Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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Ithe ©amccock England’s Scotland Yard foils diamond theft attempt B Thieves storm Millienium Dome, come up empty-handed by Sue Leeman Associated Press LONDON — Crashing into the Mil lennium Dome on a bulldozer and throw ing smoke bombs, thieves expected to snatch $500 million worth of diamonds and zoom away in a boat waiting on the Thames. It would have been the world’s largest robbery, but the diamonds were already gone from the tented exhibition arena, and Scotland Yard was waiting Tuesday , morning. Officers disguised as cleaners overpowered the robbers, and a dozen men were arrested without a shot fired. Tipped off by police, dome officials replaced the gems with crystal fakes — including the spectacular 203-carat De Beers Millennium Star. The pear-shaped diamond is aiguably the most perfect laige diamond in the world and third-laigest ever discovered, said Kate Evan-Jones, a spokeswoman for the South African com pany. “If this had been carried out in ac cordance with their wishes, this would have been the largest robbery in the world,” said Detective Supt. Jon Shat ford, who led the operation involving more than 100 officers. “It was an ex tremely audacious operation.” Police wanted dome officials about the attempt five weeks ago, and expect ed the attack any time in a three-week window. Four men were arrested who trapped themselves in the vault that usually hous es the diamonds. Police picked up an other near a speedboat on the river, and a sixth man on the opposite shore. Six others were apprehended later in southeastern England. “I heard a terrible crashing noise as if there was an accident,” said Ozcan Ocak, a worker at the dome. “When I went out to look I saw a bulldozer out side going through the Money Zone.” Dome operators, the New Millenni . um Experience Co., said the diamonds are displayed in an exhibition area of the East London facility called the “money zone” and are very closely guarded. The Millennium Star is displayed in a rein forced glass cylinder, and the area has alarms and security cameras. The collection also features 11 laige diamonds of a distinctive vivid blue. Shatford said the would-be robbers, apparently disguised as workmen, crashed through a perimeter fence and drove the bulldozer past security guards at around 9:30 a.m., shortly after the attraction opened for the day. As they entered the building, they donned gas masks before unleashing smoke bombs, but none of the estimated 100 visitors in the tent were nearby. Disguised police were positioned around the inside of the dome and “as the robbers went into the vaults they ef fectively imprisoned themselves and were ordered to come out at gunpoint by the officers,” Shatford said. The intruders were captured as they bashed at the dis play cases with hammers and sledge hammers. The Guinness Book of Records says the world’s hugest gem theft was carried out in August 1994 by three men who stole items valued at $43 million from a jewelry shop in the Carlton Hotel in Cannes, France. The world’s biggest bank robbery was executed by guerrillas who blasted the vaults of the British Bank of the Middle East in Beirut in 1976, taking valuables worth $31.4 million, according to the Guinness Book. Johfi O’Keefe with the London ad vertising agency Bartle Bogle Hegarty said die caper could attract more visitors to the struggling and much-derided dome. “This is the kind of publicity mon ey can’t buy,” said O’Keefe. Built on die Prime Meridian at Green wich, the dome — at 1,050 feet in di ameter and 165 feet high at its center— is the world’s largest structure of its type. Siamese Twins from page 4 at right angles to their upper bodies. Doctors had said surgery might al low Jodie to have a normal life, but Mary’s heart and lungs didn’t work and would n’t survive once she was separated from Jodie. Without surgery, both would surely die, doctors said. The twins’ parents — identified only as Roman Catholics from the Mal tese island of Gozo in the Mediterranean —refused to allow the operation for re ligious reasons, and the hospital went to court to override them. The courts struggled with the issue of whether the surgery would amount to intentionally killing Mary. Two med ical specialists appointed by the court en dorsed surgery. The court heard Mary had primitive brain function and was “draining the life” out of Jodie, who was thought to have normal mental function. “The sad fact is that Mary lives on borrowed time, all of it borrowed from her sister,” Lord Justice Alan Ward had said in the Court of Appeal ruling. “She is incapable of independent exis tence. She is designated for death.” Their parents didn’t contest the ruling. Navy ends salvage operation at Kursk, divers head home by David McHugh Associated Press MOSCOW — Russian and Norwegian divers cast a wreath Tuesday on the arc tic waters above the sunken nuclear sub marine Kursk and gave up their effort to recover more bodies from the vessel, saying they had done all they could. The remains of only 12 of the 118 crewmen who died in the Aug. 12 dis aster were brought to the surface and identified during the risky 18-day op eration in the Barents Sea off Russia’s northern coast. But navy officials had cautioned that most bodies wouldn’t be recovered. The explosions that sank the Kursk likely blew many of the crew to bits and hurled heavy equipment and machin eiy around the shattered vessel’s com partments, making it impossible for diveis to safely reach parts of the sub. * Northern Fleet spokesman Vladimir Navrotsky said the'decision to end the operation was made after a conference between Russian and Norwegian offi cials supervising the work. The divers assembled on the mother ship Regalia for a short ceremony before the vessel headed for home in Nonvay. “In their short speeches, the divers said they had done everything possible for the Kursk, and more,” Navrotsky said. The divers had worked for the past two days to remove jagged debris from the upper deck of the submarine’s fourth compartment, yet could only move 6 feet along a single passageway, and no remains were found. The divers then welded shut the hole they had cut in the section. Divers decided not to search for re mains in the fifth compartment because any bodies were likely to be located on a lower level, which could only be reached through a hatch too small for the divers’ bulky suits, Navrotsky said. All the bodies were recovered from a rear compartment, farther from the bow where the explosions are believed to have occurred. Navrotsky said the Russian cruiser Peter the Great and a Russian sliip check ing for possible radiation leaks stayed at the site. The Russian divers will remain aboard the Regalia for several more days to complete decompression necessary after deep diving, he said. Navrotsky and officials from the Norwegian arm of Halliburton, a Dal las-based oil-services company hired by Russia to oiganize the recovery effort, said the operation had been a success. “Wfe did what we set out to do,” Hal liburton spokesman Biiger Haraldseid said. “We did something no one else lias done, by cutting a hole in a submarine at the bottom of the ocean.” After attempts to find more bodies failed, divers went back down to the submarine Tuesday to inspect the hull in preparation for a possible operation to raise the entire vessel next year, Navrotskysaid. The divers worked in shifts around the clock more than 300 feet below the surface, with occasional pauses because of harsh weather. Mideast from page 4 Israel and the Palestinians traded new accusations about violating a 6-day old truce agreement that has reduced violence but hasn’t ended it. Since the truce took effect, 13 Palestinians have been killed in clashes with Israeli troops and Palestinian gunmen have opened fire nightly on Israeli enclaves in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. In the West Bank town of Bethle hem, a 24-year-old Palestinian was shot and killed by Israeli army snipers near the Israeli enclave of Rachel’s Tomb, military officials said. The man had a gun and was about to open fire, the of ficials said In Gaza, a Palestinian man died of injuries sustained in clashes last week. Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian negotiator, said the Palestinians insist ed an international force be deployed in die Wfest Bank and Gaza Strip. “Wfe want to save the lives of our people,” Erekat told a news conference Tuesday. U.S. officials have rejected the pro posal, Erekat said Israel is also staunch ly opposed to the idea, saying its troops act with utmost restraint despite re peated, unprovoked Palestinian attacks. En route to the United States for a meeting with President Clinton on Thuis day, Arafat was to hold talks with Egypt ian President Hosni Mubarak and British Prime Minister Tony Blair. The composition of a commission of inquiry into the violence was to be a key issue at his meeting with Clinton, Erekat said. According to Palestinian officials, Clinton has proposed five members for the commission: former Turkish Presi dent Suleyman Demirel, European Union envoy Javier Solana, Norwegian For eign Minister Thorbjoern Jagland and two former U.S. senators. Democrat George Mitchell and Republican War ren Rudman. Erekat said Arafat didn’t object to the five, but would like to expand the commission to include'former South African President Nelson Mandela, a longtime friend, as well as another rep resentative of the nonaligned movement. Sororitv & Frhterritv Courcils Proudlv Presert nOUEmBER 13-17, 2000 • RUSSELL HOUSE BnLLROOm • 11:00 nm - 7:00 pm PRRRIRO nuniLRBLE OR THE STREET RnO LOWER LEUEL OF BULL STREET GnRnOE American Red Cross