Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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Arafat says uprising will continue by Mark Lavie Associated Pressj JERUSALEM — Israel on Thursday didn’t rule out sending troops into Palestinian-controlled areas, even as Yasser Arafat warned that the Palestinian uprising would press ahead. In renewed clashes, four Palestinians were killed. Defense Minister Binyamin Ben Eliezer said Israel might send forces into Palestinian-controlled territory, a step it has never taken, to protect Israel’s security. Asked about chasing militants into Palestinian territory, he said, “Everything for us is kosher.” In a telephone conference with U.S. Jewish leaders late Thursday, he said Israel would send forces “any place we feel... is endangering us.” He said he hoped Arafat, the Palestinian leader, would leam from the “attacks that we are going to conduct” that only negotiations can lead to a solution. On Thursday, Israeli soldiers shot and killed two Palestinian rock throwers, ages 13 and 17, near the Erez crossing point from northern Gaza into Israel. Eight other teenagers were wounded. A Palestinian policeman was killed in a clash near the isolated Jewish settlement of Netzarim, south of Gaza City. Also, a Palestinian was killed and another wounded when Israeli forces opened fire as they tried to enter Gaza by climbing a border fence that divides a refugee camp between Gaza and Egypt, Palestinians said The Israeli military said it was unaware of the incident. Returning from a two-day Arab summit in Jordan, Arafat inspected the ruins of his Force 17 guard headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah, hit in a nighttime raid by Israeli helicopter gunships. Arafat said the Palestinian uprising will continue despite Israeli measures. College Press Exchange A Palestinian soldier inspects the damage done to President Yasser Arafat’s Force 17 presidential guard headquarters in the West Bank. The Israeli air strikes followed a series of bombings in Israel by Islamic militants. Palestinian radio stations reverted to nationalistic songs and-calls for a popular uprising, a tone that had faded after the first few weeks of the current conflict, which began Sept. 28 after Ariel Sharon, now Israel’s prime minister, visited a disputed holy site in the Old City of Jerusalem sacred to Muslims and Jews and claimed by both sides. Palestinians were defiant after the Israeli helicopter assault, the first military action ordered by Sharon since he took office March 7. Arafat said Israeli military measures wouldn’t bend the will of his people. He said the uprising will continue “until we raise the Palestinian flag in every mosque and church and on the walls of Jerusalem.” Ahmed Qureia, speaker of the Palestinian legislature, charged that Israel is “waging a war against the Palestinian people, against its institutions, against its security forces.” In Israel, the mood was a mixture of sorrow, shock and anger after a series of Palestinian attacks this week in which a baby and two teenagers died. Sliaron, who said Arafat is responsible for the violence, referred to a long-range campaign to end the bloodshed. Sharon appealed to his people to show patience. “Restoring security... cannot be done overnight or in one day,” he said. In Hebron, where a 10-month-old Israeli girl was killed Monday by a gunshot from a Palestinian-controlled hill, Jewish settlers clashed Thursday with Palestinians and cursed their own soldiers for trying to stop them. Rejecting Jewish law that requires quick burial, and rebuffing an appeal from Sharon, the parents of the dead baby have reftised to bury her until Israel recaptures the Abu Sneineh hill, where the Palestinians live. ■Bush pledges aid in Mideast conflict by Ron Fournier Associated Press WASHINGTON — President Bush pledged Thursday to help end the Mideast’s “tragic cycle of incitement, provocation and violence,” telling the Palestinians to stop their killing and uiging restraint from the Israeli military. But he said he won’t try to force a settlement. In an impromptu news conference mixing domestic and foreign policy, the president also told Congress it must not bypass his massive 10-year tax cut in a rush to BUSH short-term reductions and promised to reduce the arsenic levels of U.S. drinking water. In a 30-minute session shortly before meeting German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, Bush pre-empted his visitor by rejecting calls by Germany and other allies to back a global warming treaty. “We will not do anything that harms our economy,” he said. It was the new president’s second full-scale news conference and, like the first, came with little notice. Advisers say Bush hopes to avoid formal, prime time news conferences from the White House East Room with their accompanying buildup of expectations. He seemed to enjoy the session Thursday, joshing with reporters who tried to interrupt his answers and pardoning one whose beeper sounded. When Bush said Americans might “misunderestimate” his tax plan, he corrected himself with a chuckle. “Excuse me. Underestimate,” he said. “Just making sure you were paying attention.” Bush spoke as fresh clashes and harsh rhetoric scarred the Middle East. A defiant Yasser Arafat said the Palestinian uprising will continue despite Israel’s warnings, which were delivered a day earlier with rocket attacks on the bases of Palestinian forces. Bush has been urging both sides to end the violence but his actions have been subdued, in contrast to former President Clinton who personally mediated failed peace talks. Bush’s remarks Thursday seemed to signal a more assertive, direct role in the Middle East, though his outline of U.S. policy still stressed rhetoric over personal diplomacy. He urged Palestinian leaders to speak out against violence and suggested that Arafat won’t be invited to the White House along with other regional leaders until he does so “in a language that the Palestinians can understand.” “The signal I am sending to the Palestinians is stop the violence,” Bush said. "I hope tliat Chairman Arafat hears it loud and clear." Secretary of State Colin Powell delivered the same message later Thursday in a telephone call to Arafat. Bush said Powell was to contact other leaders in the region “to urge them to stand against violence.” “The government of Israel, for its part, should exercise restraint in its military response,” Bush said. He reiterated U.S. policy urging Israel to ease economic sanctions against Palestinians. Nuclear waste convoy arrives at German site by Stephen Graham Associated Press GORLEBEN, Germany — Under heavy police guard, a nuclear waste shipment reached its final storage site Thursday after a tumultuous trip across Germany that ignited protests and revived the nation’s anti-nuclear movement. Dozens were injured and protest leaders said 1,500 anti-nuclear demonstrators were detained as the train struggled from France through northern Germany to the Gorleben dump. It was delayed for 18 hours at one point after demonstrators chained themselves to the tracks. More than 8,000 police kept protesters at bay as trucks hauled the six containers from a rail depot through a forest on the final 12-mile stretch of its journey. The last leg of the trip passed without major incident. Preceded by armored vehicles and water cannons, the convoy apparently caught exhausted protesters off-guard by taking a different route from the last transport in 1997. Helmeted police ran alongside. Germany’s anti-nuclear movement, now well into its second generation of protesters, nonetheless celebrated the revival of its campaign to drive up the costs of nuclear waste transport and force a quicker closure of German nuclear plants. The protestors also vowed to disrupt future shipments. “We are here, and nobody can overlook us,” one of the protest leaders, Vvblfgang Ehmke, told a rally. “This was not the end; this is just the beginning.” The train set off Monday from near a French reprocessing plant for spent nuclear fuel. Protests were sporadic along the 375-mile trip through Germany until the train reached the Gorleben area, where hundreds of militants clashed with police for two nights running. On Thursday morning, about 200 protesters jeered and shouted in the freezing rain as the trucks swung into the fenced-off dump compound. Some held up a yellow banner reading “Stop atomic waste transports.” Police were surprised that the last stretch went smoothly. “Our forces were well-rested and did their job well, but the militants were tired out,” pQlice spokesman Holger Wmkelmann said. A tractor blockade and an attempted sit-down protest by up to 300 . demonstrators in Laase, just short of Gorleben, were cleared before they could disrupt the convoy, police said. Area residents who have fought the dump for years voiced anger about the tough police methods, but also drew strength from the revival of protests that were dormant since the last shipment. Philadelphia police covered up top cop’s accident, reports say by Maryclaire Dale Associated Press PHILADELPHIA — Earlier this week, Philadelphia residents woke up to news reports alleging that in 1998, the city’s top homicide cop crashed his car while drunk and his underlings rearranged the scene to cover up the wreck. Then on Thursday morning came word from Police Commissioner John F. Timoney that the department’s file on the case had been stolen. And then later in the day, a police spokeswoman said the file had been found and had apparently been rifled through by someone. The embarrassing series of developments has raised new doubts about the department and Timoney, an outspoken, independent-minded chief who worked his way up the New York City force and came to Philadelphia three years ago. “This is criminal conduct we’re talking about here, and it has to be dealt with more seriously than he dealt with it,” said David Rudovsky, a lawyer who has monitored the Philadelphia police for the past five years under a federal court-settlement. Mayor John Street has also raised questions. “When people look and see what happened... they think there is a double standard,” he said. ‘Six months ago, I couldn’t do anything wrong. Now, I can’t do anything right.’ , John F. Timoney Philadelphia Police Commisioner In the past year, the Philadelphia department has been in the national spotlight over the videotaped beating by police of a suspected carjacker, the arrests this past summer of 400 Republican convention protesters, few of whom have been convicted; and the melee that erupted at a recent Mardi Gras celebration, when drunken revelers vandalized stores downtown. “Six months ago, I couldn’t do anything wrong,” Timoney said to reporters Tuesday. “Now, I can’t do anything right.” The story of Capt. James Brady’s crash in 1998 was first reported Sunday in The Philadelphia Inquirer, which said he wrecked his car and then kept on driving with the airbag smashed against his face. No one was injured. According to The Inquirer, the cover-up was orchestrated by Joseph DiLacqua, who was a lieutenant at the time and has since been promoted to captain. Long before The Inquirerbioke the story, the Internal Affairs Division investigated and Timoney doled out 20 day suspensions to DiLacqua and Brady. DiLacqua has been sanctioned for misconduct six other times. Brady and DiLacqua have refused to comment. Talk radio callers are debating whether Brady really did wet his pants, as the officer who stopped him reported, or whether a beer in his lap or radiator fluid had spilled on him. As for the case file, police Lt. Susan Slawson said in a statement: “The folder has resurfaced and is now accounted for. After examining the case files, we have discovered that pages are disheveled and out of place — evidence that the formerly missing documents had been photocopied.” It wasn’t clear from the statement whether the file had, in fact, been stolen. Neither Slawson nor Timoney returned messages Thursday. Suspect captured in killing of abortion doctor by Carolyn Thompson Associated Press BUFFALO, N.Y. - The man wanted in the 1998 killing of a Buffalo abortion doctor, who was cut down by a sniper’s bullet in his kitchen, was captured in France on Thursday. James Kopp, a 46-year-old known as the “Atomic Dog” in anti-abortion circles, became one of the FBI’s most wanted fugitives after the murder of Dr. Barnett Siepian. Kopp is also wanted by Canadian authorities for allegedly wounding an abortion doctor in 1995. FBI agent Joel Mercer said Kopp was arrested outside a post office in the northwestern French community of Dinan, where he had gone to pick up a package from New York containing $300. He had arrived from Ireland less than three weeks earlier. Two people who provided assistance to Kopp have also been arrested, according to federal authorities in New York. They were scheduled to make a court appearance in New York City later Thursday. “I felt greatly relieved btyausc I think this area cries for justice. And, quite frankly, I let out a little ‘Whoopee! ’ too,” said Erie County District Attorney Frank J. Clark. One of the federal charges Kopp faces carries a potential death penalty. He also faces state charges, including murder. U.S. Attorney Denise O’Donnell said no decision has been made on whether Kopp will be tried first in state or federal court. Slepian, 52, had just returned from synagogue and was healing soup in his suburban Amherst home in October 1998 when he was killed by a rifle shot that came through a window. Kopp, who is from St. Albans, Vt., became the subject of an international manhunt a month later. He had used at least 28 aliases and been arrested in more than two dozen places in the United States and Italy for protesting abortion. He was last seen Nov. 3,1998, the day before authorities issued a warrant in the Slepian shooting in hopes of questioning him. A month later, Kopp’s car was found abiindoned at the Newark, N.J., mrport. Authorities have said it was seen in Slepian’s neighborhood in the weeks before the shooting. 4g Law enforcement sources have also said Kopp has been linked, through DNA testing, to a strand of hair found near where the sniper fired. A scope-equipped rifle found buried near the Slepian home provided what authorities called a major breakthrough. Kopp had been in Ireland for about a year, living in hostels and doing clerical work, FBI agents in Buffalo said. He left the country March 12 as Irish police were closing in. “It was getting a little warm in Ireland,” said Hardrich Crawford Jr„ the FBI’s agent in charge. World Briefs ■ GOP pushes Bush tax cuts for marriage, children, inheritors WASHINGTON (AP) — Tax relief affecting millions of married couples, children and people who stand to in herit wealth is next on the agenda for House Republicans, who are foiging ahead with President Bush’s $1.6 tril lion tax cut plan piece by piece. The House was scheduled Thurs day to vote on legislation costing near ly $400 billion over 10 years that would cut taxes for virtually all mar ried couples, including the 25 million who now pay more than they would if they were single. The legislation also would gradual ly double the $500 child tax credit, in cluding a $100 increase effective in 2001. Later Thursday, the House Ways and Means Committee planned to ap prove legislation that would eliminate estate taxes by 2011 while shifting some of the tax burden to heirs who sell assets above a certain value. That bill is headed for a House floor vote next week. ■ Lawmakers signal support for ban on human cloning WASHINGTON (AP) — Con cerned that a few researchers might try to clone a human despite the risks, lawmakers are planning legislation outlawing such experiments. The White House says President Bush will sign the bill. Scientists told a congressional pan el Wednesday that efforts to clone hu mans are ethically treacherous and likely to produce deformed babies. While someone might want to clone himself, ethicists said, a resulting baby would have no choice in the mat ter. The Food and Drug Administration said any human cloning experiments in the United States would need its ap proval and, based on safety concerns, the agency wouldn’t approve any ap plications at this time. But cloning opponents worry that federal law might not be strong enough to back up the FDVs authority, and some want a ban in place even if safety concerns are satisfied. ■ Court rules site targeting abortion doctors is protected SAN FRANCISCO (AP)—An anti-abortion Web site that listed the names and addresses of abortion doc tors, branding them “baby butchers” and criminals, is protected by the First Amendment, a federal appeals court ruled. A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals threw out a $107-million verdict Wednesday against the activists who had compiled the information, saying they could be held liable only if the material autho rized or directly threatened violence. The ruling came two years after a jury in Portland, Ore., ordered a dozen abortion foes to pay damages to Planned Parenthood and four doctors. ■ Oil tanker collides with freight ship off German coast BERLIN (AP) — An oil tanker col lided with a freight ship off northwest Germany, spilling about 1,900 tons of oil into the Baltic Sea, authorities said Thursday. The overnight crash happened in international waters about 15 miles northwest of the German coastal town ofDarsserOrt. Television pictures showed a wide gash ripped into the side of the tanker. Both the tanker, registered in the Marshall Islands, and the Cypriot sugar freighter remained afloat, and the leak from the tanker — which was carrying 33,000 tons of oil — was stemmed. The ship wasn’t fully loaded. The wind was blowing the spilled oil to ward the Danish coast, said Falk Meier, the head of the German coast guard office in Stralsund.