'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