NEWSDtGEST
Clinton kills Iran’s deal
WASHINGTON — President
Clinton killed an American oil
company’s $1 billion oil contract
with Iran, accusing Tehran of ter
rorism and undermining Mideast
peace.
Clinton’s action Tuesday ended
a Conoco deal that already was
crumbling under pressure from
powerful stockholders and sharp
criticism from the administration
and Capitol Hill.
The White House said Clinton
would issue an executive order in
a matter of days to block the agree
ment, which had called for Conoco
to develop a huge offshore oil field
in the Persian Gulf.
Senate Banking Chairman
Alfonse D’Amato, R-N.Y., a lead
ing critic of the deal, praised
Clinton’s action but said it did not
go far enough. He proposed a bill
for a permanent and total trade ban
that will be considered by his com
mittee Thursday.
“The embargo we have today
against Iran is a myth,” D’Amato
“DuPont and Conoco
pride themselves on
being good corporate
citizens in the United
States as well as
around the world. As
a result, Conoco will
not proceed with the
agreement. ”
m
MIKE RICCIUTO
Dupont spokesman
said. “If we don’t make it a real
embargo it will never have any
real impact.”
The administration acknowl
edged that Clinton’s order would
not stop American companies from
buying Iranian oil through ioreign
subsidiaries and selling it abroad.
Using this method, U.S. com- i
panies buy nearly one-quarter of
Iran’s oil. D’Amato estimated U.S. 1
purchases at more than $3.5 bil- 5
lion last year. 1
It is highly unusual that a presi- J
dent would block a business deal.
But in this case, after a week of (
embarrassing publicity, Conoco ^
appeared happy that the accord (
was dead. The White House and
the oil company worked together (
to end the deal.
White House press secretary
Mike McCurry said Conoco, a sub
sidiary of DuPont, told the admin
istration it would terminate the
accord based on an executive or
der from the president.
Outside government, there was
powerful opposition to the deal
from members of the Bronfman
family, who are the top officers of
the Seagram Co. '
First American cosmonaut orbits
with Russians to Mir station
BAIKONUR, Kazakhstan — A
new era of U.S.-Russian space coop
eration began Tuesday when a Rus
sian rocket streaked into orbit carry
ing for the first time an American
astronaut.
The two nations that launched the
space race four decades ago had met
in space once previously, with the
1975 Apollo-Soyuz docking. But that
was a one-shot deal — a symbolic
gesture in the age of detente.
This time, both countries are com
mitted to a joint space program that is
to lead to construction of an interna
tional space station beginning in 1997.
About 20 NASA officials cheered
and waved U.S. flags and Russians in
fur hats poured champagne as the
rocket carrying astronaut Norman
Thagard and his two Russian
crewmates blasted off Tuesday.
Less than 10 minutes later, they
were orbiting Earth in a Soyuz space
craft.
“Our grandchildren will look back
— —I
at these times and read about them in
the history book as two countries
began a long process of cooperation
in space,” NASA manager Tommy
Holloway said at the Baikonur
Cosmodrome* 1,300 miles southeast
of Moscow in Central Asia.
Thagard, Vladimir Dezhurov and
Gennady Strekalov are to dock on
Mir Thursday. They’ll spend three
months there conducting science ex
periments before hitching a ride home
with NASA’s space shuttle Atlantis.
Atlantis is due at Mir in June, just
one month shy of the 20th anniver
sary of the 1975 ApoUo-Soyuz mis
This time, both sides are in an
agreement that will see four more
NASA astronauts travel by space
shuttle to Mir over the next four
years. So far, two Russian cosmo
nauts have flown on NASA’s space
shuttle.
Several hundred dignitaries and
guests gathered in the bitter cold at
twin grandstands a mile from the pad,
including about 20 NASA officials.
There was no 3-2-1 countdown or
the type of banter usually heard at
NASA launches. Instead, a few sec
onds before liftoff, the Russian launch
commentator reported the order to
ignitioirhad been given and at zero
shouted “Zazhiganiye!” - Russian for
ignition.
Defense cross examines Detective Fuhrman
LOS ANGELES — F. Lee Bailey
took a scalpel to Detective Mark
Fuhrman’s testimony Tuesday, open
ing potential holes in his story how a
bloody glove may link O.J. Simpson
to two murders.
With tough, precise questions,
Bailey confronted Fuhrman with in
consistencies, including Fuhrman’s
oft-repeated claim that the glove he
found on a leaf-strewn pathway at
Simpson’s estate was “moist and
sticky” with blood.
• The lawyer suggested the glove
was picked up at the murder scene,
encased in plastic or rubber, then
dropped at Simpson’s estate by
Fuhrman. Fuhrman testified he found
it there early the morning after the
slayings.
The glove, which prosecutors say
was stained with the victims’ blood,
is key evidence against Simpson, who
is accused of murdering ex-wife
Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend
Ronald Goldman.
airnpsun s auurmes arc trying iu
portray Fuhrman
as a racist who may have planted a
bloody glove on Simpson’s property
because he disapproyed of Simpson’s
interracial marriage.
Ito said he would allow witnesses
to testify about racially derogatory
remarks allegedly uttered by
Fuhrman.
In a testy courtroom exchange with
Bailey, prosecutor Marcia Clark sug
gested none of the incidents really
happened, including the one described
by Phill Coleman, a black business
man. Coleman said he sized up
Fuhrman’s allegedly racist attitudes
when the detective turned his back on
Coleman as they were about to be
introduced. Superior Court Judge
Lance Ito told Simpson attorney F.
Lee Bailey on Tuesday he could not
refer to the incident in his cross
examination of Fuhrman because a.
refusal to shake hands could be inter
preted in several ways. 1
Simpson
trial update
Mveft 14,1985 i
► Defense attorney F. Lee Bailey
suggested Detective Mark
Fuhrman fabricated several
details of his claim that he
found a bloody glove on a
pathway behind O.J.
Simpson's house.
► Bailey said several witnesses
will attribute racially
inflammatory statements to
Fuhrman. The defense is
attempting to portray him as a
racist who framed Simpson.
•i
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New software allows
Internet phone calls
NEW YORK—Richard Haus has
i new trick with his computer.
Fromhis San Francisco-areahome,
le scans a list of people on the screen
md clicks on a name. Suddenly, a
foice comes through his speakers,
ind Haus and the person he has
eached begin to talk.
‘Tve had a pretty clear connec
ion to Italy,” Haus said. “I’ve talked
o people in the Netherlands and lots
jf different places.”
The beauty is, the conversations
ion’t show up on his long-distance
Jill.
Haus is among the first to use the
Internet for phone-like conversations.
He and the people he talks to each
have bought a $50 software program
that turns a voice into digital data,
and then back into a voice the other
end. It’s the same thing long-distance
companies do with their computers.
Two companies just started sell
ing such software, and another has
plans to do so this summer. And
researchers at Cornell University are
testing, with other schools and hospi
tals, software that allows video con
ferences via the Internet.
The sound quality is not as good as
the phone, though it can be with the
right sound board inside a PC. In
addition, people can’t talk simulta
neously, so conversations end up be
ing like CB radio. And you can only
talk with those who use the same kind
of software. - ' • ^
While the Conversation may be
free, the cost of a computer and
monthly Internet connection are far
higher than a telephone. And. of
course, computers aren’t nearly as
widespread, mobile or easy to use as
telephones.
For those reasons, the big long
distance companies don’t fear a stam
pede of people making calls through
the Internet.
A Net plus?
For the first time, consumers
are able to buy software that
allows phone conversations
through the Internet. It could
reduce long-distance charges
but there are so many
limitations that some experts
wonder whether it will take off.
A comparison:
Internet phone call
Call cost: Free.
Other costs: Computer with
modem $1,000-plus; Internet
access account $10-$30
per month; Phone software
$604100.
Reach: People who use the
same software and are logged in
to the Internet when the caller is.
Regular phone call
off-peak domestic; 20-30
m ceats/miRUtefor ceSular;
; irfternatiooaf rates vary, ..;
Ffcorwh aa»afly ®
s ;::MdV0rtlriU> ihal8t**arK#. %&Mm
.charges of a few dollars • — *
111 Jlwdht People who :|&i.ii|j||:S
anywhere*.'-;
News... _______
in a Minute
House panel adopts GOP tax cut package
WASHINGTON — House Republicans pushed their “Contract
With America” tax cuts through the Ways and Means Committee on
Tuesday.
Democrats declared the package hopelessly flawed and abandoned
efforts to change it. Democrats offered a single amendment — to end
the tax cuts after five years. After that was defeated, on a 21-14 party
line vote, Democrats offered no further amendments and the commit
tee adopted die package by the same vote.
The tax cuts would cost the Treasury $189 billion over five-years,
and Republicans vowed to cover that loss entirely by slashing spend
ing.
“Not one single cent of tax relief will be provided unless it is offset
by spending reductions ” said Ways and Means Chairman Bill Archer,
R-Texas. He promised that Republicans would deliver the spending
cuts before the full House votes on the tax-cut package, probably next
month.
Yale alum withdraws $20 million gift
NEW HAVEN, Conn. — Yale University said Tuesday it has
agreed to return a $20 million donation for a program on Western
civilization because the benefactor demanded the right to approve
faculty appointments.
Texas philanthropist Lee M. Bass had asked that his 1991 gift be
returned, the school said.
The proposed program — which had come under attack from
liberals and others who wanted a multicultural curriculum instead of
one devoted to “dead white males” — was never established.
“Although Yale had informed Mr. Bass that it was prepared to
implement the program as envisioned in the original agreement, we
could not honor the donor’s new request to approve faculty appoint
ments,” Yale President Richard Levin said in a statement.
The Fort Worth, Texas, millionaire had no comment Tuesday, said
his assistant, Viki Slate.