Wednesday, September 22,1999 Page 2
Taiwan nemesis Beijing offers quake aid I
■ The earthquake, the
country’s second-deadliest,
has killed more than 1,700.
TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) - Rescuers
scrambled through the night Tuesday
to unearth thousands of people
trapped under debris from Taiwan’s
second-deadliest earthquake, which
killed more than 1,700 people and left
hundreds reported missing.
More than 100,000 Taiwanese
were homeless after the 7.6-magni
tude quake toppled houses and high
rise apartment complexes across cen
tral Taiwan.
Roads buckled, chunks of land
rose up to create new hills and a
bridge was left dangling in the air.
By early Wednesday, officials
said 1,712 people were dead, more
than 4,000 were injured and almost
3,000 were believed trapped in the
rubble. Some 216 were missing,
according to the Interior Ministry’s
disaster management center.
About 4 million households were
still without power early Wednesday,
utility officials said.
Taiwan is hit by dozens of quakes
each year, but most are centered in the
Pacific Ocean east of the island and
cause no damage. The island’s dead
liest quake, with a 7.4 magnitude,
killed 3,276 people in 1935.
“We’re pulling the dead out one
by one, but it’s hard to get an overall
picture of the number of fatalities,”
said Chen Wen-hsien, a rescue offi
cial in the central city of Fengyuan,
about 30 miles from the epicenter. He
had to plug his nose with tissue after
part of a building began shifting from
an aftershock, releasing the stench of
a corpse still inside.
Taiwan’s Central Weather Bureau
listed the quake as a 7.3 magnitude, a
little less than the U.S. Geological
Survey’s estimate.
The bureau said the quake’s epi
center was in Nantou County, 120
miles south of the capital, Taipei,
where most of the deaths occurred.
Morgues filled up with bodies,
and officials appealed for donations
66~
We re pulling the dead out one by one, but its
hard to get an overall picture of the number of
fatalities
Chen Wen-hsien
rescue official
of bulldozers, cars, quilts and food.
Rescue crews from the United States,
Singapore, Japan, Switzerland and
Russia were on their way to provide
assistance, as was a U.N. disaster
assessment team.
Taiwan’s political nemesis, the
communist regime in Beijing, offered
aid, but with a subtle dig.
Chinese President Jiang Zemin
said the disaster “hurt the hearts of
people on the mainland as the
Chinese people on both sides of the
Taiwan Strait are as closely linked as
flesh and blood.”
China’s Red Cross said it would
provide the equivalent of $100,000 in
disaster aid and $60,000 worth of
relief supplies. Foreign Ministry
spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue said
Beijing will provide “all assistance
within our capability.”
The Taipei government expressed
cautious thanks.
Ties between Taiwan and main
land China had recently sunk to a new
low after Taiwan’s President Lee
Teng-hui said Beijing must deal with
the island on a “state-to-state” basis.
Lee surveyed the damage by heli
copter and urged officials and citi
zens to concentrate on saving lives.
Most of the island’s 22 million
people were asleep when the quake
Company looks to aid
blacks’ credit ratings
WASHINGTON (AP) - Nearly
twice as many blacks as whites have
bad credit, mortgage lender Freddie
Mac said Tuesday as it began an ini
tiative with several black colleges to
get teen-agers and young adults
started on a better track.
“This initiative furthers our mis
sion to help make the American
dream of decent accessible housing a
reality,” said Freddie Mac chairman
and CEO Leland C. Brendsel.
“Increasing the pool of qualified
minority homebuyers will play an
important role in future expansion of
the home mortgage industry,”
Brendsel said. “This initiative is not
only good for our nation but makes
good business sense.”
The findings are the results of a
survey Freddie Mac launched nine
months ago with the help of five his
torically black colleges and universi
ties - Benedict College in Columbia,
S.C.; Clark Atlanta University in
Atlanta; Florida A&M University in
Tallahassee; Howard University in
Washington; and Saint Augustine’s
College in Raleigh, N.C.
Among all respondents, 30 per
cent had bad credit records. About 47
percent of blacks and 34 percent of
r
Hispanics had bad credit. Among
whites surveyed, 27 percent had bad
credit.
Bad credit refers to consumers
who have been either 90 days late on
a payment in the last two years or 30
days late on a payment more than
once in the last two years or have a
record of delinquent liens, public
records or bankruptcy.
The study found that while bad
credit crosses racial and economic
lines, it is pervasive among blacks.
Among people with incomes
under $25,000, 48 percent of black
borrowers had bad credit, while 31
percent of white borrowers had bad
credit. And even in the $65,000 to
$75,000 income bracket, 34 percent
of blacks had bad credit, compared
with 20 percent of whites.
Officials are now analyzing the
results to develop an initiative, which
will include some college courses, to
help consumers obtain and maintain
good credit. The National Urban
League and the NAACP have agreed
to help implement the program.
Of particular concern are college
students, who are often bombarded
with credit card offers after enrolling
in school.
Nebras _
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23-year-old shot near
Omaha high school
From staff reports
The Omaha Police department had
no suspects as of late Tuesday night in
the shooting of a 23-year-old man out
side of Central High School.
Israel Rodriguez, who lives in the
1600 block of Z Street in Omaha, was
shot five or six times as he waited out
side of Central High School on
Tuesday about 2 p.m., said Meg
Fricke, public information officer for
the Omaha Police Department.
The shooting at 21st and Dodge
streets was not school-related, she
said.
“This is in no way at all related to
the schools or Omaha Public Schools
at all,” Fricke said.
Fricke said the police department
believed Rodriguez was waiting for
someone, reportedly his girlfriend,
who is a student at the school, outside
of the school when he was shot in the
arm and leg.
Police had reports that Rodriguez’s
girlfriend attended Central, but Fricke
said police had not confirmed that
information.
“We don’t know that for sure.
That’s the rumor on the street,” Fricke
said.
Fricke was not sure how many
times Rodriguez was shot in each arm
and leg.
The suspect fled in a vehicle, but it
was unclear if the suspect shot
Rodriguez from a car or on foot.
Rodriguez was listed in fair condi
tion Tuesday evening at University
Hospital, where he underwent surgery.
Central High School has 2,300
students. Some seniors are allowed to
leave the school at 2:10 p.m. during
open campus.
Clinton: Clemency decision
not politically motivated
WASrliiNU l UN (AK) - President
I Clinton on Tuesday denied that political
considerations played a role in his deci
sion to grant clemency to 14 Puerto
Rican nationalists.
He also defended invoking execu
tive privilege in refusing to provide a
House inquiry with documents related
to the decision and said the “extremely
lengthy sentences” the prisoners were
serving was a major factor in his deci
sion.
The president spelled out his posi
tion in a letter to Rep. Henry Waxman,
D-Calif., as a House committee opened
a hearing into the clemency grants.
Critics have suggested the clemen
cy was aimed at boosting first lady
Hillary Rodham Clinton’s popularity
among the 1.3 million Puerto Ricans
who live in New York, where she is con
templating a bid for the Senate in 2000.
But Clinton said the timing of the
announcement was dictated by the
promise of his former chief counsel,
Charles F.C. Ruff, to finish the review of
the clemency case before leaving the
government.
Republicans, who control the
House Government Reform
Committee, are displaying a grainy
videotape that purports to show one of
the militants allegedly making a bomb.
Republicans are trying to disprove
Clinton’s contention that none of those
to whom he offered clemency had been
involved in a violent crime.
But Julio Cortes, brother of freed
prisoner Edwin Cortes, told The
Associated Press on Tuesday that the
tape was “old news” and part of “party
politics.”
Clinton has explained that he
agreed to commute the sentences
because most of the jailed Puerto
Ricans had spent nearly 20 years in
prison, yet had not been charged with
acts of violence that left anyone dead or
wounded.
Most of those offered clemency
were associated with the FALN - the
Spanish initials for the Armed Forces of
National Liberation - responsible for a
wave of bombings of U.S. civilian and
military targets in the late 1970s and
early 1980s that left six dead and more
injured.
Those granted clemency were con
victed of seditious conspiracy and pos
session of weapons and explosives.
■ Washington
Report: Phone companies
save, customers pay more
WASHINGTON (AP) -
Residential customers making an
hour of long-distance calls a month
are paying on average 20 percent
more on their total bills than they did
two years ago, despite cost savings to
phone companies during that time,
consumer groups say.
The report by Consumers Union,
the Consumer Federation of America
and the Texas Office of Public Utility
Counsel says long-distance
providers have targeted their price
breaks at customers who make a
large volume of calls.
Long-distance companies con
tend that low-volume customers also
have benefited from cost savings and
note that low-volume customers are
not necessarily from low-income
households.
■ Florida
Tropical Storm Harvey
drenches Florida coast
MIAMI (AP) - Tropical Storm
Harvey drenched Florida’s Gulf
Coast with more than 10 inches of
rain Tuesday, forcing schools to
close, flooding homes and business
es and playing havoc with travelers’
plans.
The storm was expected to cross
the southern Florida peninsula and
head into the Atlantic Ocean.
In advance of the storm, schools
were ordered shut in some Gulf
Coast areas mostly out of fear of
street flooding. Some government
offices also closed for the day.
Flight cancellations were report
ed at at least five Florida airports,
and delays were common throughout
the state.
■ Washington
Senator jumps on board
to back Bradley campaign
WASHINGTON (AP) - Sen.
Daniel Patrick Moynihan plans to
endorse Democratic presidential
candidate Bill Bradley on Thursday,
giving a boost to Bradley’s underdog
campaign against Vice President A1
Gore, party officials said Tuesday.
Gore holds a wide lead over
Bradley in national polls of
Democratic voters and has secured
endorsement of 109 members of
Congress, with more expected to be
announced this week. Bradley, a for
mer New Jersey senator, has been
publicly backed by just two senators
and a congressman.
Sens. Paul Wellstone of
Minnesota and Bob Kerrey of
Nebraska endorsed Bradley earlier
this year.
■Washington
Money laundering rules
proposed in House
WASHINGTON (AP) - The
Clinton administration is proposing
new rules to fight money laundering,
including requirements that store
front check cashers, brokerage firms
and casinos notify authorities of sus
picious activities the way banks do.
The proposal surfaced in testi
mony Tuesday as the House Banking
Committee began an inquiry into
allegations of a huge money-laun
dering scheme involving the Russian
mob and the Bank of New York.
No one has been charged, and
U.S. investigators have not com
mented publicly on the case in which
