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(12/11/06 4:29am)
DHAKA, Bangladesh -- Soldiers patrolled Bangladesh's towns and cities Sunday to end weeks of often violent opposition protests, a deployment that prompted unease over the country's democratic future.\nOpposition protests to demand electoral reforms have left at least 30 people dead over the past two months. President Iajuddin Ahmed ordered the military into the streets Saturday night, trying assuage fears that the country was sliding into chaos before a Jan. 23 vote.\nDeploying the army was viewed as risky in a South Asian nation plagued by military coups since gaining independence from Pakistan in 1971. Two presidents have been slain in coups, and there have been 19 other failed coup attempts.\nPolice indefinitely banned public gatherings or protests around the presidential palace in downtown Dhaka, and armored vehicles took up positions around the building.\nAhmed said the political protests had been disrupting public life, and he wanted ensure the upcoming elections would be held on time.\n"Millions have been affected by the protests, children were stopped from going to school, the economy was hit by transport blockades and stoppage of port activities, even courts were attacked," Ahmed said in a televised speech late Sunday.\nThe Home Ministry said the troops would "protect public life and property, keep economic activities running, recover illegal weapons and curb crimes to secure a congenial election atmosphere."\nAn alliance of 14 opposition parties, led by former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, had threatened to march on the presidential palace Sunday unless their demands for changes to the country's Election Commission were met. However, the alliance postponed the protest Saturday, saying it wanted to give the government more time.\nRetired Maj. Gen. Syed Muhammad Ibrahim, a political analyst, called the deployment of troops "premature."\n"It is not good for the political future of the country," he said.\nHasina said the deployment surprised her because the opposition had called off its march on the palace.\n"The situation did not call for it," she said. "It's unjust."\nThe opposition alliance wants the removal of two election commissioners it accuses of bias toward Khaleda Zia, who resigned as prime minister at the end of her term in October so an interim government could oversee the elections. Her resignation was required under Bangladesh's constitution.\nUnder the constitution, election officials cannot be fired but must resign or go on leave. The alliance also has demanded a revised voter list, saying the current one contains duplicate and fake names and favors Zia.\nThe election commission has started revising the disputed list and pushed the election back two days. But the alliance said that is not enough.\nAhmed said his advisers had made efforts to talk with the rival political parties but fresh demands kept coming up. He said the government had requested the chief election commissioner go on leave and appointed new commissioners.\n"We thought that would solve the problem, but they started new agitation," Ahmed said, adding that he would still try to resolve the impasse.\nZia's four-party coalition praised the deployment.\n"The government has met most of their demands, but when they threatened to lay siege to the president's office, he was forced to take action," coalition spokesman Mannan Bhuiyan told reporters. "We believe he took the right decision."\n--Associated Press correspondent Farid Hossain contributed to this report.
(12/11/06 4:28am)
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Outgoing Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld paid a surprise visit to Iraq over the weekend and said American forces should not quit the war until the enemy is defeated.\nJust days after a U.S. bipartisan commission called the situation "grave and deteriorating" and called for a major shift in U.S. government policy, Rumsfeld showed no sign Saturday of backing down from his long-standing position that insurgent groups such as al-Qaida in Iraq must be crushed.\n"We feel great urgency to protect the American people from another 9/11 or a 9/11 times two or three. At the same time, we need to have the patience to see this task through to success. The consequences of failure are unacceptable," Rumsfeld told more than 1,200 soldiers and Marines at Al-Asad, a sprawling air base in Anbar province, the large area of western Iraq that is an insurgent stronghold: "The enemy must be defeated."\nRumsfeld, whose tenure at the Pentagon came under criticism in the Iraq Study Group report, was continuing to meet with U.S. troops in Iraq on Sunday, the military said.\nAbout 2,930 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, many in and around Baghdad, and in hard-hit Anbar cities such as Fallujah and Ramadi.\nIraqi President Jalal Talabani said the Iraq Study Group report offered dangerous recommendations that would undermine his country's sovereignty and were "an insult to the people of Iraq." He was the most senior government official to take a stand against the Iraq Study Group report, which has come under criticism from leaders of the governing Shiite and Kurdish parties.\nHe said the report "is not fair, is not just, and it contains some very dangerous articles which undermine the sovereignty of Iraq and the constitution."\nTalabani said Iraqis were not intimidated by the report's threat to reduce political, military or economic support if the government in Baghdad cannot make substantial progress.\nHe said setting conditions was "an insult to the people of Iraq."\nMeanwhile, gunmen attacked two Shiite homes in western Baghdad, killing 10 people, police said Sunday, while seven others died in clashes elsewhere in the capital. No one claimed responsibility for the attack, which occurred late Saturday in the mostly Sunni Arab al-Jihad neighborhood, two policemen said. Sunni Arabs appeared to have conducted the attack in retaliation for earlier attacks on Sunnis in the capital.\nThe policemen spoke on condition of anonymity out of concern for their own safety.\nBaghdad has been suffering from a series of attacks aimed at driving Sunnis or Shiites out of neighborhoods of the capital where they form a minority.\nOn Sunday morning, clashes erupted between Sunni and Shiite militants in Baghdad's mixed western Amil district, a policeman said. One Shiite militiaman was killed and six people -- five Sunnis and one Shiite -- were wounded, the officer said on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to talk to the media. The fighting ended with U.S. and Iraqi forces rushed to the area to contain it, he said.\nWitnesses said Shiite militiamen entered a Sunni enclave in Hurriyah -- a predominantly Shiite neighborhood -- after Sunnis warned the few Shiites living there to leave or be killed. Heavy machine gun fire was heard Saturday, and three columns of black smoke rose into the sky.\nOmar Abdul-Sattar, a member of the Sunni Arab Iraqi Islamic Party, said Sunday that an organized effort was under way in Hurriyah to force Sunnis out, and he accused Iraq's Shiite-led government of doing little to stop the violence.\nSpeaking at a news conference shown on Iraqi TV, Abdul-Sattar read a party statement claiming that during the past five months more than 300 Sunni families have been displaced from Hurriyah, more than 100 Sunnis killed and 200 wounded, and at least five Sunni mosques burned, along with houses and shops.\nHe said the party rejected sectarian violence of all kinds, but he accused Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's government of protecting Shiite areas of the capital while ignoring the needs of mostly Sunni ones.\nRumsfeld's farewell tour to Iraq followed a grim picture of the war that a bipartisan commission headed by former Secretary of State James A. Baker III and former Democratic Rep. Lee Hamilton presented last week. The Iraq Study Group said its prescription for change is needed quickly to turn around a "grave and deteriorating" situation.
(12/11/06 4:28am)
SANTIAGO, Chile -- Gen. Augusto Pinochet, who overthrew Chile's democratically elected Marxist president in a bloody coup and ruled the Andean nation for 17 years, died Sunday, dashing hopes of victims of his regime's abuses that he would be brought to justice. He was 91.\nPinochet suffered a heart attack a week ago and underwent an angioplasty, and the brief announcement by the Santiago Military Hospital said his condition worsened suddenly Sunday. Dr. Juan Ignacio Vergara, spokesman for the medical team that had been treating him, said his family was with him when he died.\nPolice ringed the hospital, but a small group of Pinochet supporters remained at the entrance, shouting insults at people in passing cars. The supporters, including some weeping women, repeatedly called out "Long Live Pinochet!" and sang Chile's national anthem.\nChile's government says at least 3,197 people were killed for political reasons during his rule, but after leaving the presidency in 1990, Pinochet escaped hundreds of criminal complaints because of his declining physical and mental health.\nPinochet took power Sept. 11, 1973, demanding an unconditional surrender from President Salvador Allende as warplanes bombed the presidential palace in downtown Santiago. Instead, Allende committed suicide with a submachine gun he had received as a gift from Fidel Castro.\nAs the mustachioed Pinochet crushed dissent during his 1973-90 rule, he left little doubt about who was in charge. "Not a leaf moves in this country if I'm not moving it," he once said.\nBut when it came to his regime's abuses, Pinochet refused for years to take responsibility, saying any murders of political prisoners were the work of subordinates. Then on his 91st birthday -- \njust last month -- he took "full political responsibility for everything that happened" during his long rule. The statement read by his wife, however, made no reference to the rights abuses.\nPinochet, born Nov. 25, 1915, as the son of a customs official in the port of Valparaiso, was commander of the army at the time of the 1973 coup, appointed 19 days earlier by the president he toppled.\nThe CIA tried for months to destabilize the Allende government, including financing a truckers strike that paralyzed the delivery of goods across Chile, but Washington denied having anything to do with the coup.\nIn the days following Pinochet's seizure of power, soldiers carried out mass arrests of leftists. Tanks rumbled through the streets of the capital.\nMany detainees, including Americans Charles Horman and Frank Teruggi, were herded into the National Stadium, which became a torture and detention center. The Americans were among those the Chilean military executed, their deaths chronicled in the 1982 film "Missing."\nA death squad known as the "Caravan of Death" rounded up other leftists. Victims were buried in unmarked mass graves in the northern Atacama desert, in the coastal city of La Serena and in the southern city of Cauquenes.\nPinochet pledged to stay in power "only as long as circumstances demand it," but soon after seizing the presidency, he said he had "goals, not deadlines."\nHe disbanded congress, banned political activity and started a harsh anti-leftist repression. At least 3,197 people were killed, more than 1,000 others are unaccounted for, and thousands more were arrested, tortured and forced into exile.\nWithin years, Chile and other South American countries with right-wing governments launched Operation Condor to eliminate leftist dissidents abroad. One of Operation Condor's victims was former Chilean Foreign Minister Orlando Letelier, who was killed along with his American aide, Ronni Moffitt, when a bomb shattered their car in Washington in 1976.\nIn May 2005, some of the strongest evidence against Pinochet emerged, when Gen. Manuel Contreras, the imprisoned head of the former dictatorship's secret police, gave Chile's Supreme Court a list describing the fate of more than 500 dissidents who disappeared after being arrested by the secret police. Most were killed, their bodies flung into the sea.\nContreras, who is serving a 12-year sentence for the disappearance of a young dissident in 1975, said Pinochet was responsible. Pinochet blamed all the abuses on subordinates.\n"Justice has been too generous with Pinochet," said Viviana Diaz, whose father was among the disappeared. \nShe said the fact that Pinochet was never punished "is the impotence that we have, and the reason for the fight we have waged all these years to eliminate impunity in our country."\nPinochet defended his authoritarian rule as a bulwark against communism -- and even claimed part of the credit for the collapse of communism. He repeatedly said he had nothing to ask forgiveness for.\n"I see myself as a good angel," he told a Miami Spanish-language television station in 2004.\nWith his raspy voice, he often spoke in a lower-class vernacular that comedians delighted in mimicking. But his off-the-cuff comments sometimes got him into trouble.\nOnce, he embarrassed the government by saying that the German army was made up of "marijuana smokers, homosexuals, long-haired unionists." On another occasion, he drew criticism by saying the discovery of coffins that each contained the bodies of two victims of his regime's repression was a show of "a good cemetery space-saving measure."\nShrewd and firmly in command of his army, Pinochet saw himself as the leader of a crusade to build a society free of communism. Amid the upheaval in 1973, the economy was in near ruins, partly due to the CIA's covert destabilization efforts.\nPinochet launched a radical free-market economic program that, coupled with heavy foreign borrowing and an overvalued peso, triggered a financial collapse and unprecedented joblessness in the early 1980s. Eventually, the economy recovered and since 1984 Chile has posted growth averaging 5 percent to 7 percent a year.\nKey to the economic recovery was a group of mostly young economists known as the "Chicago Boys" for their studies under University of Chicago professor and Nobel laureate Milton Friedman. They lifted most state controls over the economy, privatized many sectors and strongly encouraged foreign investment with tax and other guarantees.\nPinochet tried to remain in control of the nation of 15 million people, but Latin America was gravitating toward civilian rule. On Oct. 5, 1988, he lost a national referendum on a proposal to extend his rule until 1997. He was forced to call a presidential election, which center-left coalition candidate Patricio Aylwin won.\nPinochet handed over power to Aylwin in March 1990 but remained army commander for eight more years and then was a senator-for-life, a position guaranteed under the constitution his regime wrote.\nIn 1998, Pinochet traveled to London to undergo back surgery but was placed under house arrest after a Spanish judge issued a warrant seeking to try him for human rights violations. British authorities decided he was too ill to stand trial and sent him home in March 2000.\nBack in Chile, ghosts of the past dogged the retired general. More than 200 criminal complaints were filed against him, one involving the Caravan of Death.\nBut July 9, 2001, a court ruled that Pinochet could not face trial because of his poor physical and mental health after court-appointed doctors diagnosed him with a mild case of dementia. A 2004 case against Pinochet was also stopped because he was found unfit to stand trial.\nStill, his foes and relatives of his regime's victims kept trying to bring him to trial, successfully having him indicted and held under house arrest several times. But chances of any case reaching trial always appeared dim.\nIn 2004, a U.S. Senate investigative committee found Pinochet kept multimillion-dollar secret accounts at the Riggs Bank in Washington. In all, investigators said he had up to $17 million in foreign accounts, and Chilean courts charged Pinochet with owing $9.8 million in back taxes. He was also indicted on tax evasion charges, along with his wife and three children.\nWhile many of his military and civilian followers staunchly supported him throughout his legal battle against human rights accusations, he was isolated and almost abandoned as the money dealings became public. Many expressed frustration and disappointment.\n"We deserve an explanation for this," said retired Gen. Rafael Villarroel, once one of Pinochet's closest aides.\nSince the mid-1990s, Pinochet led a mostly secluded life between his heavily guarded Santiago mansion and his countryside residence. He rarely appeared in public other than for checkups at the Santiago army hospital.\nAssociates said he lost interest in politics and rarely paid attention to news. During family gatherings he would remain mostly silent, looking frail and tired.\nHis health declined steadily. In 1992, he received a pacemaker. He suffered from diabetes and arthritis and had at least three mild strokes beginning in 1998.\nHe is survived by his wife, Lucia, who headed a volunteer women's organization dedicated to helping the poor, two sons and three daughters.
(12/11/06 4:24am)
Liquor stores will be closed this year on a day that is traditionally one of their busiest -- \nNew Year's Eve -- because the holiday falls on a Sunday.\nIndiana prohibits all take-out liquor sales on Sundays. This year both Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve fall on Sundays, and liquor stores must also be closed for the Monday holidays of Christmas Day and New Year's Day.\nPaul Lukso, of Munster Liquors in Munster, Ind., said Christmas Eve is a big day for sales, but that New Year's Eve is the busiest day of the year.\n"I've got two stores in Illinois, and we never close," he said. "Here, we've got to close Sunday plus Monday. You'd think they'd give you one of the days."\nJohn Livengood, president and chief executive officer of the Indiana Association of Beverage Retailers, said most members of his group generally favor the rule banning Sunday liquor sales.\n"This is just one of the unintended consequences of that decision," he said. "No one thought restricting Sunday sales would include New Year's Eve."\nThe legislature could have granted an exemption to allow sales on Sunday for New Year's Eve had the issue been brought up, said Rep. Robert Kuzman, D-Crown Point.\n"Someone should have considered it and asked us for an exception, and I think something like that would have passed," he said.\nInstead, liquor stores will be closed, and those hosting holiday parties will have to plan ahead. Lukso said he will put up signs and remind customers about the closings but predicted people wouldn't remember.\n"They'll go right across the border to Illinois," Lukso said.
(12/11/06 4:14am)
Smithsonian american \nart museum -- \nWashington, D.c.\nADDRESS\nDON'T MISS: "Vaquero" by Luis Jimenez. This equestrian statue sits on a plinth outside the museum. It is a 16.5 feet tall, blue fiberglass construction and a curious mix of traditional and popular art.\nMORE INFO: americanart.si.edu\nThe Art Institute of Chicago -- \nMichigan Avenue\nDON'T MISS: "Paris Street; Rainy Day" by Gustave Caillebotte. This famous painting dominated the celebrated Impressionist exhibition of 1877. Caillebotte based the painting on mathematical perspective, and it is considered his masterpiece.\nMORE INFO: artic.edu/aic\nThe Metropolitan \nMuseum of Art -- \nNew York CIty\nDON'T MISS: "Young Woman with a Water Pitcher" by Johannes Vermeer. This Dutch master's work has been popularized by the book and recent movie "Girl with a Pearl Earring." \nMore info: metmuseum.org\nSpeed Art Museum -- \nLouisville, Ky.\nDON'T MISS: The English Room. This oak-paneled parlor was taken entirely from a 17 century Devon home and installed in the museum, complete with stained glass windows. The room features elaborate coats of arms and a magnificent fireplace.\nMORE INFO: speedmuseum.org\nIndianapolis Museum of Art -- \nMichigan Road\nADDRESS\nDON'T MISS: "The Virgin with the Dragonfly" by Albrecht Dürer. This fantastic print was made by a woodblock carving at the end of the 15th century. It was Dürer's first work to bear his monogram and remains the most archaic version.\nMORE INFO: ima-art.org\nCleveland Museum of Art -- \nEast Boulevard\nDON'T MISS: "Kouros" by an unknown artist. The ancient Greeks entertained a fascination with sculpting the young male nude for more than a century. This particular example is from the earlier part of the Classical period.\nMORE INFO: www.clevelandart.org\nDenver Art Museum -- \nWest 14th Avenue\nParkway\nDON'T MISS: "Bubbles" chaise lounge by Frank O. Gehry. This major American expressionist designer created the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain. This piece, is part of series of furniture made from cardboard.\nMORE INFO: denverartmuseum.org\nMilwaukee Art Museum -- \nNorth Art Museum Drive\nDON'T MISS: "Poppies " by Georgia O'Keeffe. The American icon teeters between representation and abstraction again in this sensuous piece. It is set against her traditional background: the Southwestern sky.\nMORE INFO: mam.org\nCincinnati Art Museum -- \nEden Park Drive\nDON'T MISS: "Suit: Jacket, Skirt and Belt" by Christian Dior. This is an example of the fashion icon's earlier work. The tailored suit that dates from 1950 is part of an extensive costume and clothing collection housed by the museum.\nMORE INFO: cincinnatiartmuseum.org\nSt. Louis Art Museum -- \nForest Park\nDON'T MISS: "Self-Portrait" by Rembrandt van Rijn. In celebration of Rembrandt's 400th birthday, the St. Louis Art Museum will bring together this piece and over 40 of his best prints from the public and private collections of St. Louis.\nMORE INFO: stlouis.art.museum
(12/11/06 4:06am)
I arrived "fashionably early" to a party Thursday night. The apartment was vacuumed, decorated and blasting "Fergalicious" so loud that I could barely contain myself. I watched as the party's host put a padlock on his closet and questioned if he should wear the grey V-neck or the white one. Oh, this was no ordinary party.\nThis was a gay party.\nGay parties are parties that mainly consist of gay men and their female hags. Other guests often include the token straight guy, a posse of well-groomed squirrels and Kenneth Cole.\nBut gay parties are really just like "normal" parties --\nonly not at all. \nThe most obvious difference between gay and straight parties, is that the gays actually put an effort into how they dress. Throughout the night, I never saw a stain or a rip. In fact, after one partygoer accidentally spilled beer on the collar of his button-up, a nearby gang of boys attacked him with a pocket-sized spray bottle of stain remover and a washcloth before the stain could set. \nBeing a heterosexual lady and all, this got me wondering: Why can't straight guys make this much effort? Is it that much harder to have a top that buttons or jeans that fit? \nGuys were complimenting other guys, guys were complimenting ladies and 18 Jell-O shots into the evening I was just complimenting myself. It was like the after-party for a self-esteem workshop. (If you ever become the victim of second-degree facial burns, just head to a gay party. "Oh, honey, your burnt flesh looks fierce next to those brown eyes!")\nWhile I remained mostly in a particularly catty corner of the kitchen, I got the down low on everybody-- Who's dating whom, who's sleeping with whom and where did they get those fabulous shoes.\nThus, I have traveled to queer country and back to sprinkle homosexual fashion onto the straight men. \nFirst things first: blazers. Worn casually with jeans and a T-shirt underneath, this is a surefire way to get noticed by the ladies. Try one in a darker shade (like navy or black), and avoid anything too bright or you'll end up looking like a member of New Kids on the Block.\nI also noticed gay guys are big on layering -- an art most straight men are unfamiliar with (like foreplay and doing the dishes). Perhaps my favorite combination of the evening was a vertically striped button-up with a diagonally striped tie, all covered by a solid V-neck sweater. This guy got more play than the one walking around with trays of condoms and baby quiches.\nThe key to layering is to keep the patterns and colors to a minimum. Make sure at least one of the items you're layering is a solid, neutral color. Also, don't clash more than two patterns together or you'll just look drunk.\nNot only did these boys dress well, but they had the feet to prove it. There was not a Croc or Air Force One in sight. Instead, I was drooling over their leather loafers all night. If only gay men were into women.\nSuffice it to say I learned a lot at this party. I learned how many Jell-O shots is too many Jell-O shots, why not to write the word "PENIS" on your arm with a Sharpie (it's still there) and, most importantly, that gay guys dress a hell of a lot better than everyone else.
(12/08/06 8:35pm)
Because it's Halloween, we would like to frighten you with tales of the freak show we call the library.\nYears ago, a trip to the library meant we would be receiving some sort of compensation -- a coupon, crappy toy or T-shirt -- for reading the most recent installment of the "Goosebumps" series. The only thing scarier than the books themselves were the three lone hairs growing from the largest mole in history, located on the librarian's chin. \nThe frequency of our visits to the library began to decline dramatically once we discovered a shortcut to reading: waiting for each book to be packaged into a 30-minute TV episode, cutting down the time and effort required. But while we have since reacquainted ourselves with such masterpieces as "The Blob That Ate Everyone" ("Goosebumps No. 55"), our disdain for libraries remains.\nAfter our initial "Goosebumps" phase passed, the library seemed to represent authority, whether it was in the form of our parents, our teachers, George Lopez or the government commanding us to visit. We tried fighting back against the authority in any way possible, including attempting to disprove Ray Bradbury's claim that 451 degrees is indeed the temperature at which books burn. However, as fourth graders, we found it difficult to achieve temperatures higher than about 90 degrees using magnifying glasses stolen from science class.\nDuring our next few visits to the library, while researching the origin of our own species, we began to notice the emergence of a new one. This species' rapid evolution coincided with that of the Internet. This species was the Pervertus maximus. Typically observed occupying a computer in the dimly lit and poorly ventilated corner of the library, most of these individuals are males in their early 40s who have not shaved for weeks and can be found basking in the pornographic glow of their publicly funded monitor. Because of their repulsiveness, this evolving species finally convinced our parents to stop forcing us to visit the library. Thus, the golden age of library avoidance began.\nLike all great eras of civilization, ours too had to come to a close. The library re-emerged as a powerful force upon our entrance into the realm of higher education. "Goosebumps" has been replaced by academic journals, but the spawn of the Pervertus maximus has gradually replaced its predecessor and, unfortunately, become the library's master race. Visible pornography has been replaced by the social pornography that is Facebook. This, coupled with the advent of tools (i.e. cell phones), has led to the population boom of the library Facebooker: Productivius prohibitus. They manage to not only invade our computer space but also to penetrate our ears with their loud voices, seemingly acting as evangelists for obnoxiousness. \nThese creatures have infested the library beyond the computer areas. The quiet floors are no longer quiet, and the group study floors have devolved into an orgy of I-CORE students. This makes us yearn for the days when the most terrifying thing about going to the library was reading the books.
(12/08/06 4:43am)
LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. -- Notre Dame quarterback Brady Quinn won the Maxwell Award as the player of the year Thursday night, beating out Heisman Trophy favorite Troy Smith at the College Football Awards show.\nQuinn and Smith, the Ohio State quarterback, and University of Arkansas running back Darren McFadden are finalists for the Heisman, which will be handed out Saturday night in New York.\nSmith won the Davey O'Brien Award as the nation's best quarterback and earlier in the day was honored as player of the year by the Walter Camp Foundation.\n"I am extremely overwhelmed and at a loss for words right now," said Smith, who led the top-ranked Buckeyes to a berth in the BCS National Championship Game against the University of Florida on Jan. 8. "I can remember last year Vince Young clutching the Davey O'Brien Award and it meant so much to him. When you add the Walter Camp Award to that, its amazing.\n"Vince's team went on to win the national championship after he won the Davey O'Brien, and thats exactly what I'm looking to do. Theres nothing wrong with leaving legacies like that."\nThe Big Ten offensive player of the year, Smith led Ohio State to a 12-0 record with 2,740 total yards. He threw a school-record 30 touchdown passes and led the Big Ten in passing efficiency.\nQuinn passed for 3,278 and 35 touchdowns this season, leading the Fighting Irish (10-2) to a Sugar Bowl bid. Notre Dame will face Louisiana State University on Jan. 3 in New Orleans.\nHe is the fifth Notre Dame player to win the Maxwell and first since defensive lineman Ross Browner in 1977.\nMcFadden, a sophomore who led Arkansas to the Southeastern Conference title game, won the Doak Walker Award as the nation's best running back. He is the first SEC player to win the award since Georgia's Garrison Hearst in 1992.\n"This is a tremendous honor because I know there are a lot of great running backs out there," said McFadden, the first Arkansas player to win the Doak Walker Award. "It means a whole to me because in the SEC, it's hard to rack up yards. It just shows how big of an accomplishment it is."\nRutgers coach Greg Schiano was chosen as The Home Depot Coach of the Year for turning around the Scarlet Knights (10-2).\n"We've wanted to change the culture at Rutgers, not just on the football field, but with the university as well," Schiano said. "I think we've been able to do that."\nPenn State's Paul Posluszny was the only repeat winner from 2005. For the second straight year, the Nittany Lions linebacker won the Chuck Bednarik Award as the nation's best defensive player.\n"I think it shows a lot about the defense that we play at Penn State," Posluszny said. "My teammate, Dan Connor, was also very deserving of the award. To win it twice and to be put in the same category as Pat Fitzgerald (the awards only other two-time winner), it's amazing"
(12/08/06 4:43am)
Juergen Klinsmann withdrew his name Thursday from consideration as coach of the U.S. soccer team after several months of talks failed to lead to an agreement.\nU.S. Soccer Federation president Sunil Gulati scheduled a telephone conference call with reporters Friday "to make an important announcement on the search for the next head coach of the U.S. men's national team," a USSF statement said.\nBob Bradley, the coach of Major League Soccer's Chivas USA team, will be announced Friday as the interim coach of the national team, a soccer official with knowledge of the decision told the AP. He also spoke on condition of anonymity because the announcement had not been made.\nKlinsmann, who led Germany to the World Cup semifinals last summer, was the overwhelming favorite for the U.S. job.\n"Sunil (Gulati) and I have concluded our discussions about the U.S. men's national team program, and I have withdrawn my name from consideration as coach," he said in an e-mailed statement. "I'm not going to go into details about our conversations. But, I certainly want to wish the next coach of the U.S. men's national team much success, and I want to, also, thank Sunil for the opportunity to exchange ideas."\nEarlier this week, it appeared the USSF and Klinsmann were moving toward an agreement. Authority was as big an issue as money in the talks, a second person familiar with the negotiations said, also speaking on condition of anonymity.\nKlinsmann's friend, Bruce Arena, was let go in July after 7 1/2 years as U.S. coach. Arena led the American team to the World Cup quarterfinals in 2002, the best showing by the United States since the initial tournament in 1930. But the U.S. team was eliminated in the first round this year.\nA former star forward for Germany's national team, Klinsmann took on the Germany job as his first professional coaching assignment. He lives in Newport Beach, Calif. -- a close commute to the practice facility in Carson where the Americans often train.\nThe United States, which hasn't played since it was eliminated from the World Cup in June, opens 2007 with a Jan. 20 exhibition against Denmark at Carson and may meet Mexico on Feb. 7 in the Phoenix area.\nBradley coached 12 years at Princeton before becoming an assistant to Bruce Arena at D.C. United in 1996, when he also served as an assistant to the U.S. Olympic team. He moved to the expansion Chicago Fire team in 1998, winning the MLS Cup title in his first season.\nHe returned to his native New Jersey to take over the MetroStars for the 2003 season and remained for nearly three full seasons before he was fired. He quickly returned to MLS, assuming control of Chivas USA before the start of the 2006 season.\nHe has won more games in MLS (124) than any other coach. Bradley also has won 14 in the postseason.
(12/08/06 4:41am)
INDIANAPOLIS -- The Indianapolis Colts have been one of the NFL's best road teams throughout Tony Dungy's five years as coach.\nRecently, though, the Colts have looked more like a typical NFL team, struggling in losses at Dallas and Tennessee.\nSo the Colts spent this week looking to rekindle their winning formula before Sunday's divisional matchup on the road against the Jacksonville Jaguars.\n"We've just not played well in those games," cornerback Nick Harper said Thursday. "When you watch the film, it's sad to see. It's not as bad as it looks -- it's just one or two guys being one or two steps off. We've got to get better at that."\nSince Dungy arrived in 2002, the Colts have posted a 28-10 record outside the cozy RCA Dome, far better than the .500 road record most teams aspire to.\nBut the losses at Dallas and Tennessee exposed problems that Indianapolis (10-2) has normally avoided.\nIn those two games, the Colts combined for an uncharacteristically high total of six turnovers and 13 penalties. Even more perplexing was the high number of false starts and offsides penalties, which Dungy attributes to a lack of concentration.\nNow fans are wondering what's wrong, and many offer their opinions on radio talk shows.\nColts players have a different perspective.\n"We've certainly had our share of mistakes, and that makes it harder than it actually is," two-time MVP quarterback Peyton Manning said. "It comes down to execution."\nDungy believes the solution is simple.\nHe challenged his team this week to pay more attention to details, emphasized fundamentals and focused on eliminating the mistakes.\nAnd, of course, a second straight AFC South-clinching win Sunday in Jacksonville could be the remedy the Colts need.\n"We had a good stretch where we didn't self-destruct and now we've done that two times in the last three weeks," Dungy said Monday. "We've got to get it fixed."\nWhat will it take to get the Colts righted? Harper believes it's all about attitude.\n"I think when you're going into someone's backyard, it's almost like you have to be a bully and beat up on them," Harper said. "I think our guys feed off that adrenaline and it does make a difference. That's what we have to do"
(12/08/06 4:40am)
LAKE FOREST, Ill. -- Chicago Bears defensive tackle Tommie Harris, who made the Pro Bowl a year ago, could miss the remainder of the season with a severe hamstring injury.\nHarris left Sunday's game against the Minnesota Vikings in the third quarter with what was originally announced as a sprained left knee. Bears coach Lovie Smith said Monday the injury was not considered season-ending.\nBut on Thursday, Smith said the hamstring injury was more severe than the knee sprain and that Harris was slated to go to Dallas to see a specialist. He added that Harris could miss the remaining four regular season games and perhaps even the playoffs.\nThe Bears (10-2) clinched the NFC North on Sunday.\n"They're two separate injuries. The knee injury wasn't as severe as we thought, but the hamstring is more severe," Smith said. "When I talk about hamstrings, as you look at the play, he has a significant pull. With that in mind, it could be regular season or it could be farther than that. But again, you're asking me to play doctor right now and I do choose not to do that."\nHarris already was listed as out of Monday night's game against the St. Louis Rams when Smith made the announcement.\n"Normally we don't put a player out this early. That shows you how severe we think the injury is," Smith said.\nLosing Harris could be a major blow to the league's top-ranked defense. The Bears' first-round draft pick in 2004 out of Oklahoma, Harris has five sacks this season and 11.5 in his short career.\n"No one else in the league has a player like Tommie Harris," Smith said. "Now I see us being like everyone else. Everyone else has played without a dominant player like that. Does it change the dynamics of our team, the defensive line? Yes, for sure."\nThe Bears likely will turn to Ian Scott, with Alfonso Boone and Antonio Garay as backups. Tank Johnson has been the starter alongside Harris.\n"He's an irreplaceable player," Lance Briggs, a Pro Bowl linebacker, said of Harris.\n"You can go down the line, and offensive linemen all over the league say Tommie's the hardest guy to defend, he's so fast and his technique is really good. But we have guys who have been in it, who have been in the system for a while and will do a good job"
(12/08/06 3:22am)
PEARL HARBOR, Hawaii -- This will be their last visit to this watery grave to share stories, exchange smiles, find peace and salute their fallen friends.\nThis, they say, will be their final farewell.\nWith their number quickly dwindling, survivors of Pearl Harbor will gather Thursday one last time to honor those killed by the Japanese 65 years ago, and to mark a day that lives in infamy.\n"This will be one to remember," said Mal Middlesworth, president of the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association. "It's going to be something that we'll cherish forever."\nThe survivors have met here every five years for four decades, but they're now in their 80s or 90s and are not counting on another reunion. They have made every effort to report for one final roll call.\n"We're like the dodo bird. We're almost extinct," said Middlesworth, now an 83-year-old retiree from Upland, Calif., but then -- on Dec. 7, 1941 -- an 18-year-old Marine on the USS San Francisco.\nNearly 500 survivors from across the nation were expected to make the trip to Hawaii, bringing with them 1,300 family members, numerous wheelchairs and too many haunting memories.\nMemories of a shocking, two-hour aerial raid that destroyed or heavily damaged 21 ships and 320 aircraft, that killed 2,390 people and wounded 1,178 others, that plunged the United States into World War II and set in motion the events that led to atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.\n"I suspect not many people have thought about this, but we're witnessing history," said Daniel Martinez, chief historian at the USS Arizona Memorial. "We are seeing the passing of a generation."\nThe attack may have occurred 65 years ago, but survivors say they can still hear the explosions, smell the burning flesh, taste the sea water and hear the cries.\n"The younger ones were crying, 'Mom! Mom! Mom!'" said Edward Chun, who witnessed the attack from the Ten-Ten dock, just a couple hundred yards away from Battleship Row.\nChun, 83, had just begun his workday as a civilian pipe fitter when he was thrust into assisting in everything from spraying water on the ships to aiding casualties.\n"From the time the first bomb dropped and for the next 15 minutes, it was complete chaos," he said. "Nobody knew what was going on. Everybody was running around like a chicken with their head cut off."\nChun saw the Oklahoma and West Virginia torpedoed by Japanese aircraft. He heard the tapping of sailors trapped in the hulls of sunken ships. He escaped death when Ten-Ten was strafed, leaving behind dead and wounded.\n"How I never got hit, I don't know," said Chun, who was later drafted and served in the Korean and Vietnam wars. "I'll tell you a secret: When your number comes up, you're going to go. Well, every morning I get up, I change my number"
(12/08/06 3:21am)
WASHINGTON -- In a case that could shape firearms laws nationwide, attorneys for the District of Columbia argued Thursday that the Second Amendment right to bear arms only applies to militias, not individuals.\nThe city defended as constitutional its long-standing ban on handguns, a law that some gun opponents have advocated elsewhere. Civil-liberties groups and pro-gun organizations say the ban is unconstitutional.\nAt issue in the case before a federal appeals court is whether the Second Amendment right to "keep and bear arms" applies to all people or only to "a well regulated militia." The Bush administration has endorsed individual gun-ownership rights, but the Supreme Court has never settled the issue.\nIf the dispute makes it to the high court, it would be the first case in nearly 70 years to address the amendment's scope. The court disappointed gun-owner groups in 2003 when it refused to take up a challenge to California's ban on high-powered weapons.\nIn the Washington, D.C., case, a lower-court judge told six city residents in 2004 that they did not have a constitutional right to own handguns. The plaintiffs include residents of high-crime neighborhoods who want guns for protection.\nCourts have upheld bans on automatic weapons and sawed-off shotguns but this case is unusual because it involves a prohibition on all pistols. Voters passed a similar ban in San Francisco last year but a judge ruled it violated state law. The Washington case is not clouded by state law and hinges directly on the Constitution.\n"We interpret the Second Amendment in military terms," said Todd Kim, the District's solicitor general, who told the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit that the city would also have had the authority to ban all weapons.\n"Show me anybody in the 19th century who interprets the Second Amendment the way you do," Judge Laurence Silberman said. "It doesn't appear until much later, the middle of the 20th century."\nOf the three judges, Silberman was the most critical of Kim's argument and noted that, despite the law, handguns were common in the District.\nSilberman and Judge Thomas B. Griffith seemed to wrestle, however, with the meaning of the Second Amendment's language about militias. If a "well regulated militia" is no longer needed, they asked, is the right to bear arms still necessary?\n"That's quite a task for any court to decide that a right is no longer necessary," Alan Gura, an attorney for the plaintiffs, replied. "If we decide that it's no longer necessary, can we erase any part of the Constitution?
(12/08/06 12:32am)
Upon reading the Nov. 29 IDS story "County Republicans file for vote recount in three races," a reasonable person might have laughed it off as a joke. But sure enough, just before the recount deadline, the Monroe County Republican Party paid the $11,000 needed to demand a recount of three races. The races, which were chosen to be a "random sampling" of government levels, are county recorder, District 2 county council and the ever-controversial race of Van Buren township assessor. All were chosen randomly to show the "voter fraud" that Republicans mean to seek out could have happened at any level.\nBut the Nov. 7 midterm election results are old news. Why recount the ballots now? We say this tastes strongly of bitterness. \nThe midterm elections, controversial as they might have been, are thankfully long over. Whoever would want to revisit the mudslinging corpses of elections past with even the slightest intent to reclaim additional votes, or throw out those deemed (only after the fact) illegitimate, should be labeled one sore loser. Claiming that changing the outcome of the election would only be an added "bonus," Monroe County Republican Party Chairman Franklin Andrew says the actual intent of the recount is to determine whether "everyone that cast a ballot in this last election is actually eligible to vote in Monroe County." The evidence they are looking for lies in absentee ballots and voter-registration forms. Yikes! Anyone who remembers a certain situation in Florida a few years back can tell you that this process could get really messy, really fast (dimpled, pregnant and hanging chads not included). \nAll this mess over what? The main discrepancy is whether some voters who registered before the system was updated were actually able to register without having to verify their location. If there are actual problems -- such as overseas voters using addresses where houses no longer exist, or voters not having their addresses verified through the registration process -- then it sounds like the $11,000 could be better spent working on fixing these problems for future elections. It should not be spent in a process that, to the general public, looks like a drawn-out partisan hissy fit because the other party won and didn't play fair.\nYes, the Democrats won. The Republicans, however, are already amid an ongoing investigation into a Democratic Party member regarding her unsupervised access to a computerized database. It's a case the FBI has already investigated and found to include no criminal intent, according to the Democratic Party.\nEnough already. It is way past time to give partisan malice over the midterm elections a rest. Why dwell on this election when there is already another one on the horizon -- one sure to bring even more of the fun-filled partisan squabbles that the public loves to see?\nMonroe County Republicans, it is time to give it a rest! Save your energy and money to produce better future election results, not pick apart the losses of elections past.
(12/07/06 5:07am)
NEW YORK -- Ohio State's Troy Smith and Notre Dame's Brady Quinn were selected Wednesday as finalists for the Heisman Trophy, along with University of Arkansas running back Darren McFadden.\nSmith is the heavy favorite to win the award when it is presented Saturday night in New York. The senior quarterback entered the season with plenty of Heisman hype and then backed it up with brilliant play for the unbeaten Buckeyes.\nSmith is fourth in the nation in passer rating (167.9) and has thrown for 2,507 yards and 30 touchdowns with only five interceptions, leading Ohio State to the national title game against Florida on Jan. 8 in Glendale, Ariz.\nAgainst IU, Smith completed 15 of 23 passes for 220 yards and four touchdowns. The Buckeyes beat the Hoosiers 44-3 on Oct. 21. \nQuinn, the senior quarterback, was fourth in Heisman voting last season and has thrown 35 touchdown passes in 2006. McFadden, a sophomore, scored 16 touchdowns and led Arkansas to the Southeastern Conference title game.\nSmith grabbed the lead in the Heisman race early this season. In Ohio State's first No. 1 vs. No. 2 game of the season, he threw for 269 yards and two scores against Texas in September. He was even better in the Buckeyes' second 1-2 game, throwing for 316 yards and four touchdowns in the regular-season finale against Michigan.\nSmith is trying to become the sixth player from Ohio State to win the Heisman. Running back Eddie George last won the award for Ohio State in 1995. \nIf Quinn pulls the upset, he'd be the eighth player from Notre Dame to win and would break a tie with USC as the school with the most. Tim Brown was the last Fighting Irish player, taking home the trophy in 1987.\nSmith or Quinn could snap a string of three consecutive years when a junior has won the Heisman. USC quarterback Carson Palmer was the last senior to win it.\nLast season, Reggie Bush was the third consecutive junior to win the award and third USC player in four years.\nQuinn holds 30 Notre Dame records. He has thrown for 3,278 yards and only five interceptions this season, leading the Fighting Irish to a 10-2 record and a berth in the Sugar Bowl.\nMcFadden's season started slowly. He injured his foot in a bar fight in July and began the season lame. When he was healthy, he was the focal point of the SEC's biggest surprise team. He finished the regular season with 1,558 yards rushing.
(12/07/06 5:06am)
INDIANAPOLIS -- A new trial date has been set for Indiana Pacers guard Stephen Jackson, who faces charges for allegedly shooting a gun in the air several times during a fight outside an Indianapolis strip club.\nJackson was in Marion Superior Court Wednesday as a judge scheduled a Feb. 12 trial. The judge also set the same trial date for Deon Willford, who was also charged in the Oct. 6 fight outside Club Rio on the city's west side.\nOnly one trial will take place that day, and the state wants to try Willford first, said David Wyser, chief trial deputy for the Marion County prosecutor's office. Both Jackson and Willford have so far rejected deals that would have required them to plead guilty to the most serious charges, Wyser said.\nJackson, who is averaging 11.4 points per game this season, has pleaded not guilty to a felony charge of criminal recklessness and misdemeanor counts of battery and disorderly conduct. Jackson was booked into jail Oct. 12 and has been free since then on a $10,000 bond.\nThe criminal recklessness charge carries a prison term of six months to three years.\nAuthorities say Jackson, already on probation for his role in the brawl with Detroit Pistons fans two years ago, got the gun from his car and fired it in the air before Willford hit him with a different car. Teammates Jamaal Tinsley and Marquis Daniels and a former Pacer were with Jackson at the club but not charged.\nJackson's attorney, James Voyles, has characterized the incident as a fight. Jackson had stitches in his lip and other scrapes and bruises after the incident.\nOfficials have said a security camera outside the strip club captured part of the fracas. Willford's attorney, Martin Solomon, said the footage does not show his client doing anything illegal.\nBut Wyser said the video supports the state's evidence.\n"The video will speak for itself," he said.\nProsecutors also said Jackson kicked a man who police said has deformed arms. Jackson told police that the man, Quentin Willford, started the brawl. In November, Quentin Willford was arrested for resisting law enforcement and public intoxication.\nAnother man, Raymel Mattocks, who was at the club with the players, was charged with misdemeanor counts of battery, disorderly conduct and marijuana possession. Prosecutors say Mattocks, a friend of the Pacers players who lives in New York, started the fight and had marijuana, which officers found in the passenger-side door of Tinsley's car. His trial was set for Jan. 18.
(12/07/06 3:45am)
Editorial board "coffee break" shows laziness\nI was going to write a lengthy letter to the editor detailing the fact that not only has the IDS opinion page never been worse in my four year college career than it is now, but that the blurb of an editorial "Grounds for Debate" (Dec. 5) is possibly a new low for the IDS. But then I guess in the face of all the controversy, misinformation, hatred, war, peace, political banter, government corruption, human-rights violations all over the world and laziness amongst the IDS opinions staff, I got fed up and decided to take a coffee break. Forty-two word blurbs should be reserved for bus plunge stories, not staff editorials.\nTrevor Alexander\nSenior
(12/07/06 3:41am)
WASHINGTON -- President Bush's policy in Iraq "is not working," a high-level commission said Wednesday in a blunt, bleak assessment that called for an urgent diplomatic attempt to stabilize the country and allow withdrawal of most U.S. combat troops by early 2008.\nAfter nearly four years of war and the deaths of more than 2,900 U.S. troops, the situation is "grave and deteriorating," the bipartisan panel said. It also warned, "The ability of the United States to influence events within Iraq is diminishing."\nIt recommended the United States reduce political, military or economic support for Iraq if the government in Baghdad cannot make substantial progress toward providing for its own security.\nThe report said Bush should put aside misgivings and engage Syria, Iran and the leaders of insurgent forces in negotiations on Iraq's future, to begin by year's end. It urged him to revive efforts at a broader Middle East peace. Barring a significant change, it warned of a slide toward chaos.\nIn a slap at the Pentagon, the commission said there is significant underreporting of the actual level of violence in the country. It also faulted the U.S. intelligence effort, saying the government "still does not understand very well either the insurgency in Iraq or the role of the militias."\nOn the highly emotional issue of troop withdrawals, the commission warned against either a precipitous pullback or an open-ended commitment to a large deployment.\n"Military priorities must change," the report said, toward a goal of training, equipping and advising Iraqi forces. "We should seek to complete the training and equipping mission by the end of the first quarter of 2008."\nThe commission recommended the number of U.S. troops embedded to train Iraqis should increase dramatically, from 3,000-4,000 currently to 10,000-20,000. Commission member William Perry, defense secretary in the Clinton administration, said those could be drawn from combat brigades already in Iraq.\nBush received the report in an early morning meeting at the White House with commission members. He pledged to treat each proposal seriously and act in a "timely fashion."\nThe report intensifies pressure on the president to change direction, but he is under no obligation to follow its recommendations. Still to come are options being developed in separate studies by the Pentagon, the State Department and the National Security Council. The White House says he will make decisions within weeks.\n"If the president is serious about the need for change in Iraq, he will find Democrats ready to work with him in a bipartisan fashion to find a way to end the war as quickly as possible," said Rep. Nancy Pelosi, the California Democrat who is in line to become speaker when the new Congress convenes in January.\n"The president has the ball in his court now ... and we're going to be watching very closely," said Harry Reid, the Nevada Democrat who will take over as Senate majority leader in January.\n Bush was flanked at the White House meeting by the panel's co-chairmen, former Secretary of State James A. Baker III, and former Rep. Lee Hamilton, who is also the director of the IU Center of Congress, in a scene -- a president praising the work of a group that had just concluded his policy had led to chaos and risked worse.\n"Many Americans are understandably dissatisfied," Hamilton said later at a news conference that marked the formal release of the results of the commission's eight-month labors.\n"There is no magic bullet," said Baker.\nThe report painted a grim picture of Iraq nearly four years after U.S. forces toppled Saddam Hussein. It urged Bush to embrace steps he has thus far rejected, including involving Syria and Iran in negotiations over Iraq's future.\nIt warned that if the situation continues to deteriorate, there is a risk of a "slide toward chaos (that) could trigger the collapse of Iraq's government and a humanitarian catastrophe"
(12/07/06 3:40am)
PARIS -- France's foreign minister said Wednesday that Iran will face U.N. sanctions for refusing to halt its nuclear program, but major world powers remain divided over exactly how far punishment should go.\nFrench Foriegn Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said on RTL radio that the measures would fall under a part of the U.N. Charter -- Article 41 of Chapter 7 -- that authorizes the Security Council to impose nonmilitary sanctions, such as severing or limiting diplomatic and economic relations, transportation and communications links.\n"The question is about the scope of sanctions, but there will be sanctions," Douste-Blazy said.\nAt closed-door talks in Paris Tuesday, France and five other major powers, including the U.S., failed to reach an accord on a U.N. resolution to punish Iran, although the French Foreign Ministry said there was "substantive progress" and that "we are now close to a conclusion of this process."\nThe Security Council has been at odds over how to deal with Iran's defiance of an Aug. 31 U.N. deadline to halt uranium enrichment. Iran's foreign minister said Wednesday that U.N. sanctions will not force his country to abandon its nuclear program, which he insisted is for peaceful purposes. Western powers accuse Iran of seeking nuclear weapons.\n"Nuclear technology is a right for all the countries," Iran's Minister of Foriegn Affairs Manouchehr Mottaki told AP Television News on a visit to The Hague, Netherlands. "We are against any limitation to realize this right for the countries...for peaceful purposes.\nThe Europeans and Americans want tough sanctions; Russia and China have pushed for dialogue, despite the failure of an EU effort to bring the Iranians to the negotiating table.\nA top European diplomat said Wednesday that the five permanent Security Council members -- the U.S., China, France, Russia and Britain -- along with Germany remained split on key questions of visa bans and asset freezes for Iranians linked to nuclear development.\nDouste-Blazy, however, played down the differences, saying the talks confirmed major powers' desire to act in concert.\n"We agreed on one thing: There will be a resolution at the U.N. Security Council in a unified manner, including China and Russia," he said.\nAfter months of diplomatic wrangling, the U.S. and France had hoped the talks would produce a resolution to impose sanctions on Iran for defying U.N. demands to stop uranium enrichment. The process can produce material for atomic warheads as well as electricity.\nRussia made some concessions in its resistance to wide-ranging sanctions -- agreeing to a measure prohibiting financial transfers to "problematic" Iranians linked to nuclear or ballistic programs, a European diplomat said on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the negotiations.\nRussia still opposes the broader asset freeze that the European players proposed in a draft U.N. resolution presented in October, the diplomat said.\nAnd the question of travel bans for those involved in Iran's nuclear and missile programs remains "blocked," the diplomat said. The Europeans and Americans support the bans; Russia opposes them.\nThe working-draft of the U.N. resolution would order all countries to ban the supply of materials and technology that could contribute to Iran's nuclear and missile programs. Russia has said it supports such measures.\nThe Russians also remain resistant to a measure expanding the powers of the International Atomic Energy Agency to monitor Iran's nuclear program, considering that a "provocation" to Iran, the diplomat said.\nThe draft resolution, which the U.S. and the Europeans want adopted by the end of the year, would exempt a nuclear power plant being built by the Russians in Iran, but not the nuclear fuel needed for the reactor. Russia wants to remove any mention of the Bushehr reactor.
(12/07/06 3:12am)
IU bus drivers have taken on their biggest challenge yet: the free-market economy. On a daily basis, drivers are somehow able to accomplish extraordinary traffic-related feats, including maneuvering under the tight 10th Street underpass and avoiding the emboldened pedestrians who seem to enjoy playing in traffic. Still, even given these impressive skills, their latest battle -- to stall the Campus Bus Service's campaign to hire student bus drivers -- might be one that current employees can't win.\nThis is not rocket science. The Campus Bus Service needs more drivers. College kids need money. Jobs pay money. Students can drive. (Not always well.) So this idea seems to work out well for everyone -- just as it has worked out at several other campuses . There is nothing sinister here. This is simply common sense. \nHowever, this is not to say that there isn't trouble brewing within the ranks of the bus service. Many of the complaints drivers have been voicing for the last few months are not specifically directed at the campaign to hire student drivers. Rather, they are aimed at the policies of Campus Bus Service Operations Manager Perry Maull, whom they seem to perceive as a threat. Drivers fear that Maul, who has only held his position since July, plans to replace them with students to avoid paying overtime. This accusation, which is ill-founded because there does seem to be a shortage of drivers who are available during peak ridership hours, draws attention to an intrinsic source of discontent within the organization. \nIn fact, this state of discord has gotten so bad that Executive Director of Transportation Services Maggie Whitlow recently set up a meeting specifically to handle grievances about Maull and his unpopular changes in scheduling, operational procedures and his treatment of the drivers. A source quoted in last week's IDS article "Bus drivers unhappy with campaign to hire student employees" actually expressed concern that Maull wants to "force us out." \nOther drivers have warned riders that hiring student bus drivers will harm the quality of the service. While this claim is somewhat legitimate (students are notoriously bad drivers), to be hired by the Campus Bus Service, applicants undergo extensive training and testing that goes far beyond the difficulty of parallel parking taught in drivers' education. As scary as it initially might sound to have students directing several tons of steel filled with scores of their peers down Third Street, after further examination, this claim sounds more like an unsubstantiated misplacement of drivers' real concerns. \nSo to the Campus Bus Service, we ask that they work out their differences among themselves. Otherwise, we might be sacrificing a program that will benefit the student body and bring our transportation system up to speed with the rest of the colleges in the country.