Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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Gordon plows into Florida coast BY DARA KAM Associated Press CEDAR KEY, Fla.—Tropical Storm Gordon plowed into Florida’s Gulf Coast on Sunday with winds just below hurri cane strength, drenching rain and a storm surge with waves over 6 feet high. Michael Loehr, operations chief for the Suite Emergency Operations Center said there was some flooding in south west Florida, but no serious injuries had been reported. “We’ve already gotten calls from Charlotte County saying they’ve got hous es on the const where you open the front door, the water’s coming in; you open the back door, water’s going out,” he said. Wind gusts of 60 mph were report ed in this rustic fishing town about 100 miles north of Tampa as the storm ap proached. Gordon’s top sustained winds fell from 75 mph early Sunday to about 70 mph by late afternoon, just below the 74 mph threshold for a hurricane. About 200 Florida National Guards men were deployed to help in flooded ar eas, and schools and roads were closed in several coastal cities. '“We’re seeing now waves of up to and beyond 6 feet, and the water is con tinuing to rise and coming over the road at the docks area,” Cedar Key Mayor Heath Davis said as the storm came ashore about 8:15 p.m. EDT. The storm knocked out electricity to much of the city and pounded the island directly in its path with heavy rain. A vol untary evacuation had been recommended, but many of town’s 800 residents were staying put. Most had weathered hurri canes before, Davis said. Gordon seepages ■ Storm's remnants expected to affect S.C.'s weather by Patricia M. LaHay Associated Press ATLANTA — If Tropical Storm Gordon stays on its current track, it should pass over southeastern Georgia by late Monday, according to meteo rologists from the National Weather Service. Lisa Ray, spokeswoman for the Georgia Emergency Management Agency, said Sunday that officials in the southeast part of the state were most concerned about storm surge along Florida’s western coast, where the trop ical storm was expected to make land fall. In Georgia, 3 to 5 inches of rain are expected to fall in tire southern and eastern parts of the state between Sun day and Monday evening, but it prob S.C. SEEPAGE5 Fujimon calls for new vote, won’t run again by Monte Hayes Associated Press UMA, Peru — President Alberto Fu jimori, besieged by a bribery scandal sur rounding a top aide, announced in a na tionwide television address Saturday that he was calling new elections and that he would not be a candidate. Fujimori also said he would deacti vate the National Intelligence Service, whose powerful head has been accused of offering bribes to an opposition con gressman to support the government. “After a profound reflection, and an objective evaluation of the circumstances, I have made the decision, first, to deac tivate the system of national intelligence and, in second place, call in the quickest time possible general elections,” Fuji mori said in his address. “In these general elections, it’s ob vious he who is speaking will not par ticipate,” he said. He did not announce a date for the new vote. The authoritarian Fujimori was elect ed to an unprecedented third five-year term in voting that ended with a second round in May. His opponent had dropped out because of allegations of vote-fixing and Fujimori’s victory brought heavy crit icism from the United States and other nations. Opposition demands for new elec tions have heightened since a video was j released Thursday allegedly showing intelligence chief Vladimiro Montesinos, a close Fujimori adviser, offering bribes to an opposition congressman. Hours before Fujimori’s announce ment, the Organization of American States issued a strongly worded demand Satur day that he suspend Montesinos and oth er officials allegedly linked to the scan dal, warning that otherwise attempts at reconciliation with the opposition would be damaged. A leading opposition congressman, Henry Pease, questioned whether Fuji mori could carry out Iris promise and said that it could be that Montesinos, long considered the power behind the gov ernment, would stay and Fujimori go. Pease also expressed concern over the lack of a timetable for elections 'In these general elec tions, it's obvious he who is speaking will not participate.’ Alberto Fujimori Peruvian President Mideast to get peacekeepers if peace deal can be made ■ UN pledges to send troops if Palestinians, Israelis sign accord by Dina Kraft Associated Press JERUSALEM —The United Nations is prepared to send peacekeeping troops along a future Israeli-Pales tinian border should a peace accord be signed, a top Pales tinian official said Saturday. The issue of final borders between Israel and a fu ture Palestinian entity is one of the main subjects to be resolved in negotiations for a peace deal, which have been deadlocked over the future of Jerusalem. Palestinian negotiator Nabil Shaath, in Washington for consultations on the floundering peace process, said U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan made the assurance during a meeting between the two at the United Nations earlier this week. The U.N. spokesman’s office had no immediate com ment on the secretary-general’s reported assurance to Shaath. Palestinian and Israeli negotiators returned to the re gion after several days of separate talks in New York and Washington with U.S. officials trying to revive the talks after their breakdown over the Jerusalem issue at a Camp David summit in July. Shaath, speaking to The Associated Press from Wash ington, said the Americans were drawing up an assessment paper to help determine how the sides can best move for ward in their last-ditch eff ort to clinch a Mideast peace deal. “The paper will show where we are and how tilings can be pushed forward. Maybe it will lead to serious ne gotiations,” Shaath said. He said the Palestinians were “not ready to make concessions” on Jerusalem. Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat has insisted on Palestinian or Muslim sovereign ty over all of east Jerusalem—including holy sites there — something Israel has rejected. Meanwhile, in the West Bank town of Bethlehem, some 50 Palestinian teen-agers on their way home front a pro-refugee march Saturday threw stones at Israeli sol diers, who fired several rounds of tear gas to disperse tliem. The youth hurled the stones at soldiers who guard tut Israeli enclave in Bethlehem — Rachel’s Tomb — / the traditional burial site of the biblical matriarch. The teen-agers had broken away from a march by some 250 people from Bethlehem’s Dheisheh refugee camp to Rachel's Tomb, demanding the right of Pales tinian refugees who were displaced during wars with Is rael to return to their homes. The refugee question is one of the main issues being dealt with in the peace ne gotiations. The march marked 18 years since the September 1982 massacre of hundreds of Palestinians, many of them women and cliildren, by Lebanese militiamen allowed into tlie Sabra and Sltatilla refugee Gimps by Israeli forces. President Clinton has been looking to Arab leaders to ease Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat into a compro mise over Jerusalem. But many Arab countries have sup ported the Palestinian stance. At the United Nations on Saturday, the foreign min ister of tire Persian Gulf state of Oman insisted that there was “no sovereignty possible” over Jerusalem “except that of the Palestinian state.” Filipino army pounds rebels, finds no sign of 19 hostages by Jim Gomex Associated Press ZAMBOANGA, Philippines —The military pounded the camps of Muslim rebels with mortars Sunday and thousands of troops continued their as sault to free 19 foreign and Filipino hostages, but found no sign of the captives, officials said. Presidential press secretary Ricardo Puno said on the second day of the offensive that troops had not seen the hostages, who include an American. “The rebels are clearly moving them from place to place,” he said. Officials said they had no evidence that any hostages had been killed. “As far as our assessment is concerned, they are all believed to be alive,” Defense Secretary Orlando Mercado said. ' The military imposed a news blackout after launching the pre-dawn attack Saturday aimed at res cuing the hostages, including six foreigners, held by the Abu Sayyaf rebels on remote Jolo island. President Joseph Estrada flew Sunday to Zam boanga city, near Jolo, to be briefed on the fighting and broadcast a radio message to encourage the troops. “We are banking on you,” he told Gen. Narciso Abaya, commander of the army’s 1st Infantry Di vision. Abaya replied that the assault would be com pleted in three days to a week. Estrada ordered the military to give top priori ty to the lives of the hostages. Rebel leaderGhalib “Robot” Andang called a gov ernment emissary after the attack began Saturday and asked for a cease-fire, but did not offer to release the hostages, chief government negotiator Robert Aven tajado said. He added that the chances of the request being accepted by the government were “almost nil.” f Hostages see page’s Clinton: U.S., India can turn back ‘dangerous tide’ by D. Ian Hooper Associated Press WASHINGTON — President Clinton expressed hope Saturday that the United States and India can “turn back what could otherwise be a dan gerous tide” of weapons proliferation, and that Washington can.help bring peace in South Asia. Standing beside Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Clinton told reporters after a cer emony where the two leaders dedicated a statue of Indian independence leader Mohandas K. Gand hi that he hopes the countries “will be better eco nomic partners, better political partners.” Vajpayee, who spoke before Congress and met with Clinton at the W'hite House this week, remained silent as Clinton spoke of the nuclear proliferation peril. Vtjpayee ordered tests in May 1998, and Pak istan followed with tests of its own. This year, Clinton described the subcontinent as perhaps the “most dangerous place” in the world, but he re frained from such comments during Vajpayee’s visit. “I iiope we will both be able to help to turn back what could otherwise be a dangerous tide of proliferation and dangerous weapons — not just nuclear warheads or missiles, either— chemical weapons, biological weapons,” Clinton told re porters. “I hope someday there will be some con structive role we can play as a partner working with India and others to bring peace to the sub continent,” he said. India has said it would not stand in the way of the treaty’s implementation, indicating that once major powers such as the United States and China ratify it, India will be prepared to fol low. In the meantime, India has pledged to main tain a moratorium on nuclear testing. During the ceremony Saturday at a park out side the Indian Embassy, Clinton and Vajpayee India SEE PAGE 5 ‘I think it's been a great success. It sort of rounds off our efforts to make a different turn in our relationship.' President Clinton FDA approves new AIDS medication BY LAURAN Neergaard Associated Press WASHINGTON — Patients with the AIDS virus are about to get a new option tiiat may help those who have failed standard therapy: a drug called Kaletra. The Food and Drug Adminis tration approved Kaletra late Friday for use by both adults as well as HIV infected infants and children who are 4 older than 6 months of age. Kaletra is one of a class of AIDS drugs called protease inhibitors. But early evidence suggests it may work a little differently than its competi tors — allowing higher HIV-fight ing levels of drug to circulate in the blood system than other medi cines do. “This is all still a little theoret ical,” cautioned Dr. Heidi Jolson, the FDA’s AIDS chief. But in studies of patients who had failed other protease inhibitor treatment, enough saw their HIV levels dramatically drop — pre sumably because of this effect — to persuade the FDA to speedily ap prove Kaletra’s sale. Scientists with manufacturer Ab bott Laboratories said in one study about 70 percent of such protease failed patients improved on Kaletra, although Jolson cautioned that those patients also took another relative ly new pill, so it’s unclear if Kaletra should get all the credit. Abbott said the prescription-on ly medicine — available in capsules or liquid taken twice a day as part of a cocktail of standard AIDS drugs — should be on pharmacy shelves around the end of next week. The company did not reveal the price. Kaletra is a combination of a new chemical called lopinavir plus a small dose of Abbott’s older AIDS drug Norvir. The company mixed the two because together they produce ^hat co-inventor D;ile Kempf calls a great drug reaction: The Norvir increases blood levels of lopinavir. Abbott calls that Kaletra’s key, contending the drug can get to higher levels in the body than other protease inhibitors without causing more side effects than a standard dose would. But Kaletra does cause side ef fects, Jolson stressed. It comes with a long list of drugs that physicians cannot prescribe together with Kale tra because the interactions are dan gerous, she said. She uiged doctors to carefully check that list, which includes certain heart drugs and seda tives. News Briefs ■ Albanian rebel group prepared to fight Serbs DOBROSIN, Yugoslavia (AP) — The leader of ail ethnic Albanian rebel itnny in southern Serbia claimed Sunday that Serbian forces are massing in the Al banian-majority region in the run-up to Yugoslav elections. The rebel group is prepared to fight back if the Serbs attack ahead of the Sept. 24 presidential and parliamentary elec tions, said Bexliet Mehmeti, a comman der in the Liberation Army of Presevo, Medvedja ;md Bujanovac, known by its Albanian-language acronym UCPMB. “The number of Seib forces lias been increasing recently and continuously. There are reinforcements around this area,” Mehmeti told reporters, flanked by two men armed with rifles and wear ing uniforms with the group’s red and black insignia. ■ Organizers defend Salvador Dali exhibition AUGSBURG, Germany (AP)—Or ganizers of ;m exliibilion of works by Sal vador Dali are defending the show against accusations from art experts that some of the pictures are foigcries. “Dali, Mara e Bepe — Pictures of a Friendship” opened Thursday at the Ro- C man Museum in Augsburg and runs through Nov. 26. It includes about 140 Dali works owned by the family of an Italian doctor who had a decades-long friendship with the Spanish surrealist. Even before the exhibition opened, several art experts charged that some of the works were not really ptiinted by Dali, who died in 1989 and was suspected of signing many fotgeries himself in his later years. ■ New herpes vaccine comes with surprise catch TORONTO (AP)—Researchers have made the first vaccine that protects against ( genital herpes. But there is a major catch: It works only in women and only if they have never had cold sores. The findings, reported Sunday, are a surprise. Until now, no vaccine has ever been shown to work in one sex but not the other. Experts say this could present unexpected trouble for creating other' vaccines for sexually transmitted diseases, such its AIDS. The results were not the clear home run that the vaccine’s developer, SmitliK line Beecham, had hoped when it began designing the latest studies a decade ago. Further testing will almost certainly be required for the drug to be approved, as suming that the company keeps working on the product. ■ Top cardinal resigns from key Vatican posts VATICAN CITY (AP) —A Brazilian cardinal often mentioned as a possible successor to Pope John Paul II resigned from two key Vatican posts Saturday for health reasons. John Paul accepted the resignation of Cardinal Lucas Moreira Neves from the influential Congregation of Bishops and the Pontifical Commission for Latin q America. Neves, who turned 75 on Saturday, was archbishop of Sao Sal vador da Bahia for 10 years until called to the Vatican in 1998. Rcpoited health problems already then were a factor for observers specu lating about possible papal candidates. ■ Ambush kills 4 Russian troops NAZRAN, Russia (AP)—Four Russ ian soldiers were killed when rebel fight ers ambushed a military unit in central Chechnya in the second attack on a con voy in two days, an official said Saturday. The convoy was fired upon Friday while movijig through the Vedeno Goige, h a region that has seen heavy rebel ac tivity since the start of the war, accord ing to an official with the pro-Russfan civilian government in Chechnya.