NETZARIM, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli troops shot and killed two Pal estinians and two others blew them selves up in bungled suicide bombings TUesday, one of the deadliest days yet in a growing crisis in Middle East peacemaking. The bombers apparently had meant to destroy Israeli school buses outside Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip, Israelis said. The attacks come dur ing a deadlock in Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, which broke down last month over new Israeli construction in disputed east Jerusalem, and trig gered new accusations from both sides. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insisted that the suicide bombings showed that Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat has sanctioned attacks by Islamic militants. “Today’s twin attacks (are) proof that the terror campaign continues,” Netanyahu said. Arafat said it was Israel’s pro longed security closure of Palestinian areas that created a climate of vio lence. “We are all doing our best... to control the situation,” Arafat said. Both sides refuse to resume peace talks unless the other makes key com promises. Netanyahu later decided to make a 12-hour visit to the United States to talk with President Clinton about the crisis, the prime minister’s spokesman said. Netanyahu also will address the pro-Israeli lobby AIPAC and Christian organizations that support Israel, and will meet with U.S. Jewish leaders, spokesman Shai Bazak said. Israel’s Channel 2 television said Clinton intended to propose a compro mise to Netanyahu. The Palestinians demand that Is rael stop construction of a Jewish neighborhood in east Jerusalem, the sector they claim as a future capital. Until the work stops, Palestinians say they will refuse to help Israel on secu rity, such as detecting Islamic mili tants plotting attacks on Israelis. Netanyahu insists that Arafat re store order and peace before negotia tions resume. He refuses to halt the construction. Two suicide bombings in Gaza AP endei oMezcies An exceptional boy meets an untimely end Editor’* note: In yesterday’s in stallment, we learned Tittle Sammy Grahams’s body grew differently from other children’s. Despite an unusually mature faith in God, he dreaded entering middle school. The entire story is available online at . By Nancy Shuuns Associated Press he Grahams spent the better part of the summer in Jamaica, where Sammy Graham surprised every one by launching an all-out cam paign to lose weight. He lifted weights and did push-ups. He di eted and he jogged. He was devel oping discipline. His parents were proud. By die time they came home in August, Sammy’s hard work had begun to pay off. His dad, Vincent, was sure he could see a difference. But it wasn’t enough, not to Sammy. He had counted on com ing back thin. He got his first look at Parkway the week before school darted. It was big. At the orientation he at tended with his parents, “they em phasized that middle school is re ally tough,” Vincent says. “Nobody baby-sat you anymore.” That Saturday, Vincent took the boys skating. On Sunday, they all went to chinch. Sammy wore his navy blue jacket with white pants and a pink shirt. “He looked so sweet,” Vincent says. If only he’d taken a picture. The sermon was about God’s protection. At the end, Vincent asked the young people to come forward for his blessing like al ways, only this time Sammy stayed in his seat. The night before: ice cream and a pillow fight They had their usual Sunday dinner: rice and peas with carrot J Wi juice. There was ice cream for des sert, a small helping for Sammy. He was trying to lose some more weight. The boys watched TV, then put on their pajamas and climbed into their parents’ bed. A pillow fight broke out. Naturally, Vincent jumped right in. After awhile, though, he turned himself back into a grown-up and insisted they all go to sleep. They had school in the morning, after all. He got in bed with them and they cuddled. Sammy’s mom Jackie: kissed them and left fbr work, re minding Sammy she’d be home early to take him. It was the first day for brothers Josh and David, too, but Sammy needed her more. He was the one changing schools. When Vincent opened his eyes the next morning, it was 6:33. Sammy wasn’t in bed, but Josh and David were still sleeping, and their school started earlier. He woke than and hurried them along. It dawned on him that he hadn’t seen Sammy, but first things first. He needed to get the little ones ready. Otherwise, they’d miss their bus. Where was he, anyway? Vincent checked the bathroom. He knelt down and peered under the bed. Sammy liked hide-and-seek, but that was a night game. He jogged, but never this early. Vincent was more puzzled than alarmed. Back to the bathroom. He knew Sammy wasn’t there, but he was running out of places to look. Something caught his eye. He glanced out the window. What was that, under the tree? Thai he saw. A life has ended. It was Jackie’s first thought as she turned onto her street. She counted three ambu lances, six police cars. A neighbor stopped her. It’s Sammy, she said. surreal days were a blur of visitors and arrangements. . Somehow Jadud'got through them, • ~ b&ifc how on earth would she get through the days after that? A counselor suggested she set aside 20 minutes a day to think about Sammy and cry. Oddly, it helped. So did the fund set up in his honor, at People’s Bank of Commerce in Lauderdale Lakes. Friends, even strangers, wanted to do something, but what? Jackie knew: a center for shy, overweight children. Where they could swim without shame. For her family’s sake, she needed to pull herself back to gether. And little by little, she did. Not long ago, she realized some thing amazing: She’d gone a whole day without tears. Perfect strength Of course, she’d had God’s help. She couldn’t have managed without him; in that way, her loss only deepened her faith. “His strength is made perfect in our weakness. I know that now,” Jackie says. It helps to remember that Sammy’s gone home. He’s with Jesus now. That was what he most wanted, and God allowed it. They must accept it and go on; what other choice do they have? And yet, there remain many un answered questions. “It’s such a mystery,” Vincent says. He can only imagine how it must have happened, how God must have watched Sammy steal into the yard with a flashlight, a rope and a step stool, having pieced together his final puzzle: The body he hated. The school he feared. The perfect place that awaited his soul. He could go there. He would go there. It would be easy, like swim ming. Just position the stool and climb up, toward heaven. Then step into God’s waiting arms. / ■ T Daub ahead of Council in Omaha mayoral race OMAHA—Mayor Hal Daub will face Brenda Council in a repeat ' of the 1994 mayor’s race during the general election May 13. Challenger Lou Lamberty conceded Tuesday after gamering only 20.27 percent of the vote in the primary race. Lamberty threw his sup port into the Council campaign after conceding. Council attracted 39.66 percent of the vote with all of the precincts reporting. Daub finished with 40.04 percent, four months after receiving the lowest job approval rating for an Omaha mayor since 1987. “It’s the attitude that the devil you know is better than the devil you don’t know,” said James B. Johnson, chairman of the political science department at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. Weapons discovered in Heaven's Gate storage sheds SAN DIEGO — Five handguns, three rifles and ammunition be longing to the Heaven’s Gate suicide cult were discovered in two rented storage sheds Tuesday. A handgun had been found earlier among cult members’ baggage. Thirty-nine cult members carried out a suicide ritual last week in their exclusive suburban hideaway in Rancho Santa Fe, Calif. Lt. Jerry Lipscomb, the sherifFs lead homicide detective, said weapons were not ; used in the deaths and said there was no evidence the cult used weap ons “either for hunting a- criminal activity.” Ray didn’t kill Martin Luther King, King's son says ATLANTA — Echoing the words of his younger brother, Martin Luther King IH said Tuesday he does not believe that James Earl Ray was involved in their father’s assassination 29 years ago. “We are relatively convinced that James Earl Ray had nothing to do with the assassination,” the 39-year-old King said. “Mr. Ray has just been used as a patsy.” Ray, 69, is serving a 99-year prison sentence and is said to be suf fering from terminal liver disease. The King family has called for a new trial for Ray, saying it is the only way to learn the truth about the assassination. - Racial groups targeted PHOENIX (AP) — In the early 1960s, the tobacco industry knew of nicotine’s “severe toxicity,” targeted potential smokers as young as 16 and marketed brands especially for black, Hispanic and Jewish smokers, docu ments released Tuesday show. Made public by Arizona’s attorney general, the documents represent only a fraction of die thousands of papers Liggett is turning over to Arizona and 21 other states as part of a landmark settlement. On March 20, Liggett admitted smoking was addictive, something the tobacco industry has long denied, and agreed to pay one-quarter of its pre tax profits over the next 25 years to . offset the costs ofsmoking-related ill nesses. The records show that Liggett con sidered using synthetic ingredients to increase the impact of cigarettes on smokers “without the severe toxicity of nicotine itself.” They also show that the tobacco industry devised special marketing tools to take into account “ethnic fac tors” and marketing differences among black, Hispanic and Jewish smokers. The report said that “Spanish and Negro groups like to purchase only the best of everything—they are not look ing for bargains. They can be reached successfully by promotion that they understand, i.e., Negro salesmen and media (but not exclusively).” The report went on to say that “there must be a racial slant in the marketing efforts” directed toward Hispanics and blacks, while “promo tion must be smart and sophisticated” for die Jewish market. A 1963 report by Arthur D. Little Inc., a Massachusetts consulting firm, identified potential smokers ages 16 to 21 as those in “the formative years (when) smoking starts and brand pref erences are developed. v ] “At age 16-21, there is much bum ming of cigarettes.” ' i Another document recommended a new, improved packaging concept for the cigarette “so as to have more appeal to youth.” n r Question*? Comments? Ask for the Nebraskan 4 MSaasBSX. Editor. DougKouma A&EEditor JeffRandal Managing Editor Paula Lavigne Photo Director Scott Bruhn Assoc. 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