THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
WONDERDAY, MARCH 24, 2008
NEWS
7A
INTERNATIONAL Pope celebrates Easter Sunday conversions
VATICAN CITY — Pope Benedict XVI rejoiced over conversions to Christianity in an Easter Sunday Mass on the steps of St. Peter's Basilica a day after he baptized a prominent Muslim newspaper editor.
A white canopy protected the 80-year-old pontiff from a downpour while thousands of pilgrims, tourists and Romans braved thunder and wind-whipped rain.
The faithful were celebrating their belief in the resurrection of Jesus after he was crucified. Thanks to the apostles' preaching about the resurrection, "thousands and thousands of persons converted to Christianity." Benedict said.
"And this is a miracle which renews itself even today," the pope said, hours after a Saturday night Easter vigil service in which he baptized seven adults. The converts included Magdi
Allam, a prominent journalist and commentator in Italy who has received death threats for his denunciations of Islamic fanaticism.
Allam, 55, deputy editor of Corriere della Sera newspaper, was born a Muslim in Egypt, but was educated by Catholics and says he has never been a practicing Muslim.
He wrote in a front-page letter published Sunday in Corriere that he was now taking on the middle name Cristiano
Christian in Italian.
He expressed his gratitude to Benedict, calling Saturday "the most beautiful day of my life"
Cheney visits West Bank in hopes of Mideast peace
RAMALLAH, West Bank Palestinian leaders asked Vice President Dick Cheney on Sunday to pressure Israel to halt settlement construction and voiced other complaints that deflated Cheney's hopeful words about Mideast peace.
Palestinians had little expectation their meetings with Cheney, a strong defender of the Jewish state, would produce anything concrete. While that was the case, the Bush administration did get another chance to nudge the two sides toward an agreement before President Bush leaves office in January. The Palestinians, too, had another shot at expressing their frustrations.
The vice president said neither side should pass up this latest opportunity for an accord despite rancor over Israeli settlements and the retaliatory attacks from each that have disrupted negotiations intended to lead to Palestinian statehood.
"This can be done, and if all concerned stay at the work, success will be achieved," Cheney said, striking a hopeful tone on Easter Sunday during his first vice presidential visit to the Palestinian territory.
After talks with Israeli officials in Jerusalem, Cheney flew to the West Bank by helicopter.
The Coast Guard said four crew members died Sunday and another was missing after the 184-foot Alaska Ranger began sinking in high seas off Alaska's Aleutian Islands. The Ranger is shown here in January 2006 at the Dutch Harbor, Alaska. dock.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Magdi Allam, italy's most prominent Muslim commentator, kneels before Pope Benedict XVI during the Easter vigil mass in St. Peter's Basilica, at the Vatican, where he was baptized, Saturday. The postponed rejoice about conversions to Christianity, Easter Sunday in a rain-drenched appearance he used to renew calls for peace in Iraq, the Holy Land and Tibet. Hours earlier, at the Saturday night Eagle vigil service, he baptized seven adults. The converts included Allam, a prominent journalist in Italy who has received death threats for his denunciations of Islamic fanaticism.
University of Kansas BLOOD DRIVE
March 24 - 28
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Everyone who comes in to donate will receive a FREE KU T-shirt!
Monday, March 24 Kansas Union Ballroom 5th floor, Noon-5 p.m.
Corbin Hall, 1-6 p.m.
Tuesday, March 25 Kansas Union, 5th floor. Big 12 & Jayhawk Room Noon-5 p.m.
Lewis Hall, 1-6 p.m.
Oliver Hall, 1-6 p.m.
Wednesday, March 26
Community Blood Center Save a life. Right Here. Right Now.
Kansas Union Ballroom 11 a.m.-4:30 p.m.
McCollum Hall 2-7 p.m.
McCollum Hall, 2-7 p.m.
Thursday, March 27 Kansas Union Ballroom 11 a.m.-4:30 p.m. McCollum Hall, 2-6 p.m.
Friday, March 28
Robinson Gym Room 248
10 a.m.-2 p.m.
Phi Kappa Psi Fraternity
11 a.m.-4 p.m.
Sponsored by KU Blood Drive Committee
Watch for the Blood Vessel bus at various locations.
NATIONAL Cargill meat packing plant explodes, causes gas leak
NATIONAL
BOONEVILLE, Ark. — A meat packing plant exploded Sunday afternoon, forcing homes to be evacuated because ammonia gas leaked into the air, state officials said.
It was not immediately known if there were any injuries, but a witness said she saw injured people.
Flames poured out of the Cargill Meat Solutions plant just after 2 p.m., witnesses said. It wasn't immediately known how many homes were evacuated in the western Arkansas town of 4,000, emergency management spokeswoman Renee Preslar said.
A hazardous materials team from Sebastian County was heading to Booneville, Preslar said
Meredith Voges, 22, of Connecticut, said she heard the explosion while staying at a hotel just behind the plant. Voges, a member of a film crew shooting footage for a television program about a Booneville school principal, described the scene as "chaotic" and said hotel staff and police urged everyone to leave the area.
"The whole factory was ablaze with black smoke flying into the air, plumes of smoke,"Voges said. She said she saw injured people.
Cargill Inc. has about 2,000 employees in Arkansas, according to its Web site. Mark Klein, a spokesman for the Minneapolisbased company, said the plant was closed Sunday, but about 20 contractors and a few other employees were at the site at the time of the fire.
Klein said the plant, which produces frozen ground beef patties and steaks, uses ammonia in its refrigeration system. The plant employs about 800 people.
Four dead after boat sinks near Alaskan islands
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Four crew members died Sunday and another was missing after a Seattle-based fishing boat began sinking in high seas off Alaska's Aleutian Islands, the Coast Guard said.
The dead were among 47 crew members who abandoned ship after the 184-foot Alaska Ranger developed problems. Forty-two crew members were recovered safely, but a search was continuing for the missing person, said Chief Petty Officer Barry Lane.
The vessel started taking on water shortly before 3 a.m. after losing control of its rudder 120 miles west of Dutch Harbor, which is on Unalaska Island.
All those on board were heading to Dutch Harbor in a Coast Guard cutter and the Alaska Ranger's sister ship, the Alaska Warrior. The vessel took part in the rescue operation along with two Coast Guard helicopters that were used to pluck crew members from life rafts, Lane said.
A C-130 also remained to help search for the missing crew member. Coast Guard Lt. Eric Eggan said it was unknown how or when the four died. The identities of the dead were unknown.
Bank's collapse adds to nation's economic worries
NEW YORK - For months, Americans have been subjected to a sort of economic water torture — a maddening drip of bad news about jobs, gas prices, sagging home values, creeping inflation, the slouching dollar and a stock market in bumpy descent.
Then came Bear Stearns. One of the five largest U.S. investment banks nearly collapsed in a single day before the government propped it up by backing emergency loans and a rival stepped in to buy it for a paltry $2 per share.
To the drumbeat of signs that seemed to foretell a traditional recession, this added a night-marish specter — an old-style run on the bank, customers clamoring to pull their cash, a
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The combination has forced the economy to the forefront of the national conversation in a way it has not been since the go-go 1990s, and for entirely opposite reasons.
stately Wall Street firm brought to its knees.
As economists and Wall Street types grope for historical perspective — which is another way of saying a road map out of this mess Americans are nervously wondering about retirement savings, interest rates jobs that had seemed safe.
PRESIDENTIAL Investigation of passport file security breach begins
WASHINGTON — Senators from both parties on Sunday urged the Department of Justice to investigate the unauthorized searches of the passport files of three presidential candidates by State Department contract workers.
"That kind of a breach of privacy is just despicable," said Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter, the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee. "I think that ought to be a very intense investigation." Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., agreed, saying the incidents seem to point to a broader problem.
"The Government Accountability Office has been warning about this problem for a decade. And it seems to me in this administration, there's been pretty much a culture of disregard for privacy, and that's part of the problem," he said.
Both senators spoke on CNN's "Late Edition."
Last week, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice apologized to presidential candidates Hillary Rodham Clinton, John McCain and Barack Obama after the department confirmed the passport files had been compromised. It was not clear whether the workers — two have been fired — saw anything other than the basic personal data such as name, citizenship, age, Social Security number and place of birth — that is required when applying for a passport.
The State Department's inspector general is investigating
Attorney General Michael Mukasey has indicated that prosecutors would likely wait until the inspector general concludes that inquiry before deciding whether to open an investigation of its own.
On Sunday, Specter urged Mukasey to take up the case, saying the breach could be a violation of several federal criminal statutes. Specter also indicated that the Judiciary Committee might take a look as well.
"I think privacy is a very fundamental matter. And if you can't have privacy for Senator McCain and Senator Clinton and Senator Obama, so what's the average person facing?" Specter said. "It ought to be pursued very diligently, in a tough way."
The two companies that provided the workers for the State Department — Stanley Inc., of Arlington, Va., and The Analysis Corp., or TAC, of McLean, Va. have said their employees' actions were unauthorized and not consistent with company policies.
Associated Press