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** : ;' Cl Mon I He says trade relations with China further economic interests WASHINGTON (AP) - President Clinton said on Thursday a trade deal with China is a “once-in-a-generation” opportunity that should not be rejected because of Beijing’s human rights problems, global arms sales or threats against Taiwan. The deal is vital for America’s eco nomic and national security interests, Clinton said, and it would be “a devas tating setback” if Congress killed the accord. The president spoke about China in an economic speech in Philadelphia and earlier in Washington before the Business Council, a gathering of cor porate leaders eager to win access to China’s market, the largest in the world. He urged the business chiefs to help him persuade Congress to give China permanent trade benefits in return for its pledge to open its doors to American goods. The U.S.-China deal is a key ingre dient in China’s campaign to win admission to the World Trade Organization, a 135-nation oiganiza tion that sets the rules for global trade. Congressional critics say the United States should not reward China with trade benefits as long as it abuses human rights, intimidates Taiwan and sells weapons to other countries. “China still does things that we don’t agree with,” Clinton said. “We can’t control what China does, and I’m not going to stand here and tell you that they’re going to turn out as we would hope. “But I’ll tell you this; we can con trol what we do,” the president said. “If we do this, 20 years from now we’ll look back and wonder why we ever even debated it. If we don’t, 20 years from now we’ll still be kicking our selves in the seat of the pants for turn ing away from an enormous opportuni ty to give our children a safer world.” Clinton said China’s willingness to open its markets is “die kind of oppor tunity that comes along once in a gen eration.” Already facing formidable opposi tion, the deal ran into more trouble this week with China’s escalation of threats against Taiwan. “Most members of Congress do not question the economic benefit,” Clinton said. “Critics are more likely to say things like this: ‘China is a growing threat to Taiwan and other neighbors, we shouldn’t strengthen it; China is a drag on labor and environmental mar kets and rights, and if we put them in the WTO they will block further progress on those issues; or China is an offender of human rights, and we shouldn’t reward it...’ “Now all these concerns, I believe, are legitimate,” Clinton said. “The question is whether they will be advanced or undermined by the deci sion Congress will make, and America will make, on letting China into the WTO” Clinton said the China vote was “the most important question that Congress will take up in die first half of this year.” “We can’t underestimate how hard it will be,” the president said, promis ing to push as hard as he could “to secure agreement as quickly as possi ble.” Europeans react to spy network BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) - Europeans reacted sharply on Thursday to reports that a U.S.-led spy network snoops on billions of private phone calls, faxes and e-mails. Allegations that the bugging net work is eavesdropping on Europe’s businesses were unveiled on Wednesday in a report commissioned by the European Parliament. Despite denials from governments named in the report, the head of the European Union’s assembly called for strong action. “We have every reason to be . shocked at the fact that this form of espionage, which has been going on for a number of years, has not prompted any official protest*” European Parliament Speaker Nicole Fontaine said. The report inspired demands for further investigation on Thursday. European leaders called the report shocking and said people should be wary about what they say electronically. “It’s like a technological nightmare extracted from the crazy conspiracy theories of ‘The X-Files,”’ wrote the Portuguese daily Publico. The Dutch daily De Telegraaf head lined its story: “U.S. guilty of misuse of satellites.” The U.S.-led intelligence group, called Echelon, also includes Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. It was set up at the beginning of the Cold War in 1947 and grew to include a net work of surveillance-interception sta tions across the globe. An earlier report said firms in EU nations lose several billion dollars per year as a result of corporate espionage. Allegations that Echelon carries out ” We have to be as prudent as possible in the transmission of data.” Elisabeth Guigou French justice rninister such spying against fellow European allies have met with deep concern, especially from the French, who them selves are members of an intelligence ring connected to Echelon. “We have to be as prudent as possi ble in the transmission of data. Such data must never contain vital informa tion, especially when it’s relayed by retransmission satellite... with interna tional connections,” Justice Minister Elisabeth Guigou told the National Assembly in Paris. British Prime Minister Tony Blair denied the reports outright on Wednesday. “‘No’ is the short answer to that,” Blair said. “These things are governed by extremely strict rules, and those rules will always be applied properly.” In Washington, State Department spokesman James P. Rubin denied any involvement in commercial espionage by the National Security Agency. On Thursday, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said her department does not comment on “actual or alleged intelli gence activities.” Texas puts to death 62-year-old woman ■ Execution continues as scheduled after Gov. Bush rejects reprieve. HUNTSVILLE,Texas (AP)-A 62 year-old woman was executed by injec tion on Thursday after Gov. George W. Bush rejected her claim that she killed her fifth husband in self-defense and deserved a reprieve. Betty Lou Beets became the fourth woman to be executed in the United States since the Supreme Court allowed the death penalty to resume in 1976. She was the second woman executed in Texas since the Civil War. She gave no final statement as she lay strapped to the death chamber gur ney. She made no eye contact with the victim’s family but smiled at relatives watching through a window at her side. She continued smiling as she slipped into unconsciousness. Death penalty opponents and domestic violence organizations had urged Bush to grant Beets a 30-day delay, arguing it would be consistent with his description <5f himself as a “compassionate conservative” in his presidential campaign. The delay was Bush’s only option, since the state parole board did not rec ommend that her sentence be commut iff p*^ -se**® $ •*■■«*> ■■■iitMlLll ■'« 1 « 11 I Rain Breezy, showers high 60, low 40 high 54, low 33 i '' -t— --1 \ - -—— -- ed to life in prison. During his 5 1/2 years as governor, 120 convicted killers have been execut ed in Texas. He has spared one con demned inmate. “After careful review of the evi dence of the case, I concur with the jury that Betty Lou Beets is guilty of this murder,” Bush said in a written state ment after returning to Texas from California, where he was campaigning for die Republican nomination. “I’m confident that the courts, both state and federal, have thoroughly reviewed all the issues raised by the defendant.” Prosecutors said Beets shot and killed two of her husbands, but she was only tried in the death of her fifth hus band, Dallas Fire Capt. Jimmy Don Beets, nearly 17 years ago. Prosecutors said she killed him to collect his life insurance and pension. Beets and her lawyers insisted the former bartender-waitress was the ^c tim of years of domestic abuse and - 1 ... ■ i T'v »l Editor: Josh Funk _ _ *| J_y3.11y -g Managing Editor: Lindsay Young TVT I—v V*. I -***. Associate News Editor: Diane Broderick I Al 1 111 ^ rV ¥ I Associate News Editor: Dane Stickney 1 1 tiUlVWll Opinion Editor: J.J. Harder Sports Editor: Sam McKewon p? A&E Editor: Sarah Baker | Questions? Comments? Copy Desk Co-Chief: Jen Walker Ask for the appropriate section editor at (402) 472-2588 Copy Desk Co-Chief: JoshKrauter or e-mail dn@unl.edu. „ .^Chn* Mike Warren Design Co-Chief: Tim Karstens Fax number: (402) Design Co-Chief: Diane Broderick World Wide Web: www.q m Art Director: Melanie Falk The Daily Nebraskan (USPS 144-080) is publ UNL Publications Board, Web Editor: Gregg Steams Nebraska Union 20, "t400 R St., Lincoln. NE uww w-tw, Monday through Friday Asst. Web Editor* Jewel Mlnarik dunng the academic year; weekl^durin^^mTOr sessions.The public f?as access General Manager: Daniel Shattil Readers are encouraged to submit sto^ry ideas and comments to the Daily Nebraskan Publicatmns Board Jessica Ftofmann, •» * Professional Adviser: Don Walton, “' i tann (402)473-7248 1WU Advertising Manager: NickPartsch, ALL MATERIAL COPYRIGHT 2000 . , rue haii v kicQDACif am Asst* Ad Manager. Jamie Yeager THt DAILY NcoRASKAN Classifield Ad Manager: Nichole Lake should be allowed to live. On Thursday, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans reject ed an appeal that accused the state of not following its own rules in reviewing Beets’ case. The arguments were dis missed on Wednesday by a federal judge in Austin as a delay tactic. Beets’ lawyers also took the matter to the U.S. Supreme Court, which rejected it without comment. According to the governor’s office, Bush had received 2,108 phone calls and letters opposing Beets’ execution by Thursday afternoon, and 57 favoring it. “A decision to stay the execution of Ms. Beets would demonstrate your compassionate conservatism and that you are willing to do what is right even in the face of potential criticism from your constituents,” the Rev. Jesse Jackson wrote Bush on Thursday. Steven Hawkins, executive director of the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, implored Bush to grant a reprieve “so evidence of her being bat tered ... may be fully evaluated. “Far from receiving careful consid eration, the role of domestic abuse in Betty’s crime has been continually swept under the rug by the Texas court system,” Hawkins said Before Beets, the last woman exe cuted in Texas was Karla Faye Tucker, on Feb. 3,1998. Tucker hacked two peo ple to death with a pickax but said she had a religious conversion in prison and appealed for mercy. Bush was criticized for mocking Tucker in a magazine interview last year. Beets was the second convicted killer executed in two days in Texas. She spent Thursday morning meet ing with relatives. She declined to request a final meal. ■ Arizona Former mob hit man arrested in drug ring PHOENIX (AP) - Former Mafia hit man Salvatore “Sammy the Bull” Gravano, a mob turncoat whose testimony helped put crime boss John Gotti behind bars, was arrested on Thursday for involve ment with a drug ring, police said. Gravano was not selling nar cotics but was a “mentor” to the ring’s leader, Michael Papa, the founding member of a white supremacist gang, said Phoenix police spokesman Jeff Halstead. Thirty-five members of the ring, which trafficked in the drug ecstasy, were also arrested, police said. Gravano ravaged the Mafia by defecting to the government, mak ing headlines when he helped con vict Gotti and dozens of other gangland cronies. Authorities called him the most important mob turncoat in U.S. history. ■ Florida Official accused of spying denied bond MIAMI (AP) - A U.S. immi gration official charged with spy ing for Cuba was denied bond on Thursday after he told a federal judge he relayed supposedly secret information only to protect a friend. U.S. Magistrate Judge Barry Garber ordered Mariano Faget to await trial in jail, citing the severi ty of the charges against him, the weight of evidence and the fact that Faget admitted divulging information he believed to be clas sified. Prosecutors said that on Feb. 11, Faget, 54, was given bogus information that a U.S.-based Cuban diplomat was set to defect. Within minutes, Faget allegedly went to his office, called a busi ness associate with ties to Cuba on his cellular phone and told him “a person we both know (is)... one of the ones working with the Americans.” Later, Faget called the man from home and discussed the case in more detail, the FBI said. ■ Washington, D.C. NATO raises stakes in hopes of calming Kosovo WASHINGTON (AP) - NATO’s struggle for ethnic calm in northern Kosovo has raised the stakes for US. involvement in a peacekeeping operation that has no end in sight. The22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit, aboard ships in the Mediterranean, is standing by as potential U.S. reinforce ments, although Pentagon spokesman Kenneth Bacon said on Thursday that NATO commanders have not asked for the'Marines. Expanding the U.S. troop pres ence in Kosovo would raise risks for a force that has largely escaped casualties. In Washington and other allied capitals, there is no appetite for a major additional buildup of troops in Kosovo. But NATO said it feels it cannot let the flare-up of ethnic violence in the city of Mitrovica go unanswered. Defense Secretary William Cohen has said he expects the Mitrovica problem to be resolved shortly, possibly without U.S. rein forcements. France, whose peace keepers are in charge of the ethni cally divided Mitrovica area, is preparing to send 600 to 700 more troops to the area.