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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 1, 1999)
Page 2 .. j.i s ■ Police used force in breaking up the protesters, and a state of emergency ant curfew have been declared. SEATTLE (AP) - Police in riot gea fired tear gas and red pepper spra; Tuesday at denronstrators-wbcrblocket streets and forced cancellation of th< opening ceremonies of the largest track event ever staged in the United States The violence continued after nightfall forcing Mayor Paul Schell to declare t curfew for most of downtown. Schell declared a civil emergency authorizing a curfew from 9 p.m. CS1 to dawn, a period that will cover th< scheduled arrival of President Clinton who is flying here to address fee Work Trade Organization on Wednesday. The mayor’s declaration of a civil emergency came as demonstrators set fire to a trash dumpster and continued to l vandalize buildings in the downtown area. Washington Gov. Gary Locke also declared a state of emergency and called r up two task forces of unarmed National ' Guard personnel trained in crowd con 1 trol for duty Wednesday morning, i Parts of this normally laid-back i Pacific Northwest city took mi the look . of a battle zone as police confronted , protesters who chained their bodies t together so that officials’ motorcades couldn’t get through. , Schell told reporters at city hall, “Do I wish things had turned out differ ' ently today? You bet Don’t you?” , Locke, appearing with Schell at die i news conference, said he had decided to call in 200 unarmed members of the National Guard as a precaution. He said he expected them for the most part to serve in a backup role. “You may not even see them,” the governor told reporters. Clinton, who had hoped to use the meetings of die 135-nation World Trade Organization to showcase the benefits of free trade, told reporters in Washington before the violence erupted that he was “very sympathetic” with the concerns being expressed by labor unions and environmental groups. “I think we should strengthen the role and the interest of labor and envi ronment in our trade negotiations,” said Clinton, who is scheduled to address the WTO ministers on Wednesday. Clinton, however, spoke before the confrontations in die streets of Seattle. The White House gave no indication of any alteration in plans for Clinton to address the delegates. However, disappointed WTO offi cials said that the trade organization had decided fb scrap plans for U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan and Secretary of State Madeleine Albright to address an opening session. Instead, die WTO went straight into the first of a series of plenary sessions, where trade ministers from different countries are allowed to address the meetings. A disappointed WTO Director General Mike Moore vowed that, despite the rocky start, the assembled nations would succeed in launching a new round of multinational trade nego tiations to lower tariffs and other barri ers on agriculture products, manufac tured goods and service industries such as banking and insurance. Late-term abortion ban enforcement is on hold WASHINGTON (AP) - Laws in Illinois and Wisconsin banning a type of late-term abortion were put on hQld Tuesday by a Supreme Court justice. Justice John Paul Stevdnsfbarred the two states from enforcing the laws while opponents ask the Supreme Court to decide whether they violate women’s right to abortion. A lower court upheld both laws, which ban a procedure opponents call “partial-birth abortion.” Simon Heller of the Center for Reproductive Law and Policy, which represents two Wisconsin doctors challenging the law, said Stevens’ order means “doctors in Wisconsin and Illinois will be able to give their patients seeking abortions the best possible medical care without worry ing ... about whether it will land them in jail.” Wisconsin Department of Justice lawyer Susan Ullman said the appeals court ruled correctly “because the doctors know that this law just limits one method of abortion, and it can certainly go into effect in Wisconsin constitutionally.” * Illinois Attorney General James E. Ryan had no comment on Stevens’ order. The Wisconsin law, enacted last year, provides for life in prison for anyone performing the procedure except to save the mother’s life. The Illinois law, making the procedure a felony, was enacted in 1997. The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals voted 5-4 to uphold the laws on Oct 26, saying, “Weconcludethat both laws can be enforced in a consti tutional manner.” Since then, the appeals court twice refused to halt the laws’ enforcement but each time decided to reconsider. On Tuesday, the court refused a third time to block the laws, voting 5-5. Judge Diane P Wood, writing for the five dissenting judges, called fee action “ill-advised” because appeals courts disagree on whether such laws are constitutional. In September, another federal appeals court threw out similar laws in Nebraska, Arkansas and Iowa. The conflicting results makeit more like ly the Supreme Court - which has not issued a major ruling on abortion since it reaffirmed women’s right to abortion in 1992 - will agree to step in to resolve the issue. The 7th Circuit court’s ruling acknowledged the Illinois and Wisconsin laws could be wrongly applied by local authorities to proce dures other than the one they were aimed at However, fee appeals court said lower courts could issue orders designed to prevent fee misapplica tion of the two laws to other forms of abortion. Questions? Comments? Editor: Josh Funk ** ***»'■PW**'"P* «**** Managing Editor: Sarah Baker (402)472-2588 Associate News Editor: Lindsay Young or e-mail dn@unl.edii. Associate News Editor: Jessica Fargen Opinion Editor MarkBakfaidge Geaeral Manager Daniel Shattil Sports Editor SamMcKewon Publications Board Jessica Hofmann, A&E Editor: Liza Hokmeier Chairwoman: (402)477-0527 Copy Desk Chief: Diane Broderick Professional Adviser: Don Walton. Photo Chief: LaneHkkeabottom ' (402)473-7248 DeataiClfcf: Melanie Falk Advertising Manager NickPartsch, Artp^eeto^ Matt Haney (402)472-2589 Web Editor: Gregg Steams Asst. Ad Manager: Jamie Yeager Asst Web Editor Jennifer Walker CbmNleUAdMaiiaier: Mary Johnson Fax number (402) 472-1761 World Wide Web: www.da8yneb.com The Da8y Nebraskan (USPS144-080) is published by tne UNL Publications Board, Nebraska Umon 20,1400 R Si. Uncoin, NE 685684448julonday through Friday durira the acadenfc year; weekly during the summer sessions.The public has access to Ihe Publications Board. Readers are encouraged to submit story ideas and comments to the Daily Nebraskan by calling (402)472-2588. Subscriptions am $60 lor one year. Postmaster: Send address changes to the Daily Nebraskan, Nebraska Union 20,1400 R $t, Lincoln NE 685880448. Periodical postage paid at Lincoln, NE. ALL MATERIAL COPYRIGHT 1999 THE DALY NEBRASKAN aids in search for in Mexico ■ Police seek the apparent victims of a drug gang, 22 of which are believed to be U:S. citizens. CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico (AP) - FBI forensic expats joined Mexican soldiers and ski-masked police Tuesday in searching two desert ranches near the border for the bodies of more than 100 Mexican and U.S. citizens, apparent victims of a drug gang. A convoy of 16 vehicles, many with U.S. license plates, rumbled through the white iron gates of Rancho de la Campana, 10 miles southwest of Ciudad Juarez, at midmoming - join ing scores of Mexican soldiers and police already working around the buildings in the hilly, scrub desert. Attorney General Jorge Madrazo said in a television interview that inves tigators suspect the victims were killed by the Juarez drug cartel, once Mexico’s largest cocaine smuggling outfit. He said more than 100 people could be buried on the ranches just across the border from El Paso, Texas, with 22 believed to be U.S. citizens. “We believe these people were killed for their knowledge or for being witnesses to drug trafficking,” Assistant FBI Director Thomas Pickard said in Washington. “Most of the information we have shows these individuals were buried there at least two to three years ago, so it’s not a recent situation.” Authorities were led to the ranches by an informant who approached the FBI early this year, a federal law enforcement official said in Washington. The informant said there might be as many as 100 bodies there, including people who had been provid ing information to U.S. drug agents, according to die official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Pickard said elaborate preparations were required to decide where to start digging, to secure the sites and to “make sure we thoroughly cover the sites with ground-piercing radar.” He also said it was “a pretty good assumption” that Americans are among those buried at the ranches. Morning-after pill OK'd for distribution in schools PARIS (AP) - The French govern ment’s decision to make the morning after pill available to teen-age girls at schools has unleashed a debate in this predominantly Roman Catholic nation. Parents and health officials are divided over whether the action will usher in a dangerously nonchalant atti tude toward unprotected sex or provide teen-agers with the support some con tend is missing at home. Deputy Education Minister Segolene Royal, a Socialist, said teen age pregnancies were not just a family matter, but a public health problem that affects 10,000 girls under 18 each year. “I want to respond to this distress, to this urgency, by asking adolescents to go through a school nurse” should they fear an unwanted pregnancy, Royal said in announcing the action last weekend. Once the measure takes effect, the morning-after pill, NorLevo, will be available through school nurses. The treatment consists of two pills, one taken within 72 hours after sexual inter course and the second 12 to 24 hours later. They work by preventing the implantation of a fertilized egg in the uterus - which opponents contend amounts to abortion by blocking devel opment of a viable embryo. In the United States, two forms of morning-after pills are available. But while teens can get them at most health or family planning clinics, they need a prescription and, depending on the state, sometimes also must obtain parental permission. The NorLevo pill has been available without prescription in France since June, but supporters of distributing it in schools argue that young girls may be loath to ask for it in drugstores. Some French teen-agers welcomed the decision to distribute the pills at - schools. “You can’t talk to some parents about these things. Going to die school nurse will be like talking to someone anonymous,” said Charlotte Reibell, a 15-year-old student Critics said the measure amounts to an admission of failure by education and health authorities. More than 6,000 girls under the age of 18 have abortions annually. ■ IMnnhlr-“ wasnmgion Checks stopped 160,000 would-be gun buyers WASHINGTON (AP) - More than 160,000 people were prevented from purchasing firearms during the first year of computerized instant criminal background checks on would-be gun buyers, the Justice Department said Tuesday. Nearly three out of four of them were con victed felons. Combined with the 312,000 handgun purchases barred during die manual system in effect from Feb. 28,1994, through Nov. 30,1998, the Brady Act has barred a total of more than 470,000 prohibited people from acquiring firearms, the department said. State and local authorities did background checks during the old system. Under the National Instant Criminal Background Check System that began Dec. 1, 1998, about half the checks are done by the FBI and the remainder by states. Since the computerized system began, rifles and other long guns, as well as handguns, have been cov ered. ■Washington $15 million limit set for pro-abortion groups abroad WASHINGTON (AP) - President Clinton waived restrictions Tuesday on federal money for family planning abroad, triggering a $15 million limit on aid to groups that advocate abortion rights overseas. Clinton promised to try to wipe the restriction from future budgets, saying it has an unfair impact on what private, nongovernmental orga nizations can do within their own countries. As part of a deal to get Congress to release $926 million in back pay ments to the United Nations, the White House accepted restrictions on $385 million in federal funds for groups that perform abortions, or lobby for liberalized abortion laws, internationally - on condition that Clinton could waive the restrictions. By issuing the waiver, Clinton limited money for abortion advocacy to $15 million, or 4 percent of the total. ■ Russia Paramilitary force being recruited in Chechnya ACHKOI-MARTAN, Russia (AP) - The convicted embezzler tapped to head the Moscow-backed government in die breakaway repub lic of Chechnya collected and armed recruits for a paramilitary force dur ing a tour of a Russian-held Chechen city on Tuesday. Meanwhile, in the ongoing battie for the rebel-held Chechen capital, Russia shrugged off mounting inter national pressure for a diplomatic solution to the fighting and showered bombs on the last rebel route to Grozny. The rebels retaliated by staging ambushes in small groups and firing at Russian jets with large-caliber machine guns and shoulder-held rockets. The militants have been putting up a stiff resistance on sever al fronts in recent days. The Russians are attempting to surround Grozny and cut off mili tants from their mountain bases. Tuesday’s fighting was concentrated around Urus-Martan, a city about 12 miles southwest of the capital.