i
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__TUESDj
More bodies found
after Bangladesh quake
DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) —
Eight more bodies have been recov
ered from the rubble of a five-story
building that collapsed during an
earthquake in Bangladesh last week.
A district official at Chittagong,
140 miles southeast of the capital,
said Monday those bodies brought
the total death toll in Friday’s 6.0
magnitude quake to 13.
The quake was centered 65
miles east of Chittagong, according
to the U.S. Geological Survey in
Golden, Colo.
Guerrillas kill Peruvian
soldiers in jungle ambush
LIMA, Peru (AP)—Guerrillas
ambushed an army patrol in Peru’s
northern Amazon jungle, killing
six soldiers and wounding seven,
the military reported Monday.
One guerrilla died and an
undetermined number were
injured in the attack Sunday in a
remote stretch of jungle in La
Polvora district in the department
of San Martin, 290 miles northeast
of Lima, an armed forces news
release said.
Guerrillas opened fire on the
soldiers and, after a gunfight,
retreated, carrying with them “an
appreciable number of wounded,”
the military statement said. The
soldiers were riding in a truck at
the time of the attack.
The statement did not say what
group the guerrillas belonged to,
but the Shining Path is the only
group known to operate in the
region.
Israeli police suggest
indicting former official
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — In a
blow to a prime minister already
facing a mutiny in his own party,
police have recommended indicting
Benjamin Netanyahu’s former top
aide on charges of theft and fraud,
Israeli TV stations said Monday.
The aide, Avigdor Lieberman,
resigned Sunday as director of the
Prime Minister’s Office, a position
equivalent to White House chief of
staff.
His departure appeared aimed at
quelling a mutiny against
Netanyahu in the governing Likud,
where Netanyahu’s rivals for the
leadership were outraged by efforts
allegedly spearheaded by
Lieberman to tighten the prime min
ister’s control of the party.
At a news conference Monday,
Lieberman vowed “to continue to
act with aft my strength” to help
Netanyahu. Such political activity
“was not enabled by my status as a
civil servant,” he explained.
But a few hours later, Israel’s
two main TV stations said police
have recommended charging
Lieberman with theft and fraud
because he only repaid about a quar
ter of a $40,000 loan provided sev
eral years ago.
Police spokesman Linda
Menuhin told The Associated Press
there was an investigation against
Lieberman and that it was complet
ed, but she would not confirm that
the police were asking the state
prosecdttao forrtnckidictment.
No comment was available from
Lieberman on the reports. Israel TV
said Netanyahu’s office denied the
resignation was connected to the
police investigation.
Iraq’s palaces remain off limits
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) — U.N.
arms monitors searching for Iraq’s
banned arsenal inspected 11 sites
without interference Monday -
including pharmaceutical factories
where biological or chemical
weapons could be produced.
But a new confrontation could
still develop if U.N. inspectors try to
search dozens of other sites, includ
ing President Saddam Hussein’s
many palaces, which Iraq considers
sensitive to national security.
An American U-2 spy plane,
which Iraq has threatened to shoot
down, made another flight into Iraqi
airspace Monday, its third since the
crisis over weapons inspections start
ed more than three weeks ago.
A Pentagon official in
Washington said the flight over cen
tral Iraq - part of the U.N. weapons
inspection program - was completed
without incident.
Monday’s inspections went
smoothly, as they have has since they
were resumed Saturday. “They have
had a normal inspection day with no
problems reported,” said Allan Dacey,
a British spokesman for the U.N.
monitors.
He said the inspectors were
searching for missiles and biological,
chemical and nuclear weapons, as
well as examining arms imports and
exports. Some inspectors flew in heli
copters to check for any inappropriate
activity on the ground; U.N. inspec
tors have accused Iraq of sneaking
documents out the back doors of
weapons sites even as inspectors were
entering the front
The arms inspectors’job is to cer
tify that Iraq has complied with U.N.
resolutions requiring it to eliminate
weapons of mass destruction in line
with treaties that ended the 1991
Persian Gulf War. Economic sanc
tions, imposed after Iraq’s 1990 inva
sion of Kuwait that led to the war,
have devastated the Iraqi economy.
Despite the latest cooperation in
Baghdad, American and Iraqi offi
cials were still arguing over whether
inspectors should search Saddam’s
many presidential compounds.
In Washington, deputy White
House national security adviser
James Steinberg said the United
Nations had “clear authority” to look
at the 47 presidential compounds.
“These presidential palaces seem
to be getting larger, more numerous,”
U.N. weapons inspector Richard
Butler said Monday on ABC televi
sion. “How many palaces can one
have?”
Bill Richardson, the U.S. ambas
sador to the United Nations, also
demanded the inspectors “have full
access to all the sites.”
“We’re talking about 47 presiden
tial sites, 63 sites the Iraqis have
deemed do not deserve access. How
can you do your job?” he said. “This
crisis is far from over.”
But Iraq, citing national sover
eignty and security, has long rejected
the inspectors’ contention that they
should be free to visit any suspicious
site.
“The crisis might be renewed if
America’s intransigent attitude con
tinues,” Deputy Prime Minister Tariq
Aziz was quoted by the Iraqi News
Agency as telling Jordanian televi
sion.
Still, the inspectors stayed away
from the palaces Monday and instead
searched 11 sites, seven of them drug
factories that could be used for pro
ducing biological or chemical
weapons, INA said.
Access to presidential palaces
was a factor in Iraq’s crisis with the
weapons monitors last month. It
claimed the Americans were spies
intent on preventing the lifting of
U.N. sanctions against Iraq.
When the U.N. Security Council
condemned that stance, Iraq threw
the Americans out on Nov. 13. The
United Nations removed the other
inspectors in protest, and the United
States escalated its military presence
in the region, sending a second air
craft carrier to the Gulf and extra
fighter planes to Kuwait.
The crisis was resolved last week
under a Russian-mediated deal in
which Iraq agreed the Americans
could return, and Moscow pledged to
work toward lifting U.N. sanctions.
The 75 weapons monitors, who
include four Americans, returned to
Iraq on Friday.
I
Critics: FAA takes too long
WASHINGTON (AP) — Over
Thanksgiving, hundreds of thou
sands of travelers will walk to air
port gates through security equip
i ment that still does not check for
. plastic explosives and board air
planes where many packages
haven’t been screened for bombs.
L Seven years after a presidential
panel urged drastic improvements
in airport security, federal officials
are just now beginning such long
awaited changes as the profiling of
passengers to identify security risks
and the mandatory matching of
bags to passengers.
Critics say the changes, some of
which take effect Jan. 1, have taken
too long and fall short of recom
mendations the Federal Aviation
Administration was first urged to
implement in 1990.
That’s when numerous potential
holes in the airport safety net were
identified by a presidential panel
convened after a plastic explosive
hidden by terrorists inside a radio
cassette player destroyed Pan Am
Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland.
Several times since then, most
recently by a panel headed by Vice
President A1 Gore, government
reports have stressed the impor
tance of closing holes in the airport
security system.
“They totally and consciously
failed to address the screening of
passengers and hand-carried bag
gage from an explosives detection
standpoint,” former FAA security
chief Billie Vincent said. “They
really failed miserably in looking at
the overall system.”
Added Sen. Alfonse D’Amato,
R-N.Y., a member of the commis
sion that studied security after the
Flight 103 bombing: “Not much
has changed. It doesn’t even take a
great deal of sophistication to bring
about a tragedy.”
FAA officials say they are
addressing many of those concerns.
To help, Congress boosted the
FAA’s 1998 budget by $785 million,
to $9.1 billion, including about
$100 million for security improve
ments and an additional $44 million
for research and development.
“We are vety much well on our
way to have the security situation in
the United States more effective in
preventing acts of terrorism,” said
Cathal Flynn, FAA assistant admin
istrator for civil aviation security.
But even with the changes,
potential security loopholes remain.
For instance, panels have warned
that security gains from passenger
profiling could be partly lost through
the use of curbside baggage check
ins or electronic ticketing - practices
that remain prevalent today.
And there is concern that the
security workers who operate metal
detectors and screen passengers hold
lc v-paying, high-turnover positions.
The FAA’s effort has been criti
cized in several reports - from
Congress’ General Accounting
Office, from the FAA’s own inspec
tor general and from various panels.
For example, the Flight 103 panel
asked the FAA to ensure that luggage
was not loaded unless the bags’ owner
also boarded the plane. In September
1996, the TWA Flight 800 commis
sion recommended a similar match.
FAA officials say such a plan
finally will be in place by Jan. 1.
One major problem is that the
technology that so effectively
stopped the use of metal guns to
hijack airplanes can’t detect plastic
explosives. Bomb detectors as effi
cient and reliable as X-ray machines
do not yet exist, experts say.
“It has proven far more difficult to
develop this scanning technology
than originally thought,” said Rep.
James Oberstar, D-Minn., a member
of the Flight 103 panel. “We still don’t
have a single one-shot machine.”
Instead, airlines are relying on a
series of steps. By Jan. 1, all air
lines will be profiling passengers,
using a series of criteria to deter
mine which people should be sin
gled out for farther examination.
Those passengers will have
their luggage screened using new
explosive detection machines, or
won’t have their bags loaded on the
airplane unless they also board the
flight.
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THE DAILY NEBRASKAN
Editor: Paula Lavigne
Managing Editor: Julie Sobczyk
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, i
Captive
workers
released
MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) —
Five foreign aid workers kidnapped
by militiamen in northeastern
Somalia were released unharmed
Monday and were in good health
despite three days of captivity.
In a separate incident, militiamen
killed at least nine people north of
Mogadishu Monday in a dispute over
farmland, witnesses said. Two Italian
aid workers based nearby were
briefly taken hostage, their offices
were looted, and a driver for CARE
International was wounded.
The two relief workers, from
Coperazioni Italiano Nord-Sud,
apparently were taken simply because
they happened to be in the area at the
time of the clash, which killed eight
militiamen and one civilian.
Meanwhile, the five freed aid
workers - one from the European
Union and four from the United
Nations - arrived safely at the U.N.
Children’s Fund office in Bossasso,
said Agostino Paganini, the group’s
director of operations in Somalia.
“They are fine, OK, tired,” Paganini
told The Associated Press. The hostages
were flown to Nairobi later Monday.
They include one British employ
ee of the European Union, two
Kenyans, an Indian and a Canadian,
the British Foreign Office said.
They were abducted Friday in the
self-declared independent Republic of
Somaliland, apparently in a dispute;
over coal exports between two tribal
clans, the Wasangeli and the Marjeteen.
Wasangeli fighters apparently;
carried out the kidnapping in retaliat
tion for the Maijeteen’s capture earli
er that day of a Palestinian business
partner of two Somali charcoal deal
ers, a U.N. source said.
The Marjeteen militia freed thp,
Palestinian on Sunday on condition
that the aid workers were let go, the
source said.
Aid workers have often been tar
gets of armed Somali factions vying
for control of the country, which has
had no central government since a
1991 coup ousted the president.
