VOLUME 111, ISSUE 100
16 killed,
20 injured
in strike on
U.S. copter
\TH£ ASSOCIATED PRESS
FALLUJAH, Iraq Targeting Americans with
new audacity, insurgents hiding in a date palm
grove shot down a Chinook helicopter carrying
dozens of soldiers heading for home leave
Sunday, killing 16 and wounding 20 in the dead
liest strike against U.S. forces since they invad
ed Iraq in March.
Witnesses said the attackers used missiles —a
sign of the increasing sophistication of Iraq’s elu
sive anti-U.S. fighters.
Three other Americans were killed in separate
attacks Sunday, including one Ist Armored
Division soldier in Baghdad and two U.S. civil
ians working for the U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers in Fallujah. All three were victims of
roadside bombs, the military said.
Sunday’s death toll was the highest for
American troops since March 23 the first week
of the invasion that ousted Saddam Hussein
and the attack represented a major escalation in
the campaign to drive the U.S.-led coalition out
of the country.
The giant helicopter was ferrying the soldiers
on their way for leave outside Iraq when two mis
siles streaked into the sky and slammed into the
rear of the aircraft, witnesses told The Associated
Press. It crashed in flames in farmers' fields west
of Baghdad.
“It’s clearly a tragic day for America,” Defense
Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said in
Washington. “In a long, hard war, we’re going to
have tragic days. But they’re necessary. They’re
part of a war that’s difficult and complicated.”
Like past attacks on U.S. forces and a string of
suicide bombings that killed dozens in Baghdad
the past week, U.S. coalition officials blamed
either Saddam loyalists or foreign fighters for the
SEE IRAQ, PAGE 6
Flanagan
leads UNC
to ACC title
BY HUNTER POWELL
STAFF WRITER
WINSTON-SALEM Amid tears and broken
records, disappointment and personal triumph,
the dreams of the North Carolina women's cross
country' team came true Saturday.
The Tar Heels overcame a wide spectrum of
emotions to finish with 40 points, beating third
ranked N.C. State (44 points) for the first time
this season and winning their first ACC
Championship since 1999.
The stories seemed endless for the Tar Heels.
Shalane Flanagan proved herself as the ultimate
symbol of consistency, becoming the first-ever
woman to win four consecutive ACC individual
cross country titles.
For the senior, however, it wasn’t about her.
“This one outweighs any of the individual
ones," Flanagan said. “I w'asn’t sure if we won, and
I started crying because I thought we lost initial
ly, and just to turn my emotions around was real
ly exciting.”
Flanagan won the race with a time of 19 min
utes 22 seconds, and sophomore Carol Henry' fin
ished third with a time of 20:16.
SEE CROSS COUNTRY, PAGE 6
-— —|
DTH/GABITRAPENBERG
North Carolina senior Shalane Flanagan (left)
embraces teammate Megan Kaltenbach after
the Tar Heels won the ACC cross country title.
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Look for more stories at www.dailytarheel.com
Serving the students and the University community since 1893
alu' SatUj oar Itel
Council race winds down
Hopefuls have a day left to sway voters
BY NICK EBERLEIN
ASSISTANT CITY EDITOR
About 7,500 voters swarmed the
polls during the 2001 local elections,
but as of early Thursday afternoon just
fewer than 200 ballots had been cast
during the early voting period that
ended Saturday.
Officials at the Orange County Board
of Elections, however, still expect
between 7,000 and 8,000 voters at the
polls Thesdav to decide on four seats for
the next Chapel Hill Town Council.
With the overwhelming bulk of
votes not yet cast, council hopefuls
have not yet been able to rest on their
laurels after the arduous past few
months.
“We’ve been very busy,” incumbent
Bill Strom said. “I was out at around
5:30 (a.m. Sunday) putting out the last
few road signs and fixing the others."
Candidate Terri Tyson attributes the
lack of decided voters on residents’
need to accrue as much information as
possible before choosing who their
next local representatives will be.
“I would definitely say the cam
paign is continuing on a high activity
INSIDE
MEETING OF THE MINDS
Undergraduate research takes
stage at Duke University PAGE 4
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DTH/JOSHUA GREER
Two men dressed as Maverick (right) and Goose (center) from the film "Top Gun" sing "You've Lost That Loving Feeling" by the Righteous Brothers
to a group of women dressed in 1980’s style Friday night on Franklin Street. Below: A Wake County sheriff checks bags for weapons and alcohol.
FEW SPOOKS THIS YEAR
Incidents dozen this year despite larger crowd, warm weather and weekend date
BY SARA LEWKOWICZ
STAFF WRITER
Halloween on Franklin Street this year had
all the revelry but fewer problems than in
past years, despite the unseasonably warm
weather, the lure of Friday night and the
largest Oct. 31 crowd to date.
The portion of West Franklin Street that
was closed was expanded three blocks west by
11 p.m., and the crowd on the thoroughfare
swelled to 78,000 after midnight.
Emergency authorities had predicted that
a larger crowd would lead to an increased
number of problems.
Nick Waters, director of the Orange County-
Department of Emergency Medical Services,
said he expected the same sorts of incidents as
on past Halloweens, “just more of them.”
EMS treated 26 people for intoxication
and other alcohol-related problems Friday.
Ten later were transported to UNC Hospitals
for further treatment.
Last year, 33 people were treated by EMS
for similar problems.
Waters said he was pleased with how this
year's festivities went. “It was a quiet, enjoyable
evening,” he said. “We had very few patients
considering the number of people out.”
Police also had predicted an increased
number of incidents.
level,” she said. “I think people need to
get as much information as they can.”
Reaching out to voters has continued
all the way to zero hour, candidates say,
forms, such as the town’s new traffic
cameras, candidate Andrea
Rohrbacher said, have forced the coun
cil hopefuls to continually reorient
their approaches tow'ard Election Day.
“The thrust of the issues has come
from the public. I had to shift the
order of the issues I talked about," she
said. “I used to talk about downtown
revitalization first, but now it seems
that we’re all talking about town-gown
before anything else.”
But the campaign season has not
seemed to center solely on espousing
platforms to potential constituents.
Many voters, incumbent Jim Ward
said, rely on candidates' campaigning
. ,
HALLOWEEN 2003
nlli' i
Contrary to expectations, no arrests were
made in the closed area on Franklin Street,
compared with 18 last year and 28 in 2001.
The night, however, was not without prob
lems.
Chapel Hill police reported that after leav
ing the Avalon nightclub, three Greensboro
men were robbed at gunpoint at 3:20 a.m. by
three men on Airport Road. The assailants
took wallets, cash, cellular phones and jewel
ry from the victims, reports state.
Orange County Alcohol Law Enforcement
officers issued citations involving 44 charges.
because major
themes have
evolved during
the course of the
election season.
Topics that
weren't on most
candidates' plat-
ELECTIONS
SPDRTS
TURTLE POWER
UNC defense is crushed by Maryland,
losing 59-21 to the Terrapins PAGE 12
ALE filed 17 charges of underage possession,
nine for open containers and two of posses
sion of fraudulent identifications.
Two people also were cited for possession
of marijuana outside the closed area.
Costumes on Franklin Street were as flam
boyant and creative as ever, ranging from
groups of men dressed as Hooters w aitress
es to Roy Horn, complete with a stuffed white
tiger attached at the neck.
The wild costumes were one reason
Cathleen Williams traveled to Chapel Hill.
Williams, 18, said she has been coming to
Chapel Hill for Halloween since her older sis
ter’s freshman year at UNC.
“This is my third year here, and I haven’t
even graduated from high school yet,” she said.
Participants in this year’s festivities came
from as far away as South Carolina and
Virginia.
Lamont Greene, a bar manager at W.B.
Yeats Irish Pub, thinks it’s the tradition that
draws crowds to Chapel Hill on Halloween.
Greene dressed as Mr. T.
“Everyone just comes out, dresses up, has
a good time,” he said. “That ain’t no jibba
jabba.”
Contact the City Editor
at citydesk@unc.edu.
DTH/ALEX FINE
to become informed about the issues
before they even can decide who the
best council members will be.
Ward said a recent poll conducted
last week by local radio station WCHL
AM found that about half the people
interview’ed W'ere unaware of who was
seeking seats on local government or
what the largest issues were.
“I tried to have my (informational)
mailings go out during the last w'eek
before the election,” he said.
He added that it is often hard for the
candidates to gauge public knowledge
of the issues since those running “are so
keenly aware of what people are con
cerned about.”
While local residents can expect to
see a glut of fliers in the mail or hear
paid promotions on public radio
before Tuesday, some of the candidates
said they believe that minds might
already be made up.
Candidate Thatcher Freund spent
the weekend trick-or-treating with his
daughters before relaxing Saturday
and attending Sunday’s celebration for
Mel and Zora Rashkis at Rashkis
Elementary School, which candidate
Dianne Bachman also attended to
SEE CANDIDATES, PAGE 6
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 2003
N.C. citizens
rally against
executions
BY BERNARD HOLLOWAY
STAFF WRITER
Rose Clark knows about the power of
the death penalty.
Less than one year ago, her brother,
Earnest Basden, received the state’s ulti
mate punishment. He was put to death
Dec. 6, 2002.
For her, the days since his execution
have been both painful and empowering.
She says her emotions brought her to the
Governor’s Mansion on Saturday to tell
her story to a large but subdued crowd of
about 200 anti-death penalty advocates.
Spurred by the discovery that the state
is on pace this year to execute the largest
number of people since 1949, religious
leaders convened the rally to further the
push for a moratorium on executions in
North Carolina.
The state is scheduled to execute three
more people before the end of the year,
bringing the total for 2003 to seven.
N.C. Rep. Paul Luebke, D-Durham,
opened the event by decrying the injustice
SEE EXECUTIONS, PAGE 6
WEATHER
TODAY Sunny, H 83, L 50
TUESDAY PM Showers, H 81, L6O
WEDNESDAY Showers, H 77, L 57
o