News Digest
Note confirms fears of crew's loved ones
■The letter revealed that
sailors remained alive for many
houn after the Kursk sank.
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
MURMANSK, Russia -
Huddled in a destroyed subma
rine on the sea floor, a Russian
sailor wrote a terse account of how
he and 22 comrades tried in vain
to escape, then scrawled a last
message to his family, Russian
naval officials said Thursday.
The note was found in the
pocket of Lt. Dmitry Kolesnikov,
whose body was one of the first
recovered from the nuclear sub
marine Kursk that sank Aug. 12
with 118 men aboard. The mes
sage was the first firm evidence
that any of the crew initially sur
vived explosions that shattered
the submarine.
Written a few hours after the
sub plunged to the bottom of the
Barents Sea, the note tells a horri
fying story in eerily straightfor
ward sentences.
“All the crew from the sixth,
seventh and eighth compart
ments went over to the ninth.
There are 23 people here. We
made this decision as a result of
the accident," Russian navy chief
Adm. Vladimir Kuroyedov quoted
the note as saying.
“None of us can get to the sur
face,” the message continued.
Kolesnikov’s handwriting in
the first part of the note was neat,
Kuroyedov said during a meeting
with the victims’ relatives. But
after the submarine’s emergency
lights went out, the 27-year-old
seaman from St Petersburg began
to scrawl and desperation set in.
"I am writing blindly,”
Kuroyedov quoted the latter part
7 had a premonition
my husband didn’t die
instantly. The pain /
felt then has come
true."
Olga Kolesnikov
widow of Kursk victim
of the note as saying.
The rest of the note was pri
vate and would be shown to
Kolesnikov’s family, said Vice
Adm. Mikhail Motsak, the
Northern Fleet chief of staff.
Most of the Kursk’s crew
apparently died instantly in the
explosions that tore open the
Kursk’s first six compartments or
within minutes as water roared
into the submarine.
But the knowledge that some
remained alive for hours revived
the horror that gripped the nation
after the sinking.
“I feel pain, enormous pain,”
Kolesnikov’s widow, Olga, said on
the NTV television channel. “I had
a premonition my husband didn’t
die instantly. The pain I felt then
has come true.”
In excerpts of a documentary
shown on NTV Thursday, Olga
also said her husband had penned
her a mournful poem in the days
before he went on the Kursk’s final
voyage and left it
“Shortly before he went to sea,
he wrote a poem to me that says
‘When the hour to die will come,
although I try not to think about it
I would like to have time to say,
‘My darling I love you,’ ’’she said in
a documentary made by Norway’s
TV2. Parts of it were shown on
NTVThursday.
The recovered bodies were to
NTV-Russian Television Channel/Newsmakers
A1997file photo shows Russian Lt Dmitry Kolesnikov, the commander of the nudear submarine Kursk's turbine section,in this image from
television. A note found in his pocket was recovered with the bodies of three other crewmen from the nudear submarine.
be flown on Saturday to
Severomorsk, the Northern Fleet’s
main port, for a memorial service.
However, fierce winds forced the
divers to suspend operations
Thursday, and it was unclear
when bodies could be brought to
the surface, the ITAR-Tass news
agency reported.
The Russian government has
been widely criticized at home for
a slow and seemingly confused
response to the disaster.
Russian mini-submarines
tried unsuccessfully for days to
open the Kursk’s escape hatch.
There were reports that noises
from the wreckage could have
come from trapped sailors bang
ing on the hull.
Two days after the Kursk went
down, Russia made the sinking
public. Although Western coun
tries quickly offered to help, it was
another two days before a
Norwegian diving team was asked
to assist. The Norwegians quickly
opened the hatch but determined
that the sub was flooded and the
crew dead.
Kolesnikov’s note gives no
indication of whether any of the
crew survived beyond a few hours.
At least some of the 23 were
injured, and the compartment
showed signs of fire, Kuroyedov
said.
Motsak said the note was
completed by 3:15 p.m. local time,
less than four hours after ships in
the area registered two powerful
explosions.
Relief plan requires
Democratic support
■ Republicans say the package
would alleviate tax burden and
raise the minimum wage,
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON - Defying
yet another veto threat from
President Clinton on tax cuts,
congressional Republicans
forged ahead Thursday with a
10-year, $240 billion tax relief
package that would also raise
the minimum wage by $1 and
restore Medicare cuts for health
care providers.
Barely 24 hours after Clinton
offered the GOP a compromise
on the tax bill, the president
complained that Republicans
ignored his priorities in assem
bling the final 900-plus-page
product. Republicans, on the
other hand, portrayed the
measure as chock full of popular
Weather
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items and warned Democrats
not to anger the public just
before Election Day.
“The president is going to
have to explain to an awful lot of
Americans, again, why he is
opposed to giving them tax
relief,” said House Majority
Leader Dick Armey, R-Texas.
“We can’t negotiate with him
forever.”
The House voted 237-174 to
pass the bill Thursday, with 33
Democrats in favor but short of
the two-thirds margin neces
sary to override a veto.
The Senate began debating
the bill Thursday night but post
poned a vote until Friday at the
earliest.
Several Democrats criticized
the massive bill as hastily- and
ill-conceived, pointing out a
GOP mistake that technically
would cause the current $5.15
an-hour minimum wage to
lapse for six months, until the
first of two annual 50-cent
increases kicked in on Jan. 1.
The legislation, including
several popular tax measures
previously passed by the House
with strong Democratic sup
port, contains tax breaks to help
people pay for long-term health
care, save for retirement and
help business pay for a $1 mini
mum wage increase over two
years.
The bill also would provide
new tax incentives to revive eco
nomically depressed areas, help
U.S. exporters avert a trade war
with the European Union and
restore $30 billion over five
years for 1997 Medicare cuts to
health care providers.
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Cole investigators threatened
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
ADEN, Yemen - Machine
gun mounted military vehicles
surrounded a port-side hotel,
and civilian traffic was kept away
Thursday, after a bomb threat
targeted Americans investigat
ing the attack on the USS Cole.
The U.S. ambassador to
Yemen, Barbara Bodine, also was
staying at the hotel, and the
threat was considered serious
enough to wake her to inform
her early Thursday. Bodine has
temporarily moved from the
embassy in San’a to monitor the
investigation.
The U.S. Defense
Department said Tuesday that
American forces in Bahrain,
Qatar and Turkey are on height
ened alert because of new evi
dence of terrorist threats in the
region.
In Aden, Yemeni security offi
cials said the telephoned bomb
threat from an unknown caller
came in around midnight.
Yemeni and U.S. security officials
held an emergency meeting
before dawn and adopted the
new security precautions,
including preventing civilian
traffic from getting within 500
yards of the hotel.
In Washington, Defense
Secretary William Cohen and
Gen. Henry H. Shelton, chair
man of the Joint Chiefs of Staff,
held a private video conference
with U.S. military commanders
around the world, urging them to
shore up weak points in troop
security.
The Oct. 12 attack on the Cole
killed 17 U.S. sailors and wound
ed 39 others. Officials believe two
suicide bombers maneuvered a
small boat next to the destroyer
and detonated it.
The bomb threat at the hotel
came as FBI investigators fin
ished gathering evidence from
the ship to send back to the
United States for analysis.
About 80 FBI evidence tech
nicians had returned home by
Thursday after completing their
work, said a federal law enforce
ment official in Washington.
More than 20 other FBI agents
remain in Yemen, including
investigators and security and
communications experts, the
official said.
U.S. Attorney General Janet
Reno told a news conference the
experts were leaving Yemen as
soon as they completed their
work.
“We’re bringing them out and
trying to do it in an orderly way
that will ensure security,” Reno
said.
The Cole is to be carried back
to the United States on a special
“heavy-lift” ship that is expected
to reach Aden on Sunday.
Yemeni President Ali
Abdullah Saleh said Wednesday
that one of the two suspected
bombers has been identified by
witnesses as an Egyptian and
that a number of Arab veterans of
Afghanistan’s war against Soviet
troops had been detained in con
nection with the blast.
Saleh said those being
detained were senior members
of the Muslim militant group
Islamic Jihad, including Yemenis,
Egyptians and Algerians.
Terrorist suspect Osama bin
Laden was prominently involved
in the Afghan resistance and now
lives in Afghanistan, but Saleh
declined to say whether the
attackers or detainees had any
connection to bin Laden’s Al
Qaida group.
Saleh spoke on MBC televi
‘‘We’re bringing them
out and trying to do it
in an orderly way
that will ensure
security."
Janet Reno
U.S.attorney general
sion, a Saudi-owned satellite
channel broadcast from London.
If terrorism is proved, the
Cole bombing would be the
deadliest terrorist attack on the
U.S. military since 19 Air Force
personnel died in a 1996 truck
bomb explosion in Saudi Arabia.
A representative in the
United States of Afghanistan’s
ruling Taliban said that "if the
U.S. government or any other
government provided us evi
dence, we are willing to take (bin
Laden) to trial, according to their
desire and their demands.”
But Abdul Hakim Mujahid -
making a rare public speech at
the Fletcher School of Law and
Diplomacy at Tufts University in
Massachusetts on Wednesday -
said he doubted there was any
evidence tying bin Laden to the
attack.
Meanwhile, Interior Minister
Hussein Mohammed Arab said
Thursday that the investigation
into a grenade attack on the
British Embassy in San’a is near
ing conclusion.
He said the Islamic Jihad
member suspected of throwing
the grenade onto the embassy
grounds one day after the Cole
attack will be referred to the
prosecution next week.
Parkinson s cure one step closer
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON - A gene therapy
experiment relieved severe symptoms of
Parkinson’s disease in monkeys, and
experts say the technique offers promise
for treating the 1.2 million Americans
who suffer from the disease.
A virus that had been joined with a
gene that prompts production of
dopamine, a chemical neurotransmitter,
was injected into the brains of monkeys
who had chemically induced Parkinson’s
disease.
Three monkeys that had severe symp
toms of Parkinson’s were restored to near
normal by the gene therapy, said Jeffrey
H. Kordower, first author of a study
appearing Friday in the journal Science.
"We are able to stop the disease in its
tracks and to keep it from progressing,”
said Kordower, the director of the
Research Center for Brain Repair at the
u
Rush Presbyterian-St. Luke’s Medical
Center in Chicago.
"The experiment showed dramatic
protective effects,” said Dr. Ted M.
Dawson, head of the Parkinson’s Disease
Research Center at Johns Hopkins
University Medical Center. “It is promis
ing, but I would be only cautiously opti
mistic."
Parkinson’s disease, which affects
about 1.2 million Americans, is a progres
sive disorder that affects brain cells that
make dopamine.
The loss of dopamine causes the clas
sic Parkinson’s symptoms: trembling,
slow and stiff movement of limbs, a halt
ing walk, speech difficulties and loss of
balance.
The cause of the disease is unknown
and there is currently no cure.
Before the gene therapy could be tried
in humans, questions about safety would
have to be answered, Dawson said.
V
World/Nation
The Associated Press
■ Washington, D.C.
Query: Census Bureau
didn't violate rules
Congressional investigators
have cleared the Census Bureau
of violating any federal guide
lines by participating in an
event tied to the Democratic
National Convention.
Because the role of Census
officials appeared to have been
“informational in nature” and
did not amount to “publicity or
propaganda, the Bureau’s par
ticipation in the symposium did
not violate appropriations act
restrictions,” the General
Accounting Office report said.
The investigation had been
requested by Rep. Dan Miller, R
Fla., after The Associated Press
reported the agency's participa
tion in the event in Los Angeles
on Aug. 12, just before the
Democratic convention.
■ New York City
Court: Woman can't
visit mistake baby
A state appeals court has
denied visitation rights to a
white woman who gave birth to
a black couple's baby after an
embryo mix-up in a fertility
clinic.
The New York Appellate
Division ruled 5-0 Thursday
that the birth of Robert and
Deborah Perry Rogers’ child to
Donna Fasano was a mistake
and that she and her husband,
Richard, had no right to seek
visitation with the child.
In its unanimous 17-page
ruling, the court said the case
was akin to a hospital’s “mix-up
of two newborn infants, which
should simply be corrected at
once,” than a case in which the
birth mother might claim the
same rights as the genetic
mother.
The Rogers family of
Teaneck, N.J., got the news from
their lawyer, Bernard Clair.
“They were weeping, both of
them, with happiness,” he said.
“They were very emotional.
They’ve been on tenterhooks
for quite some time."
David Cohen, a lawyer for
the Fasanos, who live in Staten
Island, said his clients would be
disappointed by the decision
and would likely appeal.
■ New York city
Kissinger in hospital
following heart attack
Former Secretary of State,
Henry Kissinger, remained hos
pitalized Thursday after suffer
ing a heart attack one day earli
er.
“He’s doing well, and is
expected to be there for a few
days,’” said Kathy Robinson,
spokeswoman for the New York
Weill-Cornell Medical Center,
where Kissinger was admitted
Wednesday.
Robinson said Kissinger suf
fered a heart attack but she pro
vided no details.
Kissinger, 77, who had
bypass surgery in 1982, was sec
retary of state in the Nixon and
Ford administrations. He has
since worked as a consultant
and written his memoirs and
several books and newspaper
articles.
Kissinger was expected to
attend a dinner Secretary of
State Madeleine Albright is
planning next Wednesday for
former secretaries of state.
■ Rhode Island
Egypt Air agrees to bring
crash relatives to service
PROVIDENCE - EgyptAir
agreed Thursday to bring the
relatives of 89 Egyptians who
died in the Flight 990 crash to a
U.S. memorial service marking
next week’s anniversary.
The airline had said it would
pay only for North American
families traveling to Newport
next Tbesday, one year after the
plane went down in sea off
Massachusetts.
Relatives of the Egyptian
victims complained and the air
line relented. Airline officials
had said they simply wanted to
save Egyptians the trouble of
traveling abroad and had
planned a separate service in
Cairo. That service is now post
poned.
The crash killed 217 people.
Its cause has not been deter
mined.
V