THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
THURSDAY, APRIL 5, 2007
THURSDAY, APRIL 5, 2007
NEWS
5A
BRITISH CAPTIVES
Iran's president announces release of prisoners
ASSOCIATED PRESS
British navy personnel, seized by Iran, stand after their meeting with the Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, not seen, at the presidential palace in Tehran, Iran, on Wednesday. Ahmadinejad announced that his government would release the 15 detained British sailors and marines Wednesday as an Easter season gift to the British people.
BY NASSER KARIMI ASSOCIATED PRESS
TEHRAN, Iran — President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad defused a growing confrontation with Britain, announcing the surprise release of 15 captive British sailors Wednesday and then gleefully accepting the crew's thanks and handshakes in what he called an Easter gift.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair expressed "profound relief" over the peaceful end to the 13-day crisis. "Throughout we have taken a measured approach — firm but calm, not negotiating, but not confronting either." Blair said in London, adding a message to the Iranian people that "we bear you no ill will."
The announcement in Tehran was a breakthrough in a crisis that had escalated over nearly two weeks, raising oil prices and fears of military conflict in the volatile region. The move to release the sailors suggested that Iran's hard-line leadership decided it had shown its strength but did not want to push the standoff too far.
Iran did not get the main thing it sought — a public apology for entering Iranian waters, Britain, which
said its crew was in Iraqi waters when seized, insists it never offered a quid pro quo, either, instead relying on quiet diplomacy.
exercised a sort of quiet diplomacy to solve this problem and encourage dialogue between the two parties"; Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem said in Damascus.
Syria, Iran's close ally, said it played a role in winning the release. "Syria
The announcement of the release
came hours after U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi met with President Bashar Assad in Damascus, trying to show that a U.S. dialogue with Syria — rejected by the Bush administration — could bring benefits for
the Middle East. The British sailors were not part of their talks, and it was not clear if the release was timed to coincide with her visit.
Iran's official news agency said the British crew was to leave Iran by plane on Thursday at 8 a.m. By Wednesday evening they had still not been handed over to the British Embassy in Tehran and the embassy said it was not clear where they would spend the night. Britain's ambassador met with the sailors and confirmed they were in good health, Britain's Foreign Office said.
Ahmadinejad timed the announcement so as to make a dramatic splash, springing it halfway through a two-hour news conference.
The president first gave a medal of honor to the commander of the Iranian coast guards who captured the Britons, and admonished London for sending a mother, Leading Seaman Faye Turney, on such a dangerous mission in the Persian Gulf.
He said the British government was "not brave enough" to admit the crew had been in Iranian waters when it was captured.
AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRY
DaimlerChrysler looks to sell Chrysler division
BY MATT MOORE ASSOCIATED PRESS
BERLIN — DaimlerChrysler AG is confident a turnaround program at its Chrysler unit will return the beleaguered American brand to profitability, but Chairman Dieter Zetsche said Wednesday the automaker is in talks with unidentified potential buyers.
He said that the talks have been with "potential partners who have shown a clear interest" and "so far,
"As announced on Feb. 14, we are open to all options for future collaboration with Chrysler," he told some 9,000 shareholders crammed inside Berlin's exhibition center. "The statement is still true today."
I am satisfied with the process. Everything is going according to plan."
He would not elaborate on who was involved in the talks.
Zet sch e stunned the automotive world on Feb. 14 when he said that continued losses and fierce competition in the United States meant that the German-American automaker was considering all options for its Chrysler unit, and did not rule out a possible sale, saying only that all options were being considered.
He did not disclose whether any decision to sell Chrysler had been made or if the company was any closer to a solution.
"As announced on Feb. 14, we are open to all options for future collaboration with Chrysler."
DIETER ZETSCHE
DaimlerChrysler AG chairman
Still, he did say a recovery plan that will cut 13,000 jobs in the U.S. and Canada was moving forward.
The Chrysler unit lost $1.5 billion in 2006.
"The crucial factor was the foreseeable
shift in demand to smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicles which was triggered by increased gas prices in the U.S." Zetsche said.
No clear front-runner has yet emerged to buy Chrysler, but Canadian auto-parts supplier Magna International Inc. reportedly has submitted a bid to buy the business for as much as $4.7 billion.
He noted that Chrysler's strengths have been minivans, pickups and sport utility vehicles, autos not known for their fuel efficiency.
If DaimlerChrysler does sell off the U.S. unit, it will mark a significant change in fortunes since it bought Auburn Hills, Mich.-based Chrysler in 1998 for $36 billion.
Despite helping to keep the company afloat as little as two years ago when the Mercedes Car Group suffered massive quality control problems and declining sales, at least some of the company's more than 1 million shareholders have been pushing for a divorce — in both style and substance.
Cerberus Capital Management LLC and a consortium of investors led by Blackstone Group each have reviewed Chrysler's finances and are expected to make bids.
No significant tsunami was reported outside the Solomons, which are comprised of more than 200 islands with a population of about 552,000 people.
2. ___
》 NATURAL DISASTER
3. ___
Red Cross official Nancy Jolo said her agency had handed out all the emergency supplies it had stored in Gizo, the main town in the disaster zone, and was waiting for new supplies from a New Zealand military transport plane that landed
Gizo's proximity to the epicenter meant the destructive waves — up to 16 feet high — hit before an alarm could be sounded, rekindling debate about whether the multimillion-dollar warning systems installed after the 2004 tsunami are worth the cost.
Gladys Houla/ASSOCIATED PRESS
The quake, which struck 6 miles under the sea about 25 miles from Gizo, set off alarms from Tokyo to Hawaii, testing procedures put in place after the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami that left 230,000 dead or missing in a dozen countries.
Solomon Islands recover from tsunami
BY MERAIAH FOLEY ASSOCIATED PRESS
Residents in the village of Noro in the Solomon Islands on Monday wade through the main street after water subsided from a tsunami caused by an earth quake that hit the south Pacific in the early hours of the morning.
late Tuesday in Munda.
"People are in a panic because of the continuous tremors," said Rex Tara, a disaster management specialist with British-based aid agency Oxfam.
The fears of another tsunami have made it difficult for officials to determine the number of victims and get aid to the homeless. And aftershocks were pushing some survivors even deeper into the hills.
MUNDA, Solomon Islands Men perched on rocks peered out to sea through binoculars at a camp near the Solomon Islands town of Munda on Wednesday, watching for another deadly wave.
Authorities have no firm figure for the missing, but Solomon's deputy police commissioner Peter Marshall said aerial surveillance flights in the past two days had revealed "was no evidence of mass deaths"
The camp is one of many that have sprung up in hills behind towns hit by Monday's tsunami and earthquake. With strong aftershocks still jolting the region, the 40 families huddled there were afraid to come down, though some had run out of water.
At least 28 people were killed
On Wednesday, they ventured back for a sack of rice to replace the one they brought with them, now half gone. But when they heard a rumor that another wave was coming, they took to the hills again.
"There's no water to wash, no water to drink," said Esther Zekele, who fled with her husband and five children to the camp on Monday as the sea surged into Munda, on the western island of Gizo.
by the tsunami and magnitude-8 earthquake and authorities were checking unconfirmed reports of further deaths, including six people buried in a landslide on Simbo, another island in this South Pacific nation.
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