Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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Hie Gamecock Mudslides lead to evacuations in Japan I BY JOJI SAKURAI Associated Press TOKYO — Boulevards became muddy rivers and rundreds of thousands of people were ordered to jvacuate Tuesday as torrential rain soaked central lapan, killing at least six people and forcing the na :ion’s biggest carmaker to stop production. Authorities in the city of Nagoya told more than 160,000 people to evacuate their homes, city offi cial Tadanobu Horiguchi said. Many sought shelter rn the second or third floors of schools. The dead included a 53-year-old firefighter who ’ell into a flooded roadside ditch and a 49-year-old nan who was buried in a mudslide, Horiguchi said. 7our other people were killed, 32 were injured ind three were missing, the national Police \gency reported. Nagoya-based Toyota Motor Corp. stopped pro iuction nationwide because of the relentless down pour, a company spokeswoman said. The company has a highly interdependent network of parts-mak ers, which means a stoppage in the flooded Nagoya center would affect operations in other areas. Television footage showed residents wading waist deep in muddy water and children navigating flood ed streets in rubber inner-tubes. Troops in rowboats paddled past inundated buses to rescue stranded res idents. Fourteen homes were demolished by landslides, and more than 12,000 were flooded above the floor level, police said. Landslides happened in 310 places. Nagoya, a major industrial city of 2.2 million people, is about 165 miles west of Tokyo. Rainfall totaling 23 inches was recorded in Tokai, near Nagoya, over the past 24-hour period, the local observatory said. “This flooding is unprecedented in our city,” Horiguchi said. “I’ve never seen such huge rainfalls in such a short period of time.” Power outages interrupted bullet train service to the region, the Prime Minister’s Office said. About 50,000 passengers were forced to sleep overnight at railway stations or in stalled trains, rail officials said. Service resumed after a record interruption of more than 18 hours. Major highways in central Japan were also closed to traffic, national broadcaster NHK reported. The-govemor of Aichi state, where Nagoya is located, requested disaster relief from the national .government, the prime minister’s office said. Elsewhere Tuesday, a tornado swept through res idential Tokyo, destroying the roofs of several homes, a Tokyo police official said. There were no reports of injuries. More violent weather was creeping toward Japan, as typhoon Saomai approached the southernmost prefecture of Okinawa with 90-mph winds. The storm was about 60 miles east of the Okinawa cap ital of Naira early Tuesday and was already lashing the island with powerful winds. Naha is about 1,000 miles southwest of Tokyo. Libya :rom page 5 jombing of Pan Am Flight 103. Jubilation over the latest releases vas tarnished when Vahanen disclosed o Finnish television Monday that some )f the former women hostages had been raped by their captors. That seemed to lave strengthened the resolve of the Philippines government to deal firm y with the kidnappers. In an exchange in Finnish on Mon lay, Vahanen answered “yes” when a eporter for television station MTV3 isked whether the women had been aped. On Tuesday, he said reporters lad misinterpreted his statements. “The questions were misleading ind also what has been said has been nisunderslood,” he said. “We were hu niliated and mistreated, all of us, but ve didn’t report this before we were eleased because we were afraid of be ng abused more or harassed.” Muslim Libya has longstanding ties vith Muslim rebels in the mostly Catholic Philippines. In addition to ne ■otiating in previous kidnappings, it has lelped build schools and mosques in he impoverished, largely Muslim south nd has been accused ol training rebels rom the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, laige Muslim rebel group. Libya has said it offered develop nent projects to secure the hostages’ elease and denied the money would 0 directly to the rebels.. Rebels abducted three Malaysian aen from a resort island late Sunday, ’liilippine officials have confirmed the hree have been brought to Abu Sayyaf trongholds on southern Jolo island, diere more than 300 armed men are iow guarding the hostages. Philippines officials indicated Tues kiy they were considering a military Hack on the kidnappers. Marines and our navy ships, including two land tg craft, and armored personnel car ters were on standby at a naval station 1 southern Zamboanga city. A senior '(ficer said the ships were going to Jo J island. The four freed Europeans were the ast foreigners from a group of 21 ©stages taken in April from Malaysia, lie Abu Sayyaf are still holding one ilipino captured at the same time, two :rench television journalists, and 12 "ilipino Christian evangelists. Vote on Scout charter due by Jim Abrams Associated Press WASHINGTON—A small group of House lawmak ers chfcging that the Boy Scouts’ policy toward gays was a badge of intolerance moved Tuesday to repeal the organization’s federal charter. The legislation, heading for an evening vote, was another challenge to the long-standing relationship between the Boy Scouts and the federal government, rising out of the group’s stance on excluding homo sexuals. The bill’s chief sponsor. Rep. Lynn Woolsey, D Calif., said she was a Girl Scout and one of her sons was a Boy Scout. “We’re not saying the Boy Scouts are bad; we’re saying that intolerance is bad,” she said in intro ducing the measure earlier this summer. ■ “We’re disappointed that this bill would even be considered,” countered Boy Scouts spokesman Gregg Shields. He said having a federal charter is an honor and “we hope to continue to live up to that honor.” The Boy Scouts of America got its federal charter in 1916, six years after it was founded. It is one of about 90 groups with such designation, an honorary title giv en to patriotic, charitable and education oiganizations. While it confers no specific benefits, receiving a federal charter is a mark of prestige and national recog nition for a group. The Supreme Court in a 54 decision in June, up held the Boy Scouts’ ban on homosexuals serving as troop leaders. That ruling may also give legal bacldng to the 6.2 million-member oiganization’s rejection of gay youths as members. The Scouts asserted that homosexual conduct is in consistent with the values it seeks to instill. But while the Itigh court sided with the group’s First .Amendment rights to “expressive association,” the Boy Scout relationship with the federal government was brought into question when President Clinton, five days before the ruling, issued an executive order barring dis crimination on the basis of sexual orientation in feder ally conducted education and training programs. The Interior Department in August asked the Jus tice Department for guidance on how that order affected the holding of Boy Scout Jamborees on federal lands. GOP presidential nominee Geoige W. Bush and oth er Republicans quickly accused the administration of trying to tlirow the scouts off federal lands. But Attor ney General Janet Reno, in a statement this month, said the tradition of Boy Scouts using federal lands for camp ing and other activities could continue. Woolsey has also uiged Clinton to resign as hon orary president of the Boy Scouts because of the poli cy toward gays. Her office said the White House has not responded to that request Shields said every president since Taft has served as honorary president. Pilot plans to fly replica of first plane by Gregg Tomo. Associated Press WASHINGTON— From the deli cate ash and spruce framework to the sturdy cotton fabric covering the wings, an inch-by-inch replica of the Wright brothers’ 1903 flying machine is taking shape. Retired airline pilot Ken Hyde of Warrenton, Va., is chief builder of the aircraft that a group of flying en thusiasts hopes to get airborne early on Dec. 17, 2003. That would be 100 years to the minute after the two brothers from Ohio first saw their lithe wood-and muslin craft lift off the dunes of Kit ty Hawk in North Carolina’s Outer Banks. “It’s going to be a challenge, but two people did fly this airplane — Wilbur and Orville Wright,” Hyde said. Hyde and his sponsors, the Wis consin-based Experimental Aircraft Association, announced the project Tuesday beneath the Wright broth ers’ aircraft, which hangs from the rafters of the Smithsonian’s Nation al Air and Space Museum. “This airplane started it all,” as sociation President Tom Poberezny said. The 170,000-member group, based in Oshkosh, Wis., was found ed in 1953 by airplane enthusiasts who build and fly their own planes. The association commissioned Hyde, a retired United Airlines pilot who restores vintage airplanes, to re produce the plane down to the small est stitch. The replica will duplicate Wilbur and Orville Wrights’ original design and materials at an estimated cost of $1.3 million. The original included an aluminum four-cylinder engine, a tiny tin tank that held less than a gal lon of gas and 125 yards of stout muslin, used at the time to make women’s underwear. The turn-of-the-century fabric, dubbed “Pride of the West,” is un available now, and must be manu factured especially for the project. “The biggest challenge here is the fabric,” Hyde said. “We’re hoping we can find a manufacturer that can tackle that job.” With its thin wooden frame, the open airplane resembles a toboggan with wings. It has no landing gear and requires the pilot — in the 1903 flight, it was Orville — to operate the plane lying on his stomach, using his hips to help steer. The replica won’t get its first test at Kitty Hawk, Hyde said. An old Air Force wind tunnel in Langley, Va., will help the builders fine-tune the construction. Poberezny said a pilot hasn’t been selected, and Hyde said he hasn’t lob bied hard for the job. But the lanky 61-year-old coyly said he weighs about the same as the Wrights did in 1903. “It wouldn’t be a stretch,” he said with a smile. The site, once a sandy, isolated dune, is now part of a prosperous beach resort on North Carolina’s Out er Banks. Much of it is covered with rough grass and bordered by beach homes, said Mary Doll, superintendent of the Wright Brothers National Memori al. Doll said the plane is in no dan ger of hitting anyone’s beach-front condominium during the planned flight, as the site of the 1903 flight is thousands of feet from any structures. Before arriving at Kitty Hawk, the replica will tour several cities, stopping in Florida, Wisconsin and Ohio, Poberezny said. He also insisted that Experimen tal Aircraft Association, while seeking corporate, private and foun dation support, won’t sell the pro ject’s naming rights. The plane’s voluminous wingspan and tail section won’t sport McDon ald’s or FedEx decals or advertise any World Wide Web sites, he said. Study: Federal death penalty biased towards minorities by Michael J. Sniffen Associated Press WASHINGTON —A Justice Department study has found wide racial and geographic dis parities in the federal government’s requests for death penalties, an administration official said Tuesday. The White House called the find ings troubling. The report, requested by Attorney Gen eral Janet Reno and prepared by her deputy, Eric Holder, was certain to provoke renewed calls from Congress, civil rights and legal groups for a moratorium on federal death sentences. The report was to be released later Tuesday. Reno imposed a new system in 1995 re quiring U.S. Attorneys to get her approval for all death sentences after a review of each case by a team of senior Justice officials. Her goal was to achieve a more uniform system, but the report found the first five years of experience with the system was not uni form. Minorities were far more prevalent among those recommended for the death penalty than their proportion in the national population. “We’ve seen the numbers,” White House deputy press secretary Jake Siewert said. “At first glance, those numbers are trou bling. We need to know more about exactly what’s behind the numbers.” Siewert declined to discuss a possible death penalty moratori um.' “Obviously, the president wants to see this information and make his own judgment, but I wouldn’t expect anything on that,” Siewert said. The report found that of the 675 cases where U.S. attorneys recommended death sen tences, only slightly more than one quarter were white defendants. Blacks comprised almost half of those defendants recommended for a death penalty, and Hispanics about one-fifth, the administra tion official said, requesting anonymity. Geographically, only five of the 94 U.S. attorney districts accounted for about 40 percent of the death penalty recommendations, the official said. They were Puerto Rico, the eastern district of Virginia, Maryland and the eastern and southern districts of New York. Some 22 of the 94 districts had never even e submitted a case for review during the five \ years, the official added. Including those 22 J districts, there were a total of 40 districts that f had never recommended a death penalty even if they had submitted a case for review. The federal death penalty has been back ( on the books since 1988 and was expanded in 1994 to cover dozens more crimes, many i of them drug-related or violence. t But because of appeals, no death sentence 1 has yet been carried out since 1963. Two-thirds t of the 21 prisoners under federal death sen- i tence are minorities. i In 1972, the Supreme Court had struck t down the death penalty, as applied at that time, on grounds that it was unconstitutionally un- I fair. t States and the federal government have I since revised their death penalties and states i have conducted numerous executions. c The first of the resumed federal death penal- i ties is now scheduled to come Dec. 12 at the t U.S. Penitentiary in Terre Haute, Ind. c In August, President Clinton delayed that xecution until then so the defendant, con icted killer Juan Raul Garza, could use new ustice Department procedures to appeal for residential clemency. The Justice Department said Clinton was ‘thereby providing an opportunity for Mr. iarza to petition under the new regulations.” The 43-year-old inmate was convicted in vugust 1993 in Brownsville, Texas, for killing hree men between April 1990 and January 991. A 10-count indictment named him as he boss of a drug ring that imported tons of riarijuana into the United States between 1983 nd 1993. He has lost appeals all the way up o the Supreme Court. Clinton was asked last February by Sen. tussell Feingold, D-Wis., to suspend federal xecutions pending a thorough study. In April, 'eingold and Rep. Jesse L. Jackson Jr., D-Ill., atroduced legislation calling for a national eath penalty moratorium. In May, the Amer can Bar Association, which takes no posi ion on the death penalty, asked Clinton to de lare a moratorium pending a complete review. London Stock Exchange cancels merger by Robert Barr Associated Press ONDON — The London Stock Exchange pulled ut of its planned merger with Germany’s Deutsche loerse on Tuesday to concentrate on fending off hostile bid from Sweden’s OM Gruppen, own r of the Stockholm exchange. The move came just a day after Deutsche Boerse ignaled trouble with the merger plan by post oning a vote of its shareholders. The two exchanges had planned to create a an-European market called iX, envisioned as a recursor to an alliance with the Nasdaq Stock Market in the United States. “We have been saying all along that we think le iX deal is flawed. We think this is confirma on of that,” said Jakob Haakanson, head of in estor relations for OM Gruppen, the Swedish ompany that has mounted a $1.1 billion hostile id for the London exchange. “Not enough of the issues raised by cross-bor er consolidation have been resolved, and there is now too little time to build confidence that they would be resolved if the merger went ahead,” said London Stock Exchange chairman Don Cruick shank. Deutsche Boerse “regrets that the planned meiger won’t be pursued,” spokesman Walter All wicher said. Deutsche Boerse chairman Werner Seifert said the German exchange will “examine alternatives,” according to Allwicher, who de clined to comment further. “Generally speaking, our offer is now the only one on the table,” Haakansson said. Cruickshank expressed confidence in stopping OM Gruppen’s bid, which he has said would not benefit the London Stock Exchange’s customers or shareholders. After that, he said, the stock ex change board, its shareholders mid customers “will review the means by which London's pre-eminent role in European equities trading can best be promoted in both their interests.” The London Stock Exchange has argued that OM Gruppen was not an acceptable suitor for the exchange, and was not an “attractive” option to guarantee its future. OM Gruppen’s market cap italization is only one-fifth that of the London Stock Exchange. The London-German meiger proposal called for blue chip shares to be traded in London, while shares in high-tech firms would be traded in Frank furt. The iX headquarters were to be in London.' OM Gruppen’s chairman Olof Stenhammar had aigued the proposed London-Frankfurt meig er reflected “an outdated concept of merging two nationally based operations with limited regard to the technological and commercial changes in glob al equity markets.” OM Gruppen, founded in 1985, supplies tech nology to stock exchanges, banks and brokers in more than 20 countries. It had launched its bid for the London Stock Exchange last month. It started the first for-profit, privately owned electronic derivatives exchange. It eventually integrated that market with the Stockholm stock exchange, which it acquired in 1998. i . Wtit 0amccockpH 0roup Interest Meeting September 13 at 7:00 p.m. Russell House room 333 If you want to gain valuable experience in the field of public relations, then come join 'Che 0amccock pH 0roup. Your duties will include recruiting new writers, special event planning and alumni and community relations. No experience required. PR majors preferred. And you thought newspapers were just for Print majors.... -i-k-.