Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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Mideast leaders reach accord ■ Barak might pull back troops; Arafat drops demands for international probe by Barry Schweid Associated Press SHARM EL-SHEIK, Egypt — Israel and the Palestinians agreed Tuesday to end the street vio lence that has tom their region apart for more than two weeks and to get back on the path toward a permanent solution to their conflict. Both sides agreed to a cease-fire, but violence continued in the immediate aftermath. Both sides also agreed to explore a resumption in the negotiations for a permanent peace agree ment between Israel and the Palestinians. “After 48 hours, if we see there is calm in the field, we will pull back our heavy equipment to the point where they were before the outbreak of the crisis, and we will lift the closure that has kept Pales tinians out of his country,” Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak said at a news conference after returning home. “Let me emphasize that the real test of all the understandings and agreements is implementation,” the prime minister added. For his part, Jibril Rajoub, the Palestinian se curity chief in the Wfest Bank, said, “The ball is now in tho Tcrooli rnnrt Tt’c ihot; ti/hn rrodtoH thic r*ri_ sis, they are the ones who used acts of killing and terrorism against our people. What is needed now is for them to take all the necessary measures to stop this violence.” As he returned to Gaza, Arafat said the all important question is whether the deal with be car ried out, and added: “We expect that the imple mentation will be exactly as we agreed upon.” President Clinton did not use the term “cease fire” in announcing the accord at the end of a two-day emergency summit meeting at this seaside resort. Instead, he said both sides agreed on “im mediate concrete measures” to end the violence. “I believe we have made real progress today,” Clinton said. “Repairing the damage will take time.” Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said Tues day’s agreement was supposed to result in a cease-fire. “A cease-fire should be happening with in hours, immediately,” she told CNN. Additionally, the two sides were to meet with American mediators within two weeks to explore the possibility of resuming talks, Albright said. Musing on the future in an interview with The Associated Press, Albright said it was not clear whether the two sides would do everything they could to implement the agreement and end the fight ing. She paused briefly and then added firmly: “They will have to do it.” With that, she arranged to fly to Riyadh to con fer with leaders in Saudi Arabia. Barak cast the agreement in a more cautious framework. He said the Americans would examine over the next two weeks whether a resumption of peace talks between the Israelis and the Palestinians is fea sible. Attack on USS Cole linked to two men by Brian Murphy Associated Press ADEN, Yemen—Yemeni investigators have found bomb-making equipment in a house near the port of Aden and believe two men who spent several days there are linked to the bombing of the USS Cole, security officials said Tuesday. Also Tuesday, the bodies of seven of the 17 victims were removed from the ship, leav ing five still concealed in the wreckage. The security officials identified the men believed linked to the blast, who have disap peared, only as non-Yemeni Arabs. Other Yemeni officials said they were Saudi. The disclosure comes a day after Yemen reversed its earlier position and called the blast “a premeditated criminal act,” which gave a crucial boost to the investigation. The coun try’s security forces interrogated dozens of port workers and others Monday, including the head of the company that services U.S. warships. Several people remained in a highly guard ed camp on Aden’s outskirts, but it was un clear whether they were considered firm sus pects in the explosion that tore a 40-by-40-foot hole in the destroyer. The security officials said bomb-making materials were found when the house was searched Monday. They did not elaborate on uie uuueiioi*. The men were believed to have entered Yemen four days before Thursday’s bombing, the officials said They did not say which coun try the men had traveled from. U.S. officials believe the attackers brought a small explosives-laden boat near the Cole and detonated it in a suicide attack. Two men were seen standing up in'the small boat before the explosion, officials said Debris collected from the blast scene has arrived in Washington for FBI analysis, fed eral law enforcement officials said There has been no credible claim of re sponsibility for the deadliest terrorist attack on the U.S. military since the 1996 bombing of an Air Force barracks in Saudi Arabia that killed 19. Navy divers had been working in the tan gled wreckage for days to extricate two bod ies that had been pinpointed but were un reachable. They also were trying to find 10 others who were missing. On Tuesday, seven bodies from both above and below the water line, including the two that were visible, were recovered, Rear Adm. Mark Fitzgerald said. The other five bodies already had been sent home for burial. A memorial service is scheduled for Wednesday at Norfolk Naval Station, the Cole’s home port in Viiginia. Meanwhile, four U.S. sailors seriously in jured in the explosion flew home Tuesday from Germany. Two critically injured shipmates re mained at the military’s Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in western Germany. The three men and a woman arrived on an army bus and were carried on stretchers onto a C-141 transport plane bound for a Nor folk, Va., naval base. One gave a thumbs-up. Thirty-three other injured sailors returned to the United States over the weekend, and 13 had been released from a Viiginia hospi tal by Monday. Seaman Apprentice Andrew Nemeth said he had just picked up his meal from the mess nan wnen me oiasi nu. “I bounced off the ceiling and landed on the deck,” Nemeth, 19, recounted Monday after returning to the United States. “I felt fu el spraying. I thought at first, me being an en gineer, that a fuel line had been busted.” He called the Cole’s attackers cowards and said he feels “a little bit of hate.” “You feel like you were snuck up on,” Nemeth said. Thursday’s explosion was so powerful that it buckled the deck and turned the attack boat into “confetti-sized” bits, an official said. Many Yemenis do not believe the attack was the result of a homegrown plot, and Tues day’s disclosures put the spotlight on neigh boring Saudi Arabia. Decades of border disputes have marred relations between Yemen and Saudi Arabia. The two countries signed an agreement in June to settle the disputes. Yemen has long con tested Saudi Arabia’s claim to three Red Sea islands and parts of the.Empty Quarter, a vast desert region with potentially lucrative oil de posits. In the bombing of the Cole, immediate suspicion fell on Osama bin Laden, who is ac cused in the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed 224 people. Gore, Bush debate for last time by Walter Mears Associated Press ST.LOUIS — Vice President A1 Gore attacked George W. Bush as an ally of the rich and powerful Tuesday night, but the Texas governor rebutted in fast-paced debate that his rival was a “big spender” in the mold of Democratic liberals who once sought the White House and lost. “If this were a spending contest I’d come in sec ond,” Bush said proudly as he and Gore argued do mestic and foreign policy issues for 90 minutes in a town hall-style format. It was their third encounter in two weeks, and their last before Election Day on Nov. 7. From the opening moments, Gore bore in on Bush as a defender of the privileged, saying the Texas gov ernor was allied with insurance companies rather than patients, for example, and that his tax cut was tilted heavily toward the wealthy. “If you want someone who will support... the big drug companies, this is your man,” the vice pres ident said, standing a few feet away from his cam paign rival on a red-carpeted debate stage. “If you want someone who will fight for you... then I want to fight for you,” Gore added. The two men are separated by only a point or two in many polls, with Bush given the edge, and the debate at the field house at Washington University represented the last, best chance for one man or the other to gain the support of a large critical bloc of un utxiueu vuicia. The debate began with a moment of reflection in memory of Missouri Gov. Mel Carnahan, killed along with his son and a campaign aide Monday night when his small plane went down in bad weather. Bush and Gore both bowed their heads and closed their eyes when moderator Jim Lehrer asked for a brief period of silence. With the somber moment over, Gore seemed ea ger to carry the fight to his Republican rival in a de bate that permitted members of the audience to ask questions. When the first question was asked about legis lation pending in Congress to strengthen the hand of patients dealing with their HMOs, Gore said, “I support it and the governor does not.” Moments later, Bush rebutted: “Actually, Mr. Vice president, it’s not true. I do support a national patients bill of rights.” He added that as governor of Texas, he had worked with Republicans and Democrats to win passage of a law that grants women greater access to gynecol ogical care; gives patients greater choice over their doctor; and permits lawsuits against insurance com panies after an external review. “It requires a different leadership style to do it though,” Bush said. “You see, you have to put par tisanship aside and that’s what I did in my state.” Bush and Gore also disagreed on another aspect of health care, the vice president saying the nation should “move step by step toward universal health coverage, but I do not think that the government should do all of it.” Bush responded moments later, “I am absolute ly opposed to a national care plan. I don’t want the federal government making decisions for consumers or providers.” And he reminded the audience in the hall and watching on television of President Clinton’s failed national health insurance proposal in 1994. The two men clashed at length over economics in a fast-paced debate, prodded by questions from an audience of uncommitted voters from the St. Louis area. Bush said Gore is proposing the “largest increase in federal spending in years, and there’s just not go ing to be enough money" to pay for it. Gore said Bush was wrong, adding his rival’s $1.3 billion tax plan would lavish relief on the wealthy while shortchanging critical domestic programs. “If you want somebody who believes that we were better off eight years ago than we are now and that we ought to go back to the kinds of policies that we had back then, emphasizing tax cuts mainly for the wealthy, here is your man,” the vice presi A—♦ r~!A “If you want somebody who fight for you and will fight for middle class tax cuts, then I am your man. I want to be,” Gore added. But Bush insisted he wasn’t wrong, and said Gore’s spending proposals were huge. “He proposed more than Walter Mondale and Michael Dukakis combined,” Bush said of two De mocratic presidential candidates who lost their bids for the White House in 1984 and 1988. “This is a big spender and he ought to be proud of it,” Bush said of Gore. The decision to permit questions from the audi ence created a more freewheeling series of exchanges between Gore and Bush than in thejr earlier two debates, and they interrupted one another at will. Gore seemed slightly more eager to depart from agreed-upon debate rules, so much so that at one point, Lehrer cautioned him good-naturedly that he was violating the agreed-upon format. Moments later, out of time for a comment he was making, Gore asked if he would “say one more thing.” “No sir,” said Lehrer, and steered the proceed ings in another direction. ELECTION 2000 Bush maintains slight edge over Gore in most polls by Will Lester Associated Press WASHINGTON — George W. Bush has crept slightly ahead of A1 Gore in some polls, apparently because voters consider him more trustworthy than the vice president. An NBC-Whll Street Journal poll re leased Monday had Bush ahead 48 per cent to 42 percent among likely vot ers, with a 4-point error margin. An ABC-Washington Post poll had Bush at 48 percent and Gore at 44 per cent, with a 3-point error margin. The Texas governor has been faring well in other recent polls. A CNN-Time poll released over the weekend also showed Bush up slightly, 48 percent to 43 percent, and a \bter.com Battleground poll had Bush up 43 per cent to 39 percent with a 3-point error margin. Several other surveys have shown the two candidates within the error mar . gins. Bush has gained ground in the race for 270 electoral votes. Heading into the first debate, Gore narrowly led Bush, ac cording to analysis of state polls and in terviews with consultants in both par ties. Now, Bush holds a slight lead after states that once leaned toward Gore, such as Pennsylvania and Tennessee, became tossups after the first debate on Oct. 3. Democrat Gore continues to hold the advantage on top issues like the econ omy, Social Security, foreign policy and education. He also holds a big advantage in hav ing the knowledge and experience to handle the presidency. Republican Bush scores highest on trust. Almost half in the NBC-WSJ poll, 45 percent, said he was more honest and straightforward than Gore, 29 percent. In the ABC-Washington Post poll, 53 percent said Bush was honest, while 49 percent said Gore was. Both lost ground on honesty in that poll, however. Bush also had the advantage on set ting the proper moral tone for the coun try, 39 percent to 29 percent, and be ing trustworthy enough to make the right decisions, 43 percent to 32 percent. Bush also scored better on leader ship qualities, 41 percent to 35 percent, and being more likable, 44 percent to 30 percent, in the NBC-WSJ poll of 736 likely voters taken Oct. 13-15. In the ABC-Washington Post poll of 1,103 like ly voters, Bush was seen as having a more appealing personality, being more trust worthy and more likely to provide a fresh start. Gore ran into trouble on the trust question after the first debate, when some of his comments turned out to be exag gerated. He apologized for the statements during the second debate last Wednes day and promised to be more careful. Bush has been accused by Democ Democrat Gore continues to hold the advantage on top issues like the economy, Social Security, foreign policy and education. He also has a big advantage in having the knowledge and experience to handle the presidency. Republican Bush scores highest on trust. rats of exaggerating, but Gore’s history of exaggeration caused the claims about him to resonate more loudly. Gore and Bush were about even on trust in the weeks after the Democratic convention. When asked whether restoring moral and family values or maintaining eco nomic growth was a higher priority, more voters said moral values, 43 percent to 31 percent, in the NBC-WSJ poll. That’s a reversal from about a month ngo, when Americans favored econom ic growth, 44 percent to 36 percent. When asked which candidate would be better at handling the crisis in the Mid dle East, Bush and Gore were about even in the NBC-WSJ poll. In the ABC-Washington Post poll, Gore held the advantage, 44 percent to 39 percent. In a Christian Science Monitor poll of 800 likely voters, 48 percent of voters said they would have more con fidence in Bush to provide leadership if war broke out in the Middle East and the United States became involved, com pared to 42 percent for Gore. News Briefs ■ Nader speech interrupted by ‘fart bomb’ Rutgers University (TMS) — Authorities sent about 800 people in side Rutgers University's Busch Cam pus Center to the exits Sunday when reports of a mysterious package sur faced. Five hundred of those people were attending a rally for presidential candidate Ralph Nader and other New Jersey Green Party candidates, and the announcement cut short a question and-answer session between Nader and students. According to a university news release, authorities, among them the state police bomb squad and a local fire department, later determined that the two-inch by two-inch package was nothing more than a noisemaker — a "fart bomb," according to the print on three identical packages, which had not ruptured. Far from a bomb, the de vices emitted only a few small popping noises, soft enough that Nader did not even hear them as he spoke with stu dents. Campus police, along with the New Jersey State Police, are investi gating the matter. ■ NATO begins bombing exercise off disputed range ABOARD THE USS NASSAU (AP) — Guns boomed off the coast of a dis puted Navy training ground in Puerto Rico and tens of thousands of troops prepared for a massive amphibious landing as NATO began its biggest ex ercise there in four years. The monu mental show of force Monday by 50 vessels, 31,000 U.S. soldiers and an undisclosed number of other Western troops comes despite fierce protests over the past year against military ex ercises on the island, Vieques. The forces are simulating a NATO-led U.N. peacekeeping mission, Navy spokesman John Kirby said. On Tues day, thousands of troops were to “in vade” a beach on the island’s eastern end, the Navy said. The simulation concludes Oct. 28. ■ Hairy Potter author to assist Comic Relief LONDON (AP) — Fictional boy wizard Hariy Potter is being enlisted to raise money for charity. Author J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter’s creator, is writing two spinoff reference books from the popular series to benefit Comic Relief. Proceeds from the sale of the books will help the organization fight poverty and social injustice. The short books, “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” and “Quidditch Through the Ages,” will be released worldwide during a Comic Relief fund drive March 16. ■ Families march in Washington WASHINGTON, D.C. (AP) — The Million Family March included thousands of families who gath ered on the National Mall, answer ing the call of Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan to celebrate racial and religious unity and the central role of the family in Ameri can life. Farrakhan addressed the crowd with a two-hour speech that touched on a variety of subjects, including the Middle East strife, the presidential race, poverty and sexism. Often seen as controversial for his anti-white and anti-Semitic proclamations, a softened Far rakhan promoted diversity. After his speech Monday, Farrakhan, along with rabbis and ministers of other faiths, presided over a mass “sacred marriage blessing” of al ready married couples reminiscent of the mass weddings conducted by the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, whose Unification Church was a major sponsor of the march.