Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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Log, notes found on submarine by Andrew Kramer Associated Press MOSCOW — In addition to notes found on sailors’ bodies, Russian divers retrieved a ship’s log and more written material from the sunken nuclear sub marine Kursk, a top official said Thurs day. “We recovered what we could: cer tain notes and the log book from the fourth compartment of the Kursk,” the Interfax news agency quoted Deputy Prime Minister Ilya Klebanov as say ing. The log and written material were being studied, he said. He didn’t say when they were written, but it is thought everybody in the fourth compartment died within minutes of the explosions. Klebanov’s spokeswoman Oksana Onishchenko said the divers found on ly “unreadable” fragments of the log. “There was nothing related to the ac cident,” Onishchenko said. The log is the latest find divers have pulled through holes cut in the hull of the submarine during a precarious 18 day operation on the bottom of the Bar ents Sea. They retrieved 12 bodies and two notes written by sailors as they suffo cated to death in a rear compartment of the submarine. The notes told of poi son gas from fires and pressure mount ing in the compartment. All 118 men aboard the Kursk died after it suffered explosions and plunged to the sea floor Aug. 12. The log book was found in a for ward area more severely damaged by the blasts. It was unclear whether the log was for the whole ship or just the fourth compartment. Ship’s logs usu ally contain notes on routine activity on board. Klebanov did not say when the log was found. Divers worked in the fourth compartment Sunday and Monday be fore the operation was called off Tues day because of rough weather and dan ger to the divers. They had entered the fourth com partment through a hole cut in the top of the sub and were unable to move more than six feet down one passage on the upper deck, officials have said. The passage was cluttered with de bris and rubble that threatened to tear the diver’s suits. The debris resulted from two explosions that tore through the forward compartments of the Kursk. The fourth compartment held sleep ing quarters, a kitchen and meeting rooms. ~ Russian officials have said the divers’ main objective was to retrieve corpses to return to their families for burial. Klebanov said divers also searched for clues about the accident. Klebanov said Wednesday that dents divers observed on the Kursk’s hull may be evidence of a collision with a fpreign vessel, a theory Russian offi cials have focused on. Independent ex perts have said an explosion in the tor pedo compartment was a likely cause of the accident. ‘We recovered what we could: certain notes and the log book from the fourth compartment of the Kursk.’ Ilya Klebanov Deputy Prime Minister Israeli rocket attack kills 3, injures 12 in Bethlehem suburb ■ New policy signals shift toward offensive by Nasser Shiyoukhi Associated Press BEIT SAHOUR, West Bank - Israeli combat helicopters rocketed a pickup truck full of Palestinian com manders Thursday, killing one and crit ically wounding another in what the army said was a new policy of targeting ring leaders of violence. Two passers-by were killed and 11 others were injured. Palestinians promised a tough re sponse to the attack in this well-to-do Christian suburb of Bethlehem, coming as President Clinton was set to con vene yet another round of talks aimed at resuscitating the peace negotiations. Prime Minister Eliud Barak has un til now resisted pressure from the army to take pre-emptive activity targeting or ganizers of the violence, fearing it would scuttle any chances for reviving the peace. But in a statement saying it had “initiat ed” the action, the army signaled a switch from defensive to offensive. The dead man was identified by the army and by hospital officials as Hussein Abayat, prominent among the plainclothes Palestinian gunmen who have led the most recent uprising against the contin ued Israeli presence in parts of the West Bank, Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip. The army said Abayat had planned and carried out three different ambush es in the Bethlehem-Jerusalem area that killed three soldiers and seriously injured a policeman. “The attack was carried out after sol diers spotted an armed cell occupying positions which had been used to launch shooting attacks,” the army said. Fadi Salahat, whose uncle, Khaled, was a senior intelligence officer in Pales tinian leader Yasser Arafat’s Fatah fac tion, said Abayat was a “a soldier for the Palestinian Authority. He was patrolling the area to protect the people of Beth lehem and Beit Sahour from Israeli oc cupiers.” Khaled Salahat was critically wound ed in the attack and was kept under close guard in Beit Sahour hospital. Witnesses said four helicopters closed in on the green pickup truck, two firing rockets. A third man in the pickup truck and two others in a car traveling behind escaped with slight injuries. Within minutes, the street was filled with medics and security officials. “The people I saw, they were pieces of meat on the ground. They did not look like human beings,” said Mahmoud Joban, who witnessed the attack from his bal cony. Two passers-by, both women, were also killed in the attack and one other woman was critically wounded. Anoth er ten people had moderate to light wounds. Almost 180 people have been killed in the past six weeks of clashes, the vast majority of them Palestinians, but most of those have come from the rank and file. Israeli troops shot dead a 14 year-old in Gaza on Thursday in a clash. An Israeli decision to target people close to the Palestinian leadership could escalate the conflict and sour Clinton’s efforts to get the sides talking again. Palestinian leaden promised retali ation. “This is an assassination against one of the Fatah leaders in the Bethlehem dis trict,” saidMarwan Baighouti, who heads Fatah in the West Bank and who Israel says is oiganizing the violence. “I think this will push Fatah for a reaction.” It has not been unusual for the Israeli army to launch helicopter gunship at tacks on Palestinian taigets in retaliation for shooting attacks, but until now the taigets have mainly been infrastructure sites, such as military headquarters and police stations, and were preceded by warnings to evacuate. mere was no warning in tms case, and the civilians in the area were clear ly visible. Beit Sahour has been used as a base for Palestinian gunmen aiming their at tacks at an Israeli army camp in an Is raeli-controlled area of the West Bank. Another Christian town, Beit Jalla, has been used to launch attacks on Gilo, a middle-class Jewish neighborhood in a disputed area of Jerusalem. Those battles have, until now, been marked by relatively low casualties, most ly residents treated for shock. Arafat arrived in Washington early Thursday. In his talks with Clinton, he is expected to press for sending an inter national force to the West Bank and Gaza to protect his people from Israeli troops. Barak, who meets Clinton on Sun day, has rejected any such force. U.N. Human Rights Commissioner Mary Robinson started a weeklong mission to the Middle East on Thurs day after the commission passed a reso lution condemning Israel for excessive use of force against the Palestinians. Reflecting concerns about continu ing unrest, the military banned, then al lowed an annual prayer gathering on Thursday at Rachel’s Tomb, a Jewish holy site in Bethlehem. The site, where Jews believe the biblical Rachel was buried, has been the scene of riots and exchanges of gunfire and has been closed to Jewish worshippers since the current wave of violence erupted. Leaders of Jewish settlers in the Wfest Bank charged Barak with keeping Jews away from all the holy sites there and not providing security. A number of settlers succeeded in infiltrating Rachel’s Tomb before dawn, but were evacuated by the army. Troops kept about a hundred people from cross ing the border between Jerusalem and Bethlehem for several hours on Thurs day, and then escorted them inside for a short prayer service. Settlers at the Bethlehem-Jerusalem crossing tried to stop an ambulance that was evacuating wounded from the Beit Sahour clash to a Jerusalem hospital. They surrounded the vehicle and banged on it until it managed to pull away. Oregon, New Mexico work to declare winner by Brad Cain Associated Press PORTLAND, Ore. — Even as all eyes remained on Florida, ballot coun ters in Oregon and New Mexico were also working to establish wliich pres idential candidate won in their states. Vice President A1 Gore held a slender lead over Texas Gov. George W. Bushin both states with counting unfinished, but victories for either candidate would be largely symbol ic because the states together have only a dozen electoral votes. Bush needs 24 electoral votes to reach the required 270, and Gore needs 15, so neither Oregon, with 7 votes, or New Mexico, with 5, would decide the outcome. Whoever wins' Florida’s 25 votes will move into the White House next January. Because of a last-minute rush of ballots, final unofficial results in Oregon’s nationally unique all-mail vote won’t be available until late Thursday, at the earliest. In New Mex ico, the problem was technical glitch es. With 96 percent of the vote counted in Oregon, Gore had 662,155 votes, or 47 percent, to Bush's 658,123 votes, also 47 percent. Green Party contender Ralph Nader drew 63,284 votes, or 5 percent. Bush could take the lead in Ore gon on Thursday as more votes were reported from the conservative, south western counties of Jackson and Josephine. Under Oregon law, a recount would be automatic if the maigin be tween Bush and Gore were less than one-fifth of 1 percent, or about 2,500 votes. New Mexico was waiting for a recount of67,000 absentee and ear ly-voting ballots from the state’s most populous county before it could de clare a winner. Officials in Bernalil lo County, which includes Albu querque, began that recount Thurs day morning. With 99 percent of the precincts reporting before the recount began. Gore had 255,597 votes, or 49 per cent, and Bush had 245,526, or 47 percent. Nader won 19,215 votes, or 4 percent. The recount was caused by a soft ware glitch and by ballots that would not go through the counting machines, officials said The machines couldn't read ballots wliere voters marked they were voting a straight party ticket, but then chose at least one candidate from another party, election officials said The county clerk, a judge, attor neys from the Republican, Democ ratic and Green parties and officials of the company that manufactured the county’s ballot machines agreed to the recount Wednesday afternoon, avoiding any immediate legal action. Tabloid editor donates money to university ethics program Associated Press GOLDEN, Colo. —A supermarket tabloid editor accused of trying to buy a copy of the JonBenet Ramsey ran som note agreed to donate $100,000 to a journalism ethics program to avoid bribery and extortion charges. At the request of the prosecutor, a judge Wednesday dismissed charges against Craig Lewis, a Globe editor, in exchange for the donation to the Uni versity of Colorado School of Jour nalism and Mass Communication. “We’re very happy,” said Lewis’ lawyer, Jeffrey Pagliuca. “We think it’s a very good and fair resolution.” “It is very unusual,” Jefferson County District Attorney Dave Thomas said. Lewis, 44, was accused of offering a handwriting analyst $30,000 for a copy of the note JonBenet’s mother said she discovered before the 6-year old’s body was found. He also was chaiged with trying to extort information from a detective by sending him pictures of his deceased mother and threatening to expose a family tragedy. “It’s a sweet irony that the Globe, one of the most unethical publications on the face of the earth, would be sup porting a media ethics class, ” CU jour nalism professor Len Ackland said. Globe International Inc. agreed to publicly admit its conduct was wrong. In its statement, it added: “The news gathering practices described in the in dictment were the result of attempts to obtain newsworthy information con ceming the Ramsey homicide. Whether this conduct violated the laws of the state of Colorado has not yet been de termined.” JonBenet was found beaten and strangled in the basement of her fam ily’s Boulder home on Dec. 26,1996. No one has been arrested. ‘It’s sweet irony that the Globe, one of the most unethical publications on the face of the earth, would be supporting a media ethics class. Len Ackland University of Colorado journalism professor Stocks drop as investors wait for decision in presidential race Associated Press NEW YORK — Stocks continued their decline Thursday as Wall Street waited to see if the ballot recount un der way in Florida will determine who wins the U.S. presidency. Unsure how to invest given the po litical uncertainty, investors returned to their recent trading pattern, selling high-tech issues whose profit growth appears to be in doubt. The tech-dom inated Nasdaq composite index was down 52.27 at 3,179.43, compound ing a 184-point drop in Wednesday’s session. But investors weren’t putting their money in stocks usually seen as rela lively safer. The Dow Jones industri al average fell 70.15 to 10,836.91, adding to Wednesday’s 45-point slide. The broader Standard & Poor’s 500 index fell 11.89 to 1,397.39 after a near ly 23-point drop in the previous ses sion. Among the technology companies that dropped in the first hour of trad ing on VVhll Street were computer chip manufacturer Intel, slipping $1.44 to $41.25, and network equipment mak er Cisco, off 31 cents at $51.81. Pharmaceuticals, which made big gains Vtfednesday, also lost ground. Mer ck, a Dow component, was down 69 cents at $90.13. Pfizer fell 63 cents to $44.63. Financial firms, off significantly on Wednesday, were mixed. Banker J.P. Morgan, also a Dow stock, gained 31 cents to trade at $ 160, but Morgan Stan ley Dean Witter was down 44 cents at $72.63. The Russell 2000 index was down 5.98 at 494.70. Declining issues outnumbered ad vancers 13-6 on the New York Stock Exchange, where volume was 141.70 million shares, up from 113.23 million in the previous session. Overseas, Japan’s Nikkei stock av erage fell 2.21 percent. Germany’s DAX index lost 0.64 percent, Britain’s FT-SE 100 was down 0.42 percent, and France’s CAC-40 also was off 1.03 per cent. News Briefs ■ Democrats look for more influence . in Congress .WASHINGTON (AP) — While De ; mocrats failed to win a majority in either house of Congress in this week’s elec tion, party leaders envision greater in fluence due to their gains in the House and Senate. Republicans promise improved co operation but vow to stay in charge. In the Senate, the possibility of a 50-50 tie hinged on the Washington state race between Republican Sen. Slade Gorton and Democratic challenger Maria Cantwell that remained too close to call Wednesday. Democrats had already picked up three seats, making it 50 Republicans and 49 Democrats at this point. With two House races still too close to call, Re publicans had 220 seats to 211 for the Democrats. There are two independents, one aligned with each party. Democrats will have a net gain of two seats in Tuesday’s election if trends in the two outstanding races hold. ■ Clinton, Arafat meeting in effort to end violence WASHINGTON (AP) - Renewed vi olence is at the top of the agenda and re sumption of negotiations with Israel on ly a remote possibility Thursday as Yasser Arafat meets President Clinton at the White House. Once-optimistic plans to mold a fi nal settlement between Palestinian leader Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, who arrives Sunday, are in disar ray, shattered by their differences on Jerusalem and five weeks of violence on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip and in Israel. ■ Report says AIDS-related virus can be spread through kissing BOSTON (AP) — A form of the her pes virus that causes an AIDS-related skin cancer appears to spread through kissing. Herpes virus 8 was discovered six years ago and causes a skin cancer called Kaposi’s sarcoma. In the United States, the cancer occurs almost exclusively in people with AIDS. Some had suspected the virus was; transmitted through sexual intercourse, but new research from the University of Washington, reported in Thursday’s New England Journal of Medicine, contradicts that idea ■ Explosion rocks Tibetan capital BEIJING (AP) —An explosion, re portedly caused by a bomb, rocked a courthouse in the Tibetan capital Lhasa, briefly disrupting traffic and prompting police security checks, a monitoring group said Thursday. The Oct. 26 blast was the first re ported in the Himalayan region’s capital in more than two years and may, if con firmed to be a bomb, signal renewed efforts by militant Tibetans to combat i Chinese rule. At least eight bombings, none caus-' ing deaths or serious injuries, have rocked; Lhasa over the past five years, most re-; cently in June 1998 near the city’s po lice headquarters, the London-based Ti bet Information Network said. « ■ Tiger Woods attacks PGA Tour (AP) — Tiger Woods gave a blistering. review of the PGA Tour in an inter-; view with Golf World magazine, com plaining that he doesn’t like how the tour ; is using his image for its own marketing and promotional purposes. He said he wants control over how 1 he is used, as well as a share of the sky-' rocketing revenues he’s generating for; the game. Woods said he was prepared j to issue his demands in person to tour ; commissioner Tim Finchem, but he and ’ Fmchem rarely speak. “The only time he talks to me is when ; he wants me to do something for him. t To play in this tournament or that tour-! nament. It’s not like he comes up to j me and asks me how I’m doing,” Waods j says in the Nov. 10 issue of the magazine.J