Image provided by: Texas A&M University
About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 2, 2004)
'V i Visit Us During Happy Hour! THURS & SUN • 4TO CLOSE $ 2.50 House Margaritas (any flavor) $ 1.99 18 oz. Domestic Drafts $ 2.00 Wells MON THRU FRI • 4TO 7 $ l.00 off all House Margaritas 50^ off Bottle Domestics VVt*'CAN OrTT/'" - V & CANTINA 709 Texas Ave., CS (across from campus) • 695-2492 8A Thursday, September 2, 2004 INTERNATIONA! THE BATTALIO! Attackers seize school in Russi EWS HE BAT hold hundreds hostage By Mike Eckel THE ASSOCIATED PRESS STUDY HURD, PLRY HARD, TRAVEL ERSY Welcome Back!...Now GO AWAY: Student Class/Discount Airfare Worldwide Expert Travel Advice Eurail, Britrail, Japan Rail passes Budget, Camping, Adventure & Contiki 18-35 Tours International Student/Youth Identity Cards Spring Break Packages...and more! ^TRAVEL CUTS See the world your way Toll Free 1-800-592-CUTS (2887) usareservations@travelcuts.com www.travelcuts.com at University Lutheran Three great Christian bands for $3 FRIDAY, SEPT. 3rd 7:00 PM Featuring Zach Hendricks with Eden’s Draw and Green Letters University Lutheran is located behind Northgate, next to the city parking garage 315 College Main—9 79.846.6687 This event is sponsored by Lutheran Student Fellowship www.tamu.edu/lsf A C A~D IT W Y College Dance Classes Technique Training Now Enrolling 690-1813 Jennifer Hart Director of the Texas A & M Aggie Dance Team BESLAN, Russia — Armed militants with explosives strapped to their bodies stormed a Russian school in a region bor dering Chechnya on Wednesday, con-ailing hundreds of hostages — many of them children — into a gymnasium and threatening to blow up the building if surround ing Russian troops attacked. At least two people were killed, in cluding a school parent. Camouflage-clad special forces carrying assault rifles encircled Middle School No. 1 in the North Ossetian town of Beslan. Earlier, a little girl in a flowered dress fled the school holding a soldier’s hand; of ficials said about a dozen other people managed to escape by hiding in a boiler room. A militant sniper took posi tion on a top floor of the three- story school, and hours into the standoff Russian security officials used a phone number they were given and began ne gotiations with the hostage-tak ers — widely believed linked to Chechen rebels suspected in a string of deadly attacks that ap peared connected with last Sun day’s presidential election in the war-ravaged republic. More than 1,000 people, in cluding many distraught parents, crowded outside police cordons demanding information and ac cusing the government of failing to protect their children. “I’ve been here all day, wait ing for anything,” said Svetlana Tskayeva, whose grown daugh ter and three grandchildren aged 10,6 and six months were among the captives. “They’re not telling us anything. ...”It’s awful, it’s frightening.” The hostage-taking came less than 24 hours after a suicide bombing outside a Moscow subway station that killed at least nine people, and just over a week after near-simultaneous explosions blamed on terrorism caused two Russian planes to crash, killing all 90 people on board. The recent bloodshed is a blow to President Vladimir Putin, who pledged five years ago to crush Chechnya’s rebels but instead has seen the insurgents increas ingly strike civilian targets be yond the republic’s borders. “In essence, war has been de clared on us, where the enemy is unseen and there is no front,” Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov told reporters before the hos tage-taking. T4 A sniper watches the school seized by attackers in Beslan, North Ossetia Att bomb belts seized a Russian school in a region bordering Chechnya on Wedr about 400 people, half of them children, and threatening to blow up the buildir were killed, one of them a parent who resisted an attacker Putin for the second time in a week interrupted his working holiday in the Black Sea resort of Sochi and returned to Mos cow to deal with the unfolding crisis. President Bush called Putin and “condemned the taking of hostages and the other terror ists attacks in Russia,” White House spokeswoman Claire Bu chan said. Bush offered “assis tance” to Russia in dealing with the crisis if requested, but that no request had been made so far, the White House said. From inside the school, the militants sent out a list of de mands and threatened that if police intervened, they would kill 50 children for every hos tage-taker killed and 20 children for every hostage-taker injured, Kazbek Dzantiyev, head of the North Ossetia region’s Interior Ministry, was quoted as telling the ITAR-Tass news agency. Sporadic gunfire and explosions could be heard throughout the standoff. One girl lay wound ed on the school grounds, but emergency workers could not approach because the area was coming under fire, said regional Emergency Situations Minister Boris Dzgoyev. There were conflicting casu alty reports. ITAR-Tass, citing local hos pitals, said one person died at the scene and seven in hospi tals. Dzgoyev put the death toll at four, and the Federal Security Service chief for North Ossetia. Valery Andreyev, later said two civilians were killed — includ ing a school parent — and two wounded. Shortly after 9 a.m.. the at tackers drove up in a covered truck similar to those used for military transport. Gunfire broke out, and at least three teachers and two police were wounded, said Alexei Polyansky, a police spokesman for southern Russia. Most of the hostages were herded into the school gym. but others — primarily children — were ordered to stand at the windows, he said. He said most of the militants were wearing suicide-bomb belts. At least 12 children and one adult managed to escape after hiding in the building’s boiler room during the raid, said Rus lan Ayamov, spokesman for North Ossetia’s Interior Minis try. Media reports suggested that as many as 50 other children tied in the chaos as the attackers were the raiding the school. Hours after the seizure, the militants sent out a blank video tape, a message saying “Wait” and a note with a cell phone number, Russian officials and media said. Andreyev, the fed eral security official, said “for a long time we could not make contact” with the attackers, but that authorities reach phone and that “negc being held now.” Andreyev said the 120-300 captives, wl cial at the Emergenc; Ministry branch fc Russia said authoriti the number was 336. ficials had ss were taken c ■enior me afernoon up t< port; cai/1 mt tr He and everytx ut the most i the children." id the hostaue-iak water. Earlier, the school attache demanded talks with region officials and a well-known p diatrician, Leonid Roshal, wl aided hostages during thedeae seizure of a Moscow theater 2002. Polyansky said. They also demanded ther lease of fighters detained ovei series of attacks on police fac: ties in Ingushetia in June, ITA: Tass reported, citing regior officials. Parents of the seized childr videotaped an appeal to Put urging him to fulfill the t rorists’ demands, said Fatii Khabolova, a spokeswoman the regional parliament. “We pray to God that this it end without bloodshed,” said ^ rina Dzhibilova, whose two s were inside. Distraught, she v supported by her sisters. WA, on ten won, d tion of \ ict the nui a drop flict. B a com] ■at hr attentic and otl East, f< tipuin; week I the w revers that it - The anced. Islam Am Hot and Ready Large Pepperoni Pizza $5.99 + tax IjtUeCaesarsT’izza EVERYDAY 696-0191 carry out only 2501 Texas Ave. S Panama president takes office, offers that the I now, the on that a It wor about de referendum on canal Eloy O. Aguilar THE ASSOCIATED PRESS PANAMA CITY, Panama Martin Torrijos, the son of a fomicr dictator, took office as Panama’s president Wednesday promising jobs, better relations with Cuba and a referendum on a proposed $8 billion expansion of the Panama Canal. Torrijos said Panamanians should decide on the proposal to widen the canal for a new gen eration of bigger ships because of its high cost for this poor nation, where 40 percent of the people live in poverty. He also promised an inves tor-friendly government that is concerned for the poor. “Doing business in Panama has become a headache,” he said. Torrijos had tough words for his predecessor, Mireya Mos- coso, calling her term “five years of wasted opportunities.” “We receive a country full of youth without hopes,” he added. A Texas A&M graduate with a degree in economics, Torri jos promised an austere, hon est government and said public finances were “in a deplorable state whose magnitude we have not yet begun to discover.” The inauguration was atteni ed by officials from around tk world, including Secretary > State Colin Powell and Taiwan esc President Chen Shui Bian, Torrijos’ late father, Gfi Omar Torrijos, signed a deal wit then-President Carter that led! the handover of the Panama 0 nal from U.S. to Panamanian^ thority and many Panamanian remember him fondly for tfe achievement. “He showed us that it wasp® sible to achieve independent with dignity and bravery,” ll new president said of his fath® Like his father, Torrijos fa® key negotiations with the Unil f States, this time talks on a fr® trade agreement started by coso. He said he favored fr trade but promised to cons' 1 with groups worried they ml® lose out in a treaty. While Panama has seen economy grow 7 percent over last 18 months thanks to a Sw" like banking system, a large trade zone and business related the canal, government income to not kept pace. It has trouble n$ ing its payroll and Panama’s g £! erous social security and pens" 1 system is headed for bankrupt