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by Beth, J. Harpaz Associated Press New York — (Ordinal John O’Con onday asked Catholics to join him in condemning a painting of the Virgin Mary embellished with a clump . of elephant dung, while civil rights vists defended the Brooklyn Muse . urn of Art’s right to show the piece, i > .Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, mean le; reiterated his pledge to cut all $7 million of city funding to the mu ■ scum — one-third of its budget — i unless the paintiqg is pulled from an ex hibit scheduled to open Friday. “I'm saddened by what appears to be an attack not only on our blessed mother... but one must ask if it is not an attack on religion itself and in a spe cial way on the Catholic Church, ” O’ Connor said in his weekly sermon at St. Patrick’s Cathedral. O’Connor (fid not ; name the may or, but said he was “grate ful to city officials,” adding; “It is then right, if not their duty, to express them selves on sucn mauere. O’Cotmor uigedhis listeners to write to the museum: “You might want to ex press your deep sadness at this disre spect.” * But New Yoik Civil Liberties Union director Norman Siegel said the may or's threats to cot the funding “violates the Fust Amendment. His assertion that New York City can withdraw all funds for the museum based on a single exhibition that he finds offensive il lustrates a serious misunderstanding of the Constitution.” Siegel, who discussed the contro versy Sunday as a speaker at St Mary’s Episcopal Church in Harlem, later said by phone that government funding might not legally be withdrawn because pub lic officials dislike particular works. “You don’t have an obligation to provide funding to the arts, but once you do, you can’t defund a museum --—--:-; solely because public officials are dis pleased with the expression of the art,” be said. Brooklyn Museum Director Arnold Lehman has not publicly said what he will do, but he has a reputation for stand ing firm on matters of artistic expres sion. Directors of other museums have been noticeably silent. “There’s a chill in the air because . people are afraid of the mayor, but if he wins this one, there are huge conse quences to artistic expression," Siegel said.. Giuliani, meanwhile, defended his funding threat at a news conference at a new riverfront park in the Vifest Vil lage. “There is nothing in the First Amendment that supports horrible and disgusting projects,” Giuliani said. “If you’re going to use taxpayers’ dollars, you have to be sensitive to the feelings of the public.” One passerby heckled him as “Adolf Qiuliani! ” and another shouted: “Get . your hands off our museums! ” The painting, “The Holy Virgin Mary,” depicts Mary with dark skin, African features and flowing robes. It features a shellacked clump of elephant dung and two dozen cutouts of buttocks The aifrsTchris Qfrff 30, a black Catholic who was born in England and lives there, has said he used the pornographic images because classical images of Mary are often sexually chaiged. He also told Salon magazine in February: “Elephant dung in itself is quite a beautiful object.” Ofili began using elephant dung dur ing a six-week stay in Zimbabwe. He is; now famous for using the material, which he gets from the London Zoo, in virtually all his artwork. Brothers survive quake ordeal by Dirk Beveridge Associated Press Tapb, Taiwan — Two brothers were pulled to freedom Sunday after 5 1/2 days buried alive in the wreckage of Tai wan’s killer quake, saying they survived by eating a few apples and playing cards in the small space where they were trapped. Amid the devastation and shattered hopes, Taiwanese were cheered by the improbable survival of Sun Chi-kwang, 20, and Sun Chi-feng, who turned 26 Wednesday, one day into their 130-hour ordeal in the wreckage of a collapsed Taipei building. The brothers were rescued even as powerful aftershocks continue to jolt Taiwan. A particularly strong one hit early Sunday, killing at least three peo ple in addition to the more than 2,000 who had already died. Onlookers applauded as the younger Sun, stripped to the waist but staying upright and holding a bottle of water he got from rescue workers, was lifted to safety by a crane. His brother was rushed away on a stretcher. Their mother, Liu Luan, heaved with sobs of joy as her sons came out alive, speaking so fast she was almost inco ' herent. “I kept thinking, ‘This is not possi ble, this is not possible,”’ Liu told re porters at the scene. “I kept praying for them all the time.” The brothers were hospitalized in stable condition. Doctors were check ing them for possible internal injuries or dehydration. “They are both very clear and con scious of what happened,” said Su Chong jen, chief of suigery at the hospital where they were taken. “What they need now is rest.” The Sun brothers had been playing bridge when the 7.6-magnitude quake struck in the wee hours Tuesday. The 12-story building they were in crum pled, flattening parts of the hotel, of fices and apartments it contained. The brothers’ parents and sister were not at home at the time. The two kept up their spirits by con tinuing their card game while they wait ed in the small space, their doctor said by telephone. When their water ran out, they were forced to drink their own urine. From his hospital bed, Sun Chi kwang said he even managed to give his sibling a birthday gift. “My older brother told me that nev er in my life did I celebrate his birthday with him, so I said today I would cele brate with you, and I gave him my neck lace,” he said. He toldTVBS television that while trapped he had “a very strange dream” in which “there was someone beside me Quake see page 4 Special to The Gamecock Taiwan lays in ruins after an earthquake killed more than 2,000 peo ple. Aftershocks continue, increasing the damage and death totals. World Briefs ■ Tourism thrives as residents survey damage Myrtle Beach — There is mispercep tion that Hurricane Floyd missed the Grand Strand entirely, said Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce President and Chief Executive Officer Ashby Ward. Ward said his office has fielded up to 2,000 calls a day from would-be va cationers, many wanting to know which road to take to their condo. Once the tourists get here, the Strand’s 104 golf courses and 490 hotels and mo tels are waiting with open doors. Other than a detour around 1-95 in North Carolina and a few downed trees in South Carolina, Philip Harkless and Bill Patterson of western Pennsylvania wouldn’t have known there was a hur ricane. But the retirees said it was diffi cult to muster much pity on a vacation that included theCarolina Opiy, the Dix ie Stampede and Pawleys Island. The tour buses continue to haul se nior citizens to the beach, while Red Cross trucks haul relief supplies to Conway. Melissa McGarity, 20, said she has a bitter view of the people who have flocked to the tourist area since she fled her flood ed mobile home in Savannah Bluff. She said she has watched the tourists drive by, cars and vans from Ohio, Mary land and New York slowing to eyeball the damage as though it was a sideshow. “I have never in my entire life been through anything like this,” McGarity said. ^——————————————J Court rules late-term abortion laws unconstitutional by Jim Salter Associated Press Sr. LOUIS — A federal appeals court has struck down laws in three states that banned a type of late-term aDoruon, camng me statures unconsinuuonai. A panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled separately Friday on cases from Nebraska, Arkansas and Iowa, issuing all three rulings the same day because the cases were so similar. The cases involve what opponents call “partial-birth abortion.” The late-term procedure involves par tially extracting a fetus, legs first, through the birth canal, cutting the skull and drain & ing the contents. The three states are among 28 that have adopted late-term abortion bans since 1995, although the courts have blocked or limited enforcement in 19 of those states. In Friday’s decisions, the court cited con nnmo nUrtllt 1/OmiQnrtf'r rtf »Urt Irtll/C _ IT1, judges believed could be read to prohibit common abortion procedures. “The central difficulty with the Arkansas statute is that it covers too much,” Chief Judge Richard Arnold wrote. In the Nebraska case, Arnold wrote that the law “would prohibit in many circumstances the most common method of second-trimester abortion. Such a prohibition places an undue burden on the right of women to choose whether to have an abortion.” Janet Benshoof, president of Cen ter for Reproductive Law and Policy, said the court’s rulings represented a re buke to lawmakers who sought the bans. “The court’s ruling confirms that the entire campaign to ban partial-birth abor tion — a campaign that has consumed Congress and the federal courts for over three yean—is nothing but a fraud de signed to rob American women of their right to abortion,” she said. The ruling did not sit well with anti abortion organizations, which urged the states to appeal. “It’s disappointing whenever a court finds that this type of killing is protect ed by law, said Mary bpaulding Blach, director or state leg islation for the National Right to Life Committee. Nebraska Attorney General Don Stenberg said his state would appeal. ‘It's disappointing whenever a court finds that this type of killing is protected by law.’ Mary Spaulding Blach director of state legislation for the National Right to Life Committee locnrnr tkat fkn Appalachia money not always spent on neediest Associated Press Columbus, Ohio — Five million dol | lars in federal tax money meant to help the poorest of Appalachia’s poor instead was used to build sewer lines for au tomaker BMW in South Carolina. Gilmer County, W.Va., where one third of the 7,500 residents live in pover ty, hasn’t received a dime. The contrast isn’t unusual, according to an analysis of grants distributed by the Appalachian Regional Commission, re ported Sunday in The Columbus Dis patch. From the program’s inception in 1965 through 1998, millions of federal tax dol lars were spent on Appalachia’s wealth iest counties while its many of its most impoverished communities were ignored, the Dispatch reported. It analyzed 22,169 grants totaling $16.4 billion when adjusted for inflation. I Among the expenses: •$75,200 for a bronze statue of Olympic track star Jesse Owens in Al abama. •$500,000 to expand an intersec tion leading to a Pennsylvania amusement t s park. •$5 million for sewer lines and work er training at BMW’s plant at Spartan burg, S.C., listed among the nation’s “booming locales” that same year by Mon ey magazine. The city of Pittsburgh received $70.4 million in the commission’s first 32 years, one of the largest chunks of Appalachia Regional Commission grant money. “That money should be targeted to the most needy areas, to the most needy people. I don’t understand those priorities,” said the Rev. Jesse Jackson. He visited southeast Ohio last year to draw attention to Appalachia’s struggles. Jesse White Jr., federal co-chair man of the commission since 1994, ac knowledged problems with the grant process. The commission’s spending decisions are improving, he said. He pointed to Pittsburg’s Allegheny County, Pa., which hasn’t received money from the com mission since White took the helm. The commission’s $516.4 million bud get for fiscal 1999 represented its high est funding level ever, White said. Congress also set aside $2.3 billion f to continue work on Appalachian high ways, and it formally renewed the Ap palachian Regional Commission through 2001. The commission was created during President Lyndon Johnson’s “war on poverty” to help build highways and im prove education, health and standard of living in Appalachia. The region’s mountains and foothills run through 13 states, from New York to Mississippi. About one-fourth of the 406 coun ties are considered economically dis tressed — most in West Virginia, eastern Kentucky and southeastern Ohio — meaning they have unemployment over 8.5 percent, poverty rates above 19.6 percent and average incomes per capita of $12,934 or less. All 406 counties qualify for federal grants. Nonprofit groups, colleges, govern ments and health-care providers submit the requests, and the governors of the 13 states help the agency director choose the grant recipients. Nothing requires them to award the Money SEE PAGE 4 0