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Show Thursday, DAILY February 1, 2007 A9 HERALD Iraq stops flights to Syria in preparation for new security plan Car bombs strike mostly Shiite areas; 3 Sunni professors, student found dead festivities, the Shiite ceremony in which tens of thousands of pilgrims many from Iran descend the Shiite holy city of Karbala. The festival reached Sunni insurgency and has Qassim Abdul-Zahr- a its climax Tuesday. "THE ASSOCIATED PRESS been accused of allowing Iranian television said foreign fighters to slip across its border with Iraq. And U.S. Sunday that Iran had closed BAGHDAD, Iraq Iraq several border crossings with officials have complained that mdefintte$Jiaif ed all flights to and from Syria and closed Iran smuggles weapons to Iraq ahead of Ashoura, citing a decision by the government a border crossing with Iran Shiite extremists who have in Tehran. It said the crosskilled Americans and provides as the government prepares ings were closed to "contain for a new security crackdown Shiite militia with training and the large number of pilgrims" aimed at crushing violence in support. bound for Karbala without "lethe capital and surrounding reSyrian authorities on a denied of gal documents." reports gions, member parliament Wednesday Meanwhile, car bombs and an airport official said arising elsewhere that it had struck halted mostly Shiite targets flights Wednesday. Iraqi Airways in Baghdad on Wednesday, The airport official said but said it would bar landit ' ! and the bodies of three Sunni flights to and from Syria ings by Iraqi airliners lacking those or would be canceled for at least professors and a student were safety requirements found days after they were two weeks and that service arriving without advance perseized while leaving their cammission. had been interrupted on Tuesnews official The conThe pus in a Shiite part of the city. official on day. Syrian spoke At least 43 people were dition of anonymity because he agency, SANA, said the measure was agreed to last week reported killed across Iraq, inwas not authorized to reveal MAYA ALLERUZZOAssociated Press cluding a U.S. soldier. the information. by the Iraqi Civil Aviation Ausaid Maamoun Abdel-Had- i U.S. Army Spc. Ricardo Colin, 22, left and an Iraqi soldier look a legislaHassan thority after Syrian technical a friend he with was standing teams found that some Iraqi tor and member of the parliaDelta with a buried foot for Company, patrol weapons during near his car when a mortar ment Defense and Security 4th Battalion, 31st Infantry Regiment near Youssifiyah, 12 planes did not meet safety shell fell on the predominantly miles south of Baghdad, Iraq on Wednesday. Committee, said the move "was codes, or that they entered Sunni neighborhood of Azami-yain preparation for the security Syrian airspace without notice in northern Baghdad. The aufrom or Syrian plan. The state will decide permission area was hit by nine mortar and availability of schools and (security) plan." when the flights will resume." thorities. shells that damaged houses, health care. Iraq said last week that cloThe actions were seen as a Iraqi Airways is now the sures of Iranian crossings in-- . refused to conshops and streets, killing six signal to both countries not to only airline linking the Syrian firm reports that Syrian border volved the border checkpoints people and wounding 20, police and Iraqi capitals. interfere in Iraq's affairs as and hospital officials said. The U.N. says about one milU.S. and Iraqi forces prepare crossings also would be closed, at Sheeb, in Maysan province, "We fell on the ground ... I and the Shalamjaa border lion Iraqis have fled to Syria, for the major crackdown on saying only that "more decisaw four wounded persons lysions would be taken." which has become the refuge checkpoint in Basra province. armed groups in the capital. Authorities in Baghdad said the ing on the ground and screamHe said the Sheeb border of choice because of its relaxed Syria is believed to be hartwo crossings had been shut ing for help. We put them crossing with Iran "also was entry regulations for Arabs, boring former Baath party in the car and rushed them down ahead of the Ashoura the relatively low cost of living closed in preparation for the officials who support the . h regional territories and carry out reforms aimed at bringing industries. "power to the people" through gas thousands of newly formed The law also allows Chavez CARACAS, Venezuela President Hugo Chavez was to dictate unspecified measures communal councils designed to give Venezuelans a say on granted free rein Wednesday to transform state institutions; to accelerate changes in broad reform banking, tax, insurspending an increasing flow of state money on projects in areas of society by presidential ance and financial regulations; decide on security and defense their neighborhoods, from puba move critics said decree lic housing to potholes. matters such as gun regulapropels Venezuela toward dicHistorian Ines Quinteto said tions and military organizatatorship. tion; and "adapt" legislation to that with the new powers, Convening in a downtown Chavez will achieve a level of ensure "the equal distribution plaza in a session that resemof wealth" as part of a new "so- "hegemony" that is unprecebled a political rally, lawmakdented in the nation's nearly five cial and economic model." ers unanimously gave Chavez decades of democratic history. Chavez plans to reorganize sweeping powers to legislate by decree and impose his radical vision of a more egalitarian socialist state. Light Her Fire. "Long live the sovereign rich, and impose greater state control over the oil and natural Fabiola Sanchez ASSOCIATED PRESS people! Long live President Hugo Chavez! Long live socialism!" said National Assembly President Cilia Flores as she proclaimed the "enabling law" approved by a show of hands. "Fatherland, socialism or death! We will prevail!" The law gives Chavez, who is beginning a fresh term, more power than he has ever had in eight years as president, and he plans to use it over the next 18 months to transform broad areas of public life, from the economy and the oil industry in particular, to "social matters" and the very structure of the state. His critics call it a radical lurch toward authoritarianism by a leader with unchecked similar to how Fidel power Castro monopolized leadership in Cuba. "If you have all the power, why do you need more power?" said Luis Gonzalez, a high school teacher who paused to watch in the plaza, calling it a "media show" intended to give legitimacy to a repugnant move. "We're headed toward a dictatorship, disguised as a democracy." Hundreds of Chavez supporters wearing ruling party red gathered in the plaza, waving signs reading "Socialism is democracy," as lawmakers read out passages of the law giving the president special powers to transform 11 areas of Venezuelan law. "The people of Venezuela, not just the National Assembly, are giving this enabling power to the president of the republic," congresswoman Iris Varela told the crowd. Vice President Jorge Rodriguez publicly ridiculed the idea that the law is an abuse of V ? power and argued democracy is flourishing. He thanked the National Assembly for providing "gasoline" to start up the "engine" of societal changes. What kind of a dictatorship is this?" Rodriguez asked the crowd, saying the law "only serves to sow democracy and peace." "Dictatorship is what there used to be," Rodriguez said. "We want to impose the dictatorship of a true democracy." After the vote, Chavez remained out of public view Wednesday but announced plans for a news conference Thursday at the presidential palace. Chavez, a former paratroop with 63 In Decem- ber, has said he wiD decree nationalizations of Venezuela's largest tekwomrnunications company and the electricity sector, slap new taxes on the mmmmm i k33 Qirifefo fife For The First 50 Qualified Callers! w" xr"r f Utah PnuntvV; laroptf Ipvwlerv MlinUTfuim" 120 No. University Aw. Provo six-ye- commander percent of the vote Jamal Ahmed mournfully examined his Mitsubishi car that had been burned in the attack. "Repairing my car will cost me a fortune, yet I thank God because I am safe and unhurt," he said. The mortar attack struck about 2 p.m., hours after car bombs hit Shiite targets elsewhere in the capital in what has become a common pattern in ths violence plaguing Baghdad. On i car bomb targeted an area near a market in central Baghdad where people can catch minibuses to predominantly Shiite neighborhoods, including the Sadr City slum. Four people were killed and 12 were wounded, police said. Another car packed with explosives blew up in the religiously mixed neighborhood of Maamoun in western Baghdad at about the same time, killing two civilians and wounding three others, police said. A car bomb also struck a predominantly Shiite area in eastern Baghdad after the driver parked near a currency exchange office, then walked away, killing two people and wounding 10, police said. New Medical Technology Treats Herniated & Degenerated Discs Without Surgery. Chavez gets unprecedented powers THE to the hospital, Abdel-Ha, said. 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