Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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oc ^amecocR ;; ... ,-;v ■ . .... , mmi I Relased hostages greet . freedom with burgers and pizza in Philippines by Jim Gomez Associated Press JOLO, Philippines—Five foreign hostages releasee by Muslim rebels walked into freedom Sunday looking stunned, some in tears and leaving family members stil captive in the jungle on a remote Philippine island The Abu Sayyaf separatist guerrillas released tht four women and one man after Libya agreed to pay $1 million for each, negotiators said. The rebels were stil holding seven other Westerners and 12 Filipinos. Libyan Ambassador Saleem Adam dismissed alle * gations that his country was trying to improve its in temational image by bankrolling the ransom. “This i: a humanitarian mission, he said. “It has no other moti vation.” Freedom was bittersweet for the former hostages most of whom wore flip-flops and carried their meage possessions in rice sacks when they met their ambas sadors after stepping off helicopters in the port city o Zamboanga, not far from the island where they weri held “We’re not happy because there are people left be hind,” said French citizen Marie Moarbes. “It’s not fin ished yet for us.” The others freed were Sonia Wendling of France South African Monique Strydom, German Wernei VMert, and Maryse Buigot, a French journalist. “My son is still there. You don’t expect me to be happy,” Wallert said. Strydom’s husband also remains; hostage. An envoy said Wallert and his son, Marc, criec and embraced for a long time before parting, each in sisting that the other should go. Finally, the envoy let 0 the father away. Wallert’s wife, Renate, was freed las month. Wendling, rubbing her eyes in apparent disbelief said she could never foiget her four months in captivi ty. “I don’t know how to describe the experience,” sht said. The mood was much more upbeat later on a Philip pine Air Force cargo plane that ferried the released hostages to the Philippine city of Cebu, where they were to spend Sunday night. They clinked cans of soda and wolfed down cheese burgers and pizza, their first meal since leaving the rebel ’ camp some six hours earlier. But mostly they talked on and on about their experiences to diplomats and rela r tives on board the plane. , The former hostages and their ambassadors ignored the plane’s uncomfortable seats and its occasional bumps and dips as they celebrated. Moarbes clutched a teddy bear given to her by her father as the two talked ani matedly for the entire one-hour flight. All but the journalist were kidnapped April 23 while vacationing at a Malaysian diving resort and brought by boat to Jolo, an impoverished island near the Philip pines’ southern tip. Buigot was seized with two other French television journalists last month when they vis ited the rebel camp. The Abu Sayyaf, the smaller of two Muslim rebel groups in the southern Philippines, says it is fighting for an independent Islamic state. The government insists the organization is a group of bandits practicing kid napping and piracy. The rebels have been holding the hostages for months in a jungle on Jolo, 580 miles south of Manila. Before the kidnapping they were estimated to number about 500 in the province but have grown to 5,000 as many recruits have been attracted by the large ransom pay ments, a military official said. Still in captivity are one French, one German, two Finns and one South African kidnapped from the Malaysian resort, the two French journalists, and 12 Fil ipino Christian evangelists who went to thefebel camp to pray for the hostages. Chief government negotiator Robert Aventajado said a “global agreement” had been reached for the release of all the other hostages within two weeks. “But we’re hopeful we will be able to work for the release of all the Sipadan hostages within one week,”" he said. The military estimates the rebels were paid more than $5.5 million for the earlier release of nine Malaysians and the German woman. The rebels have insisted on freeing the hostages in batches to avert any military attack. The hostages freed $unday were to be flown the next day to Tripoli to meet with Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi. Libya has long-standing ties to Mus lim rebels in the mostly Catholic Philippines. For years, Libya has helped mediate between Mus lim guerrillas and the Philippine government and helped build schools and mosques in the impoverished south. ‘We’re not happy because there are people left behind. It’s not finished yet for us.’ Marie Moarbes French Citizen China dumps religious objects in river, expels Tibetan Buddhist monks ■ Homes searched for pictures of Dalai Lama Associated Press BEIJING — Officials in Chinese-ruled Tibet have expelled monks from Tibetan Buddhism’s holiest shrine and ransacked homes looking for pictures of the Dalai Lama, a monitoring group reported Saturday. Government teams began house-to-house searches in Tibet’s capital, Lhasa, last month and have thrown religious objects and pictures of the Dalai Lama into the Tsangpo River, the London based Tibetan Information Network reported. Primarily targeting Communist Party mem bers and government employees, including teach ers, the general population has also been ordered to teach children atheism, the group said. The actions are part of a 4-year-old campaign r ntended to break the fervently Buddhist Ti betan people’s allegiance to the Dalai Lama, Ti bet’s temporal and spiritual leader who fled to In dia 41 years ago amid a failed uprising against Chinese rule. Party and government leaders decided to re new the campaign at a meeting in April in Cheng du, the Sichuan provincial capital, Tibet Infor mation Network said. It added that they were likely motivated by the escape to India in January of the Karmapa, a high-ranking cleric China hoped to use to win over Tibetans. In stepping up the campaign, leaders at the meeting pinpointed religion as the main “element of destruction” in Tibetan society, the group said, citing sources it did not identify. The Buddhist cleigy, a taiget of the campaign from the start, appears to have come under re newed pressure. Last month officials expelled 30 monks from the Jokhang Temple in central Lhasa, the group said. The 1,300-year-old Jokhang is one of Tibetan Buddhism’s oldest shrines and its most sacred. The group said the government has set a limit of 120 monks for the temple but is not allowing any who leave to be replaced. Officials with the Tibetan government and its religious affairs bureau could not be reached by telephone for comment as offices were closed for the weekend. Holocaust from page 4 settle claims. The campaign has frayed relations among some nations and drawn criticism that it dishonors victims by focusing too much on money. “This isn’t about the money,” says spokeswoman Alissa Ka plan of the claims conference. “It’s about moral responsibility and it’s about historical accuracy.” Still, critics complain of “Holocaust fatigue” and a “Holocaust industry” of lawyers, paid negotiators, researchers, government envoys and other who make a living off the effort to reach the settlements. Seventeen nations have established commissions to look in to Holocaust issues. U.S. companies, however, have succeeded in lying low while the battle played out across the ocean. In recent years—since a U.S. lawsuit was filed against Ford Motor Co. — a number have hired historians to study wartime dealings. None has released findings^ though some promise they will. The U.S. lawsuit against Ford was dismissed. But Ford ac knowledged that its German subsidiary, Ford-Werke AG, used Buchenwald concentration camp labor to build trucks and light armored vehicles in Cologne. Werke is contributing $13 million to the $5 billion fund German government and industry agreed on for former labor ers as a way to end U.S. lawsuits. After two years of negotia tions, it began taking claims Aug. 12. Ford’s U.S. headquarters maintains it was not responsible for German operations after its assets were seized in 1941. It’s an argument made by many American companies with German subsidiaries. Deputy Treasury Secretary Stuart Eizenstat, top U.S. offi cial on Holocaust issues, says some should donate nonetheless. “Among those benefiting from conscript labor were scores .. of companies owned in whole or part by American firms before they were nationalized by the Nazi regime,” he said at the May 1 Chamber of Commerce announcement. United reaches settlement with pilots by Sofia Javed Associated Press CHICAGO — United Airlines and its pilots reached a tentative agreement Sat urday in a contract dispute that forced the world’s largest airline to cancel or de lay thousands of flights. The two sides met around-the-clock over the past two days, guided by the Na tional Mediation Board. The key issues remaining in the talks were security and pay. A spokesman for the pilots, Herb Hunter, would not provide any details of the agreement, which he said is retroac tive to April 12. The agreement will be presented to the pilots next month. United’s labor problems began this spring when the contract with its 10,000 ' lots came up for renewal. Pilots began refusing to fly overtime, which they are entitled to do, and that caused chaos with United’s already-tight schedule. The pilots say the airline has long failed to hire enough pilots to car ry out its packed schedule. In separate statements. United Chair man James Goodwin and Rick Dubinsky, who heads the union’s Master Executive Council, said they were pleased with the agreement. “Both sides worked hard in complex negotiations to create an industry-lead ing contract for pilots, while providing a strong base for the company’s future growth and success,” Goodwin said. United spokesman Joe Hopkins would not say how the tentative agreement would affect the airline’s flight schedule. United canceled thousands of flights this summer and had an abysmal on-time record. United apologized in newspa V per ads and with a television commercial in which Goodwin says the airline has failed in its commitment to customers. “This summer, thousands of people had their travel plans disrupted while fly ing United Airlines. If you were one of them, I want to apologize personally on behalf of United,” Goodwin says from the cabin of a parked United jet in the commercial. On Friday, United imposed a “criti cal coverage” plan, requiring almost all of its 22,000 North American flight at tendants to be on standby for two hours every day for assignments to fly the next day. The overtime plan, in effect the last week of August, is similar to one issued in May, Hopkins said. Hopkins said the dispute with pilots was not a factor in the overtime order. Instead, he said, the attendants’ short age resulted from weather and air traf fic control problems. “We’re a little shorter at the end of the month than we were at the beginning of the month,” he said. Phone messages left with the Asso ciation of Flight Attendants union Satur day were not immediately returned. The order for flight attendants came on the heels of the airline’s attempt to order mandatory overtime at some air ports for its 15,000 mechanics, who also are negotiating for a new contract. However, the mechanics’ union threatened to stop contract negotiations if the airline didn’t back down. Hopkins said Saturday that manda tory overtime for mechanics would be used only if absolutely necessary. He said no mechanics were forced to work over time Thursday or Friday. Firestone tire investigation slow, critics say by Nedra Pickler Associated Press WASHINGTON —The first lawsuits alleging some Bridgestone/Firestone Inc. truck tires suddenly lost their tread were filed nearly a decade ago, but the Na tional Highway Traffic Safety Adminis tration didnit start investigating until May. And that was nearly a year after Ford Motor Co. replaced Firestone tires on its vehicles in parts of Latin America, Asia and the Middle East. Critics say the case illustrates a fun damental problem with the agency re sponsible for auto safety: NHTSA large ly depends on manufacturers to police themselves and notify it when problems are uncovered. “This has been going on for some number of years and the company (Fire stone) never notified the agency, and that to me suggests a failure in the agency’s program,” said Jain Claybrook, president of watchdog group Public Cit izen and a former director of NHTSA. Some safety experts say NHTSA is n’t to blame, but that Congress needs to grant the agency greater authority. “NHTSA’s doing as good a job as the authority and the weak teeth that they have,” said Clarence Ditlow, di rector of the Center for Auto Safety. “They can only do what Congress gives them the authority to do.” The Center for Auto Safety is suing Bridgestone/Firestone and Ford to ex pand the recall to all ATX, ATX II and Wilderness brand tires. Ditlow said the group filed suit this week because it believed it could force a wider recall faster than NHTSA, which often takes several months to complete an inves tigation. Bridgestone/Firestone announced a “voluntary” U.S. recall on Aug. 9 of 6.5 million P235/75R15 size Fuestone ATX, ATX II and Wilderness AT tires, often found on Ford Explorers. The recall came three months after NHTSA opened the investigation. On Friday, Bridgestone/Firestone an nounced it was scheduled to begin airing a television commercial this weekend that will inform the public about the recall. NHTSA is monitoring the recall and continuing its investigation into 62 deaths — all reported since February — and more than 100 injuries that occurred in accidents where the Fuestone tires may have been a factor. Since the recall be gan, at least two other deaths have been reported. Transportation Secretary Rodney Slater and NHTSA Administrator Sue Bailey this week defended the agency’s handling of the case. They say as soon as they found out the tires may have been responsible for fatalities, they began an investigation. “I’m proud of the agency,” Slater said. “I think the agency has done a tremendous job and continues to do a tremendous job.” Still, Slater said he is considering proposing a rule that would require man ufacturers to report to NHTSA when - " they are sued or have received repeat ed complaints about a possible defect. “We can’t monitor every court in the United States looking for private lawsuits related to a safety defect,” said NHTSA spokesman Rae Tyson. “That’s not practical. But on the other hand, there’s nothing preventing a trial lawyer from contacting us.” NHTSA officials say Ford did not tell them about the recalls in Venezuela, Ecuador, Thailand, Malaysia, Colombia and Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon and other Middle Eastern coun tries. Ford spokesman Mike Vaughn said the Middle Eastern recall started in August 1999, followed by Malaysia and Thailand in February and the South American countries in May. Vaughn said there were many re ports of tread separation on vehicles in those countries. He said Ford officials did not report it to NHTSA because they didn’t see the same problem in the Unit ed States and attributed it to different environmental and usage patterns. “It’s very hot, people in these mar kets tend to drive very fast, full-throt »i_ r_*_i_j_:_ nr. _i._ _ 1U1 VAIVUUW pt/UVUO. IIC IUJVI OtiW poor repairs and overloading,” he said. “In the United States, you don’t see the same usage patterns.” Slater said NHTSA “should have known about the recalls in other countries,” but he resisted criticizing Ford or Bridgestone/Firestone for not coming forward earlier. He said NHT SA must work with manufacturers to protect citizens and the “blame game” would hinder those efforts. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz„ plans to chair hearings starting Sept. 6 at which NHTSA officials can outline their ac tions. A McCain aide said the hearings would explore what policy changes could help NHTSA identify problems earlier. Claybrook and other safety officials say NHTSA should be granted the au thority to levy harsher penalties. The agency now can fine companies $1,100 per violation, but only up to $925,000. In the Firestone case, “that’s pen nies per tire,” Ditlow said. The Clinton administration asked Congress this year to allow NHTSA to fine companies up to $4 million, but no lawmaker took up the cause. Sean Kane, a researcher with Strate gic Safety, a group working with lawyers suing Ford and Bridgestone/Firestone, said he hopes the case prompts changes for NHTSA. Flames engulf famous TV tower in Moscow by Barry Renfrew Associated Press MOSCOW — Fire spread Sunday through the Ostankino television tow er, the world’s second-tallest freestanding structure, knocking out most TV chan nels in the Russian capital and sending a plume of smoke over the city. The 1,771-foot futuristic tower, shaped like a giant needle, is a popular tourist attraction, with an observation deck and restaurant about two-thirds up its height. The fire started well above that level and officials said all visitors were evacuated. But some five hours after the fire broke out at 3:30 p.m., the fire had spread to the platform as well as farther up the tower’s spire. The fire started about 1,520 feet above ground and firefighters had prob lems fighting the blaze because of the difficulty of hauling equipment includ ing chemical fire extinguishers to that height. The tower’s spire is narrow at that point and the cramped quarters hampered movement. Scores of fire engines and ambu lances were parked at the bottom of the tower, which was lighted by at least three searchlights, as officials tried to figure out a way to fight the blaze. Yellow flames licked from the glassed-in platfomi as darkness fell on the city. Thousands of people thronged to the base of the tower, gathering in a carnival atmosphere, drinking beer, laughing and a few dancing to transis tor radios. A huge helicopter capable of drop ping water from a giant bag was brought to the scene but it was not immediate ly deployed. Smaller helicopters oc casionally circled the tower as firefighters tried to assess the situation. The cause of the fire was not im mediately known, but initial reports said it apparently was started by a short-cir cuit in equipment belonging to a pag ing company. The fire caused most television ser vice to the capital and its surrounding region to go off the air, including the three major channels NTV, RTR and CRT, and several smaller channels. NTV later was able to broadcast its news pro grams via the facilities of a UHF chan nel unaffected by the blaze, v