Monday, November 8,1999__ y _ • ; [ Page 2 /1
Microsoft considers settlement
After ruling of monopoly misuse, out-of-court agreement may occur
WASHINGTON (AP) - The
nation’s top antitrust official says the
government is “looking at a full range
of remedies” to punish Microsoft fol
lowing a judge’s ruling that die software
giant misused its monopoly powers.
Despite U.S. District Judge Thomas
Penfield Jackson’s preliminary find
ings against Microsoft, however, both
the government and the company
expressed a willingness to consider an
out-of-court settlement
In an open letter, Microsoft
Chairman Bill Gates said the company
is committed to “a fair and responsible”
resolution. The company Is chief operat
ing officer, Bob Herbold, said on the
Sunday talk shows that “there^s nothing
we’d like more than to settle this case.”
Assistant Attorney General Joel
Klein, who also appeared on three tele
vision programs, said, “Obviously, set
tlement is always an option.”
Neither Klein nor Herbold would
suggest what an agreement might
entail.
“We would need a settlement that
deals with the very findings that the
court made in this case, a settlement
that produces consumer choice, inno
vation and competition in the market,”
Klein said on “Fox News Sunday”
He cited “serious issues here about
law enforcement and the antitrust laws.
And, of course, if Microsoft were pre
pared to engage on those issues, we
would be prepared as well,”
In Gates’ letter, which appeared as a
full-page advertisement in The
Washington Post, he wrote that
“Microsoft is committed to resolving
this matter in a fair and responsible
manna:, while ensuring that the funda
mental principles of consumer benefit
and innovation are protected.”
Jackson, who presided over 77 days
of testimony, declared in a remarkably
blunt decision that Microsoft’s aggres
M
We would need a settlement that
deals with the very findings that the court
made in this case.”
Joel Klein
assistant attorney general x
sive use of its monopoly status stifled
innovation and hurt consumers by lim
iting choices.
On ABC, Klein said Jackson’s find
ings meant that “Microsoft was able to
control personal computers and control
investment in that area.”
Klein said both sides will submit to
Jackson legal analyses of the findings,
after which the judge will decide penal
ties, if any.
Government lawyers, Klein said,
are “doing an analysis that will look at
the full range of remedies.”
Asked if breaking up Microsoft is
among them, Klein said: “That is in the
range, but... it is premature for us now
to get ahead of the story.”
One penalty that he appeared to
rule out is a fine, Klein said on CNN’s
“Late Edition.”
Appearing on the same program,
Sen. Orrin Hatch, chairman of the
Senate Judiciary Committee, praised
Klein for his prosecution and counseled
Microsoft to negotiate.
/
Lawsuit could change
use of university fees
MADISON, Wis. (AP) - A law
suit by a student who objected to the
use of his student fees to support lib
eral campus groups at the University
of Wisconsin could change the way
fees are spent on college campuses
nationwide.
The U.S. Supreme Court, which
is to hear the case Tuesday, will
decide whether public universities
can use mandatory student activity
fees to subsidize campus groups that
pursue political goals.
“The decision will affect, literally,
every college and university in this
country,” said Brady Williamson,
who teaches constitutional law at the
University ofWisconsin-Madison.
The suit was filed in 1996 by
then-law student Scott South worth. A
federal trial judge and the 7th U.S.
Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in his
favor that the subsidies unlawfully
force some students to subsidize
views they find objectionable.
If the high court upholds those
rulings, it could bar schools from
using student fees to pay for political
ly active groups, or it could issue a
less sweeping remedy allowing stu
dents to opt out of giving money to
groups-they find objectionable.
I"
University spokeswoman Sharyn
Wisniewski said die school appealed
the rulings because die fees help pay
for a system that gives students a
forum to discuss and deal with issues
that might not exist without fee-sup
ported groups.
The fee in question is $ 15 per
semester for each of the 38,000 stu
dents. The money is distributed
through student committees elected
by the student body.
Southworth and several other law
students with conservative political
views had challenged the fUnneling
of the fee proceeds to 18 organiza
tions on the Madison campus.
Among groups they objected to were
International Socialist Organization;
Campus Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual
Center and an AIDS support network.
“We didn’t believe that any stu
dent should have to pay fees that went
to groups that they objected to on a
personal, ideological or religious
basis,” said Southworth, now a lawyer
and an aide to a state senator.
“It’s inconsequential whether
they’re liberal or conservative,” he
said. “We’d support liberal students
who object to their fees going to con
servative groups.”
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hree hurt
explosion
■ Islamic militants blamed
for pipe-bomb explosion in
busy shopping area.
NETANYA, Israel (AP) - On the
eve of final status talks with the
Palestinians, police on Sunday blamed
an explosion in the busy coastal town of
Netanya on Islamic militants opposed
to the process.
Three pipe bombs injured 33
Israelis and raised questions about
whether Palestinians are able to meet
the major Israeli expectation of peace -
an end to terror.
There were no fatalities. Two of the
victims suffered moderate injuries, and
the rest were slightly injured, said
Danny Hadad, deputy police comman
der of Netanya and the surrounding
area.
A fourth pipe bomb failed to
explode. It was taken to the beach by the
police bomb squad and detonated Safe
ty
Three Palestinian suspects were
detained, but two were released after
questioning, police spokeswoman
Sivan Kedmi said. Army radio said
dozens of Palestinians were rounded up
because they lacked the necessary per
mits to be in Netanya.
Prime Minister Ehud Barak said the
government will not capitulate to terror
ism. “There areelements who will try to
torpedo the peace process,” he told
reporters. “They will not succeed. The
government and the security services
will smash the terrorism.”
The pipe bombs, placed close
together, exploded outside a large bank
in a busy shopping area. The twisted
remains of a bicycle and a garbage can
blown open by the bomb lay on a
charred sidewalk at an intersection.
The area was closed while forensic
experts in white overalls and gloves
combed the area for evidence.
At a street comer near the site, about
30 residents of Netanya gathered and
shouted “Death to Arabs” and “Barak
Go Home.”
Israeli and Palestinian representa
tives are scheduled to meet Monday in
the West Bank town of Ramallah to
begin negotiations on a permanent
peace agreement.
| Russian bombers take over
Grozny, other small towns
GROZNY, Russia (AP) - Russian
forces gained ground in Chechnya on
Sunday, advancing on the breakaway
republic’s second-largest city,
Gudermes, and dislodging rebels from
their western stronghold in Bamut.
Russian bombers and artillery,
meanwhile, flattened parts of Grozny
and other towns in the government’s two
month campaign to wipe out Islamic
militants. Many of the attacks on
Grozny, the capital, hit residential areas.
Grozny commandant Isa Munayev
said 38 civilians had been killed and
more than 100 wounded, but the toll
could not be independently confirmed.
Afterheavy fighting, rebels aban
doned their stronghold in Bamut, 35
miles southwest of Grozny, Chechen
military headquarters announced. It
said 28 of their fighters had been killed
and 26 wounded in fierce fighting
around the nearby villages of Samashki,
Zakan-Yurt and Alkhan-kala.
Col. Valery Yakhnovets, a paratroop
commander, said Russian forces had
taken a ridge outside Gudermes, which
they have been besieging for more than
a week. He said there were no Russian
casualties.
“During the day, our aviation nicely
ironed out die heights; that was prepara
tion for storming it,” Yakhnovets said
After repeated air strikes, die main
street in Grozny, Avtorkhanov Avenue,
became a string of craters, some 30
yards wide and 10 yards deep.
A moving truck, apparently carry
ing belongings of people fleeing the
city, was overturned and crushed by the
blasts, and hundreds of family pho
tographs spilled out and lay scattered
around the pitted street
Most residents had already fled the
Russian raids, but rescue workers were
seen carrying away at least one dead
body after die attack, and several people
were injured.
■ Rhode Island
Sunday memorial service
remembers flight victims
NEWPORT, R.I. (AP) -
Relatives of the victims of EgyptAir
Flight 990 gathered Sunday to bid a
wrenching farewell to their loved
ones, as the Navy received reinforce
ments in its search for the airplane’s
“blackboxes.”
Leaders from the Jewish,
Christian and Islamic faiths were
called upon to offer prayers at an
afternoon memorial service in
Brenton Point State Park, overlook
ing the Atlantic Ocean. The service
was closed to the public.
At sea, a civilian ship equipped
with a newer, remote control sub
mersible robot headed to die area off
the island of Nantucket where the
Boeing 767 plummeted into the sea
Oct. 31 from 33,000 feet, killing 217
people.
■ South Africa
Doctor supports anti-AIDS
drug for pregnant women
JOHANNESBURG, South
Africa (AP) - A doctor has chal
lenged the government’s refusal to
provide anti-AIDS drugs to pregnant
HIV-positive women, saying the pol
icy violates their babies’ constitu
tional rights to life and proper med
ical care.
Dr. Costa Gazi said in an inter
view with The Associated Press that
he has filed a complaint with the
Human Rights Commission in an
effort to pressure Health Minister
Manto Tshabalala-Msimang into
changing the policy.
Gazi’s initiative is certain to cre
ate a stir in a nation with one of the
world’s worst AIDS problems. Eight
percent of the population - 3.6 mil
lion people - is estimated to be HTV
positive.
Last April, Gazi, a member of the
opposition Pan Africanist Congress,
publicly criticized the health minis
ter’s decision to withhold the anti
viral drug AZT front HIV-positive
pregnant women, prompting the gov
ernment to charge him with shaming
the republic and the constitution.
Hearings into the misconduct
charges are expected to begin in
December.
■ India
Freedom of religion ‘basic
human right,* Pope says
NEW DELHI, India (AP)
With his minority church under fire
by some Hindus for its missionary
work, Pope John Paul II said Sunday
that freedom to practice or change
one’s religion must be considered a
basic human right.
Frail and moving slowly in the
heat, the pope celebrated his only
Mass in India on the same day as
Diwali, a major Hindu holiday that
is marked by lights and Firecrackers.
He then attended a meeting with
representatives of other religions,
describing it as a further sign that
Roman Catholics seek dialogue
with other faiths.
“No state, no group has the right
to control, either directly or indirect
ly, a person’s religious convictions...
or the respectful appeal of a particu
lar religion to people’s free con
science,” John Paul told them.
The pope rested his head in his
hands through most of the 90
minute interfaith meeting, as the
religious leaders uttered greetings in