News Digest
Friday, April 16,1999_ Page 2
Attacks continue
day after convoy hit
NATO regrets tragedy; Serbs shell border
BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (AP) - A day after its
bombs hit a convoy of refugees in Kosovo, NATO
pressed ahead with its air campaign Thursday, hitting
military barracks, TV transmitters and bridges
throughout Yugoslavia.
NATO expressed deep regret over the “tragic
accident,” saying its planes had been targeting Serb
forces when they struck a column of ethnic
Albanians fleeing the province. The bombing
Wednesday left refugees’ bodies dismembered and
burned on a Kosovo road.
Serb forces, meanwhile, lobbed artillery shells
over the border into northern Albania in a running
battle with the rebel Kosovo Liberation Army.
International observers said Thursday that five KLA
fighters had been killed in the past 24 hours.
Some mortars landed close to Albania’s border
checkpoint at Morini, where international aid work
ers were operating and refugees were passing
through, said monitors from the Organization for
Security and Cooperation in Europe, which watches
the border.
Thousands of ethnic Albanians crossed over into
Macedonia and Albania on Thursday, fleeing what
they described as a methodical Serb push to empty
towns and villages in Kosovo.
Yugoslavia renewed its denunciations of the
attack on the convoy. “This is the worst picture of a
humanitarian catastrophe brought on by the NATO
bombings,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Nebojsa
Vujovic said.
In Djakovica, the main town nearest the attack, a
judge said 69 bodies, mostly women, children and
elderly, had been identified so far.
But there were additional charred bodies and
body parts, making a precise body count difficult,
said the judge, Milenko Momcilovic.
Sixteen-year-old Teuta Sulja told reporters on an
official Yugoslav-organized trip to the strike site that
seven people were killed on die flatbed trailer she
was riding on.
“I lost an uncle and a father and another relative,”
she said.
At its headquarters in Belgium, NATO said it
u
Of course we regret
these things deeply
when they happen.”
Tony Blair
British prime minister
“deeply regrets the loss of life.” Spokesman Jamie
Shea said the alliance had taken “every possible pre
caution” to avoid hurting civilians.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair said ultimate
responsibility lay with Yugoslav President Slobodan
Milosevic, because his “ethnic cleansing” against
Kosovo’s Albanians had precipitated the attack.
“Of course we regret these things deeply when
they happen. But that should not make us flinch from
placing responsibility for this conflict squarely on
the shoulders of... Milosevic,” Blair said.
Milosevic launched a crackdown on ethnic
Albanians separatists 14 months ago in Kosovo, a
province in Serbia, the main republic in Yugoslavia,
a campaign that forced tens of thousands from their
homes. NATO allies began bombing Yugoslavia on
March 24 after Milosevic refused to sign a peace
accord for the province.
The goal of the air operation is to cripple Serbia’s
ability to crack down on the ethnic Albanians.
The presence on Kosovo’s roads of huge refugee
columns like the one hit Wednesday could signal a
final push by Serb forces to rid the province of its
ethnic Albanian majority.
Along the tense Albania-Yugoslav border,
meanwhile, international observers reported a new
round of Serb shelling, as well as machine gun and
mortar fire near the Albanian border hamlets Padesh
and Kamenica.
Kamenica briefly fell into Serb hands Tuesday
when light infantrymen pushed across the border
into Albania.
Evidence of
new solar
system found
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - The first evidence of
the existence of another solar system somewhat like
our own was reported Thursday.
The discovery indicates that the Milky Way,
which contains about 200 billion stars, probably has
numerous planetary systems, San Francisco State
University researchers said in announcing the find.
Astronomers knew one planet was circulating
around Upsilon Andromedae, 44 light years from
Earth. But after studying 107 stars for 11 years at die
Lick Observatory near San Jose, scientists said evi
dence of two additional planets has been spotted. The
discovery would mean that for the first time, a true
solar system, with multiple planets, had been locat
ed.
“It implies that planets can form more easily than
we ever imagined, and that our Milky Way is teeming
with planetary systems,” researcher Debra Fischer
said.
The planets were discovered using a method that
measures their gravitational pull on their star, not by
direct observation. Planets’ gravity tugs on their
stars, causing them to wobble slightly. By.examining
the star’s ultraviolet light transmissions, astronomers
can calculate shifts in the ultraviolet wavelengths. A
larger wobble indicates the orbiting planet is large.
Astronomers from the Harvard-Smithsonian
Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Mass., and at
the High-Altitude Observatory in Boulder, Colo.,
independently identified the two new planets.
1 he innermost ot the three planets has at least 75
percent of the mass of Jupiter and is very close to its
sun, orbiting once every 4.6 days. The middle planet
is twice Jupiter’s mass and orbits the star every 242
days from a location about as far as Venus from the
sun. The outer planet has the mass of four Jupiters
and orbits its star every 3'A to four years. It is more
than twice as far from its star as Earth is from the sun.
No theory predicted that so many huge planets
would form around a star, said astronomer Geoffrey
Marcy, a member of the discovery team.
“I am mystified at how such a system of Jupiter
like planets might have been created,” he said.
Alex Wolszczan, an astronomy professor at Penn
State University, called the discovery an important
step toward understanding the cosmos.
“It has been anticipated and awaited by the scien
tific community. It’s nice to see it’s finally hap
pened,” he said. “What I get right away from this par
ticular discovery is that it emphasizes even more how
different those systems are from our own.”
Schools ban some body piercings
■ Aurora Public Schools
have prohibited all body
jewelry except earrings.
AURORA (AP) - Except for ear
rings, body piercing will not be
allowed next year at Aurora Public
Schools.
Previous rules at the middle and
elementary schools have prohibited
visible body piercings like tongue and
nose rings, but the high school had not
had similar rules.
The school board decided to adopt
the same policy for the entire district,
including the high school.
“We wanted a consistent K-12 pol
icy,” said Superintendent Larry
Ramaekers.
Board members began discussing
a policy early this year after two middle
school students were threatened with
suspension if they did not remove their
tongue rings. The two students, Sarah
Atwill and Stacey Kielion, transferred
to Hampton Public School, which
allows body piercing.
Matt-LeMieux, executive director
of the American Civil Liberties Union
of Nebraska, said Aurora’s policy is a
bad move.
“I think the school is stepping out
of its bounds,” he said. “Not only is it a
bad idea, but it might be unconstitu
tional.”
LeMieux said body piercing does
not interrupt students’ education.
Ramaekers said the policy was cre
ated out of safety concerns. For exam
ple, a student’s piercing adornment
could cause injuries if it gets caught on
something. Earrings are exempt from
die ban unless they are long, dangling
and distracting.
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89-year-old
arrested for
selling crack
KINGSTON, N.Y. (AP) - Brose
Gearhart was due to spend his 90th
birthday Friday behind bars for sell
ing crack cocaine.
Gearhart was sentenced to 1 1/3
to four years in state prison on
Monday for felony crack possession
with intent to sell. Police said he ran
a $ 1,000-a-week crack sales opera
tion from his Saugerties home and
routinely traded drugs for sex with
prostitutes.
“Notwithstanding his age, we
have to send a message,” Ulster
County senior assistant district attor
ney Michael Miranda said Thursday.
The sentence stems from a police
raid on Gearhart’s Saugerties home
in March 1998 that netted about an
ounce of crack worth an estimated
$2,000 to $2,500. He made the
$3,000 bail on that charge but was
arrested months later when police
found crack cocaine in his apart
ment.
“I got nothing to say, I guess,”
Gearhart told the judge at his sen
tencing. He was sjtfl awaiting trans
fer from jail to the state prison sys
tem Thursday.
■ Utah
Two killed, five hurt in
Mormon library shooting
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - A
disheveled man calmly walked into
the Mormon church’s renowned
genealogical library during an inter
national convention on Thursday
and methodically shot people with a
small-caliber handgun.
Before it was over, the gunman
had killed a church security officer
and a library patron and wounded
five others, including a police offi
cer. He was fatally shot by police
and died later in an ambulance.
Police knew of no motive.
■ Washington, D.C.
Congress nears approval
of Republican budget
The Associated Press - i
Congress moved to the brink of
approving a $ 1.74 trillion budget for
fiscal 2000 that Republicans hope
will sharpen their image as tax cut
ters and as a party that has moved
beyond President Clinton’s
impeachment
The Senate neared final
approval of the blueprint Thursday, a
day after the House passed it by a
near party-line 220-208 vote. The
measure maps a 10-year tax cut of at
least $778 billion.
■ Pakistan
Pakistan tests missile;
second one in two days
ISLAMABAD (AP) - South
Asia appeared closer to a full-blown
arms race after Pakistan tested its
second nuclear-capable missile in
two days Thursday, upping the ante
on its rival India.
The latest test was of the
Shaheen I, a surface-to-surface mis
sile with a range of 450 miles, con
siderably shorter than the Ghauri II,
tested by Pakistan the day before.
The Ghauri II was tested in
apparent response to India’s test
flight of its Agni II missile on
Sunday.
■ Colombia
Mudslides kill five in
Colombia; 25 still missing
BOGOTA (AP) - Two mud
slides killed at least five people in
western Colombia on Thursday,
some of them rescue workers.
Another 25 people were missing
and feared buried alive, authorities
said.
After weeks of torrential rains,
the mudslides plowed under several
blocks of the town of Argelia, 150
miles west of Bogota, the capital.
The first slide occurred before
dawn, the second after rescue work
ers had arrived.
■ Great Britain
Official rules that Spain
can pursue Pinochet
LONDON (AP) - Former
Chilean dictator Gen. Augusto
Pinochet faces the prospect of more
months - if not years - under guard
after Britain’s top law enforcement
official ruled Thursday that Spain
can continue seeking his extradi
tion.
The 83-year-old general must
remain confined to his rented man
sion outside London, guarded 24
hours a day, while his lawyers battle
with Spanish prosecutors.