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Show 2 Monday, Nov. 7,2005 797-1769 statesman@cc.usu.edu' Today's Issue Today is Monday, Nov. 7, 2005. Todays issue of The Utah Statesman is published especially for Sarah Willden, a sophomore majoring in exercise science/ nursing from Carroll County, Maryland. French president tries to restore order as violence reaches Paris 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 Gas prices drop 23 cents on average in past weeks CAMARILLO, Calif. (AP) - Retail gas prices plunged an average of 23 cents nationwide in the past two weeks, marking a return to pre-Hurricane Katrina levels, according to a survey. The weighted average price for all three grades declined to S2.45 a gallon on Friday, said Trilby Lundberg, who publishes the semimonthly Lundberg Survey of 7,000 gas stations around the country. Self-serve regular averaged S2.43 a gallon nationwide. The price for midgrade was S2.53, while premium-grade hit S2.63. The average pump price for all three grades on Aug. 29, the day Katrina made landfall on the Gulf Coast, was $2.65, according to the survey. The lowest average price in the nation for regular unleaded among the stations surveyed was $2.06 a gallon in Tulsa, Okla. The highest was $2.74 in Miami. Minivans earn poor side impact crash test ratings WASHINGTON (AP) - The insurance industry's first tests of how well minivans hold up in side impact crashes gave poor marks Sunday to the 2006 Ford Freestar and Mazda MPV models without side air bags. Those air bags are an option costing several hundred dollars on the Freestar and the MPV. Rival automakers already include the air bags in their minivans, a class of vehicle popular with families. The Freestar and MPV models without side air bags earned the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety's lowest ranking, or poor, in the crash results. The highest marks went to the 2006 models of the Toyota Sienna, Nissan Quest and Honda Odyssey. The institute said the vehicles excelled at protecting people in crashes that typically occur at intersections when a vehicle runs a red light or slop sign. "Manufacturers should follow the lead of Honda, Nissan and Toyota in making head-protecting side air bags standard in their minivans. Important safety equipment like this shouldn't be optional," said Adrian Lund, the institute's chief operating officer. Cockilghting bill needed to stem bird flu in U.S. WASHINGTON (AP) - A cockfighting bill aimed at stemming the spread of bird flu to the U.S. has stalled despite support from the Bush administration and the poultry industry. The bill targets trade from Southeast Asia, where cockfighting is suspected of spreading bird flu from chickens to humans. The measure would increase penalties for transporting fighting birds across state lines and from other countries. But the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee has not brought the bill, which has passed the Senate, to a vote. Cockfighting is banned in every state except Louisiana and New Mexico. "That's a bit of a stretch to say that the animal fighting bill should be an important part of any avian flu efforts," said Jeff Lungren, spokesman for Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis. Issues such as the Patriot Act and immigration have kept the committee busy, Lungren said, who played down the idea that the bill would do much to keep bird flu from reaching the U.S. Yet Agriculture Department officials have made just that case. HONOLULU (AP) - Samuel L. Jackson has been selected to receive the Achievement in Acting Award from the Hawaii International Film Festival. "He's a minority American actor who has gone on to incredible international fame.... He's wildly popular in Japan, Korea, for example, (and) just seemed ; like the perfect choice for us," said Chuck Boiler, executive director of the Pacific Rim-focused festival. Jackson has 80 films to his credit and is known for his roles in 1994's "Pulp Fiction" and this year's "Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith." He just finished filming "Black Snake Moan" with Justin Timberlake • and Christina Ricci in Tennessee. Still due out this year is "Freedomland" - somewhere around his sixth film for 2005 - costarring Julianne Moore. NEW YORK (AP) - Jennifer Aniston says she's been wrongly pegged as a crier since splitting with Brad Pitt. AP Photo/Michel Spingler RESCUE WORKERS EXTINGUISH a fire in a burning car in Argenteuil, west of Paris, Sunday night Nov. 6,2005. French President Jacques Chirac promised arrest, trials and punishment Sunday for those sowing "violence or fear" across France. PARIS (AP) - French President Jacques Chirac on Sunday promised arrests, trials and punishment for those sowing "violence or fear" across France - as the urban unrest that has triggered attacks on vehicles, nursery schools and other targets hit central Paris for the first time. Youths set ablaze nearly 1,300 vehicles and torched businesses, schools and symbols of French authority, including post offices and provincial police stations, on the 10th consecutive night of unrest. The violence took another alarming turn with attacks in the well-guarded French capital. Police said 35 cars were torched, most on the city's northern and southern edges. In central Paris, gasoline •bombs damaged three cars near Place de la Republique. Residents a spokesman. reported a loud explosion and From an outburst of anger in flames. suburban Paris housing projects, "We were very afraid," said the violence has fanned out into Annie Partouche, 55, who a nationwide show of disdain for watched the cars burning from French authority from youths her apartment window. "We were and minorities, most Frenchafraid to leave the building." born children of Arab and black Chirac spoke after a security Africans angered by years of meeting of his top ministers. unequal opportunities. "The law must have the last Arsonists burned 1,295 word," Chirac said in his first vehicles nationwide overnight public address on the violence. Saturday-Sunday - sharply up Those sowing "violence or fear" will be "arrested, judged and pun- from 897 the night before, national police spokesman Patrick ished." Hamon said, adding that police "The absolute priority is made 349 arrests nationwide. restoring security and public order," he said. He said security For a second night, a helicopmeasures would be reinforced. ter equipped with spotlights and The French president had faced video cameras to track bands of criticism from opposition politicians for not publicly speaking about France's worst civil unrest in more than a decade. His only • CHIRAC previous comments came through see page 7 7 Midwest tornado kills at least 22 EVANSVILLE, Ind. (AP) - A tornado tore across western Kentucky and Indiana early Sunday, killing at least 22 people as it cut through a mobile home park and obliterated trailers and houses as residents slept. The tornado, with winds of at least 158 mph, hit a horse racing track near Henderson, Ky., then jumped into Indiana around 2 a.m. "It was just a real loud roar. It didn't seem like it lasted over 45 seconds to a minute, then it was calm again," said Steve Gaiser, who lives near the Eastbrook Mobile Home Park in Evansville. At least 17 people were killed in the mobile home park, according to Eric Williams of the Vanderburgh County Sheriff's Department. More people were believed to still be trapped in the debris, and National Guard units were called in to help with searchand-recovery efforts. At least 200 people were injured during the storm. "They were in trailer homes, homes that were just torn apart by the storm, so they're just now getting in there trying to find people," said deputy Vanderburgh county coroner Annie Groves. "It's just terrible." Rescuers on the scene since 2 a.m. reported seeing children wandering the area looking for their parents and parents searching for missing children. Children s bicycles and other toys were strewn amid the debris of aluminum siding, mattresses, chairs and insulation. Five other people were confirmed dead in neighboring Warrick County, east of Evansville, where the Ohio River city of Newburgh was AP Photo/Darron Cummings RESCUE WORKERS LOOK through debris in the Eastbrook Mobile Home Park in the aftermath of a tornado in Evansville, Ind., Sunday, Nov. 6,2005. The tornado ripped across southwestern Indiana and northern Kentucky, killing at least 20 people, wrecking homes and knocking out power to thousands, authorities said. hit. No deaths were reported in Kentucky. The storm reduced homes to splinters and scattered debris across the countryside. Entire blocks of buildings were nothing but rubble. Indiana homeland security spokeswoman Pam Bright said about 100 of the 350 or so homes in at the Evansville mobile home park were destroyed and 125 others there were damaged. Larry and Christie Brown rode out the storm inside one mobile home. "Man, it was more than words can say," Larry Brown said. "We opened the door and there wasn't anything sitting there." Chad Bennett, assistant fire chief in Newburgh, told CNN that sirens sounded, but most people didn't hear them because it happened in the middle of the night. The tornado developed in a line of thunderstorms that rolled rapidly eastward across the Ohio Valley. The National Weather Service had posted severe thunderstorm warnings for sections of northern Ohio. Ryan Presley, a weather service meteorologist in Paducah, Ky., said a single tornado touched down near Smith Mills in western Kentucky, jumped the river and cut a 15- to 20mile swath through Indiana's Vanderburgh and Warrick counties. The tornado appeared to be at least an F3 on the Fujita scale, which ranges from F0, the weakest, to F5, the strongest. An F3 has winds ranging from 158 mph to 206 mph, and the tornado that hit on Sunday may have been even stronger, Presley said. Warrick County Sheriff Marvin Heilman said the victims included a woman who was eight months' pregnant, her husband and a young child in the rural town of Degonia Springs. A teenage girl was also killed near Boonville, and her father was critically injured, he said. Aniston reportedly broke down during an interview for the September issue of Vanity Fair. "I was upset about the Vanity Fair article. I had one moment when I got , emotional because I hadn't sat down ; with an interviewer since this whole debacle took place," Aniston told Newsweek magazine. "It happened for a second and then it was over." The 36-year-old actress has said the media coverage and tabloid rumors were hard to deal with - especially reports that she didn't want to start a family. Her divorce from Brad Pitt became final Oct. 2, concluding 4 1/2 years of marriage. They separated in January. BRANSON, Mo. (AP) - Two years and one month after a tiger attack that nearly killed him, magician Roy Horn and his partner Siegfried Fischbacher were back on stage but as patrons ; rather than performers. The Las Vegas team of Siegfried & Roy visited the Ozark resort of Branson to promote the show of protege Darren Romeo and make promises about their own return to performing. "We will be back," the black-clad Roy told reporters, spealcing on the stage of the Welk Resort Theater before Romeo's show. He didn't say when that might be. "I will make sure of that, because I am making a remarkable recovery," he said. "The doctors have assured me I will be better than new." Roy, 61, has been undergoing rehabilitation since being partially paralyzed when a 380-pound white tiger attacked him on stage and dragged him by the neck during a performance at The Mirage resort in Las Vegas in 2003. In Branson, Roy limped as he walked with the help of a black cane in his right hand and held his left arm crooked by his side. His words were slurred at times, and he left in a wheelchair after walking onto the stage with Siegfried. Late Night David Lelterman Top Ten Ways CBS News Can Attract Younger Viewers 10. "Interviews start with, €Sup, dawg?"' 9. "Once a month, Ashton Kutcher punks a world leader." 8. "Something bad happens in the world, anchor does a shot." 7. "Make '60 Minutes' stopwatch digital." 6. "Less about fighting in Middle East, ) more about fighting between Nick and Jessica." 5. "Spell news with a 'Z' - - The kids eat up crap like that." 4. "Get a drunk weatherman like 'The • Today Show.' 3. "Anyone who sits through an entire broadcast gets an Ipod." 2. "Anchor must deliver the news while fighting off a rattlesnake." 1. "Less frontin', more straight out trippin.'" |