Utah State University Student Newspapers | 2005-09-07 | Page 2

1 Wednesday September 7,2005 797-1769 [e-mail] Today's Issue Wedicaffohs" People Draining New Orleans could take from 3 weeks to 3 months ; Today is Wednesday, September 7, 2005. Today's issue of The Utah Statesman is published especially for Taylor Bodily, a sophomore majoring in business from Fremont, California. Clarifications The policy of The Utah Statesman is to correct any error made as soon as possible. If you find something you would like clarified or find unfair, please contact the editor at 797-1762 or TSC 105. National Briefs XQuicklooky ;~/""_; Saddam said to confess to regime killings BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Iraq's president said Tuesday that Saddam Hussein had confessed to killings and other "crimes" committed during his regime. President Jalal Talabani told Iraqi television that he had been informed by an investigating judge that "he was able to extract confessions from Saddam's mouth" about crimes "such as executions" which the ousted leader had personally ordered. Talabani said that some of the confessions involved cases under investigation but he did not specify them. Saddam faces his first trial Oct. 19 for his alleged role in the massacre of Shiites in Dujail, a town north of Baghdad in 1982. Saddam could face the death penalty if convicted in the Dujail case. The Iraq Special Tribunal is also investigating Saddam's alleged role in other atrocities, including the.l?§8 gassing.of., _ thousands of Kurdish civilians in Halabja. Oil-for-food program had significant lapses UNITED NATIONS (AP) - A probe of the Iraq oil-for-food program faults U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, the Security Council and some United Nations member states for "egregious lapses" that allowed corruption and incompetence to cripple the operation, according to a preface of the final conclusions. The Independent Inquiry Committee's report, to be published Wednesday, criticizes Annan and the U.N. Security Council for a failure of leadership in the overall management of the program, according to the preface, released Tuesday on the committee's Web site. "Neither the Security Council nor the Secretariat leadership was clearly in command," the preface said. NEW ORLEANS (AP) - Progress was measured in inches Tuesday, in the slow dropping of water levels outside New Orleans' buildings, as engineers struggled to drain this saucer of a city in a herculean task that could take weeks - if they are lucky. The Army Corps of Engineers said the timetable ranges from three weeks to nearly three months, depending on a string of variables, including rainfall, the still-unknown condition of the pumps abandoned to Hurricane Katrina, and whether the system can withstand the flotsam of broken buildings, trees, trash and corpses. "We have to get the water out of the city or the nightmare will continue," said Louisiana Environmental Secretary Mike McDaniel. He said the water will be pumped into Lake Pontchartrain even though it is fouled with sewage, heavy metals, gasoline and other dangerous substances. The pumping began after the Corps used hundreds of sandbags and rocks over the Labor Day weekend to close a 200-foot gap in the 17th Street Canal levee that burst in the aftermath of LOS ANGELES (AP) - Bob Denver, whose portrayal of goofy first mate Gilligan on the 1960s television show "Gilligan's Island," made him an iconic figure to generations of TV viewers, has died, his agent con- * firmed Tuesday. He was 70. Denver died Friday at Wake Forest University Baptist Hospital in North Carolina of complications from treatment he was receiving for cancer, his agent, Mike Eisenstadt, told The Associated Press. Denver's signature role was Gilligan. "Gilligan's Island" lasted on CBS from 1964 to 1967, and it was revived in later seasons with three high-rated TV movies. NEW YORK (AP) - NBC News President Neal Shapiro has resigned after four years. His exit was widely expected, and he reportedly had been negotiating his departure for months. Under his tenure, ratings leader "Nightly News" made a smooth transition of anchormen from Tom Brokaw to Brian Williams late last year. MIAMI BEACH, Fla. (AP) - Marion "Suge" Knight, who was shot once in the leg at an MTV awards pre-party last month, has been released from the hospital. Knight, 40, was released late last week, officials at Mt. Sinai Medical Center said Tuesday. Steven Senne/AP A WORKER WATCHES the water flow out of a 30 inch pipe that pumps out 27,000 gallons of water per minute in Metairie, La., Tuesday Sept. 6,2005. Water is now being pumped out of the city after officials repaired a broken flood wall. sea-level city. Following an aerial tour Tuesday, Mayor Ray Nagin said the water was dropping ever so slightly, and he estimated that it covered,only 60 percent of the city. "Even in areas where the water was as high as the rooftops, I started to see parts of the buildings," he said, adding, "I'm starting to see rays of light." But he also warned of the horrors that could be revealed when the to wake the nation up again*" said Nagin, who a day earlier upped his estimate of the death toll in his city to as much as 10,000. The job got off to a woefully slow start. Once all of the city's pumping stations are running, they can move water at a rate of 29 billion gallons a day and lower the water level a half-inch per hour, or about a foot per day. But by late Tuesday afternoon, Corps officials ,sai(i.pnly three of New r:QrteansJ normattem™- ' tingent of 148 drainage pumps were operating. With the water dropping, military and police turned their attention to evacuating the streets of the estimated 10,000 people still believed to be in the city. Some have been holed up in their homes for more than a week and refuse to leave. "You've got to protect your property, that's the main thing," said 69year-old John Ebanks, Late Night David Letterman • NEW ORLEANS - 1 Top, J$n Signs^ You ftayp a, Bad Job , (J see page 16- .... n BusH declares list of npitiirieesforempty Supreme Court seat to be "wide open" WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush said the list of possibilities for his second Supreme Court nomination was "wide open" Tuesday as Senate Republicans urged him to consider a woman and Democrats pressed him to consult with them before making his next pick. The president said the Senate should concentrate on confirming U.S. Appeals Judge John Roberts to replace the late Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist before worrying about any other choices. "I want the Senate to focus not on who the next nominee is going to be, but the nominee I got up there now," Bush said. Roberts' confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee will begin next Monday, one week after Bush named him to replace the justice he worked for as a Supreme Court law clerk. Roberts was originally slated to be Sandra Day O'Connor's replacement, but Bush formally withdrew that nomination Tuesday and made the 50-year-old judge the chief justice nominee. O'Connor has agreed to stay on until her successor is in place, Bush noted, ensuring there will be a nine-member court if Roberts is confirmed before the new term begins on Oct. 3. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, RTenn., and Judiciary chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pa., said they expected to be finished with Roberts before then. Specter and Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas - who will be the Senate's No. 3 Republican next year - said Bush should choose a woman since O'Connor's retirement would leave only one woman on the court, Ruth Bader Ginsburg. "Two women, I think, are a minimum," Specter said. Several senators suggested the president should wait before making any new selection public, given that the Senate is working on relief for the hurricanestricken Gulf Coast as well as Roberts' nomination. = OF WE MY Welc< \)SV Students, facultyy 10 ±>-eroent Off with this HVCK ^ Let us entertain you! 1 on #rooch-es 25-Foot Climbing Wall 15 Different Routes Shin/ Things T-ewdry Quality Anti^u-e Jewels mrriYBC P*H*trf' Proud sponsor o/USU Women's Soccer team € "We have all the gear you need!" with this $<£ fan Indoor Soccer Leagues and Field Rentals! "'& 10. "It's a 12-hour commute each ., way" 9. "You know the guy who refills the ketchup bottles in the prison cafete--. ria? You're his assistant" •; 8. "You're Courtney Love's Publicist"' 7. "For insurance purposes, Boss personally administers a daily physi : cal" 6. "Sign outside your door reads, 'Jim's Office/Men's Room'" 5. "You're taken to and from work in the trunk of a car, blindfolded" ; 4. "Word 'throb' appears with surprising frequency in job application" 3. "You're working on Labor Day" 2. "Your name is George W. Bush \ (I'm Sorry, that's a sign you're doing a bad job)" 1. "You're the idiot who has to .; change the gas prices on the sign every 5 minutes" Coll-ection Open men's and women's co-edl 3985 N 75 W Hyde Park We accept Credit Cards! [e-mail] [phone] Do you have thoughts about Katrina,: and its aftermath? '• Send a letter to the editor, [e-mail] :>