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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 27, 1998)
f . - ;'V'" • ' >■ - : i i mk lli; •' fjf i ! 1 ; sa ._. Death tests peace accord Israeli settler murdered in divided town n—--' Seventeen months of no security relationship between us and the Israelis is not an easy thing." v; ?" • ’ , .... - - • . • ' .*\it .4 Mohammed Dahlan Palestinian security official HEBRON, West Bank (AP) - The body of the young Israeli settler lay sprawled in a pool ofblood on the dusty street, one foot clad only in a sock. Angry Jewish settlers and grim-faced Israeli soldiers milled about nearby. Monday’s execution-style killing in the divided town of Hebron was the first slaying of an Israeli in the West Bank since the signing nf the new lanrf for-security agreement. And it also marked a key fust test of the accord. Hard-line Jewish settlers, who say ceding more West Bank land to die Palestinians endangers their very exis tence, reacted with fury, staging a noisy demonstration Monday night outside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu^ residence. Chillingly, the Hebron killing also might have led to, tit-for-tat reprisal: Hours later, a Palestinian olive farmer was found dead under mysterious cir cumstances in the northern West Bank. Netanyahu condemned the killing of 29-year-old settler Danny Vaigas and said it showed the need for an all-out war on terror by Yasser Arafat’s Palestinian Authority. Under the accord signed fast week at the White House, Palestinian police are to actively hunt Islamic militants who stage attacks on Israelis. In this case, early signs were that ", %P!§ as Gunmen pumped at least three shots into Vargas, a security guard, leav ing his bleeding body in an Israeli-con trolled neighborhood not far horn the Jewish settlement of Kiryat Arba, where he lived and the power station where he worked. Both Israeli and Palestinian forces launched an immediate manhunt. Palestinian police found Vargas’ white Mitsubishi abandoned in an arid field, its passenger seat soaked with blood and the dead man’s missing sneaker inside. The car was in a Palestinian-run area, where Israeli troops are not allowed to go under existing agree ments. But Palestinian officials quickly escorted them to the scene. Together, a knot of officials from both sides - Israeli police officers, plainclothes agents, Palestinian intelli gence officers, Israeli soldiers - 1N* v • -iff*" ;«#J§ m. inspected the car, searching it andtak ing photographs. During the past year and a half, such a scene would have been almost unthinkable. As a deadlock in the peace talks dragged on, Palestinian security forces hadsuspended such cooperation with Israeli counterparts. Mohammed Dahlan, head of Palestinian preventive security in the Gaza Strip, acknowledged it would take time for the two sides to re-estab lish die kind of working partnership envisioned under die accord. “Seventeen months of no security relationship between us and the Israelis is not an easy thing,” he told the Palestinian newspaper al-Ayyam. “We committed to start this process with a positive attitude - but if this is not met with a positive attitude by die Israelis, we shall return to die period before the agreement” - Troops vacate Koso PRISTINA, Yugoslavia (AP) - In convoys of rumbling tanks and trucks, Yugoslav troops and Serb police vacated some heavily fortified posi tions in Kosovo on Monday, the eve of a NATO deadline to comply with a peace agreement or face punishing airstrikes. The withdrawal was President Slobodan Milosevic’s eleventh-hour attempt to convince NATO he was ful filling the agreement he reached two weeks ago with U.S. ehvoy Richard Holbrooke to defuse the eight-month Kosovo conflict Throughout the day, lines of green army tanks, artillery trucks and blue police in armored vehicles were seen moving toward military and police barracks in Pristina, the provincial capital, and other cities. In the Drenica region, 18 miles west of Pristina, a steady drizzle filled r freshly gouged hacks made by tanks withdrawing from roadside positions they assumed Oct 18. Several police checkpoints were Vacant, including one in Malisevo - the last front line in fighting that virtu ally halted last month. All that remained was a tattered Yugoslav flag hung ova* a pile of bricks. At another checkpoint in Dragobilje, which was occupied by heavily armed police a few days earli er, a uniformed ethnic Albanian guer rilla stood holding an automatic rifle. The guerrilla, who refused to give his name, said he and other separatist fighters were checking to see if it was safe for civilians to come back because there was a minefield in the area. Police remained at a few check points in the area as dusk settled, and there was no indication that anyone had returned to the heavily damaged villages nearby. Ethnic Albanians, who fled during the Serb offensive that began Feb. 28, say they’ll only come home once all police and soldiers have left. The return of an estimated 300,000 refugees, including up to 10,000 believed living in die woods, is a key provision of the Holbrooke-Milosevic plan. In Washington, White House spokesman Joe Lockhart said th,ere appeared to be “a lot of movement,” but that President Clinton would wait before judging whether Milosevic had done enough to satisfy Western demands. NATO sources in Brussels, speak ing on condition of anonymity, said the NATO ambassadors would probably wait until shortly before today’s dead line b.efore declaring whether Miloseyic met the conditions. Editor: Erin Gibson 4-1. ^ •» Managing Editor: Chad Lorenz ^ ™ #d,l0r * Areodate News Editor: Bryce Glenn J!S22n2u*. Associate Nfcws Editor: Brad Davis Of e-mail dne.unl.edu. Assignment Editor:* KaseyKcrbcr Opinion Editor: Cliff Hicks General Manager Dan Shattil Sports Editor: Sam McKewon Pnbttcotions Board Jessica Hofmann, A&E Editor: Bret Schulte Chairwoman: (402)466-8404 Copy Desk Chief: Diane Broderick Profesdonal Adviser: Don Walton, Photo Chief: Matt Miller (402)473-7248 Design Chief: Nancy Christensen Advertising Manager; Nick Partsch, Art Director: Matt Haney (402) 472-2589 Online Editor: Gregg Stearns Asst Ad Manager: Andrea Oehjen Diverstona Editor: Jeff Randall Cfandfidd Ad Manager: Mami Speck Fax number (402) 472-1761 Worid Wide Web: www.unl.edu/DaayNeb ^D^ Nebraskan (USPS144-080) is prtlshed by the UNLPubficalions Board, Nebraska • Union 34,1400 RSL, uncoin, NE 685684)448, Monoy through Friday duming the academic yean weekly during the summer sesaions.The pubic has access to the Pubfications Board. Readers are encouraged to submit story ideas and comments to the Daly Nebraskan by caHng * (402)472-2588. Subscriptions ate $55 for one year. Poebnaster Send address changes to the Daly Nebraskanjtebraska Union 34,1400 R St, Lincoln NE 685880448. Periodical postage paid at Lincoln, NE. ALL MATERIAL COPYRIGHT 1998 THE DALY NS9RASKAN Hurricane Mitch swirls toward Honduran coast - People flcdth^ Honduras (AP) - die Honduran government sent air force planes to pluck residents off remote Caribbean islands Monday in die face of the most powerful hurri cane in a decade to threaten Central America. Hurricane Mitch became a Category 5 hurricane - the strongest category there is - on Monday with winds of 180 mph. At 4 p.m. EST, Mitch’s cento* was 35 miles south east of Honduras' Swan Island and was moving west-northwest at 8 mph Hurricane Mitch posed no immediate threat to the United States. The storm was expected to remain in the northwest Caribbean for the next fivedays, the ceriter said. President CarlosFloresFacusse declared a state of alert and told coastal residents to leave their homes for safer ground farther inland. “We’re ready for whatever situa tion occurs,” said Vice President Billy Handal. “I ask God to be benevolent with Hondurans.” Pteru, Ecuador sign treaty 3BRASEiA,Srazii (AP) - Peru and Ecuador ended a half-century treaty that settles ownership ofa slice of Amazon jungle the neighboring countries fought two wars to control The presidents and foreign min isters of both countries signed the accord at a ceremony in Brazil’s cap ital, where most of the peace talks took place. The United States, Brazil, Argentina and Chile brokered the treaty, which delineate? the border in a 48-mile section of the Andean foothills. Peru and Ecuador both claimed the area, which was left undefined after a 1941 border war. The two countries fought over the strip of land in 1981 and 1995. The peace treaty draws the bor der .along the heights of the Cordillera del Condor mountain range, as Peru wanted. But it grants a hill within Peruvian territory to Ecuador’s gov ernment. Student default loan rate falls to 9.6 percent . WASHINGTON (AP) - The default rate on student loans fell into single digits for the first time, the Education Department reported Monday, citing an agency and con gressional crackdown as well as an improvedeconomy. The drop to a 9.6 percent default rate for fiscal year 1996 was the sixth annual decline since rates peaked at 22.4 percent in 1990. Congress passed legislation in 1990 and 1992 to crack down on bor rowers and trade schools such as beauty colleges and truck-driving schools that promised more job train ing than they delivered. And the country began to pull out of a reces sion in early 1991. The department noted that the default rate has declined even though the vohime of bans has risen dramat ically, from about $14 billion in 1992 to $38 billion in die 1998 fiscal year. Because of the volume, actual dollar savings aren’t as dramatic as they could have been. Microsoft deal with AOL discussed in court WASHINGTON (AP) - Microsoft Corp.^ehalfenged a rival’s claims Monday that the computer giant illegallywielded its influence to win exclusive deals to distribute its Internet software with America Online and Compaq Computer Corp. AOL, the nationfc largest Internet provider with about 13 million cus tomers, chose in early 1996 to distrib ute Microsoft’s browser rather than Netscape’s because it was technically superior, said Microsoft lawyer John Warden. But James Barksdale, chief exec utive officer for Netscape Communications Corp. and the gov ernment’s most important witness, said Microsoft won the important contract because it agreed to include AOL’s own software as part of its Windows 95 operating system, used by tens of millions of people. The government alleges that Microsoft illegally sought to leverage its monopoly power as the maker of Windows to extend its reach into new markets, such as for Internet soft ware. Law said to target homosexuals ■ Gays and lesbians protest a Louisiana statute against oral and anal sex. NEW ORLEANS (AP)-Gay men and lesbians who must break a state law to have sex went to court Monday to overturn Louisiana’s sodomy law, saying it is unconstitutional and legit imizes hatred ofhomosexuals. At the start of a long-awaited civil trial challenging the law, a lawyer claimed state legislators are afraid to repeal it because they would be labeled “pro-gay.” But the lawmakers have ended up perpetuating anti-homosexual dis crimination and violence, said John Rawls, the attorney who filed tne law suit on behalf of seven homosexuals and the Louisiana Electorate of Gays and Lesbians. “This law is maintained by the Louisiana Legislature strictly as a mea sure of bigotry” Rawls said. Louisiana is one of 13 states that makes consensual oral and anal sex between heterosexual or homosexual couples a crime, even if the sex takes place behind closed doors in a home. Six other states have sodomy laws ban ning such sex between homosexual couples only. The Louisiana law dates to the early 1800s, shortly after France sold the state to the United States, and makes the crime a felony punishable by up to five years in prison. About 2,000 heterosexuals and homosexuals woe arrestfed for violat ing the law between 1988 and 1994, Rawls said. However, he said homo sexuals risk being targeted more because legal intercourse is not one of their sexual options. The law has not been enforced since the lawsuit was filed in 1994, and a judge halted prosecution of sodomy cases. The injunction also prevented a nationwide boycott of Louisiana by gay groups. The injunction will no longer be valid if Civil Judge Carolyn Gill Jefferson finds that the law is constitu tional. Lawyers for the state have indicat ed in court papers that they will aigue Louisiana has the right to deter immoral conduct and impose penal ties, but they gave no opening state ment as the trial opened. Assistant Attorney General Thomas Halligan, the lead attorney, declined to comment lata. In 1986, the US. Supreme Court upheld Georgia’s sodomy law, saying bans against such conduct have ahcient roots. -