Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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Albright travels to North Korea by George Gedda Associated Press PYONGYANG, North Korea — Breaking down one of the last barriers of the Cold War, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright opened a his toric visit to North Korea on Monday by paying her respects to the late Kim II Sung, the Soviet trained ruler who formed the communist nation 55 years ago. No other secretary of state has visited North Korea and none of Albright’s predecessors had even considered the idea because of the grim state of the relationship. Albright hopes to use the two-day visit to ad vance her goal of a tension-free Northeast Asia for the first time in decades and to lay the ground work for a visit by President Clinton, possibly as early as next month. In between meetings with top North Korean officials, Albright planned to visit with kindergarten children and tour a food distribution site. Also on her agenda was a performance of the Pyongyang Acrobatic Circus. She was greeted at Pyongyang’s airport short ly after dawn by North Korea’s vice foreign min ister, Kim Gye Gwan. An 8-year-old boy wearing a red kerchief around his neck presented her with a bouquet of flowers. Her motorcade, which included vehicles dri ven up from the U.S. Embassy in Seoul, South Ko rea, drove down deserted boulevards to the Kim II Sung Palace, where the remains of the longtime North Korean leader are on display. The sprawling edifice was once used as a meeting palace for for eign dignitaries, but was converted to a mausoleum after Kim’s death. Down the road, a laige sign attached to the front of one of the buildings read, “The Great Leader Kim II Sung is always with us.” Albright left Washington shortly after midnight Sunday on the 17-hour journey to the North Ko rean capital, a city U.S. forces had reduced to rub ble during the Korean War. It is now a metropolis with tall buildings and broad boulevards, although with scarcely any traffic. If her talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong II go well, Clinton will follow her to Pyongyang as part of an Asia trip next month, administration of ficials said. “We still believe there are very significant steps that have to be taken to meet the concerns the Unit ed States has,” said a senior State Department of ficial aboard Albright’s plane, speaking on the con dition of anonymity. “We have reason to believe that because of discussions that we have had that North Korea may be prepared to take some very serious steps.” The official did not elaborate, but Albright’s main concern is North Korea’s missile develop ment program and its export of missiles to Iran and Syria. She will confer with Kim on those issues but officials said no agreements are expected. The United States is considering the creation Albright seepages Study shows agencies track users of Web sites by D. Ian Hopper Associated Press WASHINGTON - Despite a White House prohibition, 13 government agen- I cies are secretly using technology that tracks the Internet habits of people vis iting their Web sites, and in at least one case provides the information to a pri vate company, a congressional review has found. The agencies range from the Federal Aviation Administration to the feder al offices that provide disaster relief and administer Medicare, the General Ac counting Office found in a study obtained by The Associated Press. “How can this administration talk about protecting privacy when its own agencies jeopardize some of the public’s most private information?” asked Sen. Fred Thompson, R-Tenn„ chairman of the Senate Governmental Affairs Com mittee. Thompson’s committee has jurisdiction over the 1974 Privacy Act and oth er laws that dictate the government’s privacy practices. At issue is the use by the 13 government Web sites of small text files called “cookies” that record information about an Internet user’s browsing habits when they visit a site. In June, the White House Office of Management and Budget advised all fed eral agencies that they are net allowed to use such text files without approval from the agency head. If they are used, the OMB directive said, Web site visi tors must be given “clear and conspicuous notice” of such use. But the GAO, the investigatory arm of Congress, found that 13 agencies were using the technology to track visitors, although their formal Internet pol icy claimed they weren’t doing so, and none of the Web site visitors were ad vised the technology was being used. The study found all 13 tracked consumers’ path during their visit to the site, and some were employing “persistent” text files that could be read for years after the initial visit. In addition, the U.S. Forest Service s International Programs site was found to be using so-called “third-party cookies” that transmit the visitors’ activi ties to a private company which had been hired to compile reports for the agency. Such a practice is not mentioned in the Forest Service site’s privacy poli cy. Forest Service spokesman Joe Walsh said he was unaware of the use of the tracking technology until contacted for comment Friday. “We’re looking into it,” Walsh said. “We take this very seriously.” The other agencies found to be using the “cookies” software were the U.S. Customs Service, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Federal Emergency Manage ment Agency, Office of National Drug Control Policy, Bureau of Land Man agement, Central Federal Lands Highway Division, the Energy Department’s Ames Laboratory, National Park Service, Office of Personnel Management, the U.S. Trade and Development Agency and the Health Care Financing Adminis tration, which runs Medicare. In June, the White House confirmed its drug policy office operated a Web site using the “cookies” technology. The discovery prompted the directive from the White House budget office. China wary of interference . hv U.S. in Taiwan disnute sy John Leicester Associated Press BEIJING — In word and deed, through its biggest mil itary show in 35 years, China has made it clear it views the United States as potential enemy No.I. Besides blowing up targets, test-firing missiles and driving tanks, the mid-October military displays at four land and sea sites in northern China showed the country’s new abilities to attack stealth warplanes and cruise mis siles, state media reported. Meanwhile, a Chinese defense policy paper issued last Monday again raised threats of force against Taiwan and pointed to the United States as chief troublemaker. Should Beijing’s communist leaders order the Peo ple ’s Liberation Army to recover the island that split from China 51 yean ago, Chinese generals are planning against expected U.S, military intervention. “Do they prepare against the United States? My an swer is very clear: yes,” said Yan Xuelong, an expert in international security at Beijing’s prestigious Tsinghua Uni versity. Yan believes war with Taiwan is inevitable. Others are less pessimistic. In a report Thursday, the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies said China is preoccupied this year with domestic issues, among them preparing to enter the World Trade Organization. It fore cast only “a remote possibility” of confrontation over Tai wan. » r - tt /S > -I * l.t* IvjutHWYCJ, ivtaumia iw»c uuptuvw wwts year, and their militaries have expanded contact through reciprocal ship visits and tnps by Chinese officers to the United Stales. Beijing says it wants to peacefully recover Taiwan through negotiations, a goal repeated in the defense poli cy paper. But talks are stalemated, and the paper said the situ ation “is complicated and grim.” It reiterated China would “adopt all drastic measures possible, including the use of force,” if Taiwan formally splits from China or contin ues indefinitely to refuse to negotiate unification. China’s generals must assume an attack on democratic, capitalist Taiwan might provoke an American military re sponse, which is why they are preparing for the worst. Chinese fears were sharpened by NATO’s air war on Yugoslavia last year to protect ethnic Albanians in Koso vo. Beijing saw unsettling parallels with its own resistive minority regions, like Tibet, and felt NATO’s intervention JL on human rights grounds set a dangerous precedent for meddling over Thwart The scenario seems highly dubious. Unlike Yugoslavia, such a conflict could go nuclear at worst, and even if it didn’t, it could wipe out U.S.-China trade worth nearly S95 billion last year, according to U.S. figures, and trigger global economic catastrophe. Still, Chinese suspicions have been heightened by Washington’s efforts to develop anti-missile shields, by congressional attempts to expand militaiy ties with Tai wan, and by continued U.S. arms sales to the island. Yan said the Pentagon was moving more submarines to the Pa cific and stockpiling cruise missiles on the Pacific island ofGuam. What should Chirm’s leaders conclude from that? “That the U.S. military has prepared for war against China,” Yan insisted. The Chinese defense paper was peppered with criti cisms of the United States, among them that U.S. sup port has emboldened Taiwan’s anti-China camp. With prospects for a peaceful unification of Taiwan and China “seriously imperiled” and because of “hege monism and power politics,” Beijing’s code words for U.S. meddling, “China will have to enhance its capability to defend its sovereignty ;ind security by military means,” said die paper. but Jt also sought to allay loreign concerns oy saying the military buildup was “purely for self-defense,” and that this year’s defense budget of $14.6 billion is just 5 percent ofWashmgton’s. Overseas analysts, however, be- • iieve China spends up to five times more than it says it docs. The Gulf War shocked Beijing by exposing its tech nological inferiority. It has since focused attention on the importance of air power in modem wars. Military ex perts say Chinese generals have studied how Yugoslav forces hid equipment from NATO attacks, and have in stalled Russian-matte surface-to-air missiles on the coast opposite Taiwan and improved air defenses around big cities. But analysts say the Chinese military would be hard pressed to'take Taiwan, and lags far behind the United Stales. “The gap is enormous. They’re just not in the same league,” said Robert Kamiol, Asia-Pacific editor for Jane’s Defense Wfeekly. Navy revises statements on USS Cole bombing by Robert Burns Associated Press WASHINGTON — The Navy has re vised its timetable of the events leading to the bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen, raising new questions about how the at • tackers foiled Navy security. The Navy said Friday the explosion occurred nearly two hours after the Cole was moored to a fuel dock, not during the mooring operation, as it had said before. That would mean the boat be lieved to have detonated the explosives did not blend in with a flotilla of harbor craft to mask the attack, as the Navy had said. It is now less clear than before how the attacking boat could have approached the Cole without raising suspicion. The Oct. 12 attack killed 17 U.S. sailors and injured 39. The last four bod ies recovered from the Cole Thursday were prepared Friday to be flown back to the United States from Bahrain. The remains of eight other Cole victims were returned to Dover Air Force Base, Del., Friday in preparation for burial. Among the first set of five remains sent home last week was Craig Wibber ley, a 19-year-old Maryland native. A wake and visitation were held Friday for Wibberley in Hagerstown, Md. He will be buried Saturday. In a brief statement Friday, the Navy’s Office of Information said earlier Navy statements now known to be erroneous were based on initial reports from the ship that were either wrong or were mis understood by Pentagon officials. The Navy said it now has obtained addition al information from the Cole’s records that change at least three points of fact in the official timeline. —Tire explosion occurred at 11:18 a.m. local time (4:18 a.m. EDT), or about an hour earlier than originally reported. —Refueling began at 10:30 a.m. mid was ongoing at the time of the attack. Be fore, the Navy had said refueling had not yet begun. —The Cole was completely tied up at the fueling dock in Aden harbor at 9:30 a.m., nearly two hours before the attack. The Navy previously had said the USSCole SEE PAGE 5 Mideast fighting, rhetoric heightens by Ron Kampeas Associated Press JERUSALEM — Ehud Barak called forapeace “time-out”and Yasser Arafat told him to “go to hell.’’The Israeli and Palestinian leaders seemed further than ever Sunday from the peace their U.S. and Egyptian sponsors have tried so hard to salvage. The violence in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip showed no signs of abating, and the cease-fire called during last week’s peace summit was little more than a memory. In the fiercest fighting in the Jerusalem area since clashes broke out Sept. 28, Israeli helicopter gunships rock eted the Palestinian-held village of Beit Jalla. Some Palestinian homes were lev eled. Electricity and phone lines were down, and Palestinians said the power plant had been hit. The three hours of fighting started when Palestinian gunmen in Beit Jalla and in Bethlehem opened fire on resi dential apartment buildings in Gilo, a suburb of Jerusalem, and Israeli police returned tank, machine-gun and heli copter rocket fire. The army said it warned residents of taigeted areas in Beit Jalla to evacu ‘We need to have a time-out... to reassess the peace process in light of the events of the past few weeks' . „ Ehud Barak Israeli Prime Minister ate before it launched its counterattack. Gilo residents gathered in the streets to watch and cheered each hit. Next to a church in the largely Chris tian village, the gate to the Dabdoub family home was damaged. Inside, 10-year-old Dalia shuddered beneath the folds of a blanket, huddling next to her mother. Abdullah Dabdoub said he was considering taking his wife and daughters and leaving the region. “They could cut off our electricity, they could cut off our water, they could starve us to death,” he said. Bullets entered some homes in Gi lo. Families with small children fled to homes of neighbors with apartments fac ing away from the Palestinian-controlled areas. Toting his two-year old daughter be neath his amis, Yair Peretz tracked a bul let’s trajectory lor a 1 V crew. “It came in here, whizzed over her head here on the couch, where she was sit ting,” he said, referring to the girl, “and came out here.” Elsewhere, four Palestinians died in clashes, including two teen-age Pales tinians in the Gaza Strip and two Palestinian men near the Wfest Bank town of Hebron. Stone-throwing clashes were reported in several chronic trouble spots in Gaza and the Wfest Bank. That left a total of 121 dead in more than three weeks of violence, with Palestinians be ing the majority. “Wfe need to have a time-out... to reassess the peace process in light of the events of the last few weeks,” Barak told his weekly Cabinet meeting Sun day. Arafat seepages News Briefs ■ White House, Congress to meet to find compromise on Medicare WASHINGTON (AP) —Amid threats of a presidential veto of a GOP-drafted Medicare reimbursement plan, Repub lican leaders and the Clinton adminis tration began trying to find a compro mise Friday. It remained unclear after more than three hours of talks whether ei ther side was prepared to budge. “We’re clearly going to exchange materials,” said Rep. Bill Thomas, R Califi, chairman of the House Ways and Means health subcommittee. But Thomas added, “This was not a negoti ating session. It was a listening ses sion.” »^ Chris Jennings, Clinton’s health policy adviser, said after the meeting, “Everything we’re doing is consistent with... our letters.” The administra tion already warned Republicans this week the president would veto the bill if changes were not made. Rep. Pete Stark of California, the ranking Democrat on Thomas’ sub committee, pointedly said there were enough votes in the House to sustain a Clinton veto of the Republican mea sure. Republicans have proposed a $28 billion plan giving higher payment lev els to managed care plans, hospitals and other health care providers, which they say are much needed, while in creasing benefits for recipients. The White House has complained that the plan gives too much money, about $10 billion, to managed care companies when only a small percent age of Medicare recipients participate in HMOs. The administration also wants to see provisions added to force managed care plans to commit to the Medicare program for at least three years. In the past year, scores of health care plans have left the program. ■ Ivory Coast votes for new president; most candidates already disqualified ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast (AP) — With most candidates barred, the two largest parties boycotting and a military ruler seeking to entrench his power as a civilian, residents of this West African nation trickled to polling stations Sun day to elect a new president. The voting came 10 months after an army coup brought a junta to pow er, sparking a series of political crises and leaving this nation’s reputation for political tranquility in shreds. Junta leader Gen. Robert Guei faces serious competition from just one of his four opponents in the con troversial vote, history professor and longtime opposition leader Laurent Gbagbo. Most candidates, including those from the country’s two laigest political parties, were disqualified last month by the Supreme Court. ■ Cohen honors high-ranking black deep-sea diver WASHINGTON (AP) - About a week after the attack on the USS Cole, the Defense Department took a mo ment Saturday to honor the first black man to achieve the Navy’s highest sta tus among deep-sea divers, such as those who joined in the Cole rescue operation. Defense Secretary William Cohen presented the department’s second highest civilian award to retired Mas ter Chief Petty Officer Carl Brashear, who served in the Navy from 1948 to 1979. He became a master diver even after having a foot amputated be cause of injuries received during a res cue operation. “We have witnessed the triumph of one man’s incredible spirit, the tri umph over all the obstacles that were laid in his path,” Cohen said at a re ception to present Brashear the Sec retary of Defense Medal for Out standing Public Service.