The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, April 06, 2001, Page 3, Image 3
Friday, April 6,2001 1£|]C 09111 tCOCR v Page 3
U.S., China continue talks over spy plane
by George Gedda
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The standoff with China over
a downed reconnaissance plane showed signs of
easing Thursday. “We are working all diplomatic
channels.” President Bush declared.
Bush said he regrets “that a Chinese pilot is
missing” ind that his plane is lost. At the same time,
he told aconvention of newspaper editors China
must alltw the 24 U.S. crew members to come
home.
“Tht Chinese have got to act, and I hope they
do so quckly,” Bush said.
Bus! spoke amid a flurry of diplomatic activity
over thecrippled Navy spy plane which has been
strandedon China’s Hainan Island since it made an
emergeicy landing Sunday after a collision with a
Chinesefighter over the South China Sea.
Thetalks were centered on the captured
American crew, which administration officials
insisted should be released both on legal and
humanitarian grounds.
Still, a senior U.S. official said there was ?io
assurance the crew would be released and predicted
a second busy night of diplomacy.
“Our message to the Chinese is we should not
let this incident destabilize relations. Our relationship
with China is very important. But they need to
realize that it’s time for our people to be home,”
Bush said.
“I regret that a Chinese pilot is missing, and I
regret one of their airplanes is lost. And our prayers
go out to the pilot and his family. Our prayers are
also with our own servicemen and women and they
need to come home,” Bush said.
The United States has declined to apologize for
the mishap, despite Chinese demands.
In the meantime, a senior U.S. official said
the Chinese had questioned the American crew.
American diplomats were told this when they met
with the crew earlier in the week, said the
official, speaking on condition of anonymity.
“In terms of what we’re discussing, I think
we continue to make the point that these people,
the air crew, need to be released,” said State
Department spokesman Richard Boucher.
When asked whether there were any
circumstances under which he would offer an apology
to the Chinese, and whether he was reconsidering
his planned trip to China in October, Bush said: “I
have no further comments on this subject.”
“We’re working all diplomatic channels to effect
our priority,” Bush added. “There are discussions
going on, and we’ll continue to do so.”
Earlier, State Department spokesman Richard
Boucher said it was “important to resolve this matter
quickly, satisfactorily.”
“There is intensive diplomacy” under way,
Boucher said.
The administration appeared more optimistic
for a resolution of the crisis on Thursday than i t
had on Wednesday. Two high administration official; >,
who declined to be identified by name, said thing s
looked brighter.
White House spokesman Ari Fleische r
characterized the U.S-Chinese talks as negotiations.
Powell, in a letter to Beijing, reiterated U.S. concern
and regret over the death of the Chinese pilot.
At the same time, Fleischer suggested that Bush’s
support of free trade relations with China, an issu e
of enormous impact to the U.S. and Chinese
economies, will depend on the outcome of th e
standoff. “It underscores what the president sai d
two days ago, that this matter needs to b e
resolved in order to avoid any damage to U.S.-Chin a
relations,” Fleischer said.
“The president is in favor [of normal trade
relations with China] and the president is taking iit
one step at a time.”
Scientists suspect colliding stars
as source of heavy Earth metals
by Chris Fontaine
Associated Press
LONCDN —A team of scientists said
Thursdy that the origins of most of the
gold, pltinum and other heavy elements
on Eari can be traced to the massive
explosms of colliding neutron stars,
hundrds of millions of years before the
birth othe Solar System.
“Ttis is an incredible result,”
exclaiied senior team member Stephan
Rosswg after the scientists’ data was
releasd. “It’s exciting to think that
the gcd in wedding rings was formed
far awy by colliding stars.”
Iuas long been accepted that
commn elements, such as oxygen and
carbo, are created when dying stars
explot into supemovae, but researchers
have ten puzzled by data that suggests
these stellar explosions don t produce
enough heavy elements to account for
their abundance on Earth.
The scientists—from the University
of Leicester, in England, and the
University of Basel, in Switzerland —
believe rare pairs of neutron stars hold
the answer.
Neutron stars are the super-dense
cores of large stars that survive
supemovae. They contain about as much
matter as our sun, but are only about the
size of a large city. Sometimes two are
found orbiting each other — leftovers
of a binary star system. Four such pairs
are known to exist in our galaxy.
The team used a supercomputer at
the U.K. Astrophysical Fluids Facility
in Leicester, to model what might happen
if the intense gravity created by these
pairs slowly forced them to spiral closer
and collide.
One such calculation takes the
supercomputer several weeks calculate,
but represents just the final few
milliseconds in the lives of the two stars.
It shows that as the neutron stars get
closer, immense forces tear them apart,
releasing enough energy to outshine the
entire universe for a few milliseconds,
the team said.
Team member Melvin Davis of
Leicester said the explosion most likely
creates a black hole — a light-sucking
tear in space—and ejects ash so hot that
nuclear reactions take place as it races
outward, mashing newly created protons
into the nuclei of lighter elements to
create heavy elements.
European Union won’t stage protest
against U.S. over global warming
BY RAF CASERT
Associated Press
BR6SELS, Belgium — Despite
outige over U.S. rejection of the
intentional agreement on global
war ing, the European Union said
Thuday it doesn’t have plans to retaliate
agaiit the Bush administration.
U Environment Commissioner.
Mai>t Whllstroem, said it was too soor
to tfcuss sanctions, after a two-day visit
to Vshington to discuss the policy
rev sal that abandoned the Kyoto
Prcocol, the 1997 agreement by
indtrial countries to reduce carbor
diode emissions.
We should see now what we car
do, id from there on we might have tc
this, about exactly how to act,’
Wdlroem said.
/allstroem held out hope that the
Unid States could still contribute tc
the tbate, and said any action would
have to wait until after an international
meeting in July, in Bonn, Germany.
“We are still having these contacts.
They are important partners in trade and
other aspects as well,” she said.
She said it remained unclear what
“creative solutions” the Bush
administration would be able create, but
left no doubt that the essence of the
Kyoto agreement would be ripped out
of any U.S. government position.
“Kyoto has become somewhat of a
dirty word in the Bush administration,”
she told journalists. “I don’t think the
United States will change their mind.
The kind of harsh statements made, make
it very difficult to back off,” she said.
President Bush was criticized by
European officials for turning his back
on the landmark global warming
agreement.
Bush said the Kyoto makes
mandatory cuts on carbon dioxide
emissions, and short timetables were no
longer acceptable, highlighting the
economic costs and the increased risks
of higher unemployment.
Christie Whitman, the Environ
mental Protection Agency administrator,
said the Kyoto treaty was unfair to the
United States, but pledged cooperation
in seeking technologies and incentives
to address climate change.
The 1997 Kyoto treaty calls for
countries to agree to legally binding
taigets to curb heat-trapping greenhouse
gases, mainly carbon dioxide from
burning fossil fuels, like oil, often in
power plants that produce electricity.
No industrial country has yet ratified
the Kyoto treaty. An effort last November
to develop a plan for implementing
the accord collapsed in a disagreement
between the United States and Europe
over trading pollution credits.
Drug companies agree
to help reduce prices
of AIDS medications
by Arthur Max
Associated Press
AMSTERDAM, Netherlands —
Meeting with U.N. Secretary-General
Kofi Annan, the chief executives of six
major drug companies agreed Thursday
to speed up the reduction of prices in
order to control the AIDS epidemic
in poor countries.
The companies also agreed to
consider using private aid agencies and
charities to ensure the drugs reach the
people who need them, a U.N. statement
said. Until now, the distribution has only
been available through governments.
The meeting was a signal that Annan
is deepening his personal involvement
in combating AIDS in poor countries,
before an AIDS summit this summer in
New York. The AIDS fight “has become
my personal priority,” Annan said.
Annan supported the patent
protection, which yields the profits that
would allow those companies to develop
new medications.
At the same time, he urged them
to further cut prices voluntarily in the
developing world, where 90 percent of
AIDS victims live.
Annan praised the companies for
the price cuts they had already made,
and said they had agreed “to continue
and accelerate reducing prices
substantially,” especially in Africa.
But lowering the price is only
half the story. The companies said
governments must strengthen their
health systems and networks for
distributing drugs to those who need
them, said Daniel Tarantola of the Wbrld
Health Organization.
The meeting was attended by the
director of the World Health Organ
ization, and executives of Abbot
Laboratories, Boehringer Ingelheim,
Bristol-Myers Squibb, Glaxo Smith
Kline, Hoffman-La Roche and Pfizer.
Merck and Co., another firm that
has announced a 90 percent price cut
for two of its AIDS drugs on the African
AIDS epidemic
■ More than 36 million
people worldwide suffer
from HIV or AIDS
■ There were 5.3 million
new cases last year alone
■ An estimated 3 million
people died of AIDS in 2000
market, was invited but didn’t attend,
said U.N. Deputy Spokesman Manoeil
de Almeida e Silva.
Scorched by public criticism,
manufacturers began reducing theiir
prices last year in several African
countries. Four companies signed
agreements with Cameroon, Ivory
Coast, Rwanda, Senegal and Uganda,
under a program called Accelerate id
Access.
But even the lowest cost — moire
than $600 for a one-year course of
treatment—is more than twice the pi er
capita income of some of the hardes t
hit countries. The same treatment cou Id
cost up to $15,000 in wealthy countrie s.
U.N. officials traveling with Anna n,
who arrived in Amsterdam lat e
Wednesday, told reporters he had mo
commitments until a dinner Thursday
evening with Dutch Queen Beatrix. H [is
meeting Thursday with the drmg
executives was kept secret.
One idea discussed at the session
was the voluntary licensing by the pate: nt
holders to local companies, saiid
Tarantola, a senior adviser to Brundtlan d.
But the companies rejected the proposi il,
saying their l'aige capacities enabled
them to produce the medicine at a low er
cost than small local operations.
In his statement, Annan called fi ar
a mobilization of funds to finance ‘ ‘a
dramatic leap forward” in preventii lg
and treating the HIV virus that leads to
AIDS.
World Briefs
■ Senate GOP hopes
to restore Bush’s
$1.6 trillion tax cut
WASHINGTON (AP) - Top Senate
Republicans said they’re intent on
restoring President Bush’s proposed
Sl.fr trillion, 10-year tax cut to near its
original size, now that the heart of his
economic blueprint has suffered its
first bruises. In the first real blow to
Bush’s fiscal plans, the Senate tenta
tively voted Wednesday to reduce the
tax cut by $450 billion and distribute
that money evenly between education
and debt reduction. The 5347 vote
came as senators continued debating a
$ 1.94 trillion GOP budget for 2002
that would pave the way for Bush’s tax
proposal. Minutes earlier, moderate
Republican Sen. James Jeffords of Ver
mont said he expected to vote against
. the GOP budget “unless a miracle oc
curs.” The twin setbacks ignited an in
tensive effort by the White House and
GOP leaders to woo Jeffords back into
the fold while pumping the tax cut’s
size back up. Top Republicans predict
ed they would do so — and push the
budget through the Senate — by
week’s end.
■ Muslim rebels say
they won’t behead
\JJS. hostage
MANILA, Philippines (AP) —
Muslim rebels backed off on a threat
to behead a U.S. hostage Thursday as
thousands of soldiers, bolstered by he
licopters and cannons, descended en a
southern Philippine island in search of
the insuigents’ hide-outs. Minutes be
fore a self-imposed evening execution
deadline, Abu Sabaya, the leader of the
Abu Sayyaf guerrilla group, told Jef
frey Schilling’s mother during a con
versation on the local Radio Mindanao
Network that he wouldn’t behead the
25-year-old Oakland, Calif., native.
Carol Schilling, a 51-year-old YMCA
accountant in Oakland; had come to
Manila to appeal for her son’s life. The
Abu Sayyaf group, which says it’s
fighting for a separate Muslim home
land, had promised to behead Schilling
oil Thursday to mark the 54th birthday
of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.
■ Israeli troops attack
Palestinian security
officials’convoy
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) —
Israeli troops fired front close range
early Thursday on a four-car convoy
carrying top Palestinian security offi
cials who had just returned from talks
with Israel on how to reduce friction
after six months of fighting. The army
said its soldiers were fired on first.
Mohammed Dahlan, one of the three
security chiefs, said Israel tried to as
sassinate him and his colleagues with
heavy machine gun fire. His silver
Mercedes was struck by seven bullets,
and a bag with personal belongings that
had rested near his feet in the car was
also hit. Three of his bodyguards were
hurt, including one who was shot in
the leg and two who suffered broken
limbs when one of the four cars over
turned.
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