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Journalists in Gaza demand response to attacks on reporters BY IBRAHIM BARZAK THE ASSOCIATED PRESS GAZA CITY, GAZA STRIP - Journalists briefly occupied the Palestinian legislative building in Gaza on Sunday to protest a series of mysterious attacks on reporters. • The some 200 Palestinian protesters marched into the emp ty legislative building and occu pied the vacant seats of the chair man and other assembly mem bers. The journalists also refused to report on the Palestinian secu rity services, and interior and jus tice ministries until the govern ment responded to their concerns. “We are going to stay here in an open-ended sit-in until the of ficials listen to us and tell us about the latest in their investigation about the continuous assault against journalists.” said Tawfik Abu Khosa, chairman of the Gaza hranrh r>f the Palestinian Journalists’ Syndicate. The protesters left the building several hours later after a top aide to Yasser Arafat said the Palestinian leader is committed to finding who was behind the vio lence. “President Arafat will follow up on all attacks on journalists,” said the aide, Tayeb Abdel Rahim. Anti-government protests are rare in the Palestinian areas, es pecially by journalists. Most local media are either owned or fund ed by the Palestinian Authority. The group launched the protest after a string of attacks on jour nalists, most recently the burning of the car of Munir Abu Rezk, the Gaza bureau chief of the A1 Hayat A1 Jadida newspaper. It was unclear why Abu Rezk, who wasn’t hurt, was targeted. The daily newspaper is owned by Nabil Amr, a former Palestinian Cabinet minister, and is close to the Palestinian Authority. Earlier this month, furniture and equipment were destroyed at the offices of the independent weekly magazine al-Dar. In January, the Gaza correspondent of the al-Arabiya satellite channel was severely beaten in a Gaza street after leaving work. No arrests have been made in any of the cases, and the targets have said they don’t know why they were attacked. The violence may be linked to growing law lessness in the Palestinian areas or to internal rivalries between Palestinian leaders. In other developments, Palestinian Authority officials confirmed the sale of their 35 per cent stake in Jawal, the local cel lular telephone monopoly, for $43 million. The shares were sold back to the majority owner, Paltel, the publicly traded Palestinian telecommunications company, said Maher Masri, the minister of economy and trade. The government had received the shares several years ago in re turn fnr Qn finnrotinn The sale brought some much . needed cash to the Palestinian Authority, which is in the midst of a financial crisis. International donors have shown reluctance to continue sending aid to the Palestinian Authority, citing cor ruption. Meeting a key donor demand, the Palestinians announced plans on Saturday to pay security per sonnel directly into their person al bank accounts. In the past, lump sums of cash were given to commanders who then distributed it to their men — raising concerns among donors of possible corruption. In an overnight raid, the Israeli army arrested two mem bers of the militant Al-Aqsa Brigades at a home near the West Bank town of Jenin, Palestinian residents said Sunday. One of the militants, 28-year-old Ashraf Farhat, lived at the home, the res idents said. They said the Israeli army later demolished the house. The army did not comment. Tests CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 As with last year, the survey shows proctors and environmen tal factors largely influenced vari ations in students’ testing expe rience. Common complaints were ringing cell phones, improper lighting, extreme room tempera ture, distracting proctors, timing errors, parking availability and lack of desk space. One review of the LSAT exam held in October 2003 stated, “I had a much more relaxed experience at USC than I had at the College of Charleston last February.” However, another review of the same exam noted that proc tors whispered to one another during the exam, which the test taker said “was very distracting to me, because I was seated near by.” Kaplan said students can make preparations to ensure their test taking experiences go smoothly. He said students should try to ar rive early, making sure they bring a driver’s license or other state-issued ID. Because of security issues, Kaplan said they do not post room assignments until the day of the test. He said as long as stu dents know what building to go' to, they should be able to find their rooms easily by following the posted signs. Kaplan Test Prep provides ed ucational and career services for individuals, schools and busi nesses. With 3,000 classroom loca « tions throughout the United States and abroad, Kaplan serves students through cours es for more 35 standardized tests, including entrance exams for secondary school, college and graduate school as well as English language and profes sional licensing exams. Test takers can access infor mation on their test sites at: http://kaplansurveys.com/rat ings_browser/main.php. Comments on this story?E-mail gamecocknews@gwm.sc.edu 25 dead, 111 injured after roof collapses on Moscow’s Transvaal indoor water park BY MARA D. BELLABY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS MOSCOW — Russian rescue workers pumped warm air Sunday into the ruins of an in door water park, hoping the heat would help victims survive a day after the roof collapsed, killing at least 25 people and injuring more than 100. As many as 17 people are miss ing and could be trapped under the debris of the Transvaal Park on Moscow’s southwestern out skirts, officials said. Initial reports said an explo sion caused the collapse Saturday night, but Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov and other officials said there was no evidence of a blast. The city has been on edge since a deadly Feb. 6 subway bombing that President Vladimir Putin blamed on Chechen rebels. The collapse left a hole the size ,of a football field in the glass-and concrete roof. On Sunday, cranes lifted heavy chunks of concrete, metal beams and giant buckets of broken building materials. With temperatures in the teens, rescuers used generators to pump heat into the area to in crease the chances of survival. Periodically they ordered mo ments of silence to listen for signs oflife. Investigators said a heavy buildup of snow, the stresses caused by the difference between the indoor and outdoor tempera tures, and seepage into the con crete supports may have led to the disaster. Moscow prosecutor Anatoly Zuyev said faulty construction or maintenance was probably to blame. He said prosecutors were opening a criminal investigation into possible negligence. They were questioning man agers of the park, its architects, engineers and builders, and would also talk to witnesses, Zuyev said. He said pieces of the wreckage would be tested. The state body in charge of con struction, Gosstroi, suspended the licenses of the Turkish company that built the park, Kocak Insaat, and the Russian architectural firm that designed it, the Interfax news agency reported. Statements about the death toll varied. Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov said Sunday evening that 24 bodies were pulled from the rubble and one person died in a hospital. Earlier, the ITAR-Tass news agency had said the death toll was 28, citing unnamed offi cials in the city fire department. Emergency Situations Minister Sergei Shoigu said 17 people were believed missing. Tha,t figure was apparently based on belongings left unclaimed at the swimming pool area. Shoigu said three shifts of search dogs had been sent in Sunday! Of 111 people injured, 78 re mained hospitalized Sunday - evening, five of them in critical condition, Luzhkov said. There were 27 children among those hospitalized. Altogether, there were about 800 people in the water park com plex, and 352 of them were in the pool area when the collapsed. Temperatures outside hovered around 5 degrees Fahrenheit. The complex, which opened in 2002, is one of several flashy fa cilities that have opened in recent years on Moscow’s outskirts. It included a large pool, an artificial river and a long water slide. Scientists discover farthest known galaxy BY ANDREW BRIDGES THE ASSOCIATED PRESS PASADENA, CALIF. - In a dis covery that offers a rare glimpse back to when the universe was just 750 million years old, a team of astrophysicists said Sunday they have detected a tiny galaxy that is the farthest known object from Earth. The team uncovered the faint galaxy using two of the most pow erful telescopes — one in space, the other in Hawaii — aided by the natural magnification pro vided by a massive cluster of galaxies. The gravitational tug of the cluster, called Abell 2218, de flects the light of the distant galaxy and magnifies it. The magnification process, first proposed by Albert Einstein and known as “gravitational lens ing,” produces double images of the galaxy. “Without the magnification of 25 afforded by the foreground cluster, this early object could simply not have been identified or studied in any detail with presently available telescopes,” said astronomer Jean-Paul Kneib, of Caltech and the Observatoire Midi-Pyrenees in France. The discovery gives a rare glimpse of the time when the first stars and galaxies began to blink on, ending a period that cosmol ogists call the Dark Ages, said Robert Kirshner, an astronomer with the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Mass. Greyhound is the easy, affordable way to travel for Spring Break. And with your Student Advantage* Discount Card, you can save 15%* off regular Greyhound fares. Buses are rolling 24/7 to hundreds of popular Spring Break destinations so make your plans today. 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