The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, September 11, 2000, Page 4, Image 4
OPEC increases crude oil output
by Bruce Stanley
Associated Press
VIENNA, Austria — OPEC members agreed
Sunday to boost the group’s official output of crude
oil by 800,000 barrels a day, oil ministers in the pe
troleum producers’ cartel said.
The decision, reached after four hours of in
formal talks in Vienna, came amid mounting in
ternational pressure on the Organization of Petro
leum Exporting Countries to pump more oil to stem
surging fuel prices.
The new quota, which will be roughly in line
with what many analysts had predicted, will take
effect Oct. 1. OPEC members agreed to meet again
Nov. 12 to reassess market conditions and, if nec
essary, to adjust output at that time.
Algerian oil minister Chakib Khelil and Qatar
oil minister Abdullah bin Hamad A1 Attiyah first
confirmed the increase, which adds 3 percent to
OPEC’s current official production of 25.4 million
barrels a day.
Ministers began a formal meeting later to rat
ify the increase but postponed it until Monday with
out making a formal announcement of the new quo
ta.
“This is out best assessment of what the mar
ket needs now,” Saudi Arabian oil minister Ali Nai
mi said of the 800,000 additional barrels. “It will
improve and moderate the price, and if it doesn’t
we have a mechanism to trigger some more.”
Kuwaiti oil minister Sheik Saud Nasser al-Sabah
called the amount of the increase “a fair figure
which satisfies everybody.”
“We’ll have to wait and see how the market
reacts. We don’t know. It’s very unpredictable,” al
Sabah said.
Analysts cautioned that the boost in produc
tion will provide no more than 100,000 fresh bar
rels of oil to world markets because OPEC mem
bers already are producing at least 700,000
barrels above their current quotas.
As a result, they don’t expect the increase to
do much to roll back prices for crude or refined
products.
In Washington, the U.S. government gave Sau
di Arabia credit for the OPEC production in
crease but said it is too early to know what effect
it will have on the shortage in world oil invento
ries.
“Whether such an increase will stabilize the
market remains to be seen,” Energy Secretary
Bill Richardson said. “Nonetheless, this expected
production increase will bring needed additional
oil into world markets.^
Britain responded cautiously to the cartel’s de
cision, making clear that the step would be of val
ue only if the market reacts to bring prices down.
The news came after the completion of the
Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Bninei,
where officials issued a statement earlier Sunday
uiging OPEC members to stabilize oil prices.
Paul Jeremias, deputy secretary of the Philip
pine finance ministry, welcomed the decision.
“It will be much better to have lower oil prices
because there will be less impact on the poor,” he
said in Brunei.
High fuel costs have sparked concern and even
outrage in several consuming nations. French truck
ers and taxi drivers last week blocked roads to protest
gasoline prices, while farmers in Britain mounted
similar, if smaller, efforts to disrupt traffic. Amer
icans living in areas where there is heavy snowfall
worry that low fuel inventories will lead to soaring
prices to heat their homes this winter.
On a diplomatic level, European finance min
isters have expressed concern that surging prices
could crimp world economic growth, wliile finance
ministers from 21 Pacific Rim countries wanted in
Brunei that rising oil prices could damage their
economies.
“We did all that we could, but we cannot solve
- _ _ A
the whole problem,” Attiyah, the Qatari oil minis
ter, told reporters.
He said the heavy taxes levied on fuel in
many oil-importing nations are partly to blame for
current high prices, and he urged governments of
such countries to work “very hard” to trim them.
Iranian oil minister Bijan Nanidar Zangeneh
agreed, saying, “This is the opportunity and the
time for the consuming countries to act for the ben
efit of their consumers.”
Still, the size of the increase offers scant com
fort for Americans who depend on heating oil to
warm their homes, analysts said.
Refineries are already working almost flat out
to produce heating oil, said Leo Drollas, chief
economist of the London-based Center for
Global Energy Studies, and it will take at least
45 days before any new barrels of crude can reach
consumers in the form of heating oil.
a _.-m a
‘Whether such an increase will stabilize the market remains
to be seen. Nonetheless, this expected production will
increase will bring needed additional oil into world markets’
Bill Richardson
Energy Secretary
Palestinian Central Council
delays statehood declaration
BY IBRAHIM BARZAK
Associated Press
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — The top
Palestinian policy-making body on Sun
day pul off a declaration of suuehood for
at least two months in a bid to give fal
tering peace Utlks a chance, and called for
concrete measures to suut preparing for
suuehood.
The Palestinian Central Councils de
cision came after two days of long-await
ed debate, although it was clear that the
current deadline of Sept. 13 would be put
off. Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat had
been under intense international pressure
not to take a unilateral move that could
provoke violent conflict with Israel.
Council chairman Salim Zanoun said
the body now expects a progress report
on statehood by Nov. 15, the 12th an
niversary of a symbolic declaration of
statehood-in-exile.
The council made clear that the post
ponement was not a long-term delay, but
was rather designed to provide the peace
talks, apparently deadlocked over claims
to holy sites in Jerusalem, with breath
ing space.
The delay “does not mean that Israel
is free from implementing its obligations”
under previous agreements and U.N. res
olutions, said die statement, read aloud
by Zanoun.
In New York, where Israeli Prime
Minister Elnid Barak is traveling, his
spokesman, Gadi Baitiansky, called the
move "a positive step.”
“We believe it is a result of the po
sition of the international community
which opposes unilateral steps that can
only hurt the peace process,” Baitiansky
said.
World leaders have warned Arafat
that a state declared unilaterally would
receive little support. And Israel had
threatened “counter-measures” in such
an event, which could have included an
nexing parts of the West Bank.
“The Palestinian people and the Pales
tinian leadership remain committed to
the choice of peace as a strategic choice
in order to achieve justice and compre
hensive peace and in order to fulfill the
goals of the Palestinian people of self-de
termination,” the statement said.
It said the council had authorized
preparation of certain measures of state
hood “during the coming period,” in
cluding setting up a constitution, legisla
tive and presidential elections, and working
toward Palestinian membership in the
United Nations. And it said the council
would meet again by Nov. 15 to assess
progress on these issues, and determine
when statehood would be declared.
In his speech on Saturday to the
legislators, Arafat said negotiations with
Israel would shift into high gear and last
for five weeks. Palestinian officials re
ported that the peace talks began on Sun
day with a meeting between Saeb Erekat
and Israeli negotiator Oded Eran, although
Israeli officials denied that.
“This decision gives the peace process
a brilliant chance,” Erekat said after the
vote. “I hope now that the intensive ne
gotiations will take their due course.”
But both sides acknowledged that
prospects were not good.
“Tlie main problem remains, and that
is sovereignty over Jerusalem,” said Gib
inet Minister Nabil Shaath. “No Pales
tinian leader can sacrifice sovereignty
over Jerusalem.”
Talks have been hung up especially
over the Temple Mount, known to Pales
tinians as Haram as-Sharif, the home of
sites sacred to both Muslims and Jews.
Barak, speaking from New York be
fore the vote in an interview with ABC
News, said that the likely delay “is a pos
itive sign, but we still have to have no il
lusions. Wfe still have a lot of y/ork to do. ”
Arafat dearly wants to realize his life
long dream of declaring statehood for his
people. But he knows that a state with
out Israeli approval would encounter
huge, if not insurmountable, obstacles.
However, if Arafat were to delay state
hood too long, he could suffer huge dam
age to his credibility among ordinary Pales
tinians, who share ltis dream.
Arab-Americans falsely arrested
with no help from U.S. officials
by Pauline Jelinek
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Gift shop owner
Anwar Mohamed of Orlando, Fla., al
leges that on a trip to Israel two years ago,
he was falsely ancsted, tortured, then re
leased without explanation.
He still is pressing the State Depart
ment to explain why U.S. officials did lit
tle to help liim. He contends it is because
he is.of Arab descent, and they do not
want to ruffle relations with Israeli allies.
Mohamed, 28, said consular officials
visited him twice during his 40 days in a
Jerusalem jail.
“I begged them,” he said. “I showed
them my hands swollen from torture....
I told them I was innocent.... I told them
I needed help.”
I le ;utd three other Arab-Amcricans
with similar stories arc to meet with State
Department officials and about a dozen
senators this week to protest what they
say is unlair treatment by the U.S. and Is
raeli governments. They also are seeking
the release of 10 Arab-Amcricans they
say remain imprisoned in Israel.
Moshe Fox, a spokesman at the Is
raeli embassy in Washington, said he was
not familiar with die case of llie four men.
Hut, Pa: Milled, “ W: have a Supreme C ouri
ruling in Israel which forbids all kinds
of torture, and that is being strictly fol
lowed."
That decision, in September 1999,
said the Shin Bet security service cannot
use physical force as an interrogation tool,
as had been done in questioning thousands
of P;ilestini;uis detained over the years on
suspicion of anti-Israeli activities.
Partners for Peace, a private group
that monitors treatment of Palestinian
Amcricans, says 16 Ar.ib-Americans were
arrested and tortured in Israel in the
past 18 months. Some were released
later without charges, the organization
said, but some were sentenced to prison
without trials.
The Israelis contend arrests were for
various sccurily-rclalcd crimes, such as
spying or terrorist links, Rirlncrs for Peace
president Jerri Bird said Friday.
“The State Department has a foreign
service manual that details what’s to be
done when an American citizen is de
tained in a foreign country, ;md in no case
— no case that I have looked at — have
the requirements been followed,” Bird
said.
In del Aviv, l J.S. Hmbassy spokesman
I.airy Schwartz said Saturday that con
sular officials “have had access to all
American prisoners in Israeli custody,and
the issue of the mistreatment of Ameri
can citizens was raised by American of
ficials at very high levels with the Is
raeli government.”
Schwartz added that the embassy
knows of no torture cases since the 1999
Supreme Court ruling on torture.
The State Department’s World Wide
Web site posts a travel advisory to U.S.
citizens that if arrested in Israel for al
leged security violations, they “may be
prevented from communicating with
lawyers, family members or consular
members for lengthy periods of time,...
subject to mistreatment during the inter
rogation period,... detained for up to
six months at a time without charges.”
Bird, wife of a retired foreign service
employee once posted to Israel, has
pressed the dcp;irtmcni on the Arab issue
for two years and brought Mohiimed and
others to the department a year ago to
give statements on their ordeals.
She identified others coming this week
as Yousif Marci, manager of an Islamic
center in Chicago; Bashir Saidi, an engi
neer from Inkster, Mich.; and Mike Man
sour, deputy silerill of Albuquerque, N.M.,
when he was tortured for 21 days in 1984.
All say they were visiting relives in
Israel when they were arrested.
rights with Clinton
remain for GOP
by Alan Fram
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — So little time,
so many bills. And so many, many dis
putes.
With just 19 working days left un
til Congress’ scheduled Oct. 6 ad
journment, lawmakers must complete
11 spending bills for the coming fis
cal year before they can go home for
the elections.
Roughly $20 billion^eparates Re
publicans from President Clinton. But
in this era of federal surpluses, fierce
policy disputes over hiring teachers,
standards for drunken driving and oth
er issues probably will prove to be the
toughest hurdles.
“Our problem is language this
year, not money,” said Senate Ap
propriations Committee Chairman
Ted Stevens, R-Alaska.
Republicans find themselves in a
hauntingly familiar box, yearning to
cut quick deals on the bills with Clin
ton but with precious little lever
age. Republican baigaining power is
shackled by Clinton’s ability to veto
bills, the GOP’s inability to override
the vetoes, and lawmakers’ craving
for an early dash home for the con
gressional and presidential elections.
Hoping to get this year’s final
round of bargaining off to a harmo
nious start, GOP leaders will meet
with Clinton Tuesday at the White
House, along with top congressional
Democrats. The session seems likely
to produce little if any substantive
progress, leaving the two sides even
less time to resolve differences.
“We think that there’s a lot of
work that needs to be done, partly be
cause so little has happened in this
Congress,” the White House chief of
staff, John Podesta, said on “Fox News
Sunday.”
On CNN’s “Late Edition,” Sen
ate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R
Miss., cited “all kinds of efforts to
stop us passing appropriation bills.”
The 13 annual spending bills for
fiscal 2001, which begins Oct. 1, di
rectly control about one-third of the
$1.8 trillion budget, or more than
$600 billion. Clinton has already signed
the two covering most defense pro
grams at a cost of about $300 billion.
The 11 other bills cover 13
Gibinet-levcl departments and dozens
of smaller agencies, plus foreign aid
and the District of Columbia’s bud
get, with a total price tag of about
$300 billion. Clinton wants about $20
billion more — leaving the two sides
battling over iibout 1 percent of the
federal budget.
Eight of the 11 bills face White
House veto threats.
Democrats aren’t the only ones
clamoring for higher spending. Fac
ing election-year demands from its
members, the OOP’s spending bills
so lar have surpassed by at least $7
billion the $600billion limit their own
budget clamped on.
Even so, the most contentious dis
putes are partisan. And among the
most furious is a battle over educa
tion, one of the top issues in this year’s
campaign.
After initially falling about $7 bil
lion short, Republicans have written
a bill that equals the amount Clin
ton wants for education, health and
welfare programs. The measure would
set aside money to help communities
hire teachers and rebuild schools, two
top Clinton priorities, but give local
officials the discretion to use the mon
ey for other purposes. Administration
officials adamantly oppose such flex
ibility.
“ Wfc'll be quite detcnnined in our
effort to make sure we have the re
sources and to make sure the programs
are designed in a way that will work,”
White House budget chief Jack
Lew said hist week.
Other major battlegrounds include:
• Various bills provide less than
Clinton wants for purchasing park
lands, hiring police officers, foreign
aid, legal services for the poor, envi
ronmental protection, conservation,
community service and housing.
• A Senate bill financing the de
partments of Commerce, Justice and
ouuc wuuiu uiucK iransiers oi mon
ey that Justice needs to pursue a multi
billion-dollar federal lawsuit against
the tobacco industry. Clinton oppos
es the restriction.
• Clinton favors a Senate-approved
provision establishing a national 0.08
percent blood-alcohol level to deter
mine drunken driving. States not com
plying would lose some of their fed
eral ltighway aid. Only 18 states and
the District of Columbia have a lev
el that low. The Senate also would
block new safety rules limiting the
numbers of hours truckers could dri
ve to 12 a day and bar a federal study
of rollovers by sports utility vehicles.
• The White House lias said it will
not renew this year’s compromise in
which it agreed to reduced family
planning aid overseas in return for
waiving restrictions on that aid. An
ti-abortion lawmakers want to retain
the language.
• Farm-state Republicans and
many Democrats want four-decade
old tmde sanctions against Cuba eased.
They arc opposed by GOP letiders and
anti-Gtstro lawmakers. There ;dso ;uc
requests for fresh aid for humors hurt
by this summer’s drought in the West.
• The District of Columbia’s bud
get is being delayed by a light over
conservatives’ objections to distribu
tion of free needles to drug abusers.
News Briefs
■ Nation’s hunger
rate fell 24 percent
in late 1990s
WASHINGTON (AP) - The num
ber of hungry fiunilies dropped by 24
percent as the nation’s economy
boomed in the late 1990s, but millions
of working poor still have trouble get
ting adequate food, the government
said Friday. Slightly less than 3 million
fiunilies, or 2.8 percent of the nation’s
households, had at least one member
who went hungry in 1999. down from
3.95 million in 1995, according to an
annual Agriculture Department report.
■ Bangladesh
pushes to erase
crippling disease
MOSCOW — With a decision to cut
350,000 troops, Russia’s leaders appear
to have acknowledged that they can no
longer afford armed forces like those
that once stood eyeball to eyeball with
NATO. The troop reduction, con
firmed Friday by Defense Minister Ig
or Sergeyev, would slash the ministry’s
forces by nearly one-third.
■ Fire prevention
package increases
forest thinning
WASHINGTON (AP) — President
Clinton proposed spending about $1.6
billion to help communities recover
from the forest fires that have
scorched the West this summer ;uul to
tliin millions of acres of federal forests
in hopes of preventing future blitzes. A
report submitted Saturday to Clinton
by two Cabinet secreeiries stud the in
creased removal of trees ;uid brush is
needed to reverse almost a century’s
worth of firefighting policy that left
forests with acres of undergrowth ;uid
ready-to-bum timber.
■ Borrowing
slows after June’s
reported rate
WASHINGTON (AP) — Ikirrow
ing slowed in July from June’s torrid
pace as Americans cut back both on
using credit cards ;utd buying autos mid
other personal items on credit. The
Federal Reserve said Friday consumer
credit increased by a smaller-ihan-cx
pected seasonally adjusted $9.4 billion
in July, or 7.7 percent at an annual
rate, the slowest pace in three months.
■ Rescue efforts
continue after
nightfall in Italy
SOVERATO, Italy (AP) — The
rain-swollen waters of a stream swept
through a campground fdled with dis
abled campers in the southern region
of Calabria before dawn Sunday, killing
at least 10 people and injuring dozens
as they slept, authorities reported. In
terior Minister Enzo Bianco, who ar
rived in Calabria in the evening, told
reporters that 10 people had died and
five were missing at the Le Giare
campground near the seaside town of
Soverato. The muddy waters destroyed
the campground’s guest register, com
plicating the task of accounting for the
living, the dead and the missing.
■ FDA post stark
breast implants
photos on Internet
WASHINGTON (AP) — Health of
ficials are posting on the Internet stark
photographs of what a woman’s breast
looks like when a breast implant leaks
or causes other problems, an effort to
ensure women are fully informed of
the risks before surgery. List May, the
Food and Drug Administration ruled
that saline-filled breast implants could
continue selling even though they
break open at high rates.
_ I