VOLUME 112, ISSUE 107
Arafat
dies in
French
hospital
Leader ; 75, leaves
no apparent heir
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
PARIS Yasser Arafat, who
triumphantly forced his people’s
plight into the world spotlight but
failed to achieve his lifelong quest
for Palestinian statehood, died
Thursday at age 75.
He was, to the end, a man of
many mysteries and paradoxes
terrorist, statesman, autocrat
and peacemaker.
Palestinian Cabinet minister
Saeb Erekat confirmed to The
Associated Press that Arafat had
died. The Palestinian leader spent
his final days in a coma at a French
military hospital outside Paris.
Tayeb Abdel Rahim, a top
Arafat aide, confirmed that Arafat
died at 4:30 a.m. Paris time. He
spoke to reporters at Arafat’s head
quarters in the West Bank city of
Ramallah.
Arafat’s last days were as murky
and dramatic as
his life. Flown to
France on Oct.
29 after nearly
three years of
being penned in
his West Bank
headquarters
by Israeli tanks,
he initially
improved but
then sharply
deteriorated as
rumors swirled
about his illness.
Dead leader
Yasser Arafat
left a wealth of
power, money
and mystery.
Top Palestinian officials flew
in to check on their leader while
Arafat’s 41-year-old wife, Suha,
publicly accused them of trying
to usurp his powers. Ordinary
Palestinians prayed for him but
expressed deep frustration over
his failure to improve their lives.
Arafat’s failure to groom a suc
cessor complicated his passing,
raising the danger of factional
conflict among Palestinians.
A visual constant in his check
ered keffiyeh headdress, Arafat
kept the Palestinians’ cause at the
center of the Arab-Israeli conflict.
But he fell short of creating a
Palestinian state, and, along with
other secular Arab leaders of his
generation, he saw his influence
weakened by the rise of radical
Islam in recent years.
Revered by his own people,
Arafat was reviled by others. He
was accused of secretly fomenting
attacks on Israelis while proclaim
ing brotherhood and claiming to
have put terrorism aside. Many
Israelis felt the paunchy 5-foot, 2-
inch Palestinian’s real goal remained
the destruction of the Jewish state.
A resilient survivor of war with
Israel, assassination attempts and
even a plane crash, Arafat was bom
Rahman Abdel-Raouf Arafat Al-
Qudwa on Aug. 4,1929, the fifth
of seven children of a Palestinian
merchant killed in the 1948 war
over Israel’s creation.
There is disagreement whether
he was born in Gaza or in Cairo,
Egypt.
Educated as an engineer
in Egypt, Arafat served in the
Egyptian army and then started a
contracting firm in Kuwait. It was
there that he founded the Fatah
movement, which became the
core of the Palestine Liberation
Organization.
After the Arabs’ humbling
defeat by Israel in the six-day war
of 1967, the PLO thrust itself on
the world’s front pages by send
ing its gunmen out to hijack air
planes, machine gun airports and
seize Israeli athletes at the 1972
Summer Olympics.
“As long as the world saw
Palestinians as no more than
refugees standing in line for U.N.
rations, it was not likely to respect
them. Now that the Palestinians
carry rifles the situation has
changed,” Arafat explained.
mum
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Tuition panel to end work
GROUP’S RECOMMENDATION
TO FOCUS ON PHILOSOPHIES
BY JENNY RUBY
STAFF WRITER
Last year, the Tuition Task
Force met just once before recom
mending hikes of S3OO per year
for three years to the University’s
governing board.
Members of UNC’s Board of
Trustees later disregarded the
proposal in favor of a market
based tuition hike that drew a
divide between increases for in
state and out-of-state students.
This year, the task force has
met regularly since August to
tackle the established philosophy
and to draft a more comprehen
sive proposal.
But as members of the task
force sit down at their final meet
Mk 7 ™ 9 jra-
Senior chemistry major Nashua Oraby fleft), a mem
ber of UNC’s Muslim Students Association, par
ticipates in the Maghrib prayer, one of five prayers
Muslims perform each day. During Ramadan, the ninth
month of the Muslim calendar, Muslims fast from sun
. : ' ' . v ‘ ! -
“I mould ratherrememhejL..,, the man
... that was my son.” george gates, FATHER
Emotions run high
in hit-and-run trial
BY EREN TATARAGASI
STAFF WRITER
It was an emotional day in
court Wednesday as the defense
presented evidence and witness
es in the case of North Carolina
v. Samara.
“On October 4, 2003, two
worlds collided,” said District
Attorney Carl Fox in his opening
statement Wednesday, which he
followed with a brief recap of the
events surrounding the death of
UNC alumnus Stephen Gates.
Gates, also a reporter for the
Tar Heel Sports Network, was
killed near the split of interstates
40 and 85 last year.
Rabah Samara is facing one
felony charge of hit-and-run and
a misdemeanor charge of hit-and
run in relation to the incident.
Samara’s trial began Tuesday,
but was cut short when Fox had
a family emergency.
Samara’s attorney, Duncan
McMillan, reiterated through
out the day Wednesday that it
was N.C. State University senior
Emily Caveness who was driving
the car when Gates was hit.
But Caveness made a deal with
the district attorney’s office to tes
tify against Samara, and she has,
in exchange, had the charges lev
eled against her reduced.
ihsihe
JAVA CITY
Coffee shop/restaurant to open in
former Strong's locale PAGE 2
www.dthonline.coxn
ing today, they have yet to settle
on any specific numbers.
“We’re not going to come out
with a concrete proposal,” said
Jen Bushman, a member of
the task force and president of
the Graduate and Professional
Student Federation.
“That happened last year, but
that’s not the most efficient way
for having a tuition task force. We
really did try to focus on what the
priorities should be.”
The group has determined
four top priorities for spending
tuition revenue: need-based aid,
teaching assistant salaries, faculty
salaries and new faculty positions.
It also has concluded that about
$9.2 million must be generated to
RAMADAN
The prosecution submitted
16 pieces of evidence, including
photographs of the vehicles and
documents from witnesses, and
called seven witnesses.
Bruce Cottrell and Patricia
Sawyer were in the car behind
the white Cadillac Escalade that
Samara and Caveness were driv
ing. The couple made 911 calls
after witnessing the accident.
“This is the worst thing I have
ever seen,” Sawyer testified.
Both Cottrell and Sawyer said
they never saw brake lights or
any signs that showed that the
Escalade was slowing down fol
lowing the incident. The couple
followed the car, honking their
horn and flashing their lights,
both witnesses said.
When the SUV finally pulled
over, Cottrell got out of his car
to let the driver of the Escalade
know that the SUV had hit some
one, he said. He testified that he
saw Samara walk out of the car
and get into the driver’s seat.
Caveness, who was arrested
along with Samara in relation to
the incident, was also called to the
stand. She reiterated that she did
not know what had happened.
On the night of the accident,
SEE SAMARA, PAGE 4
support these priorities.
Student Body President Matt
Calabria, co-chairman of the task
force, said members are looking
at the needs of the campus and
the benefits of potential increases
as well as the effects of changing
tuition on future enrollment.
“We’ll be presenting a few dif
ferent scenarios of what keep
ing tuition the same or tuition
increases will bring,” Calabria
said. “We’re looking at both posi
tive and negative effects.”
According to the findings of
a price-sensitivity study released
during last Thursday’s meet
ing, the University has room to
increase tuition rates to the level
of its competitors without conse
quence. TViition at UNC now costs
in-state students $3,205 and out
of-state students $16,303.
Provost Robert Shelton, co
chairman of the task force, said
rise to sunset and often come together with family and
friends at sunset to bi;eak their fast. Fasting is one of the
Five Pillars (duties) of Islam. Ramadan, a time of worship
and contemplation, ends this weekend with Eid al-Fitr,
the Festival of the Feast. For the full story, see page 11.
TAKING THE REINS
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J 9 I | .
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DTH/MIKE RAABE
Former presidential and senatorial candidate Alan Keyes speaks to
a packed crowd at the UNC School of Law on Wednesday evening.
vrUII I Jut
FANCY FOOTWORK
Tar Heels near NCAA berth by downing N.C.
State in Ist round of ACC tourney PAGE 11
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 2004
members think certain needs
make a reasonable increase
necessary but that the Board of
Trustees might have to break
down the $9.2 million into spe
cific increases.
The task force recommended
last week that about 40 percent
of the total yield be devoted to
need-based financial aid, with the
remaining $5.5 million equally
divided among faculty salaries,
teaching assistant salaries and
the size of the faculty.
While specific details about the
proposal are not available, Calabria
said students should expect a rea
sonable increase and a thorough
examination of both graduate and
undergraduate tuition.
“Our proposals and advisory
committee don’t have very much
force,” Calabria said. “We’re going
SEE TASK FORCE, PAGE 4
DTH/CARTER MURPHY
WEATHER
TODAY Partly cloudy, H 66, L 54
FRIDAY T-storms, H 61, L4O
SATURDAY Mostly sunny, H 53, L 26
Gonzales
up to be
attorney
general
Would he lst-ever
Hispanic in post
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON - President
Bush nominated White House
counsel Alberto Gonzales, who
helped shape the administration’s
controversial legal strategy in the
war on terror, to be attorney general
Wednesday.
He would be the first Hispanic
ever to serve as the nation’s top law
enforcement officer.
“He is a calm and steady voice
in times of crisis,” Bush said, his
eyes glistening
with emotion as
he stood next to
Gonzales. “He
has an unwaver
ing principle of
respect for the
law.”
After com
plaints about
civil rights abus
es in the name of
fighting terror,
Gonzales said,
“There should be
White House
counsel Alberto
Gonzales
shaped the war
against terror.
no question regarding the depart
ment’s commitment to justice for
every American. On this principle
there can be no compromise.”
A Harvard-educated attor
ney whose parents were migrant
workers, the soft-spoken Gonzales
would succeed Attorney General
John Ashcroft, one of the most
powerful and polarizing members
of Bush’s Cabinet.
“Just give me a chance to prove
myself that is a common prayer
for those in my community,” said
Gonzales. “Mr. President, thank
you for that chance.”
Some of Ashcroft’s harshest
critics welcomed his selection,
while others voiced doubts.
“It’s encouraging that the
president has chosen someone
less polarizing,” said Sen. Charles
Schumer, D-N.Y. “We will have to
review his record very carefully,
but I can tell you already he’s abet
ter candidate than John Ashcroft.”
Another Democrat, Sen. Byron
SEE GONZALES, PAGE 4
Keyes speaks on
judicial restraint
BY ERIC JOHNSON
STAFF WRITER
Speaking in the packed Rotunda
ofUNC’s School of Law, Alan Keyes
told his audience that “the guild of
lawyers and judges constitute the
pool from which the dictators of
our society will be chosen.”
With law students and guests
looking on all the way from the
upper balcony, the former sena
torial and presidential candidate
declared that the courts in America
have overstepped their authority
and need to be reined in.
“The people of this country rati
fied the Constitution,” he said. “It
was not approved on the arcane
views of judges and lawyers.”
Keyes argued that federal courts
have fundamentally misconstrued
their own power, particularly on
the issue of religion. He spoke at
length about the meaning of the
First Amendment’s “establishment
clause,” asserting that it prohibits
the federal government from passing
laws concerning religion but leaves
individual states free to do so.
“Contrary to what seems to be
the superficial understanding of
our times, you don’t avoid religious
wars by trying to drive religion out
of society,” he said.
“I believe that the courts are wag
ing war on the moral identity of the
American people.”
SEE KEYES, PAGE 4