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Wednesday, November 10,1999 ___ - _ Page 2
Berlin celebrates wall’s demise
BERLIN (AP) - With fireworks,
conceits and a huge party at the land
mark Brandenburg Gate Tuesday,
Germany celebrated the courage of
hundreds of thousands of East Germans
who brought down the reviled Berlin
Wall 10 years ago with peaceful
demands for democracy.
Daylong observances - starting
with religious services and official cere
monies - sought to inspire a sense of
shared national identity and remind
Gomans that the Wall’s collapse alone
did not guarantee the bloodless transi
tion from communism to democracy
that took hold in East Germany and
spread eastward.
“We should look at German unity as
a gift and a chance for the future,” for
mer Chancellor Helmut Kohl told law
makers and invited guests at the
German parliament, including former
President Bush and former Soviet
leader Mikhail Goibachev.
Reuniting a decade after the Cold
War ended peacefully, the former world
leaders reflected on how it might have
been otherwise had they not developed
a personal trust, allowing each to pursue
a course that redrew the map of Europe
and created a new world order.
The rest of the world may have been
celebrating communism’s imminent
demise on Nov. 9,1989, but die leaders
recalled their fears that communist
hard-liners might order a crackdown.
Bush and Kohl expressed particular
gratitude toward Gorbachev, who kept
Soviet soldiers in their East German
barracks in the crucial hours after the
Wall tumbled and then helped negotiate
German unity a mere II months later.
Despite die euphoria now associat
ed with Nov. 9, it is not a national holi
day, largely because it coincides with
the anniversary of Kristallnacht - the
Night of Broken Glass - when Nazi
storm troopers destroyed Jewish busi
nesses and synagogues 61 years ago,
presaging the Holocaust
That dark side of Germany’s history
w^as remembered in speeches by
Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and oth
ers in parliament
Kristallnacht “stands for our eternal
shame and die unforgettable dishonor
that the Nazis and their supporters
brought upon Germany and the world,”
u
We should look at German unity as a gift
and a chance for the future
Helmut Kohl
former German chancellor
Schroeder said.
Two forma- eastern dissidents - par
liament president Wolfgang Thierse and
Joachim Gauck, administrator of the
former Stasi secret police files - hon
ored as “heroes” ordinary East
Germans who exerted popular pressure
that toppled the Wall - and spoke of the
difficult transition of the last decade.
“After unification we felt like
apprentices again. Many felt like
strangers in their own country,” Gauck
said.
Germany has struggled to overcome
enduring psychological differences 10
years after the most tangible symbol of
Europe’s division was dismantled
A party in die former no man’s land
that mice marked die Cold War fault line
set out to recreate that mood of exulta
tion and bring Germans together.
Despite typically rainy weather, up
to 50,000 revelers showed up to hear
musicians play on five stages along the
Wall’s former path from the
Brandenburg Gate to the former
American-run border crossing at Check
Point Charlie. Cellist Mstislav
Rostropovich repeated his spontaneous
1989 performance at the Wall.
Events climaxed with the illumina
tion of a 2 1/2 -mile path once followed
by the Wall with sparkling flares, ending
with fireworks behind the Brandenburg
Gate, a symbol of Europe’s division that
was incorporated into the Berlin Wall
during the three decades it divided die
city.
Data recorder found
from EgyptAir flight
■The infonnatiofron
the device will shed light
on why the airplane fell,
investigators say.
NEWPORT, R.I. (AP) - Nine
days after EgyptAir Flight 990 went
down, the banged-up flight data
recorder - minus its “pinger” - was
raised from the ocean floor by a
robot Tuesday and rushed to
Washington for analysis.
The National Transportation
Safety Board said it was extracting
data from the recorder Tuesday
evening but had no comment on die
quality of the data recovered so far.
“The magnetic tape was
removed from its protective casing,
cleaned and dried,” NTSB Chairman
James Hall said in a statement. “The
tape has data on it, and NTSB engi
neers are currently working to
extract information.”
The NTSB was hoping to reveal
partial findings from the recorder
today.
The minivan-size robot Deep
Drone stumbled across the dented
box amid wreckage 250 feet below
the surface. Iti&s missing its pinge^
the small, cylindrical transmitter that
emits a signal to help investigators
find the recorder after an accident
The tape could provide the best
evidence of what caused die Boeing
767 to plunge into die sea Oct 31 off
the Massachusetts island of
Nantucket, killing all 217 people
aboard.
The flight recorder, which is 20
inches long and 5 inches wide, cap
tures information from 55 systems
on the jet, telling investigators such
things as the plane’s altitude, speed,
spin, roll, when electrical power was
cut off and how the autopilot func
tioned. The NTSB said it can record
more than 150 individual data items.
Deep Drone continued to search
for the other “black box,” die cockpit
voice recorder, which contains tape
of conversations between crew
members as well as discussions with
air traffic controllers and any other
sounds in the cockpit. .
IMwSfan
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4
raise
in minimum ge
WASHINGTON (AP) - With eyes
cast to the 2000 elections, the Senate
voted Tuesday to give minimum-wage
workers a dollar raise over three years
- but tied the increase to $18.4 billion
in business tax sweeteners opposed by
the White House.
President Clinton immediately
denounced die measure as a “cynical
tool to advance special interest tax
breaks” and renewed his promise to
veto it. He urged Congress instead to
pass a $l-an-hour increase over two
years without the large tax cuts.
Veto threats notwithstanding,
some Republicans viewed the pack
age as a way to neutralize a
Democratic political advantage on the
minimum wage for 2000 races. Other
Republicans were happy to vote for a
new round of tax relief, an issue they
want to resurrect following Clinton’s
veto in September of the GOP s signa
ture $792 billion tax cut.
“This just seemed like the right
combination as far as pulling
Republicans together,” said Sen. Pete
Domenici, R-N.M. “Sooner or later, a
very significant tax reduction for the
American people is going to be
achieved.”
The vote was 54-44 for the
Republican measure. A few minutes
earlier, the Senate had rejected, 50-48,
a Democratic alternative raising the
minimum wage by $ 1 over 13 months
and providing $9.6 billion in tax
relief. That measure would have also
raised other taxes.
If the GOP bill becomes law, the
current $5.15-an-hour minimum
wage would rise by 35 cents in March
2000, by 35 cents more in March
2001 and 30 cents in March 2002.
About 11 million workers would be
directly affected, half of them younger
workers under age 24 and many of
them holders of part-time jobs.
The five-year tax package
includes a health insurance deduction
for people who don’t have employer
provided coverage and an immediate
100 percent deduction for the self
employed. It also would increase the
business meal deduction from 50 per
cent to 80 percent and allow higher
401(k) contribution limits.
Although the Ways and Means
ft
Sooner or later, a
very significant tax
reduction for the
American people is
going to be
achieved.”
Pete Domenici
New Mexico senator
* * •• 9
Committee in the House planned to
take up a similar GOP minimum wage
and tax package, it is unlikely that dif
ferences between the two can be
ironed out before next year, if at all.
The Senate measure was attached to
an unrelated bankruptcy bill that
would also have to be approved.
But the political fight was at full
tilt on both sides of the Capitol.
Senate Democrats sought to por
tray the Republican bill as a tax give
away for well-off GOP business allies
that would do little for workers who
are struggling despite the booming
U.S. economy.
But Republicans said the tax
breaks would help absorb the cost to
businesses of paying a higher mini
mum wage that they said could reduce
the number of available low-wage
jobs by as much as 500,000.
The tax cuts would be paid for out
of projected non-Social Security sur
plus dollars in all but the first year.
Clinton has repeatedly said he will not
accept the bill if it uses surplus dollars
before other priorities are met.
Republicans contend the president
just wants to spend all of the money
on government programs.
Ten states and the District of
Columbia already require minimum
wages higher than $5.15 an hour,
including a $6.50-an-hour wage paid
in Oregon. The other states are
Alaska, California, Connecticut,
Delaware, Hawaii, Massachusetts,
Rhode Island, Vermont and
Washington.
■Texas
Belief statement rejected
by Texas Southern Baptists
EL PASO, Texas (AP) - Texas’
Southern Baptists today repudiated
the denomination’s call for women to
“submit graciously” to their hus
bands.
The Baptist General Convention
of Texas is the largest state organiza
tion with 2.7 million members within
the nation’s 15.7 million-member
Southern Baptist Convention. But
the state organization is more moder
ate than the national one.
It is the first state affiliate of the
Southern Baptist Convention to
reject the “submit graciously” stance.
All but a couple dozen among
about 2,200 delegates to the Texas
group’s annual meeting voted in
favor of affirming the Baptist Faith
and Message Statement of 1963 -
without an amendment added in
1998.
me amenamenx marxea me ixrsi
change in the statement of beliefs by
the Southern Baptists in 35 years. It
defines marriage exclusively in het
erosexual terms and says that hus
bands and wives, while equal before
God, have different roles.
■ Paris
Territory disputes continue
between Arafat, Barak
PARIS (AP) - Yasser Arafat and
Ehud Barak entered a Paris confer
ence hall Tuesday shaking hands vig
orously, but their cordiality quickly
dissolved into a dispute over lan
guage in UN. resolutions on territory
claimed by both sides.
Palestinian leader Arafat gave the
more strongly worded speech, telling
socialist delegates he expects Israel
to live up to past commitments and to
respect international law*
“Our Palestinian Arab people are
still knocking on the door of interna
tional legality,” he said.
“International legality is pivotal in
the search for a just and comprehen
sive peace ”
It was a clear reference to Barak’s
contention, repeated several times
over the past two days, that UN. res
olutions calling for Israel to retxim
captured lands “have a different con
text” when referring to the
Palestinians than when referring to
Arab nations with recognized bor
ders.
■Washington
House votes give validity
to electronic contracts
WASHINGTON (AP) -
Recognizing the rapid growth of
electronic commerce, the House on
Tuesday took up legislation that
would give electronic signatures
and records the same legal validity
as written contracts.
The legislation is “perhaps the
most important pro-technology
vote that this Congress will take,”
said Commerce Committee
Chairman Tom Bliley, R-Va., the
chief sponsor.
The bill would establish a sin
gle, nationwide standard for elec
tronic signatures and records. It
would prohibit the enactment of any
state law denying the legality of
agreements that are electronically
signed.
The administration, while back
ing standards for contracts signed in
.electronic form, strongly opposes
extending that legal authority to
notices and disclosures, saying that
could undermine consumer rights.