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‘Seinfeld’ star helps launch Mid-East peace plan BY STEVE WEIZMAN Till-] ASSOCIATE I’llli.SS TEL AVIV, ISRAEL - “Seinfeld” actor Jason Alexander helped launch a grass roots peace initia- • tive Tuesday with a twist: Israelis and Palestinians are asked to vote on terms of a future agreement via the Internet. The “One Voice” campaign, backed by Alexander and several other Hollywood celebrities, seeks to gauge the feelings of ordinary Palestinians and Israelis on core issues in the conflict through an Internet referendum. Computer giant IBM will ana lyze the results, and organizers hope a, consensus will emerge de spite decades of conflict. “What this initiative wants to do is to embolden moderates on both sides,” said Alexander. In an Associated Press inter view, Alexander said he got in volved in the project through “pure blind optimism.” Deflecting criticism of actors who use their fame to influence politics, he said, “The only good use of celebrity is to stand next to something important... just bring awareness to it.” Alexander said he first joined the campaign after attending a gathering of One Voice organizers and other celebrity supporters at the Hollywood home of Danny DeVito and Rhea Perlman. One Voice founders Daniel Lubetzky, an American Jewish businessman, and Mohammed Darawshe, an Israeli Arab peace activist, gave the group a presen tation on the peace program. Fellow actors Brad Pitt and Jennifer Anniston, also at that gathering, signed up to help the project. The One Voice initiative asks Israeli and Palestinian respon ients to accept or reject a series of statements on issues at the heart af the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. Voting has already begun through the One Voice Web site and will begin soon at booths in universities and other public places in Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza strip. Organizers plan to present the findings to Palestinians and Israeli leaders as a document backed by broad public opinion. Alexander said the potential for i peaceful solution is evident. “We’re dealing with two in credibly intelligent, sophisticat ed, passionate nations that really have more in common than what divides them,” he said. “Probably what tantalizes me is that I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.” At Tuesday’s launch, an Israeli student leader, Sagiv Asualin, said the One Voice program differs from the recent Geneva Accord and oth er peace initiatives because it comes from the grass roots level. “This allows everyone a voice in the debate,” he said. Unlike official elections, where the voting age is 18, the One Voice poll is open to everyone over 15. “People of 15 and even younger are being killed on both sides, but nobody asks their opinion,” Darawshe said. On Wednesday, Alexander goes to the West Bank town of Ramallah to speak to Palestinian youths, entertainers and aca demics. He will not meet politi cians from either side. Appeals court upholds firing of Missouri teacher BY JIM SUHR TIIK ASSOCIATE) I’ltKSS ST. LOUIS — A Missouri appeals court upheld the firing of a teacher who told her eighth-grade class she opposed interracial marriage and believed such couples should be “fixed” to prevent them from having children. The attorney for teacher Jendra Loeffelman pledged to appeal the unanimous ruling by the three judge Missouri Court of Appeals panel. Her attorney, Chuck Ford, said he would ask the entire court to hear the case or seek a state. Supreme Court review. Tuesday’s ruling affirms one last summer by a Jefferson County judge, who found that the Crystal City School Board was within its rights in ousting Loeffelman. Her attorneys argued her re ported classroom comments were constitutionally protected free speech. The appellate court re jected that Tuesday, declaring that the First Amendment right ap plied only to public concerns — not Loeffelman’s discussing a pri vate matter that was not part of the lesson plan. Loeffelman, the ruling suggest ed, also should have understood her comments could be harmful to the pupils, who included two bira cial students. Linda Schilly, the school board’s president, welcomed the ruling as affirmation that Loeffelman’s firing was just, though “very unfortunate." Ford countered that “This was not about a racist teacher dis criminating; it’s about a teacher giving an opinion to a student who asked a question about an assign ment in another class.” Maurice Watson, the school district’s attorney, said Loeffelman’s comments “can only be described as egregious” and “reflect a perverse, private point of view that had no legal protection in school." Loeffelman, 53, told students in October 2002 that she was “to tally against” interracial mar riage, that interracial couples shouldn’t have children because they often get teased, and that mixed-race children were “racial ly confused.” Microsoft reveals anti-hacking features BY MATTHEW FORDAHL TUB ASSOCIATED PRESS SAN FRANCISCO - Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates, whose company’s software is often de rided for being buggy and vulner able to hackers, showed off planned features on Tuesday for shoring up its programs and head ing off cyberattacks. Progress is being made against viruses, network attacks and slop py code that make systems vul nerable, but a lot more work re mains, Gates said. “The people who attack these systems are getting more and more sophisticated," he said. “For every time we take a type of attack and eliminate that as an opportu nity, they move up to a whole new level. Still, Gates said: “That’s not an unending process — we can make it dramatically difficult." Speaking to thousands of secu rity experts at the RSA Conference, Gates said Microsoft’s Trustworthy Computing Initiative - unveiled two years ago after sev eral embarrassing Windows flaws were exploited by viruses and hackers — is paying off. In the first 300 days after the launch of the Windows 2000 Server operating system, 38 security bul letins were issued. The first major product released after the initia tive, Windows Server 2003, has had just nine Duuetms in tne nrst 300 days. Gates showed off an upcoming Windows XP update that focuses on security - improvements. Service Pack 2 includes a central ized control center where users can automatically check their computer’s security status, such as whether all critical updates have been applied or whether an tivirus software is running. Unlike earlier Windows re leases, Microsoft’s firewall soft ware will be turned on as part of the default installation. A firewall blocks intruders from entering a system. In the new service pack, the Internet Explorer browser will nave a pop-up aa DiocKer as weu. Gates also showed off “active protection technologies” that will gird Windows computers against attacks by sensing changes in the network that indicate virus activ ity. If a problem is detected, the computer’s firewall will ratchet up defenses. A number of companies at the conference were showing prod ucts similarly geared toward de tecting unusual activity in net works. Gates also said e-mail spam — which often contains viruses or is sent from infected computers - is being targeted. He proposed tech nology that would confirm the sender of an e-mail is authentic. oauer in ior c,-ivian couiu ue tested as early as this summer in the company’s Hotmail service, he said. Gates also announced a deal with RSA Security Inc. to make it possible for companies to use a more secure system than simple user names and passwords to log into Windows computers. In addition to providing a pass word, users of the RSA system must enter a random number that appears on a keychain or plastic card they carry with them. The number changes every minute, generated by an algo rithm that also resides on a serv er inside a company’s computing center. ...-." ... WWW. dailygamecock .com i i €>( {rufrCfo TWEE! 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