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Soldiers guard the campus of Iraq's Baghdad University, where a U.S.
soldier was critically wounded Sunday. The campus was evacuated.
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Reporter, U.S. soldier shot in Iraq
By Jim Krane
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
BAGHDAD, Iraq — The
point-blank shooting of an
unarmed British reporter on a
Baghdad street and a grenade
attack on a U.N. compound
raised concern Sunday that Iraq’s
worsening insurgency — until
now targeting only coalition
troops and Iraqis accused of U.S.
collaboration — will spread to
Westerners in general.
On Sunday, an assailant shot
and critically wounded a U.S.
soldier waiting to buy a soft drink
at Baghdad University, firing
once from close range in the third
such assault in nine days. The
style was coldly similar to the
killing of the young British free
lance cameraman, who was shot
in the head outside a Baghdad
museum on Saturday.
U.S. troops on patrol in
Baghdad and other areas have
been attacked several times a day,
arrd Iraqi police and civilians per
ceived to be working with the
occupying forces also have been
targeted. In the most serious such
attack, a bomb blast in the west
ern town of Ramadi killed seven
Iraqi police recruits as they grad
uated from a U.S.-taught training
course on Saturday. Dozens more
were injured.
U.S. Army Maj. William
Thurmond said it was too early to
tell whether a pattern was emerg
ing that would suggest insurgents
are targeting foreign civilians,
but he said such a strategy could
thwart news gathering and
humanitarian relief efforts.
“Hopefully they’re isolated
events and we won’t have to face
them in the future,” Thurmond
said. “It might work to the advan
tage of someone who’s trying to
fight the coalition.”
The killing of the television
cameraman, 24-year-old Richard
Wild, occurred around midday,
while the victim was carrying no
apparent sign that he was a
reporter.
Wild, who arrived in the coun
try two weeks ago aiming to be a
war correspondent, was killed by
a single pistol shot fired into the
base of his skull from close
range, colleagues said. The
assailant fled into the crowd and
was not apprehended.
An assailant with a pistol shot
and critically injured a U.S. sol
dier in the neck on June 27 as he
shopped on a Baghdad street.
On Saturday, insurgents fired
a rocket-propelled grenade at the
U.N.’s International Organization
for Migration office in Mosul,
240 miles northwest of Baghdad.
The grenade slammed into a wall
and damaged several cars, said
Hamid Abdel-Jabar, a spokesman
for the U.N. special representa
tive in Iraq.
“There’s no place for that in
any civilized part of the world,”
See Iraq on page 2
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KIEL
HOUSTON (AP) — A former
Texas A&M football player who
was shot during an attempted car
jacking is out of
a Houston hos
pital.
Terrence
Kiel, 22, was
shot three times
— once in his
ankle, once in
his knee and
once around his
stomach — but
none of the injuries were serious
and he was released from Ben Taub
[General Hospital on Sunday, said
officials at the medical facility,
i He was in his 1983 Buick Park
Avenue at a southwest Houston
mall parking lot Friday afternoon
when he was approached by a man
in his late teens or early 20s,
J according to police.
After saying something to Kiel,
the unidentified suspect fired his
weapon and then took off. The
suspect has not been arrested.
Kiel, who was a safety at
A&M, was drafted in the second
round by the San Diego Chargers
in April’s NFL draft.
“He’s expected to make a full
recovery and have no serious
problems,” said Martha Kiel,
Terrence’s grandmother. “The
Lord was watching over him.”
He received honorable mention
in the 2002 Associated Press All-
12 team.
The taste of summer
JOSHUA HOBSON • THE BATTALION
Six-year-old Julia, whose parents asked that her last Sunday evening. Shake's employees prepare the ice
name not be published, cradles a partially devoured cream with the aid of a double ice cream freezer that
frozen custard ice cream cone in front of Shake's on freezes the cream in less than one minute.
Boundary
discussion
heating up
By Kelley Shannon
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
AUSTIN — In the last round, Democrats
in the Texas House battled a congressional
redistricting bill by fleeing to Oklahoma.
They aren’t divulging what they’ll do when
the House fight resumes Monday.
“Show up and find out,” Rep. Jim Dunnam
of Waco, leader of the House Democratic
Caucus, said before the July Fourth weekend
arrived.
It’s certain to get nasty.
That’S been the tone for the past week,
since a special legislative session for congres
sional redistricting began.
The GOP is gunning for a grip on the 32-
member Texas delegation in Congress.
Democrats currently hold a 17-15 advantage,
but Republicans — urged on by U.S. House
Majority Leader Tom DeLay of Sugar Land
— say existing congressional boundaries
don’t allow for the election of Congress
members who reflect the state’s increasingly
GOP voting patterns.
“We just want lines that are more fair than
they are now,” said state Rep. Mike Krusee,
an Austin area Republican on the House
Redistricting Committee.
On Saturday, in a mostly party line vote,
the panel approved a plan that supporters say
could allow for the election of as many as 21
Republicans from Texas to Congress. The
proposal now moves to the full House, where
the GOP is in control, 88-62.
The Calendars Committee on Sunday set
House floor debate for Monday.
Calendars Chair Beverly Woolley, a
Houston Republican, said she expects a tense
See Districts on page 2
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Internet2 links Texas
schools, universities
By Sarah Szuminski
THE BATTALION
Yankee great Yogi Berra is reputed to
have once said about a New York
restaurant, “No one goes there anymore:
it’s too crowded.”
This is how Daniel A. Updegrove,
vice president for information technolo
gy at The University of Texas-Austin,
illustrated communication concerns
about the Internet and explained the
need for universities to communicate
through a new, members-only commu
nications program called Internet2. It is
a high-speed system that is only avail
able to subscribing members. The
“backbone” network that connects users
is called Abilene.
Now, through a joint project
including Texas A&M, UT, The
University of Texas-San Antonio and
UT Health Science Center in San
Antonio, initial funding has been pro
vided to make the Abilene network
available to all public and private K-
12 schools and institutions of higher
education in Texas.
“We felt that it was important to
make this capability available to our
campuses at the earliest possible date,”
said Dr. Richard E. Ewing, vice presi
dent for research at A&M. “We are
excited about continuing to work with
the institutions in Texas to improve edu
cational access to information.”
The system was created in 1996 by a
group of approximately 30 leading
American research universities to meet
this need, Updegrove said.
“It seems to be the natural ‘next step’
in the evolution of educational network
ing in Texas,” he said.
According to the Internet2 Web site,
the network will allow users to share
equipment and research, access digital
libraries and interact with virtual envi
ronments along with its many other pos
sible uses.
“Internet2 applications enable col
laboration among people and interactive
access to resources and information in a
way not possible on today’s Internet,”
according to the Web site.
Until recently, all 220 participating
schools, including 15 from Texas, were
each required to pay a $25,000 yearly
fee, Updegrove said. Under the new
See Internet on page 2
Counter will chart vehicle traffic
TERESA WEAVER & RUBEN DELUNA • THE BATTALION
SOURCE: B-CS METRO PLANNING ORGANIZATION
By Megan Orton
THE BATTALION
A new traffic counter aimed at
gathering traffic information in the
College Station area was installed on
University Drive and will begin run
ning as soon as possible, transporta
tion officials said
Jennifer Bearden, Bryan-College
Station Metro Planning Organization
transportation planner, said MPO has
been working on installing the counter
for a year and a half and it was
installed May 1.
One of the main benefits of the
counter is access to year-round traffic
information, Bearden said.
“Not only does it track traffic, but
also the growth of College Station,”
she said.
The MPO contracted the counter
with the Texas Department of
Transportation in March 2002.
Bearden said the counter will be used
to monitor average speed and vehicle
classification and is located on
University Drive across from the
Chimney Hill Best Western Hotel.
“University Drive was chosen
because it is considered the main thor
oughfare through College Station,”
Bearden said.
This is the same kind of counter
that has been used to measure traffic
patterns throughout the state for a long
time, said Bob Colwell, TxDOT’s
Bryan-College Station representative.
The data from the counter is trans
mitted from a ground device to a box
that compiles the information, he said.
“The counter is actually run the
width of the roadway and stapled
down, and when a vehicle’s front tires
hit, the device actually adds the count
to the total number of cars traveling
University that day,” Colwell said.
This information helps in the plan
ning stages of city traffic routes, and
can help predict how many vehicles
will be crossing that road in 10 or 20
years, Colwell said.
He said the counter is a crucial fac
tor when determining if the road is
wide enough and safe enough for traf
fic to pass through.
Although the counters measure
speed, it is not associated with the
College Station Police Department and
no citations are issued because of it.
Bearden said BCSMPO is waiting
until power and phone lines in the area
are improved before setting it up.