N.C. — John Edwards will not run for re-election to the Senate in 2004 so he can concentrate on seeking the Democratic presidential nomination, a state party official said Sunday.
The North Carolina senator wrote a letter received Sunday by state Democratic Party chairwoman Barbara Allen announcing his decision, state party executive Scott Falmlen said.
"I...decided that I will not seek re-election to the United States Senate in order to devote all of my energy to running for president," Edwards wrote Allen.
Edwards was first elected to the Senate in 1998 but announced in January he would seek the presidential nomination.
North Carolina law allows him to run for president and Senate simultaneously and state Democratic officials were getting restless in recent months while Edwards mulled his decision on
whether to run for one or two jobs.
jobs.
Edwards' five-paragraph letter to Allen resolves that question and lets other Democratic candidates begin building their campaigns. Edwards wrote that he and his family, on the campaign trail during the Labor Day weekend, took time "to discuss the next step in this journey."
"More than ever, regular North Carolinians and people all over the country need a voice in the White House representing
them," he wrote. "The problems that drove me to explore a possible campaign are even more pressing today than they were in January.
"Given all of this, the decision to move forward decisively to seek the nomination was not a difficult one," he said.
different one. Rep. Richard Burr, R-N.C., already has announced he will run for the Edwards seat and has built up a campaign structure that brought the seat in doubt for the Democrats.
Glitches may explain lack of weapons
The Associated Press
No weapons of mass destruction have turned up in Iraq, nor has any solid new evidence for them turned up in Washington or London. But what about Baghdad's patchy bookkeeping — the gaps that led U.N. inspectors to list Iraqi nerve agents and bioweapons material as unaccounted for?
Ex-inspectors now say, five months after the U.S. invasion, that the "unaccountables" may have been no more than paperwork glitches left behind when Iraq destroyed banned chemical and biological weapons years ago.
Some may represent miscounts, they say, and some may stem from Iraqi underlings' efforts to satisfy the boss by exaggerating reports on arms output in the 1980s.
1960s. "Under that sort of regime, you don't admit you got it wrong," said Ron G. Manley of Britain, a former chief U.N. adviser on chemical weapons. His encounters with Iraqi scientists in the 1990s convinced him that at times, when told to produce "X amount" of a weapons agent, "they wrote down what their superiors wanted to hear instead of the reality," said Manley, who noted that producing VX nerve agent, for example,
is a difficult process.
is a difficult process.
American ex-inspector Scott Ritter said he, too, was sure Baghdad's "WMD" accounts were at times overstated.
"There was so much pressure put on scientists to produce world-class systems, they would exaggerate their reports back to authorities," he said. As inspectors scrutinized factories and interrogated Iraqi specialists, "you suddenly realized they weren't as good as they said they were."
were.
Ex-Marine officer Ritter, who sounded alarms about possible hidden Iraqi weapons in the 1990s, stirred controversy the past two years by accusing U.S. officials of having failed to make a case for war on Iraq. Chief U.N. inspector Hans Blix, as he left his post this summer, became more open in discussing discrepancies.
After the mid-1990s, "hardly ever did (inspectors) find hidden weapons," Blix reminded one audience. "What they found was bad accounting."
bad accounting.
The discrepancies, disputed for years between U.N. inspectors and Iraqi officials, may be of more interest now that U.S. weapons hunters are failing to find Iraqi chemical or biological arms.
Police ask for caution from bars playing song
The Associated Press
WICHITA — Police have asked Wichita bar owners to be careful when playing the song "Put Yo Hood Up" after it apparently incited a gang-related shooting last month and another shooting last year.
shooting. Lt. John Speer said the song by the rap group Lil Ion and the East Side Boyz encourages club patrons to flash gang signs in a confrontational manner.
with the playing of the same song.
"We're not asking them to not play the song; they can do as they wish." Speer said. "We're just asking them to be responsible."
Speer said a disturbance started outside a Wichita club on Jan. 27, 2002, while the song was playing. Four people were shot. Five others were shot outside another Wichita club on Aug. 29 after a disturbance that began
No one died in the Wichita club shootings. But "Put Yo Hood Up" has been blamed on at least one homicide.
In Wrightsville, Ark., last fall, the song was played at a birthday party, prompting several people to flash gang signs. A subsequent fight ended when a 17-year-old pulled out a gun and shot and killed a 16-year-old.
killed a 10-year-old.
Besides "Put Yo Hood Up," Speer said police also were encouraging Wichita bar owners to be cautious of other songs that could spur gang violence. Speer said police have run into at least one other case in Wichita in which a song has incited gangs to square off.
square on.
"The club was literally divided," he said. "You've got the Crips on one side and the Bloods on the other." No one was hurt.