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Friday, October 13, 2000 '(Dlt ©am C CO [If Paoe 3 Israelis retaliate, bomb camp by Ibrahim Hazboun Associated Press GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — In a day of incendiary violence that left Mideast peacemaking in ashes, Israeli helicopters rocketed Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s compound Thursday in retaliation for the mutilation of three Israeli soldiers by a mob of enraged Pales tinians. Late Thursday, Arafat spoke in a conference call with President Clinton and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Arafat’s office said. The day began with U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan and CIA chief f- Gcoige Tenet trying to broker a truce to end two weeks of daily fighting. But it degenerated swiftly, with both sides unleashing pent-up rage. The Palestinians inflicted the worst losses yet on Israeli troops, while Is rael’s combat helicopters staged un precedented attacks on high-profile Palestinian targets and tanks rumbled to the outskirts of Palestinian cities. One Israeli rocket struck 150 feet from Arafat’s seaside residential head quarters, with the Palestinian leader in side at the time, his aides said. “This is a declaration of war — a crazy war,” said Saeb Erekat, a senior Palestinian official. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak said Arafat “does not appear to be a part ner for peace at this time.” Barak said he held Arafat indirect ly responsible for the killing of the soldiers and said Israel would hunt down those involved. He demanded that the United States publicly affix blame to Arafat for the collapse of the peace talks and the escalation of violence. Barak also renewed calls to the hawkish opposition party Likud to join an emergency coalition. Likud has re buffed Barak in the past, saying it would join only if he abandoned the peace talks. However, opposition leader Ariel Sliaron, whose visit to a contested Jerusalem shrine two weeks ago triggered the vi olence, met with Barak Thursday. Thursday’s turmoil appeared to ex tinguish hopes that Israel and the Pales This is a declaration of war - a crazy war.’ Saeb Erekat Palestinian official tinians could soon negotiate a truce and bring an end to 15 days of bloodshed that have left at least 95 people dead, the vast majority Palestinians. The attack on Arafat’s compound ;md other key Palestinian taigets was the first major Israeli assault on impor tant Palestinian sites since Arafat re turned to the region in 1994 and the two sides launched negotiations aimed at a comprehensive settlement. A smiling, defiant Arafat was cheered by hundreds of Palestinians as he toured the Gaza sites hit by rockets, including a power station, a government building and a police station. “Our people don’t care and don’t Israel -see page a Suicide bombers attack U.S. ship, leave 6 dead ■ Bombers leave hole in USS Cole, many injured by Robert Burns Associated Press f WASHINGTON—hi a sinister slip through Navy security, suicide bombers in a small boat tore a gaping hole in a U.S. warship Thursday at a refueling stop in a Yemeni harbor on the Arabian Peninsula, U.S. offi cials say. The blast killed six mem bers of the crew, injured 35 and left 11 missing. The crippled sliip was tilting slight ly in the harbor at Aden, Yemen, but the Navy said it was not in dan ger of sinking. No one has claimed responsibil ity, Defense Secretary William Co hen told a Pentagon news conference. President Clinton said the attack on the USS Cole, one of the world’s most advanced warships, appeared to , be an act of terrorism, the worst against ♦ the U.S. military since the bombing of an Air Force barracks in Saudi Ara bia in 1996 that killed 19 troops. “We will find out who was re sponsible and hold them accountable,” Clinton said. He oispaitneu 10 lemen inves Ligative teams from the FBI, the State Department and the Pentagon. Clin ton also ordered a heightened state of alert for till U.S. military installations around the world. After the attack, ambulances rushed to the port, and Americans working with Yemeni authorities cor doned olf the area. Yemeni police sources said with out elaboration that a number of peo ple had been detained for question r. ing; it was not clear whether any were - suspects. The State Department issued a worldwide alert, saying it was ex tremely concerned about the possi bility of violence against U.S. citizens mid interests. Americans were uiged to maintain “a high level of vigilance. ” In;t [xtnillel travel warning, Amer icMis were advised to defer all trav el to Israel, the West Bank and Gaza, and those already there were told to stay at home or get to a safe location. Americans were warned not to go to Yemen. Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh talked with Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, pledged his co operation in the investigation and vis ited some of the injured who were hospitalized locally. He insisted in a CNN interview that his country did not harbor “terrorist elements” and said, “1 don’t think it’s a terrorist at tack.” The Cole is a $1 billion guided missile destroyer home-ported at Nor folk, Ml It had sailed through the Red Sea and was en route to the Persian Gulf where it was to perform mar itime intercept operations in support of the U.N. embaigo against Iraq. The ship has a crew of about 350 people. Navy medical teams were en route to the scene Thursday to treat those injured in the 5:15 a.m. EDT explo sion, Pentagon officials said. U.S. air ' craft capable of evacuating the injured were also scheduled to fly to Aden. The incident was all the more stunning given that U.S. forces in the Middle East have been on a height ened state of alert in recent days and security plans for a port visit like the Cole’s are drawn up in advance. uk v^uie iidu jubi diuvea in aie harbor and was scheduled to leave in about four hours, officials said, sug gesting the attackers might have known the ship’s schedule and the procedures for a refueling stop. Adrn. Vern Clark, the chief of naval operations, said he could not fault the Cole’s crew for not pre venting the midday attack that ap parently was carried out by two men in a small harbor craft that was helping tie up the sltip’s mooring lines at a fueling facility in the middle of the Aden harbor. As a participant in normal harbor operations, the small boat’s presence did not raise suspicions, Clark said. “I have no reason to think this was anything but a senseless act of terrorism,” Clark said. After helping the Cole moor, the small boat came alongside the war ship and apparently detonated a ltigh explosive bomb, killing themselves in the process. Some reports said the two men in the boat stood at at tention as the bomb exploded, al though Clark said he could not veri fy such details based on early infor mation. The explosion ripped a hole 20 feet high and 40 feet wide in the mid section of the ship, flooding the main engine compartment. Clark said the flooding was brought under control and the ship was not in danger of sink ing. Clark displayed a Navy photo graph of the damaged ship. The jagged edges of the hole in the hull protrud ed inward, suggesting the explosive force came from outside the ship at roughly the water level. Women sailors were among the casualties, Clark said, although iden tities of the dead and injured were not released pending notification of rel atives. Pressed to explain why the Navy would not have checked the cre dentials of harbor crews more care fully, Cohen said it would have been “very difficult if not impossible to protect against this kind of incident. ” “Our vigilance cannot eliminate all risk,” Cohen said. want said tne U..Y tmoassy in Aden made the arrangements for the local harbor support. At a State Department news con ference, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright declared; “Wfe will hold those who committed it accountable and take appropriate steps.” She said this is no time for the United States to “retreat from our re sponsibilities” in the region. “Wfe are operating in a world that is filled with a variety of threats. But that doesn’t mean that we can crawl into an ostrich-like mode. Wfe are eagles,” Albright said. No other U.S. ships were in Aden at the time of the attack. The explosion was “so loud I thought it was from inside the hotel. The windows in 21 of our 33 rooms were shattered, and many of the tele vision sets fell and broke,” said Ahmed Mohammed Al-Naderi, manager of the port-side Rock Hotel. “Thank God, none of the guests or hotel per sonnel were injured.” U.S., Yugoslavia meet for first time since last year KATARINA KRATOVAC Associated Press BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (AP) — President \bjislav Kostunica met Thursday with a senior U.S. envoy— the first high-level contact between the two governments since Belgrade broke relations with the United States last year on the eve of the NATO bombing campaign. The meeting between Kostunica and Balkan envoy James C. O’Brien followed welcome news from Wash ington for the moribund Yugoslav economy. President Clinton an nounced Thursday he was lifting an oil embaigo and a flight ban on Yu goslavia imposed in 1998 after for mer President Slobodan Milosevic launched a crackdown on Kosovo Al banians. “The victory of freedom in Ser bia is one of the most hopeful devel opments in Europe since the fall of the Berlin Wall,” Clinton said. “It ended a dictatorship, and it can liber ate an entire region from the nagging fear that ethnic differences can again be exploited to start wars and chift IvvttWc ” Kostunica also met with Italian Premier Giuliano Amato, the first head of government to travel to Belgrade since Kostunica took office Saturday. “The factors that distanced Yu goslavia from a democratic society are now gone... Tills enables us to work as friends on the task of reinte grating Yugoslavia into international institutions,” Amato said after the meeting. Even as Kostunica reached out to the West, he kept a close eye on po litical developments within Yugoslavia, where Milosevic supporters tried to stem the steady erosion of their pow er. Milosevic’s Socialist Party said its hard-line secretary general, Gorica Gajevic, had been replaced by the more moderate Zoran Andjelkovic, head of the Serb-run Kosovo gov ernment. Serbian President Milan Miluti novic was named the party’s vice pres ident. Milosevic apparently remained at the helm despite losing the presi dency, and the Socialists also called a party congress for Nov. 25. Later Thursday, Beta news agency quoted Socialist official Miloje Mi hajlovic as saying Milosevic would re sign and that further changes in the party were “necessary.” There were also signs of a rift be tween the Socialists and their neo communist allies, the Yugoslav Left, the party of Milosevic’s influential wife Miijana Markovic. Both parties said unlike in last month’s electioas, their candidates would run indepen dently in the next Serbian vote. The shake-up could mean Milo sevic is trying to regroup and consol idate his followers so he can remain a political player. Prominent analyst Bratislav Grubacic, however, suggested Mi lutinovic might be trying to take over Milosevic’s party by sacking its staunchest hard-liners. “The final showdown with Milo sevic will be at the party congress,” Grubacic said. Allies of the current and ousted president are locked in a power strug gles Kostunica seeks to dismantle the last vestiges of Milosevic’s au thoritarian regime and open lies to the West, which will be a key factor in revitalizing the moribund Yugoslav economy. The lifting of the oil embargo will help relieve terrible shortages of fu el. said Leo Drollas, chief econo mist at the Center for Global Ener gy Studies in London. The head of Croatia’s Adriatic oil pipeline operator, JANAF, Ante Ci cin Sain, said the company could be gin supplying oil to Yugoslav refiner ies soon. In addition to economic support, the Wfest also moved to provide Kos tunica with a political boost. “We also talked about relations between our two countries, and I think our open and warm discussions of the issues that have intruded on our rela tionship set a good tone,” O’Brien said after meeting Kostunica. China to manufacture abortion pill for U.S. ■ China increases conflict to RU-486 approval in U.S. by Charles Hutzler Associated Press BEIJING (AP) — A leading Chi nese pharmaceutical company that has made the abortion pill RU-486 for at least seven years will manu facture the drug for the U.S. mar ket, officials said Thursday. The China link adds to the controversy that has suffused RU ■ 486's hotly contested entry to the United States. Anti-abortion cam paigners who fought for eight years to keep the pill off the U.S. market have criticized China’s wide spread use of abortion, some of them forced, to limit family size. The U.S. Food and Drug Ad ministration approved the pill two weeks ago for U.S. consumption, but did not disclose the manufacturer’s identity and location because of safe ty and security concerns. The drug distributor in the United States, Dan co Laboratories, has also refused to identify the company. The Hua Lian Pharmaceutical Co., based in the eastern city of Shanghai, has been contracted to make the raw compound in RU-486, mifepristone, for export to the Unit ed States, company executives and Shanghai family planning officials said. Hua Lian got help from the U.S. based Rockefeller Foundation in win ning the production license for RU 486 under FDA specifications, said Gao Ersheng, a research director at the Shanghai Family Planning Com mission. In July, FDA inspectors toured the Hua Lian plant, the Xin Lian fac tory on Shanghai’s outskirts, said a plant manager, a Ms. Yang. Anoth er family planning commission tech nical expert, Zhu Huibin, said Xin Lian was now upgrading its produc tion line. The Washington Post first re ported in its Thursday edition that the China plant will manufacture the U.S. pill. Abortion opponents in the United Stales assailed the China con nection, saying it undermined the FDA’s stated reasons for secrecy over RU-486’s production. China began making mifepris tone in 1993, Gao said, and Hua Lian is one of three Chinese companies producing the drug under different brand names. Founded in 1939 and nationalized after the communist revolution in 1949, Hua Lian is a leading company in a domestic in dustry often marked by shoddy pro duction. Of the estimated 10 million abor tions performed annually, about half are done with abortion drugs, Gao said. Half of those, or about 2.5 mil lion abortions, involve RU-486, he added. For nearly 25 years, China has limited most urban families to hav ing one child and rural families to two. Reports of forced abortion and sterilization are common, although the government insists its policy does not approve those measures. Abor tion drugs have played an increas ingly important role. News Briefs ■ Lobby warns congregations against distributing Christian Coalition voter guides WASHINGTON (AP)— A liberal church-and-state lobby is sending a let ter to 285,000 U.S. congregations, warn ing they could risk loss of tax exemption by distributing Christian Coalition vot er guides. The Christian Coalition, led by TV evangelist and one-time Republican pres idential candidate Pat Robertson, hopes to distribute 70 million voter guides in the two weeks before the elections, laige ly at worship services. The letter from Barry Lynn, exec utive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, said the federal tax code bars tax-exempt groups from endorsing or opposing candidates and from intervening in election cam paigns. Violators face fines or loss of ex emption. ■ Ministry ousts “ex-gay” chairman COLORADO SPRINGS (AP) — A man who said he left homosexuality and encouraged others to do so has been re moved as board chairman of a Christian group because he visited a gay.bar. Exodus North America, a Seattle based alliance of ministries that believe gays can become heterosexual, announced it had dumped John Paulk as chairman because he visited a Washington, D.C., gay bar last month and lied about it. Exodus director Bob Davies said Paulk had damaged the credibility of the “ex-gay” movement and deserved punishment that balanced compassion with justice. Paulk will remain an Exo dus board member but on probationary status. ■ Officer and suspect fatally shot while booking prisoner WARREN, Mich. (AP) — A detec tive and a drug suspect were fatally wounded during a struggle while the officer was booking him at police head quarters. Officers said investigators were re viewing a videotape of the lockup area in an effort to figure out the sequence of events that led to the shooting Wednes day evening. Detective Christopher Wouters had arrested a suspect on drug chaiges, Warren police Chief James Vohs said. Both were wounded around 6:30 p.m. after the man “produced a gun and there was a struggle,” he said. ■ Nader within reach of $5 million fund-raising goal WASHINGTON (AP) - Ralph Nad er’s campaign is within reach of his $5 million fund-raising goal. The longshot Green Party presi dential candidate has garnered cash by holding low-cost but heartily attended donation rallies and fund-raising house parties thrown by supporters. A Tuesday rally at the University of lllinois-Chicago filled the 9,500 seat Pavilion at $10 a head. Another is sched uled for Friday at New York’s Madison Square Garden with support from stars including Susan Sarandon, Bill Murray, Pliil Donahue, Eddie Vedder, Ani DiFran co and Patti Smith. The thousands Nader attracts to such events have helped his campaign raise, dollar by dollar, and with some assistance from federal matching funds, about $4.7 •million.