By The
Associated Press
Edited by Deb McAdams
Friday, September 2, 1994 Page 2
News...
in a Minute
Romanian parents make sacrifice
COSMESTI, Romania — Five months ago, Gerghina and Alexandru
Florca gave their 8-year-old son a gift they could not afford for their other
nine children — a hopeful future.
The Floreas consented to Vasile’s adoption by a couple from Lincoln, to
save him from life in a state institution where he had lived since birth
because the family couldn’t afTord to bring him home. Another Florea son,
2-ycar-old Marian, remains institutionalized for the same reason.
“I’m not happy about it,” Mrs. Florea, 35, said as she nursed a 2-month
old son. “But what could wc do?”
Romania’s latedictatorNicolaeCcausescu, overthrown andexecuted in
the 1989 revolution, tried to increase the population of 23 million by
banning birth control and abortion.
After an estimated 10,000 Romanian children were adopted by foreign
ers, the government cracked down in 1991.
But with an estimated 90,000 infants still living in state institutions and
an average monthly household income of $80, the baby trade hasn’t
stopped.
Implant settlement inadeaquate
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — A judge granted final approval Thursday to
a $425 billion pact between women and breast implant makers, the largest
product liability settlement in U.S. history.
The decision by U.S. District Judge Sam Pointer cleared the way for
court-appointed administrators to begin determining whether there is
enough money to pay the claims of thousands of women.
Critics contend that as much as $200 billion is needed to adequately
compensate implant recipients.
“I don’t think that anyone at this point thinks the $4.25 billion is going
to be enough, me included,” said Ralph Knowles, an attorney who
negotiated on behalf of the women.
The agreement involves nearly 60 companies that manufactured im
plants or components of implants. Dow Coming Corp. agreed to pay $2
billion, the largest share of the agreement. The companies admitted no
wrongdoing.
Arafat condemns terrorism
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip—Yasser Arafat tried to mend relations with
Israel on Thursday by condemning terror attacks on Israelis, while one of
his top ministers accused Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin of blocking
Palestinian elections.
Arafat was trying to quiet accusations his government is indifferent to
attacks that have killed 11 Israelis since the Palestinians took control of the
Gaza Strip and Jericho on May 18.
“We are against any terrorist action,” Arafat said after meeting with
Israeli Housing Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezcr. “Wecan’t accept it and we
have to coordinate" with the Israelis.
Rabin promoted the peace plan as a way to stop attacks inside Israel
itself. But while the army reports a two-thirds drop in violence since May,
Israelis are angry that Palestinians haven't pursued the attackers.
On Thursday, Arafat condemned last week’s attack, and made a point
of wishing Israelis well for the Jewish new year, which begins next week.
Tribal elders ostracize teens
KLAWOCK, Alaska — A panel of Tlmgit elders began a hearing
Thursday to decide whether two Indian teen-agers should be banished to
uninhabited islands for severely beating and robbing a pizza deliveryman
in Washington state last year.
Cousins Adrian Guthrie and Simon Roberts, both 17, pleaded guilty to
robbery in May for attacking Tim Whittlesey of Everett, Wash., with a
baseball bat. Whittlesey’s hearing and eyesight were permanently dam
aged.
Rather than sending the teens to prison, aWashington stale judge agreed
to send them north to face the Kuyc ’di Ku iu K waan Triba! Court. The youths
could still get prison time later.
Rudy James, a tribal elder who proposed the alternative at the behest of
the youths’ parents, says the punishment probably will be banishment for
up to two years to separate, isolated islands in Alaska’s vast Alexander
Archipelago. The hearing in this southeast Alaska fishing village may last
through Friday.
Defense lawyers must disclose
contents of mystery envelope
LOS ANGELES—O.J. Simpson’s
defense team was ordered Thursday to
disclose to prosecutors the contents of a
mysterious envelope and a criminalist’s
analysis of the defense evidence inside.
Superior Court Judge Lance Ito, in a
written order, didn’t mention turning
over the evidence itself and said the
defense could continue to keep secret
the first report on the matter, wh ich may
have disclosed where the contents were
found.
Ito ordered the disclosure of two
reports: one written Aug. 22 by retired
Superior Court Judge Delbert E. Wong,
who was appointed as a special master
to handle the evidence; and another by
criminalist David M. Sugiyama written
on the same day,
Loyola University Law Professor
Laurie Lcvcnson said the obliquely
worded order means that prosecutors do
not get theirhands on the evidence itself
because of possible risk of contamina
tion. But they will have reports telling
them exactly what is inside.
The judge said that the defense had
demonstrated good cause to delay re
lease of the first report on the matter
written by Wong on July 1. It apparently
contains details of how the evidence in
the envelope was found and where it
was located.
The judge had insisted upon seeing
the prosecution’s witness list before
making his ruling.
Simpson, 47, is charged with mur
der in the slashing deaths of his ex-wife
Nicole Brown Simpson, 35, and her
friend Ronald Goldman, 25.
The trial is scheduled to begin with
jury selection Sept. 26.
U.S. and Korea to open talks
WASHINGTON — The United
Slates has agreed to talk to North
Korea next week about establishing
diplomatic offices in the two capitals.
It is a major step toward formal
relations with the hard-line Commu
nist government.
That would depend, however, on
reaching an overall agreement on
North Korea’s suspect nuclear pro
gram, which, after more than a year
of quarreling, the Pyongyang gov
emmentpledged in July to freeze and
to partially open to international in
spectors.
Administration officials said
Thursday the talks beginning on Sept.
10, apparently the first ever in the
North Korean capital of Pyongyang,
would concern arrangements for set
ting up liaison offices there and in
Washington. Establishing mail ser
vice, renting office space and real
estate laws will be on the agenda.
Technical experts from the two
sides will meet the same day in Berlin
on replacing a five-megawatt exper
imental reactor that is part of North
Korea’s nuclear program with new
technology that is considered less
dangerous.
The Berlin meeting also will deal
with ways to safely store spent fuel
from the North Korean reactor and to
temporarily provide North Korea
with energy during a period of con
version to light-water reactors. Ber
lin was chosen because ofGermany ’ s
expertise in technology, officials said.
“We don’t attach symbol ic signif
icance,” to the Pyongyang meeting.
State Department spokesman Micha
el McCurry said. But he said he
would acknowledge that North Ko
rea might view the meeting in that
light.
Also, McCurry said opening liai
son offices was “conditional on an
overall agreement” on North Ko
rea’s nuclear program.
In Edgartown, Mass., where Pres
ident Clinton is on vacation. White
House press secretary Dee Dec Myers
said: “These are simply technical
talks that would allow us to be
prepared in case that somewhere
down the line a decision is made to
move forward in establishing a liai
son office or something else.
“Should the decision be made,
this is ... a step to make sure that
we’re ready.... This is not any kind of
a diplomatic conversation. It’s tech
nical discussions,” she said.
Although North Korea has prom
ised to freeze its nuclear program, it
has not agreed to permit internation
al inspection of two suspect waste
sites that could provide valuable clues
to what the North Koreans have been
doing with spent fuel. U.S. intelli
gence experts are convinced one or
two nuclear weapons were produced.
State Department officials said
Asian and European governments
would be asked to share the estimated
$4 billion cost of two replacement
light-water reactors.
“7hese are simply
technical talks that
would allow us to be
prepared in case that
somewhere down the
line a decision is made
to move forward in
establishing a liaison
office or something else
... this is not any kind
of a diplo matic
conversation. It's
technical discussions, ”
DEE DEE MYERS
White House Press Secretary
The agreement in Geneva main
tained the freeze pledged by North
Korea in July and monitored by In
ternational Atomic Energy Agency
inspectors. It did not resolve the dis
position of 8,000 nuclear fuel rods,
nor provide access to two suspect
waste sites.
Catholics and Muslims agree
W AS HINGTON—American lead
ers of the Muslim and Catholic faiths
joined forces Thursday to call for a
rejection of abortion by the upcoming
United Nations-sponsorcd population
conference in Cairo.
In a joint statement, the National
Conference of Catholic Bishops and the
American Muslim Council said the
conference should endorse language
adopted by the last population confer
ence a decade ago, which called on
governments to help women avoid abor
tion, “which in no case should be pro
moled as a method of family pi aiming.”
Their statement called for focusing
the conference on development needs,
educating women and tne poor, and
improving status of women, which are
among key goals of the International
Conference on Population and Devel
opment that begins Monday,
The conference, convening more
than 150 nations, aims to produce a
voluntary blueprint of ways to curb the
world’s population, now growing at 90
million people a year, and integrate
development and population strategies.
The conference has pitted the Clinton
administration against the Vat ican over
the issue of abortion, which the admin
istration wants included as a reproduc
tive health option in the plan of action
the conference will adopt.
The controversy has made unlikely
all icsof the Holy Sec and Muslims, who
allege the draft action plan for the con
ference promotes immorality and seeks
to undermine Islamic cultural beliefs,
as well as advocating abortion, homo
sexuality and premarital sex.
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