GOP sees split on conviction
Republicans question if Clinton’s lies deem removal
WASHINGTON (AP)
Republican senators on Sunday said
some of their colleagues may vote
against removing President Clinton
from office. House prosecutors,
meanwhile, prepared to question
Monica Lewinsky in a last-ditch effort
to strengthen their case.
As Lewinsky waited at the
Mayflower Hotel for her deposition
today, cracks appeared in the unified
Republican front on the peijury and
. obstruction charges against Clinton.
“The sense right now in just listen
ing to members talk is that there are
Republicans who either are not going
to vote for peijury or the obstruction
of justice” charge, Sen. Tim
Hutchinson, R-Ark., said in a tele
phone interview.
Hutchinson declined to estimate
how many might vote to acquit, but he
indicated that getting even 50 votes for
conviction in a chamber controlled by
55 Republican senators is in doubt
“You would get much closer to
getting a majority in the obstruction
(charge) than on the perjury charge” as
the case now stands, he said.
House prosecutors have shifted
their focus to the obstruction charge
on the assumption that even among
Republicans who believe that Clinton
lied under oath, there is questionable
support for the notion that the untruths
were serious enough to warrant the
president’s removal, according to an
official who demanded anonymity.
To that end, two of the three wit
nesses prosecutors will question this
week - presidential friend Vernon
Jordan and White House aide Sidney
Blumenthal - go to the obstruction
question, rather than the perjury
charge. ,
And sources close to the commit
tee have said that Rep. Ed Bryant of
Tennessee, who will question
Lewinsky, wants to elicit information
on Clinton’s efforts to conceal their
affair from Paula Jones’ lawyers and
Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr’s
grand jury.
But even as senators widely
believe they don’t have the 67 votes
needed to remove him from office,
Clinton’s battles are far from over.
Starr is considering indicting
Clinton before his term expires. A
legal source, speaking on condition of
anonymity, said that Starr’s view is
that a sitting president is indictable.
Colombia struggles after earthquake
■ Makeshift morgues with
exhausted workers suffer
through trying relief efforts.
ARMENIA, Colombia (AP) -
Empty coffins were piled high in the
stands Sunday of the local basketball
arena that served as a makeshift
morgue for victims of last week’s dev
astating earthquake. The floor, which
had received hundreds of corpses in
previous days, was now clear.
Outside, a woman who had just
identified her husband’s remains sat on
a curb weeping into a handkerchief.
With the arrival of bodies slowing
to a trickle, exhausted morgue workers
- many of whom had identified
friends, relatives and coworkers -
could finally take stock of a trying
week at grief’s epicenter.
Luz Patricia Rojas, who lowered a
surgical mask to speak through a thick,
lingering stench, said she had recog*
nized one dead coworker by his mus
tache and distinctively plump hands.
Rojas, a morgue worker, said she
was'overwhelmed on the first night of
the tragedy, and had to go for a walk to
collect herself. “I cried and cried and
cried,” she said.
She also recalled examining a
mother and baby who arrived locked in
a tight embrace. Rojas imitated the
scene by cradling an imaginary child in
her hands, sheathed in rubber surgical
gloves.
On the night the earthquake struck,
the basketball court was filled with up
to 300 bodies#at a time. Two-thirds of
the nearly 1,000 people killed in
Colombia’s earthquake arrived there.
Now, a humming refrigerator truck
keeps cool the handful of black plastic
bags that contain the remaining
unidentified victims of the magnitude
6 earthquake, which ravaged a coffee
growing area of western Colombia on
Jan. 25.
Symbolic of a poorly managed
relief operation, the 200 empty coffins
in the Quindio state university arena
had arrived after most of the dead had"
already been buried.
Because the coffins sat unnoticed
for several days in a warehouse, many
grieving relatives were forced to bury
their dead in plastic bags.
For many morgue workers, getting
flooded with corpses for the first few
days was the hardest.
Not for Rojas.
“It’s harder now because die cadav
ers arrive in a highly decomposed
state, or even dismembered,” she said.
“Now we’re getting hands and sections
ofbodies.”
For John Jaime Botero, a morgue
doctor, the week’s most excruciating
moment was when morgue staff identi
fied die body of a 20-year-old universi
ty student who had volunteered in sev
eral of their offices.
Cheers had gone up hours before'
when an erroneous news report
declared the young woman was alive in
the wreckage of a caved-in building.
“First came the tragedy, then the
happiness of finding her alive, and
then death,” Botero said.
The earthquake has crippled areas
surrounding Armenia, which was more
than half destroyed. At least 200,000
people are homeless, thousands have
fled to other cities and health condi
tions are deteriorating because of food
shortages and a lack of running water
and electricity.
RHA recommends allowing
non-honors students to stay
RHA from page 1
sary, he said, because of a shortage of
rooms for honors students in
Neihardt.
“The measure will give room to
50 students,” he said. “That is a sub
stantial amount for us.”
The Neihardt representatives cast
the only votes against the recommen
dation. But Neihardt President
Jocelyn Walsh said she is still looking
for a solution to the problem.
“It is ribt done yet,” she said.
At the meeting, Berger said the
Honors Program has acted appropri
ately by trying to meet the demands
--—
of honors and non-honors students.
“Announcing the new policy half
a year in advance should meet the
demands of non-honors Neihardt res
idents,” he said. _
Abel Senator Matt Knobbe said
non-honors students shouldn’t be
forced to move out of Neihardt
because they have become part of the
honors community.
Although University Housing
forced RHA Treasurer Brian
Opplinger to leave Neihardt last sum
mer, he said he supports the new pol
icy.
“Non-honors students from
Neihardt have enough time to find a
different place to live,” he said.
Pound President Kasey Kerber
said he is disturbed that students are
not included in housing decisions.
“Students need to have more
input in issues like these,” Kerber
said.
Beiger said the new housing poli
cy also implies that beginning in the
fall of 2000, honors students who
drop out of the honors program must
move out of Neihardt at the end of the
spring semester.
“It is not our intention to tell them
on Nov. 26 to move out on Dec. 15,”
he said. “That would not have been
nice.”
Questions? Comments?
Ask for the appropriate section editor at (402) 472-2588
' or e-mail dn@unl.6du.
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■ Israel
U.S.-arranged peace deal
not in place by deadline
■ Northern Ireland
Former IRA bomber beaten
for published accusations
BELFAST (AP) - A former Irish
Republican Army bomber was
abducted and beaten Sunday, his sis
ter said, apparently for published
comments he made accusing die IRA
and Sinn Fein of targeting dissidents.
Paddy Fox, 29, was badly bruised
by his captors during 10 hours in
their custody, according to his sister,
Patricia Kearney.
Fox knew his abductors, she said,
adding that they “didn’t do much
questioning, and were quiet for most
of the time.”
JERUSALEM (AP) - A peace
deal tailored by the United States to
meet the security needs of Israel and
grant Palestinians 13 percent of die
West Bank was to have been com
pleted by Sunday; but after three
months, little has been implement
ed.
Palestinian negotiator Saeb
Erekat accused Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu of using the
Israeli elections as an excuse to hold
up the deal. Netanyahu countered
that the Palestinians are violating
the deal by releasing militants rather
than cracking down on them.
■ Alaska
■ Iraq
Iraqis criticize ILN.’s move
to assess situation slowly
BAGHDAD (AP) - Iraq criti
cized the U.N. Security Council’s
decision to create study panels to
assess Iraqi disarmament, humanitar
ian needs and the fate of missing
Kuwaitis, saying Sunday that the
move was nothing more titan “pro
crastination.”
On Saturday, the Security Council
agreed to form the study panels in its
first, modest step to break the diplo
matic logjam. Iraq instead wants the
Security Council to condemn U.S.
and British aggression.
Siberian air freezes state
with 70-below temperatures
The Associated Press - An out
break of bitterly cold air - even by
Alaskan standards - has the 49™
state shivering.
Air temperatures have dropped
to minus 70 degrees Fahrenheit in
the state’s interior, with wind chills
plummeting to minus 100 in the
coldest weather in a decade, the
National Weather Service reported.
A blocking pattern in the atmos
phere is causing frigid air from
Siberia to spill into northern Alaska,
and as it spreads further to the
Southeast the cold will begin affect
ing more populated areas, such as
Fairbanks.
Ireland sentenced to
15 to 20 years in jail
IRELAND from pagel
Ireland’s record, Flowers said, was a
1989 high speed chase in Oklahoma,
from which Ireland face^almost no
penalty.
Deputy County Attorney Andy
Jacobson said that during the 1989
chase Ireland ran into the back of a
police cruiser and his tires had to be
shot out to end die chase.
Flowers also said that in 1997,
Ireland abandoned a chance to treat his
alcohol problem.
In a statement before the sentence,
Ireland addressed the overflowing
courtroom and asked the Cocksons to
forgive him.
“I know there is nothing I can say to
take the pain away,” Ireland said. “I
know what it is like to lose a child, but
that does not excuse what I did.”
In February 1997, Ireland’s fiancee
shook and killed their 17-month-old
son, and was sentenced to 12 to 15
years in jail for manslaughter.
During Ireland’s apology, Eva
Cockson started crying. After the hear
ing, she said she was touched by his
statement.
“The motherly part of me feels
sorry for him,” Eva Cockson said
Ireland said he was truly sorry for
what he had done.
“I could care less about what I get
or what these charges are,” Ireland said
“I care about other people’s feelings.”
Ireland^ attorney, Brett McArthur,
told the judge that Ireland’s remorse
was unusual in his experience.
Against McArthur’s advice, Ireland
salt a letter of apology to the Cocksons
last fall.
But the family said it was little con
solation.
“I think he is sorry, but he is sorry
for himself,” Bob Cockson said '
^ On March 14,1998, Bob and Eva
‘Cockson woe in Lincoln for Gamma
Phi Beta Sorority’s Mom’s Day activi
ties. Laura was a member of the sorori
ty, as is her sister, Sarah.
Ireland, driving on a suspended
license, was driving two friends home
from a bar when the accident happened.
Ireland accelerated through a red
light and into the Cockson car in an
attemptio evade the police car follow
ing him
Bob and Eva Cockson came upon
the scene of the accident minutes after it
happened.
Sarah Cockson, 20, and Erin
Cockson, 16, were taken to the hospital
in critical condition, and Laura was
pronounced dead at the scene.
“At the emergency room we spent
our time in hell,” Bob Cockson said •
“We had to spend the days upstairs
with Sarah and Erin, and know^that
Laura was dead downstairs.”
Bob Cockson said he and his wife
wanted to grieve 100 percent for Laura
and give 100 percent to each of their
injured daughters, but they just didn’t
have 300 percent in them.
As he talked about his daughter
Laura, Bob Cockson had to pause to
compose himself several times, the
strain evident in his voice.
And as Bob Cockson talked about
Laura’s accomplishments, Ireland, who
mainly stared down at the table in front
of him, had to wipe a tear from his
cneeic
At the request of the Cockson fam
ily, who did not want to endure a trial,
prosecutors reached a plea agreement
with Ireland on Dec. 3.
Outside the courthouse afterward,
Ireland’s friend, Rodney Watts, who
was in the car with Ireland that night,
asked the Cocksons to forgive Ireland.
“I had my jaw wired shut for a
month,” Watts said. “If I can forgive
him, the Cocksons should be able to.”
Bob Cockson said that forgiveness
is part of die healing process, but it has
not happened yet.
“As a Christian it is important to
forgive, but in the real world it is not
easy,” Bob Cockson said.
Laura Cockson’s best friend from
high school, Jill Hicks, said she would
be glad to be done with the court hear
ings, but she hoped Ireland would be
able to reform.
“I really hope more than anything
that he can come out of prison and do
something with his life.”
