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ir(iq • connnucD proui i situation is going to be worse,” said Sheik Abdul-Salam al Kubaisi, a prominent cleric with the influential Sunni Association of Muslim Scholars, which government officials accuse of links to the insurgency. In a sign of the relentless danger, five U.S. soldiers were killed Saturday by a bomb in Ramadi, a hotbed of militants west of Baghdad, the military announced. It was the deadliest attack on U.S. troops since a Sept. 29 bomb blast in the same town also killed five soldiers. A Marine was also killed by a bomb Saturday in the town of Saqlawiyah, the military said. The most recent deaths brought to at least 1,976 the number of U.S. service members who have died since the war began in 2003, according to an AP count. President Bush congratulated Iraqis on the referendum, which across the country saw few attacks and no deaths of voters in violence. “The vote today in Iraq is in stark contrast to the attitude, the philosophy and strategy of al Qaida, their terrorist friends and killers,” Bush said. The constitution is a crucial step in Iraq’s transition to democracy after two decades of dictatorship under Saddam. Washington was hoping it would pass so Iraqis can form a legitimate, representative government, tame the insurgency and enable the 150,000 U.S. troops to begin withdrawing. On Sunday, U.S. military helicopters, Humvees and armored vehicles were helping transport the last ballot boxes from polling stations to counting centers in the provincial capitals. Those centers were making initial counts, then were to truck the ballots to Baghdad for the final tallying, which was likely to begin on Monday and to last into Tuesday. In Baghdad’s main counting center, workers tallied votes from the region around the capital. The center was shaken Sunday when militants fired two mortars into the Green Zone, the heavily guarded district where the U.S. Embassy, Iraqi government offices and the counting site are located. But the mortars did not hit the center and caused no casualties or significant damage. Provinces in the south, where most of Iraq’s Shiite majority are concentrated, racked up big “yes” 'numbers — over 90 percent in favor in most places. Results were not yet available from Kurdistan, but the Kurdish community strongly supports the charter. Still, despite a call by their top cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al Sistani to support the charter, Shiite participation in the south was far lower than parliamentary elections in January, when huge numbers of Shiite voters — more than 80 percent — celebrated as they went to the polls to mark their new dominance of the country. Between 54 and 58 percent of voters showed up Saturday in most parts of the south, according to U.N. elections chief Carina Perelli. The drop could reflect a belief that the constitutions victory was a sure thing or a vein of discontent among Shiites. “Why should I care? Nothing has changed since we have elected this government: no security, no electricity, no water,” said Saad Ibrahim, a Shiite resident of Baghdad’s Karrada district who passed on voting. “The constitution will not change that. The main issue is not getting this constitution passed, but how to stop terrorism.” The Sunni “no” campaign appeared to have made the two thirds threshold in Anbar province, the vast western Sunni heartland; and Salahuddin, where Sunnis hold a large majority and as many as 90 percent of voters cast ballots. But in two other provinces where Sunni Arabs have only slim majorities — Ninevah and Diyala — the “yes” vote won. Sunni leaden responded angrily, some of them saying they suspected fraud and accusing American officials and the Shiite parties that dominate the government. “There is no doubt that America has interfered in the process, since they and the Shiite government are supervising the whole operation, and since both want this draft to pass,” al Kubaisi said. Khali A Mohammed / The Associated Press An Iraqi soldier loads ballot boxes onto a truck before shipping them for vote counting in Baghdad, Iraq. Election officials counted millions of paper ballots from Iraq’s constitutional referendum on Sunday as U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the draft was probably approved despite a surprisingly large turnout by Sunni Arab opponents. qurhc • conunucD PRom i the quake’s death toll to more than 54,000. Abdul Khaliq Wasi, a spokesman for Kashmiri Prime Minister Sikandar Hayat Khan, stressed the 40,000 number for deaths in Pakistani-controlled Kashmir was only “a closest estimate” and did not reflect the number of bodies recovered. Khan gave a more grim prediction to Pakistan’s Geo television. “Some people fear that the death toll could be 100,000 and they may be right,” he said. A precise death toll will be difficult to determine, because many bodies are buried under collapsed buildings and landslides. “The United Nations is still operating on the governments official numbers,” said Andrew MacLeod, Humanitarian Affairs officer with the U.N. Coordination and Assessment Team. “There are regions that still have not been reached, and the death toll is not final.” There was confusion about reports of soldiers rescuing a young girl from the rubble of her home Sunday. The army spokesman, Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan, said a polio-stricken girl was pulled from her flattened home in a village near Balakot. But army Maj. Majid Jahangir in Balakot said the girl, described as 10 or 11, only had been unable to walk and was carried from the village by soldiers. Maj. Gen. Farooq Ahmed Khan, the Pakistani relief commissioner, voiced fears about the chilly downpours that were making conditions even more miserable for quake survivors forced to live in the open. “There are bound to be casualties because of bad weather. Flow much? I don’t know,” Farooq Ahmed Khan said at a news conference. He said 29,000 tents and 118,000 blankets had been distributed in the quake zone, but he estimated that 100,000 tents were needed. studeiit • codthiued froidi But the agents also showed little care for the books, some of which dated to the 17th century. They piled them on the floor or dumped them in plastic bags. And their questions quickly switched to Turkyilmaz himself — his political views, his Kurdish ethnicity, who he knew in Armenia and the subject of his research. That, he believes, was the real issue. Turkyilmaz is studying how . modern Armenian, Kurdish and Turkish nationalism developed after the mass killings of Armenians in Turkey during World War I. He was the first Turkish scholar allowed in the Armenian national archives to conduct research. “His trip was unprecedented for a Turkish citizen and also a huge feather in his cap for his academic career,” said Charles Kurzman, an associate professor of sociology at UNC-Chapel Hill and one of Turkyilmazs advisers. “That’s high-risk, high-gain research.” U.S. politicians and diplomats were joined by a host of academics who campaigned for his release from Armenia, while Turkyilmaz spent his days in a small prison cell in Yerevan. He was questioned almost daily during the first month by a agents who examined his computer files and CDs. They also accused him of being a spy — a charge that could bring a 15-year prison term. But the only charge fded against him, three days after his arrest, involved the books. Breaking the obscure law —■ unfamiliar even to the booksellers — could have gotten Turkyilmaz as much as eight years in prison. “The whole idea that you could be sentenced to years in prison for taking used books out of the country was preposterous,” said Orin Starn, a professor of cultural anthropology at Duke and primary adviser to Turkyilmaz. m--a hoihe • conTinuED momi Pendleton Street garage make this an attractive option for students hard up for cash. An alumni cookout from the College of Education will also take place at the same time in the Wardlaw Courtyard. A slightly more upscale School of Law Alumni dinner at the Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center will cost guests $50 and will begin with cocktails at 6:30 p.m., with dinner being served at 8 p.m. The build-up for Saturday’s game against Vanderbilt continues with Cockfest Friday night at 8 p.m. The event will be held at Williams Brice Stadium and will feature a pep rally and comedian Loni Love. Game day will bring the aptly titled Game Day Party at 1:30 p.m. at the S.C. National Guard Armory on Bluff Road. Tickets are $10 on a first come-first-serve basis for the Carolina Alumni Association hosted event. Shortly following the Game Day Party, the main event will get under way across the street at Williams-Brice Stadium. The Gamecocks will take on the Commodores in their annual SEC East clash with bowl implications on the line. Kickoff is set for 3:30 p.m. Comments on this story? E-mail gamecockneurs@gwm. sc. edu URccinc • connnucD mom i ALA also estimated that vaccinating every asthma sufferer every year could prevent up to 100,000 hospitalizations each year. An ALA report published in July 2005 concluded that $379 million in hospitalization costs would be saved each vear if only half of adults and children with asthma received a flu vaccine. The organization offers a flu clinic locator on its Web site, www.lungusa.org. Flu vaccine is expected to be available at the Thomson Student Health Center by the end of October. October and November are the best times to get vaccinated, according to the ALA, because flu season begins shortly thereafter and immunizations usually take two weeks to take effect. Last year’s flu vaccination shortage left thousands without flu shots. Chiron Corporation, a flu vaccine manufacturer out of Liverpool, England, has passed FDA inspections at its headquarters and is waiting only for the FDA’s approval of its distribution centers to begin shipping the orders. The approval is reportedly a matter of signed paperwork. Comments on this story? E-mail gamecocknews@gxom. sc. edu "ROCK-N-COUNTRY SALOON" , GRAND OPENING VIP PARTY: THURS, OCT. 20, 6 PA 110 SPECIALTY STORES, MINUTES FROM USC. For the best selection of stores in the area, just take I-26 toward Spartanburg and exit at either 102A (Irmo) or 103 (Harbison). * Abercrombie & Fitch • American Eagle • Express • Gap • Hollister Co. [SEi fieaerai pnuniki. he www coil jmbianacenf re.com