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AROUND THE WORLD Radical Shiite cleric reportedly accepts peace plan NAJAF, Iraq — Radical Shiite j cleric Muqtada al-Sadr accepted a peace plan Wednesday for Najaf that would disarm his militiamen and remove them from a holy shrine where they are hiding out, according to a spokesman. However, Al-Sadr wanted to negotiate how the deal would be implemented. In Baghdad, the Iraqi National Conference picked 81 members of a National Council that will act as a watchdog on the interim Iraqi government until January elections. Instead of voting on the 81 as planned, conference delegates approved a candidate list after a competing list was withdrawn. The cleric’s decision came just hours after Iraqi Defense Minister Hazem Shaalan said the government was prepared to raid the revered Imam Ali shrine as early as Wednesday to root out the militants. The agreement could spell the end of the two-week resurgence of violence in this holy city that enraged many of the country’s majority Shiites and posed the greatest test yet for the fledgling government of interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi. The cease-fire deal was presented to al-Sadr’s aides in Najaf on Tuesday by an eight-person delegation sent by the Iraqi National Conference, .meeting in Baghdad. Al-Sadr himself declined to meet with the mediators. The proposal demanded the cleric’s militia drop its arms, withdraw from the shrine and transform itself into a political party in exchange for amnesty. Sheik Hassan al-Athari, an official at al-Sadr’s office in Baghdad, said the cleric had agreed to the plan but wanted the delegation to return to Najaf to negotiate how it would be implemented and to ensure his militants would not be arrested. He said al-Sadr had other minor conditions but did not elaborate. Al-Sadr has made contradictory statements in the past, and a previous cease-fire with his Mahdi Army militia that ended a spring uprising two months ago collapsed into street battles throughout Najaf on Aug. 5. Clashes marked by gunfire and explosions continued in Najaf even after the agreement was announced Wednesday. Fighting in Najaf has killed six people and wounded 23 others since Tuesday morning, Hussein Hadi of Najaf General Hospital said Wednesday. The U.S. military says the fighting in Najaf has killed hundreds of militants, though the militants deny that. Eight U.S. soldiers and at least 40 Iraqi police have been killed as well. The fighting in Najaf has angered many among the country’s majority Shiite population and cast a pall over the conference in Baghdad. Allawi issued a statement at the conference accusing the militants of having mined the area around the Imam Ali compound. The conference was extended a fourth day into Wednesday because of disagreements over how to elect a National Council: Smaller groups had argued they would not have enough of a voice. Originally, the gathering of more than 1,000 religious, political and civic leaders was to vote on one slate of candidates, which would have had to garner 65 percent to become part of the new council. Faced with the complaints from smaller parties, organizers decided to let several lists compete. By Wednesday evening, delegates had gathered to choose between two candidate lists, but one was suddenly withdrawn. Without voting on the remaining slate, conference organizers declared it the winner. The organizers said they had consulted with their legal advisers and U.N. representatives before declaring the winning slate of 81. The final 19 seats of the 100-member body will be filled by members of the former U.S.-appointed Governing Council who were not included in the interim government. Cease-fire halts deadly Afghan fighting KABUL, Afghanistan — The U.S. ambassador helped broker a cease fire Tuesday to halt the latest bloody infighting in Afghanistan, persuading a warlord to pull away from a provincial capital as U.S. warplanes circled overhead. The deal stopped fighting that saw rebels come within 20 miles of the key western city of Herat, said U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad. He said the death toll had risen significantly from the 25 killed as of Monday, but would not give specific figures. Factional violence has flared across Afghanistan this year, undermining Afghan and American claims of growing security and stability more than two years after the fall of the Taliban. The latest violence could also deepen ethnic tension ahead of the Oct. 9 presidential vote and is an unwelcome distraction for the U.S. military, which is battling insurgents. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan called for an urgent increase in international forces in Afghanistan Tuesday to address the deteriorating security situation. In a report to the Security Council, Annnan welcomed NATO’s recent decision to increase its troop strength to help improve security. He expressed hope that the new soldiers will arrive in time for the election campaign that starts in early September and remain beyond April’s parliamentary elections. These acts of violence, “carried out with seeming impunity, have resulted in the loss of too many Afghan lives and increasingly, of those of international assistance workers,” he said. “They have hindered the establishment of sustainable national institutions and the delivery of economic and social assistance.” A Pashtun commander known as Amanullah, whose militia has been battering troops loyal to the governor of western Herat province since Friday, said on Tuesday that he had retreated from positions overlooking Herat city after the cease-fire deal. A spokesman for Gov. Ismail Khan, the region’s dominant faction leader, said the Afghan government’s new U.S.-trained army then inserted a buffer force north of a contested air base to keep the sides apart. “We expect everyone to cooperate for the sake of Afghanistan and for their own future,” Khalilzad told reporters after a round of telephone diplomacy to help secure the cease-fire. Earlier Tuesday, Amanullah’s ethnic Pashtun fighters pushed to within 20 miles of the provincial capital, raising the specter of urban warfare. Amanullah swears allegiance to the central government and has praised President Hamid Karzai. But Karzai, a fellow Pashtun who has also clashed repeatedly with Khan, condemned his action, and the U.S. ambassador warned against any further advance. “I’ve made it clear our expectations of people,” Khalilzad said when asked if he had threatened to use force. “1 would like to leave it at that.” Residents and officials in Herat said U.S. warplanes flew over the shifting front lines on Tuesday. Militia commanders on both sides claimed that bombs were dropped — always on their opponents. U.S. military officials in Kabul didn’t respond to requests for comment. Battles have raged in several districts of Herat province since Friday between forces loyal to Khan, a powerful Tajik, and several Pashtun rivals. The fighting continued even as hundreds of national army soldiers and their U.S. trainers set up camp at Shindand air base in the south of the province. Presidential spokesman Jawed Ludin said the force was there to keep order and that the government was still investigating. But he suggested the government was siding against Amanullah. i ^-nONGAMEc^ I I ^ xP ■ I I f H1 |P I; 15 ■ I* ■ % is | t W j $ c/i <3 v%km& 9/30/04 i WffnTFi 771 49an 700 Saluda Ave mMtimiiUUUf 771-4930 in 5 Points -THE TRUTH IS... INGREDIENTS SHOULD NEVER Kgci*d ct ofcLKfc 1. SOME THINGS SHOULD SE - LIKE POUR SECRET LIFE AS fl CRIME-FIGHTING SUPERHERO. BUT HEP. POUR FOOD SHOULDN'T Since 1983 BE HIDING BNPTHINC. SO WITH OUR SANDWICHES. WE PROMISE POU'LL RECOGNIZE EVERP DELICIOUS BITE. Dorm Room Camet Cheap! EXAMPLE: 12x9 room = $63.7 COGDILL Carpet Mill Outlet -- OPEN MON-SAT 9 AM TO 6 PM mm E-mail Address: flooring@cogdills.com