News Digest
Page 2 Daily Nebraskan Thursday, September 14,2000
British prime minister refuses to cut fuel tax
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
LONDON - Prime Minister
Tony Blair, joined by leaders in
Belgium and Germany, on
Wednesday defiantly rejected
demands to lower fuel taxes,
despite spiraling protests that
have left gasoline pumps bone
dry and disrupted schools, busi
nesses and transportation.
“Real damage is now being
done to real people,” Blair said on
nationwide television, blaming
protesters for fuel shortages that
triggered school closings, delayed
non-vital surgery in hospitals and
even threatened deliveries by
Britain’s reliable Royal Mail.
Late Wednesday, the National
Blood Authority went on alert,
saying it feared its blood supplies
soon could be affected. The gov
emment put military fuel tankers
on standby in case they are need
ed to get deliveries through, and
banks reassured customers they
would still be able to get cash.
William Hague, leader of the
opposition Conservative Party,
urged that Parliament be called
back from its summer recess to
deal with the crisis, as Blair pre
pared for more urgent meetings
today with top advisers.
Europeans - Britons especial
ly - pay some of the highest gaso
line prices in the world. British
pump prices average $4.31 a gal
lon, with taxes accounting for
three-quarters of the cost.
Because of heavy levies, public
anger has been largely aimed at
the government rather than at the
protesters who last week began
tying up traffic and strangling fuel
supplies with refinery blockades
and go-slow convoys.
As the flow of gas dried up, so
did rush-hour traffic on normally
busy London arteries.
Undertakers said they might have
to halt funerals if they can’t find
fuel for their hearses. School clo
sures were expected to affect
thousands of pupils today.
Some truckers brought their
protest almost to the doorstep of
Buckingham Palace. Scores of
trucks were stopped by police on a
central London street that passes
near the palace gardens, as the
drivers tried to mass their trucks
close to the Parliament
Blair insisted he would not be
pressured into lowering fuel taxes,
saying that would shatter his gov
ernment’s credibility.
“Whatever the protesters do...
"Whatever the protesters do... it cannot be right
to try to force a change in policy by these means.”
Tony Blair
British prime minister
it cannot be right to try to force a
change in policy by these means,”
he told a nationally televised news
conference, his second in as many
days. “We will not be intimidated.
We will not give into violence, to
blockades, to threats.”
In Britain, the Petrol Retailers’
Association reported that 9,000
filling stations were without fuel.
On Wednesday, police escorted
dozens of fuel tankers past pro
testers’ barricades, but progress
on restoring deliveries was
uneven.
Some tanker drivers refused to
cross protest lines, and there were
two reports of bricks thrown
through windshields of tanker
trucks.
"Our decision is we are fight
ing a battle, which is going well. If
we leave now then everything we
have done will be for nothing,”
said Mark Williams, a spokesman
for the protesters.
Blair has been granted emer
gency powers to cope with the cri
sis, but has made it plain he
expects the oil companies to take
steps of their own to restore fuel
supplies.
Bill pushes
for tire safety
■TREAD act aims to require companies to notify
U.S.during overseas recalls.
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON - A bill aimed at improving
auto and tire safety was introduced in the House
on Wednesday by lawmakers who hope that pas
sions ignited by the Firestone tire case will drive it
through Congress at breakneck speed.
The TREAD Act - for Transportation
Reporting Enhancement, Accountability and
Documentation - seeks to improve consumer
protection and communication between auto
and tire manufacturers and the federal govern
ment.
It will increase the National Highway Traffic
Safety Administration’s authority to collect infor
mation about possibly defective products and
expand its budget for investigations.
“Clearly, NHTSA and others were asleep at the
wheel, and we are looking to move bipartisan leg
islation in the fast lane to correct it,” said Rep.
Fred Upton, R-Mich., the bill’s sponsor.
Bridgestone/Firestone Inc. recalled 6.5 mil
lion ATX, ATX II and Wilderness AT tires on Aug. 9.
Upton’s bill requires auto and tire manufac
turers to report any defects on American tires or
automobiles sold in foreign countries. Ford
Motor Co. recalled the tires on its vehicles in 16
foreign countries without telling U.S. officials.
“What this bill tries to do is to make sure that
even if a company isn’t going to do the right thing
on their own, that the federal government has the
tools to force them to do the right thing,” said
Rep. Heather Wilson, R-N.M. "And I think it’s kind
of sad that we've come to that point.”
Weather
TODAY TOMORROW
Partly sunny Partly cloudy
high 79, low 51 high 78, low 50
Correction
Tickets to “As You Like it” at the Lincoln
Community Playhouse are $9 for all stu
dents with a student I.D. The price was
incorrectly listed in Friday’s issue of the
Daily Nebraskan.
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Joe Raedle/Newsmakers
GUNNING FOR
POSITION?:
Garrison Scott,
14, and Dewey
Bowman, 13,
play Time Crisis
II on Tuesday at
the Family Fun
Center in
Alberquerque,
NM.The Federal
Trade
Commission
released a
report stating
the movie, video
game and musk
industries
aggressively .
market to
underage
youths violent
films and prod
ucts that carry
adult ratings.
Clinton calls for hate crime legislation
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON - Armed with more
data showing hate crimes often go unre
ported, President Clinton on Wednesday
appealed to Congress to pass hate
crimes legislation.
“Only Congress can do what really
should be done here,” he said.
Only minutes later, the House agreed
in a nonbinding vote to make the hate
crime legislation part of a defense appro
priations bill. j
“Today, with this bill, we as a society
say that we will do everything we can to
protect people from these heinous acts,
that we will not rest until Americans are
free from all violence,” said House
Minority Leader Richard Gephardt, D
Mo.
Despite the 232-192 House vote,
congressional sources who spoke on
condition of anonymity said Senate
Majority Leader Trent Lott told President
Clinton at the White House on Tuesday
the hate crimes provision would not be
made part of the defense bill.
According to one source, Lott told
Clinton, “We'll talk about it somewhere
else, Mr. President,” possibly as part of
another bill.
Clinton convened an event at the
White House to release a new Justice
Department report that shows informa
tion on hate crimes sometimes is not for
warded to the FBI. The report also shows
victims of hate crimes tend not to report
them, and sometimes polite lack suffi
cient training to handle such cases.
He said a hate crime is “an even more
dangerous kind of infection" than ordi
nary acts of violence.
“I don’t think any of us believe we can
ever root it out just by punishing people,”
Clinton said. “The most important thing
is that we do have the tools we need to
take a strong stand before these things
spread even wider.”
The president directed Attorney
General Janet Reno to work with state
and local authorities over the next three
months on a plan to improve hate crimes
reporting.
He was joined by the widow of Ricky
Byrdsong, a former Northwestern
University basketball coach killed in a
1999 hate-motivated shooting rampage,
and Laramie, Wyo., police investigator
David O’Malley, who handled the 1998
slaying of gay college student Matthew
Shepard.
The Senate voted 57-42 in favor of
the hate provisions in June, and Clinton
urged House lawmakers to follow suit
House Republicans argued state
courts could handle hate crimes much
better than the federal courts.
“All murders are hate crimes and I
think what we’re trying to do is legislate
by headline,” said Rep. Kenny Hulshof,
R-Mo.
But Rep. David Bonior, D-Mich., said
lawmakers know they can't legislate
hateful thoughts “but we do understand
that when hateful thoughts turn into
hateful deeds, Congress must act."
Byrdsong said the legislation must
be passed to tell bigots that their hatred
will not become commonplace.
“The tragedy my family and I experi
enced is becoming the American way,”
she said. “If we allow this evil to spread, I
believe it will rock the foundation of this
society.”
Clinton’s plan would add crimes
motivated by sexual orientation, gender
or disability to the list of offenses covered
under a 1968 federal law, and allow fed
eral prosecutors to pursue a case if local
authorities refuse to press charges.
The legislation also provides assis
tance to local law enforcement agencies
in investigating hate crimes.
Judge frees Wen Ho Lee
■The scientist is released
after pleading guilty to mis
handling nuclear secrets.
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.-Nine
months after he was branded a
threat to national security and put
in solitary confinement, Wen Ho
Lee was set free Wednesday with
an apology from a judge who said
the government’s actions “embar
rassed our entire nation.”
Supporters cheered as a smil
ing Lee left the courthouse along
side his family.
He thanked them and said,
“I'm very happy to go home with
my wife and children today.”
With a chuckle, he added:
“The next few days, I’m going fish
ing.”
Lee, du, pieaaea guilty 10 a sin
gle count of mishandling nuclear
secrets as the government all but
abandoned its case against the
former Los Alamos scientist
Under the terms of the plea
bargain, he was sentenced to 278
days - essentially the time served
since his arrest last December.
Lee had been charged with 59
counts of breaching national
security and faced life in prison if
convicted. Fifty-eight of those
counts were dropped.
“I sincerely apologize to you,
Dr. Lee, for the unfair manner in
which you were held in custody by
the executive branch," U.S.
District Judge James Parker said.
Parker said the Departments
of Justice and Energy “have
embarrassed our entire nation
and each of us who is a citizen of
it"
Lee, a Taiwanese-born natu
ralized U.S. citizen, read a state
ment in court in which he admit
ted using an unsecure computer
to download a national-defense
document onto a tape. He said he
knew his possession of the tape
outside of the top-secret area
where he worked was unautho
rized.
Lee agreed to cooperate wim
the government and tell them
everything he knows about seven
missing tapes.
The government said that the
fate of the tapes was paramount
and that Lee’s willingness to
explain what happened to them
was the turning point in 2-month
old plea discussions. Lee has said
the tapes were destroyed.
Federal prosecutor George
Stamboulidis said Lee did not
deserve a government apology.
He called the downloaded infor
mation “a personal library" of
nuclear defense secrets.
“Which Americans among us
would want us to turn our backs
on that?” he asked.
i
Japan storms keep
many from homes
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
TOKYO - Skies cleared Wednesday over cities
swamped by Japan’s heaviest rain on record, but
streets were still flooded and fears of landslides kept
hundreds of thousands of people away from their
homes.
The torrential rains Ihesday in central Japan -
bolstered by a typhoon creeping up from the south -
killed seven people, stranded 50,000 bullet train pas
sengers and forced Toyota and Mitsubishi to halt pro
duction.
Officials were scramming to dram muaay water
from flooded streets in the city of Nagoya, said Kenji
Ogawa, an official with Aichi prefecture, which was
hit hardest by the downpour.
On Wednesday, nearly 364,000 people were
ordered to evacuate their homes, though it was
unclear exactly how many sought refuge.
Ogawa said it was not yet known when those who
evacuated would be allowed to return home because
the threat of mudslides had not subsided.
Toyota Motor Corp., Japan’s largest automaker,
resumed operations Wednesday afternoon after
shutting down factories nationwide the day before,
the company said.
Mitsubishi Motor Corp., which halted production
at its two factories in Nagoya, 165 miles west ofTokyo,
had already gone back online.
Typhoon Saomai, packing winds of 77 mph, was
off the coast of Okinawa and heading toward China
late Wednesday, the Meteorological Agency said.
About 17,800 homes were without electricity on
Okinawa at the height of the storm, but power has
since been restored, said Shinsaku Toma, a
spokesman for Okinawa Electric Power Co.
World/Nation
VIENNA — Hailing the lift
ing of European Union diplo
matic sanctions, Austria’s right
wing firebrand Joerg Haider on
Wednesday labeled the meas
ures a “complete flop."
Haider, whose far right
Freedom Party’s inclusion in the
government led to the sanc
tions, said the measures failed
in their goal to force the party
out of the ruling coalition.
Austria’s 14 European Union
partners lifted the seven-month
sanctions against Austria on
Tuesday after a panel said the
measures stoked the nationalis
tic feeling they were meant to
punish.
“They ended as a complete
flop,” Haider said in Klagenfurt,
capital of Carinthia province,
where he is governor.
“Democracy cannot be
unhinged by undemocratic
means."
Haider also ridiculed a
European Union statement
stressing the need to remain
vigilant about the Freedom
Party.
■Washington,D.C
Norplant says latest implants
may not be totally effective
WASHINGTON — The
maker of Norplant said
Wednesday that it cannot guar
antee certain batches of the
birth-control implants are
effective, and announced it will
reimburse women who have
questionable implants for the
cost of backup birth control.
Women who have received
Norplant implants from batch
es that were shipped to doctors
on or after Oct. 20 should use a
non-hormone form of birth
control as a backup, Wyeth
Ayerst Laboratories said.
The Food and Drug
Administration advised women
Wednesday not to wait to be
notified, but to call their doctors
if they had Norplant inserted
since Oct. 20 and specifically
ask about backup birth control.
Women and doctors may
call the company at 1-800-364
9809 for information or finan
cial assistance.
■Washington,D.C
Army aligns National Guard
to bolster corps
WASHINGTON—The Army
for the first time will align
National Guard divisions with
active-duty Army corps, mak
ing it more likely that part-time
soldiers will ship out if war
erupts in Korea or the Persian
Gulf, Army officials said
Wednesday.
The change reflects Army
leaders’ search for ways to
make better use of the National
Guard at a time when the
active-duty force is stretched
thin by a variety of peacetime
missions across the globe.
The new arrangement
means members of the eight
National Guard divisions are
more likely to be called on not
only for major wars but also as
rotation units for peacekeeping
operations in places like Bosnia
and Kosovo.
■Indonesia
Bomb explodes in garage
under stock exchange
JAKARTA—A car bomb tore
through a packed parking
garage beneath Jakarta’s stock
exchange on Wednesday, killing
at least 13 people, injuring 27
and shaking confidence in
Indonesia’s attempts to reform
after decades of dictatorship.
The blast damaged or
destroyed 400 vehicles in the
garage filled with cars and driv
ers waiting for stockbrokers to
finish work, said national police
chief Gen. Rusdihardjo.
The 27 injured - many cov
ered in black dust and breath
ing with difficulty, and others
cut by flying glass - were
brought into a nearby hospital.
Smoke filled the exchange's
trading room and other offices,
forcing the evacuation of about
1,000 workers.
4