4
■ Corporation’s stock
drops dramatically after
breakup rumors.
WASHINGTON (AP) -
Microsoft Corp. on Monday
denounced as “extreme and radical”
a reported government proposal to
break up the software giant. Its stock
price fell both on recent earnings
reports and uncertainty about the
company’s future.
Attorneys for the Justice
Department and the 19 states that
successfully sued Microsoft for
antitrust violations are Considering
ways to break up the company as a
way to stop its anticompetitive prac
tices, a source close to the talks said
Monday.
However, any kind of divestiture
is part of a “full array of options”
being discussed, the source said.
Another person familiar with the
talks said the plaintiffs are also con
sidering temporary sanctions that
could be imposed against Microsoft
while the case makes its way to the
appeals court.
Microsoft’s stock fell $12.31 1/4
a share, 16 percent, to $66.62 in trad
ing Monday on the Nasdaq Stock
Market following word of the pro
posed breakup, pulling the technolo
gy-heavy Nasdaq composite index
with it. The Nasdaq finished down
about 161 points, or 4 percent, on the
day.
Investors were also disheartened
by the company’s mediocre earnings
report last Thursday, and the result
ing stock downgrades by analysts at
SG Cowen Securities Corp. and The
Goldman Sachs Group.
The government has until Friday
to submit its proposed remedies to
U.S. District Judge Thomas Penfield
Jackson, who ruled April 3 that
Microsoft illegally used its domi
nance in the operating systems mar
ket to hurt competition. The ruling
came after a 78-day trial that began
in October-! 998.
“There is nothing in the trial
record or in this case that would jus
tify such an extreme and radical rem
edy,” Microsoft spokesman Jim
Cullinan said Monday. “This would
be bad for Microsoft, consumers and
the entire industry.”
The company will have until
May 10 to respond to the govern
•4-4 -4
tt There is nothing in the trial record or
in this case that would justify such an
extreme and radical remedy
Jim Cullman
Microsoft spokesman
ment’s proposal, but it may ask for an
extension depending on the reme
dies requested.
“If the government goes beyond
the scope of this trial with the issues
they raise in their filing, we’re going
to need an appropriate amount of
time to respond,” Cullinan said.
The Wall Street Journal, USA
Today and The Washington Post
reported Monday that the govern
ment favored a breakup of the com
pany, although details varied regard
ing how parts of the corporation
would be spun off.
One reported option would be to
split Microsoft into two or three
companies selling separate products,
such as the Windows operating sys
tem and Internet content. Another
would be for Microsoft to divest its
i _ .
popular Office software. None of
the plans would require Microsoft to
separate its Web browser from
Windows.
The company’s bundling of the
two products was a key issue in the
government’s lawsuit against
Microsoft, Cullinan noted as he con
tended that divesting Windows or
Office, from the entire company
would not be justified.
If the Justice Department calls
for breaking up Microsoft, it would
be the agency’s first such action
since the 1974 antitrust suit against
AT&T Corp. that led to the breakup
of the telephone giant.
Microsoft has already made clear
that it will appeal the ruling against
it. The case is considered likely to
end up before the Supreme Court.
congressional leaders
attack Elian’s seizure
WASHINGTON (AP) - The
Clinton administration tangled with
congressional Republicans on
Monday over the seizure of Elian
Gonzalez as each party accused the
other of playing politics. The House
announced an investigation into
Saturday’s pre-dawn raid.
“None of this had to happen,”
White House spokesman Joe
Lockhart asserted, suggesting the
“intransigent position” of the 6-year
old’s Miami relatives forced the gov
ernment’s armed seizure.
Lockhart accused Republicans of
“wild statements,” singling out
House Majority Whip Tom Delay for
criticism.
But leading Republicans pursued
a verbal indictment of both President
Clinton and Attorney General Janet
Reno for the raid that resulted in the
boy’s reunion with his Cuban father.
House Judiciary Committee
Chairman Henry Hyde, R-Ill. - who
presided over 1998 impeachment
hearings against President Clinton -
announced his panel’s ^taff would
begin “a preliminary inquiry” into
the tactics used to seize the boy.
“The inquiry will focus on
whether the use of such force was
necessary or appropriate under all of
the circumstances,” Hyde said in a
statement, adding that he hoped the
inquiry could be bipartisan.
Hyde said he was undertaking the
effort at the request of House Speaker
Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., who said he
was “appalled” by the seizure of the
boy.
Senate Majority Leader Trent
Lott, R-Miss., meanwhile, planned to
meet with Reno and other top Justice
Department officials in the Capitol
this morning to discuss Saturday’s
raid.
Lott planned to invite a hand
picked bipartisan group of about a
dozen colleagues to the meeting, but
their names had not been decided as
of midafternoon Monday, said Lott
spokesman John Czwartacki.
While saying Lott did not want to
turn the matter into “a three-ring cir
cus,” Czwartacki said, “we are all
curious as to how the attorney gener
al answers some of the questions that
we have.”
Reno will be accompanied by
Deputy Attorney General Eric
Holder and possibly by Immigration
and Naturalization Service
Commissioner Doris M. Meissner, he
said.
Senate Judiciary Committee
Chairman Orrin Hatch has indicated
he was considering holding hearings.
Nebraskan
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THE DAILY NEBRASKAN
execution method
in Iraq condemned
■ Human rights groups
assail number of
beheadings in Iran.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates
(AP) - Tranquilized prisoners are led
into a public square blindfolded, their
feet shackled, their hands cuffed
behind their backs. With one swing of
the sword, they are beheaded for
crimes ranging from murder to drug
trafficking.
The scene has unfolded 21 times
already this year in Saudi Arabia,
most recently Monday when a
Sudanese convicted of murder was
executed.
Human rights groups condemn
the beheadings, but Saudi authorities
say they are mandated by Islam and
justified by the need to maintain law
and order.
Saudi Arabia’s strict interpretation
of Islamic law mandates the death
penalty for murder, rape, drug traf
ficking, sodomy or armed robbery.
“The kingdom derives its knowl
edge and dealings of human rights
from the holy Koran and the teachings
of the prophet. Our position cannot be
changed by frantic campaigns and
dubious voices, whether raised
through organizations, countries or
individuals,” the official Saudi Press
Agency quoted Interior Minister
Prince Nayef as saying Monday.
His comments at a university in
Dhahran on Sunday were the latest
Saudi response to a scathing report
released last month by the human
rights group Amnesty International.
Amnesty, which has condemned
executions in Saudi Arabia just as it
condemns capital punishment ef^
where, said Saudi Arabia has one of
the highest execution rates in the
world. At least 103 people were exe
cuted in 1999 in the nation of about 19
million people, Amnesty said. In
comparison, tne Death Penalty
Information Center counted 98 exe
cutions in the much larger United
States last year, most by lethal injec
tion.
Human rights organizations also
complain that the accused are denied
access to lawyers and do not receive
fair trials. Amnesty said it has docu
mented systematic human rights vio
lations in Saudi Arabia, including tor
ture at police stations and prisons and
convictions in secret trials.
On Monday, Himat Saeed Haroon
was beheaded after being convicted of
killing Mahjoub Ali Sharaf, another
Sudanese man living in Saudi Arabia.
An Interior Ministry statement said
Haroon struck Sharaf with an ax sev
eral times on the head and face while
he slept. No other details were
released.
Announcements of beheadings
are read out in mosques after prayers,
witnesses say.
Policemen clear a public square of
traffic and lay out a thick blue plastic
sheet about 16 feet by 16 feet on the
asphalt. The condemned, who has
been given tranquilizers, is led from a
police car dressed in his own clothing.
His eyes are covered with cotton pads,
bound in plaster and finally covered
with a black cloth.
Barefoot, with feet shackled and
hands cuffed behind his back, the
prisoner is led by a police officer to
the center of the sheet and made to
kneel. An Interior Ministry official
reads out the prisoner’s name and
crime be/ore a crowd of witnesses.
A Soldier hands a long, curved
sword to the executioner. He
approaches the prisoner from behind
and jabs him with the tjp&fthe sword
in th^back so that the prisoner instinc
tively raises his head.
It usually takes just one swing of
the sword to sever the head, often
sending it flying about three feet.
■ Los Angeles
Warrants issued for officers
accused of framing suspect
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Arrest
warrants were issued for three police
officers Monday in the first criminal
charges to arise from the Los Angeles
Police Department’s corruption scan
dal.
Sgts. Edward Ortiz and Brian
Liddy and Officer Paul Harper were
expected to surrender at a police sta
tion, said Geoffrey Garfield, a
spokesman for the Police Protective
League.
The Los Angeles Times, citing
confidential sources, reported that the
three were being charged for allegedly
framing a suspected gang member on
a weapons charge in April 1996.
At least 30 LAPD officers have
been relieved of duty in the wake of
the corruption scandal.
■ New York
U.N. leader warns against
deploying nuclear missiles
UNITED NATIONS (AP) - U.N.
Secretary-General Kofi Annan on
Monday warned that growing pres
sure to deploy national missile defens
es “could well lead to a new arms
race.”
Speaking at a conference of
dozens of non-nuclear nations as well
as the handful of nuclear-armed states,
Annan was responding to those who
argue a 1972 treaty signed by the
United States and the Soviet Union to
ban anti-missile defenses should be
overhauled or even scuttled
Annan referred to the treaty as a
cornerstone of strategic stability and
called for “great care” before taking
steps that “may well reduce, rather
than enhance, global security.”
■ Washington D.C.
Counsel deepens investigation
of President Clinton
WASHINGTON (AP) -
Widening his investigation,
Independent Counsel Robert Ray is
conducting interviews and has issued
a subpoena to find out whether
administration officials tried to
obstruct investigators by not turning
over e-mails.
The move immerses Ray deeper
into the most recent Clinton adminis
tration controversy at a time when the
independent’s office is trying to finish
its six-year investigation - and decide
whether the president should be
indicted when he leaves office.
Ray’s office issued a subpoena last
Tuesday to the National Archives and
Records Administration, the govern
ment’s official custodian of docu
ments.
■ Iran
Islamic hard-liners close down
14 publications in strike
.. TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Iranians
searched street kiosks in vain for their
favorite newspapers Monday, after
hard-liners closed down 14 pro
democracy publications in a strike
against a ipajor pillar of the reform
movement." *
The shutdown of pro-reform
newspapers; part of a crackdown that
has seen two journalists jailed in the
past three days,is a strong backlash by
Islamic hard-liners trying to preserve
their power and is a blow against pop
ular President Mohammad Khatami.
The move also showed how much
power the hard-liners still hold,
despite a crushing defeat by Khatami
supporters in recent legislative elec
tions.