Monday, March 15, 2004

by Josh Hausman
Gazette Weatherman

Summary: This week will be unusually cold, cloudy and wet; after
today, the sun may not return until Friday.

* With 76% voter turnout, Spaniards ended eight years of
conservative Popular Party rule in the country’s general election
yesterday. Early estimates had the Socialist Workers Party on track for
164 seats in parliament while the Popular Party was predicted to win
only 148. Earlier in the day, many protestors gathered outside the main
Popular Party headquarters in Madrid, accusing Prime Minister Joe Maria
Aznar’s government of withholding information about who was responsible
for the train bombing last Thursday that killed 200 people and injured
more than 1,400. Government officials had fingered ETA, the Basque
separatist group, but were forced to change their positions when a
videotape was found in a trash can near a Madrid mosque, showing a man,
identified as Abu Dujan Al Afgani, claiming Al Qaeda terrorists were
responsible for the bombing as a way of revenge for the Spanish
government’s support of the Iraq war. In the video, he said in Arabic,
“We declare our responsibility for what happened in Madrid, just two
and a half years after the attacks in New York and Washington. It is a
response to your collaboration with the criminals Bush and his allies.”
The news outraged many citizens who shouted, “We cannot vote without
knowing who are the assassins. The government is hiding information.
They think we’re idiots.” It is unclear what effect the video and
demonstrations had on election results, but the majority of Spaniards,
including Socialist party leader Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, were
never in favor of supporting the war, and the Al Qaeda claim, probably
helped the Socialists achieve their victory.

* Twin suicide attacks in Ashdod, Israel Sunday killed 11 people.
The Islamic fundamentalist group Hamas and the Al Aqsa Martyr Brigades
claimed responsibility for the attacks. The bombings led to the
cancellation of a meeting between Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s
office and Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qorei, scheduled for
Tuesday. Qorei’s office bureau chief Hassan Abu Libdeh lamented the
decision, saying, “We think that the best way to respond to this
vicious cycle is to speed up the negotiations between the two parties.”
The talks were supposed to help reinforce the “road map” to Mideast
peace, a plan supported by the United States, the European Nation, the
United Nations, and Russia. Its goals are to end Israeli-Palestinian
conflict and establish an independent Palestinian state by 2005. The
Israeli government has launched several attacks on the Palestinian,
stating their soldiers were targeting terrorists preparing for future
attacks on Israelis. However, the Palestinian government urges, “an
immediate stop of such operations that give the Israeli government the
excuse to continue its attacks.” But Sharon advisor Raanan Gissen
retorted, “If the Palestinians want to share and move forward on the
road map to peace and bring abut the implementation of President Bush’s
vision, then the first step they have to do is fight terrorism. And
today, they failed to do it because they haven’t done it from day one
since the acceptance of the road map to peace.”

* Saturday night, three US soldiers from the 1st Armored Division
were killed when their patrol hit a roadside bomb in southeast Baghdad.
A few hours earlier, an improvised explosive device took the lives of
two US soldiers and wounded five others when they were patrolling
Tikrit, the hometown of Saddam Hussein. Also on Saturday, a store owner
was killed and two passers-by wounded when an explosion rocked a Muslim
clothing store on a busy Baghdad street. Eyewitnesses said they saw a
man selling honey who police believe left a bag full of explosives by
the store’s door. The owner Hayder Abdul Kareen al-Quizwini was in his
40s and sold scarves, veils, and other traditional Muslim garments. On
the same day, L. Paul Bremer, the US civilian administrator in Iraq,
announced that the coalition will double the 8,000 security people on
the country’s borders, initiate a system called PISCES “to positively
ID everyone entering or leaving Iraq,” and cut the number of entry
ports in an attempt to decrease the number of foreign terrorists
entering Iraq.

* A huge fire spread over Moscow’s 19th-century landmark building
called the Manezh only minutes after the polls closed for Russia’s
presidential election. The colonnaded building close to the Kremlin was
built in 1825 and was used to host exhibitions and trade fairs. Within
an hour of the onset, the flames consumed half of the
48,000-square-foot structure and part of the roof had collapsed. No
information is yet available on the causes of the fire, which according
to Moscow officials, began on the “intricately designed roof.”

*****

Exelon Power Team
Bond Memorial Hall, 5:30 p.m.

Film Screening: Anne Choi
LPAC Cinema, 9:00 p.m.

SWIL Movie Night: City of Lost Children
Science Center 101, 10:00 p.m.

*****

SPORTS UPDATE

The women’s lacrosse team (1-0) defeated Trinity College (of
Washington, D.C.) this weekend 16-3. Freshman Katie Crawford led the
team’s scoring with 5 goals, and senior Jackie Kahn earned a hat trick.
Lindsay Roth ’07, Athena Samaras, Heidi Fieselmann ’06, and Niamh
Shortt ’06 each had two goals. Jennifer Hart ’04 had 4 saves and
allowed 1 goal while Emily Lowing ’07 earned 6 saves and allowed 2
goals. The Garnet host Neumann in their first home game of the season
at 5:00 p.m. on Thursday.

*****

The men’s lacrosse team (1-3) earned its first victory of the season
this week during training in Orlando.

Game Scores:
Goucher 13, Swarthmore 7
Drew 7, Swarthmore 6 (OT)
Swarthmore 13, Susquehanna 5

The Garnet return to action this Saturday at 1:00 p.m. against
Manhattanville College.

*****

The men’s baseball team (0-5) were unable to come up with a victory
over the course of their five games in Florida over spring break.

Game Scores:
WPI 14, Swarthmore 5
Eastern Nazarene 15, Swarthmore 3
Wilmington 11, Swarthmore 0
Clark 12, Swarthmore 3
Illinois College 6, Swarthmore 0

Despite the losses, the Garnet played hard. Carlton Davis ’04, Chris
Rose ’05, Jody Fisher ’05, Sam Faeder ’07, Jacob Anguiano ’07, and Ian
Adelstein ’07 all had strong performances. The team will look for a
victory at Neumann on Tuesday at 3:15 p.m.

*****

The softball team ended its training in Florida with a 1-7 record.

Game Scores:
Waynesburg 13, Swarthmore 4
Swarthmore 2, Coe 1
Ohio Wesleyan 9, Swarthmore 0
McKendree 9, Swarthmore 3
Misericordia 1, Swarthmore 0
Cortland 4, Swarthmore 3
UMass-Liberal Arts 5, Swarthmore 4 (9 innings)
Simpson 9, Swarthmore 0

The Garnet opens its home season on Tuesday with a double header
against Wilmington starting at 3:15 p.m.

*****

Today:
There are no contests scheduled for today.

Tomorrow:
Softball hosts Wilmington, 3:15 p.m.
Baseball at Neumann, 3:15 p.m.

[Results from golf, men’s tennis, and men’s and women’s track and
field action from this past week were not available at press time]

*****

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“Lack of money is no obstacle. Lack of an idea is an obstacle.”
–Ken Hakuta

*****

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