NewsDigest
Riot breaks out at N.Y. funeral
NEW YORK (AP) - Furious pro
testers hurled bottles and clashed
with police Saturday after the funeral
for an unarmed black man shot to
death by an undercover officer, the
latest police shooting to inflame ten
sions between Mayor Rudolph
Giuliani and the minority communi
ty.
Police used batons to knock back
bottles thrown outside a Brooklyn
church as the funeral Mass ended.
One officer was seen holding his
head, wrapped in a bandage. In all, 23
police were injured, some suffering
tom ligaments or broken bones, oth
ers had to have shards of glass rinsed
from their eyes.
Police said 27 people were arrest
ed on charges ranging from disorder
ly conduct to inciting a riot during the
clash, which included the burning of
an American flag. They were expect
ed to be arraigned Sunday. Five civil
ians were injured, police said, but
details of their conditions were not
immediately released.
A miles-long procession of more
than 3,000 protesters and mourners
led by the Rev. A1 Sharpton followed
a hearse carrying the botly of 26
year-old Patrick Dorismond from a
funeral home to Holy Cross Roman
Catholic Church in for the service.
Dorismond’s shooting March 16
was the third time in the past 13
months that an unarmed black man
has been fatally shot by undercover
officers.
Giuliani has been criticized for
releasing information from
Dorismond’s police record, including
sealed juvenile files, and for not visit
ing Dorismond’s family.
As Dorismond’s coffin was car
ried inside, a few protesters surged
forward and snatched the U.S. flag
that had draped it, tore it to shreds and
then set the pieces on fire.
“It’s our blood. It’s not cheap. We
must let them know this must stop,”
said Michel Eddy, a 26-year-old
Haitian immigrant.
_ With car horns blaring, protesters
chanted, knocked down police barri
cades and many demanded Giuliani’s
resignation.
A car driving the wrong way on a
nearby street was plastered with ban
ners, including one that read: “If you
shoot one of my children, I shoot five
of you,” and others threatening
M Its our blood. Its not cheap. We must
let them know this must stop
Michel Eddy
protester
Giuliani’s family.
As the two-hour service ended
around 2 p.m., a group of unarmed
community affairs police and uni
formed officers outside the church
began having increasing difficulty
controlling the crowd.
Within half an hour, about 25
officers in riot helmets carrying
batons entered the crowd and were
met by people throwing bottles and
knocking down police barricades.
The face-off with hundreds of pro
testers escalated quickly.
Giuliani issued a statement prais
ing the restraint of officers involved
in the confrontation.
“Unfortunately, when you allow
demagogues to take over for political
and divisive purposes, the American
flag gets shredded and burned; steel
barricades are hurled and bottles are
thrown, injuring police officers and
civilians,” he said.
Dorismond, a security guard and
the son of Haitian singer Andre
Dorismond, was shot after an officer
conducting a drug sting allegedly
asked him if he would sell marijuana.
The two scuffled, backup officers
arrived and one officer’s gun went
off, killing Dorismond.
The officer whose gun went off,
Anthony Vasquez, issued a statement
Saturday, telling the Dorismonds:
“As a father and a son, I can only
imagine the depth of your grief. Our
prayers are with you.”
The shooting happened just two
weeks after another undercover offi
cer fatally shot an unarmed man in
the Bronx near where Amadou Diallo
was shot and killed in a hail of 41
police bullets last year. The four offi
cers in the Diallo case were acquitted
last month.
Pope ends visit at
holiest Jewish site
■ Pontiff makes plea
for forgiveness to Jewish
audience.
JERUSALEM (AP) - Pope John
Paul II crowned his Holy Land sojourn
Sunday with a stunning gesture to the
Jews at their holiest site, shuffling
slowly up to the Western Wall and
placing a plea for forgiveness in a nook
between its yellowed stones.
The gesture by the 79-year-old ail
ing pontiff was sure to become the
most indelible image in a week of
unforgettable moments.
It came on a whirlwind final day
that saw the pope visit the sacred sites
of all three faiths, all within the con
fines of Jerusalem’s walled Old City,
one of the most disputed patches of
land in the world.
At the Church of the Holy
Sepulcher, the pontiff knelt at the spot
where tradition says Jesus was resur
rected. At the Haram as-Sharif, the
hilltop where Muslims say the prophet
Mohammed ascended to heaven, he
met with Jerusalem’s top Islamic cler
ic.
At each stop, he witnessed the pas
sionate dispute over a city that both
Israelis and Palestinians claim as their
capital. But many who glimpsed him
witnessed something equally potent:
the charisma and healing power of this
aging, ailing pontiff.
“Some wonderful things are going
to happen in this century,” said Bishop
William Murphy of Bostor^, who fol
lowed the weeklong journey. “And I
think that this week, we saw the begin
ning of it”
Hunched and leaning on a cane,
the pontiff showed doubters he was
more than up to the rigors of an ambi
tious and grueling itinerary.
Not only did he uphold his entire
packed schedule, he managed to
squeeze in an impromptu second look
at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher
before flying back to Rome on Sunday
evening. He even hoisted himself up
on the running board of his Chevy
Suburban and waved.
But for Israelis, the highlight of the
day, and indeed the week, was when
the pope navigated the 86 steps it took
him to reach the Western Wall and
place a note in its stones, echoing a tra
dition of generations of Jewish wor
shippers. He had earlier in the week
reached out to Jews at their Holocaust
memorial, Yad Vashem. But this was a
gesture at the holiest site of all
Judaism.
The pope’s words were from an
address he made earlier this month in
Rome, expressing sorrow over the past
errors of his church.
“God of our fathers, you chose
Abraham and his descendants to bring
your Name to the Nations,” read the
typewritten message. “We are deeply
saddened by the behavior of those who
_ in the course of history have caused
these children of yours to suffer and,
asking your forgiveness, we wish to
commit ourselves to genuine brother
hood with the people of the Covenant.”
Putin wins election,
holds off Communists
MOSCOW (AP) - Vladimir
Putin looked set for victory Monday
in Russia’s presidential election after
a surprisingly strong showing by the
Communists threatened to force him
into a runoff vote.
While Putin would almost cer
tainly win a second round, it would
have been a humbling setback for the
former KGB officer who has soared
from nowhere to become the nation’s
most popular politician in a few
months. Putin’s call to strengthen the
authority of the state and the security
forces worried some Russians, who
fear the country’s democratic
reforms could be rolled back.
With 91 percent of the vote from
Sunday’s election counted by early
Monday, Putin had 52 percent of the
vote, enough to ensure victory and
avoid a second round against the
next highest vote winner.
Communist chief Gennady
Zyuganov was second with 29.6 per
cent. The state-run RTR television
network predicted an outright Putin
victory with no runoff vote. Liberal
economist Grigory Yavlinsky was
projected to take third place with
about 7 percent of the vote.
Zyuganov accused the govern
ment of falsifying the results, saying
the Communist vote was more than
40 percent.
There were no immediate reports
on the fairness of the election from
international monitors.
“They have set up a zone of blan
ket fraud to cheat citizens,”
Zyuganov said.
Putin looked likely to fall well
short of his campaign’s hopes for a
huge victory and a strong mandate
for his call to impose strong govern
ment at home and to revive Russia as
a global power.
Putin’s campaign may have suf
fered from the widespread assump
tion that he would win, convincing
many of his supporters that there
was no need to vote. But the fairly
strong vote for Zyuganov was also
seen as a protest by Russians unhap
py about Putin’s apparently
inevitable victory.
Putin, looking relaxed, said he
was confident of victory as he voted
at a Moscow polling station.
“Tomorrow is Monday, a hard
day, and I will have to go to work,” he
said.
Putin later acknowledged the
Communists had done well despite
their cash-strapped campaign and
that his government would have to
take popular discontent into account.
“That means that our policy must
be more balanced, take into account
the existing realities and aim at
increasing living standards,” he told
a news conference.
The tough, man-of-action image
that Putin cultivates appeals to many
Russians, tired of the uncertainty
and mayhem of the final years of for
mer President Boris Yeltsin. Putin
has promised to end massive corrup
tion, revive the economy after years
of recession and restore the political
and military influence that Moscow
wielded before the Soviet collapse.
Nel&rSskan
Questions? Comments?
Ask for the appropriate section editor at (402) 472-2588
or e-mail dn@unl.edu.
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■ California
Woman drowns, two lost
in Pacific Ocean’s waters
SHELTER COVE, Calif. (AP)
- A Canadian woman drowned and
two teen-agers were missing after
they were swept into the Pacific
Ocean while on a high school sight
seeing trip.
The woman, believed to be a
chaperone, slipped in the surf and
was pulled out to sea Saturday near
Shelter Cove, about 200 miles
north of San Francisco, the U.S.
Coast Guard said. Four males in the
group jumped in after her, accord
ing to spokesman Michael Burgess.
The Coast Guard recovered the
body of the woman, who was in her
40s, and rescued a 17-year-old
male and a 37-year-old male. Both
were taken to the Mendocino Coast
Hospital where their conditions
were not immediately available.
The Coast Guard continued to
search Sunday for the two others,
both 17 years old. The five people
were from a Calgary high school,
but their names were not released.
■ England
Britain could receive 20,000
Zimbabwean refugees
LONDON (AP) - Britain has a
contingency plan in place to
receive up to 20,000 white
Zimbabwe refugees if recent unrest
in the southern African country
escalates, a newspaper reported
Saturday.
The government was preparing
for several thousand farmers and
their families to apply for permis
sion to come to Britain if the situa
tion in Zimbabwe worsened, the
Daily Telegraph quoted Foreign
Office Minister Peter Hain as say
ing.
Opposition to Zimbabwean
President Robert Mugabe’s rule has
grown recently over the occupation
- of white-owned farmland by squat
ters and ex-guerrillas. The country
is also in its worst economic crisis
since it gained independence from
Britain in 1980.
About 4,000 white farmers own
a third of the nation’s productive
land. About 1.5 million black fami
lies live on the other two-thirds.
Militant black ex-guerrillas
have said they are ready to go to
war and would even fight to over
throw Mugabe if his government
moves to halt their seizures of the
farms.
■ North Carotin
Reform Judaism to vote
on same-sex marriages
RALEIGH, N.C, (AP) -
Reform Judaism is poised for a
vote that could make it the most
influential U.S. religious group to
support clergy who perform same
sex unions.
A resolution sanctioning com
mitment ceremonies is expected to
come up at the Central Conference
of American Rabbis convention
starting ^Sunday in Greensboro.
In an unusual step, discussions
Will be held privately, a sign of the
issue’s volatility. A similar vote at
the group’s 1998 convention was
dropped to head off potentially
divisive debate.
The resolution, introduced by
some female rabbis and endorsed
by the conference’s resolution com
mittee, reads: “The relationship of
a Jewish, same gender couple is
worthy of affirmation through
appropriate Jewish ritual. In accor
dance with the principles of
Reform Judaism, each rabbi should
decide about officiation according
to his/her own rabbinic con
science.”