I
News Digest
A man reads the
headlines of two
of Israel's lead
ing newspapers,
whkh feature
the news of the
U.S. presidential
elections. The
election results
took precedence
over the Israeli
Palestfatian con
flict on
Wednesday in
Jerusalem.
David Silverman/Newsmakers
close election causes confusions
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
LONDON—World leaders
offered congratulations - then
hastily took diem back.
Newspapers hurriedly rolled
out new editions. And from
Hong Kong to Helsinki, ordinary
citizens marveled at America’s
chaotic electoral spectacle.
“It’s like Italy!” said the pro
prietor of a Roman coffee bar.
For a watching world, a full
day of confusion over the results
of the U.S. presidential race was
a lesson in democracy’s messy
glory-or proof that the political
system in the world’s most pow
erful nation might just be in
need of an overhaul.
Rushing to congratulate the
winner was an early and oft
repeated mistake. European
Commission President Romano
Prodi was among the first to
compliment George W. Bush on
his election as president - and
among the first to repent his
haste.
Forty minutes after German
President Johannes Rau circu
lated his letter congratulating
Bush in the name of the German
people, his office faxed an excit
ed follow-up: “Please don’t pub
licize the president’s congratu
lations to George W. Bush!!!!!”
Too late.
The Dutch government put
out a congratulatory statement
-then retracted it. New
Zealand’s prime minister, Helen
Clark, was all set to get down to
brass tacks with the presump
tive winner, mentioning the new
round of world trade talks in her
congratulatory note to Bush.
In every comer of the world,
newspapers rushed to correct
early editions proclaiming Bush
the victor. “Bush wins,” read the
early-edition headline in
London’s Evening Standard.
That was transformed in the
second edition to “Deadlock.”
In Seoul, the English-lan
guage Korea Times ran a banner
headline: “Bush Elected U.S.
President.” “The U.S. Decides:
Bush!” said Mexico’s respected
daily Reforma.
In Johannesburg, The Star
newspaper sent out 20,000
copies of its afternoon edition
with the banner headline: “Bush
is President” Then it dispatched
an extra 30,000 copies with a
new headline: “Bush Win in
Doubt”
A safer approach was to treat
the election as a political who
won-it, akin to a juicy murder
mystery. Sweden’s Expressen
newspaper called it a thriller,
while a Swiss TV anchor likened
the vote to a Hitchcock movie.
"The script for the American
elections seems to have been
written by a master of sus
pense,” said Lisbon’s A Capital
To tell you the truth, we didn’t know what to
believe
Mithat Bereket
yTurkey’s NTV news editor
newspaper.
For many observers, long
hours of waiting failed to pay off.
“To tell you the truth, we
didn’t know what to believe,” a
weary Mithat Bereket, foreign
news editor of Turkey’s private
NTV news channel, said after an
inconclusive all-night election
special.
In Italy, home to 58 govern
ments in the postwar period -
and notoriously untrustworthy
exit polls - many were amazed
the more scientific American
approach had failed to produce
a reliable result.
"What happened in Florida?
It sounds like Italy!” said coffee
bar proprietor Massimo
Ruggeri.
One Mexican analyst indi
cated some of his countrymen
were amused at the uncertainty
of the U.S. count, after enduring
decades as the butt of foreign
jokes for electoral chaos.
“It does sound very Mexican.
It will probably play well here,”
said political scientist Federico
Estevez.
Other observers worried
that the results pointed up fun
damental problems with the
American political system.
Swedish Prime Minister Goeran
Persson called the outcome
“strange” and predicted it would
lead to a constitutional debate.
Former Russian Foreign
Minister Andrei Kozyrev told
Ekho Moskvy radio that whatev
er the outcome, “one might
expect an amendment to the
U.S. constitution aimed at
improving the election process.”
Others saw a deeply - and
perhaps dangerously - divided
America. “The U.S.A., in mod
ern times, has never been as
clearly split,” analyst Ole Ludvig
Nymoen wrote in a commentary
for Norway’s NTB news agency.
In Israel, even a nation of
political junkies wearied of long
discourses on the complexities
of the U.S. electoral system. As
one expert detailed the circum
stances under which the selec
tion could be thrown to the U.S.
House of Representatives, radio
anchor Mickey Miro cut in to
plead: “That's about all we can
take for now.”
Complaints
over ballot
flood state
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. —
Three people filed a lawsuit
Wednesday seeking a new elec
tion in Palm Beach County, claim
ing the punch-card ballot was so
confusing that they accidentally
voted for Reform Party candidate
Pat Buchanan instead of Vice
President A1 Gore.
The lawsuit came after hun
dreds of Gore supporters flooded
the Palm Beach County elections
office with calls Wednesday, say
ing they feared they had mistak
enly voted for Buchanan.
Lawyers for the Democratic
Party said that the design of the
Palm Beach County ballot is ille
gal, and they may ask forare-vote.
No immediate action was take.
Buchanan got 3,407 votes for
president in the heavily
Democratic county Tuesday,
more than he received in any
other Florida county, according to
unofficial returns. Statewide,
Gore was behind George W. Bush
by fewer than 1,800 votes.
“It was so hard to tell who and
what you were voting for. I could
n’t figure it out, and I have a doc
torate,” voter Eileen Klasfeld said.
TWo larger counties south of
Palm Beach both had much lower
Buchanan results - 789 in
Broward County and 561 in
Miami-Dade County. In Duval
County only 650 Buchanan votes
were cast
The confusion apparently
arose from the way Palm Beach
County's punch-card style ballot
was laid out for the presidential
race. Candidates are listed in two
columns, with holes down the
middle between the columns, to
the right or the left of each candi
date’s name.
The top hole was for Bush,
who was listed at top left; the sec
ond hole was for Buchanan, listed
at top right, and the third hole was
for Gore, listed under Bush on the
left Arrows linked the names with
the proper hole, but some voters
feared they had missed the arrows
and punched the wrong hole.
Florida law specifies that vot
ers mark an X in the blank space
to the right of the name of the can
didate they want to vote for.
Outside the Palm Beach elec
tions office, about 50 outraged cit
izens carried signs protesting the
ballots.
“It was an injustice.
Thousands of people were con
fused,” said 42-year-old Niso
Mama. “We have to have another
election in this country.”
TODAY
Partly cloudy
high 36, low 26
TOMORROW
Partly cloudy
high 40, low 28
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Arafat to consult with Clinton
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
JERUSALEM -Violence flared in the
West Bank and Gaza Strip on Wednesday
even as Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat
headed for Washington to consult with
President Clinton.
Palestinian gunmen killed a customs
worker on her way to work, and four
Palestinians were shot dead in clashes.
The Palestinian leader flew to Cairo
to meet with Egyptian President Hosni
Mubarak - the main sponsor, with
Clinton, of the peace process - and then
to Britain for a meeting with Prime
Minister Tony Blair.
Arafat, who spoke with Blair during a
three-hour London stop, “underlined
the important role which Britain and the
European Union could play in support of
the peace process,” a Blair spokesman
said. No further details were known.
The Palestinian leader was due in
Washington by nightfall, and will meet
with Clinton on Thursday. Israeli Prime
Minister Ehud Barak was to meet with
Clinton on Sunday.
Barak said on Israeli television that
he will not ask for resumption of peace
negotiations. "I go to Washington to
ensure that the end of violence that was
agreed on at Sharm el-Sheik is carried
out if that is possible. That is all,” he said,
referring to a truce mediated last month
by Clinton in Egypt
Although the Palestinians have said
they won't declare statehood on Nov. 15 -
die 12th anniversary of a symbolic inde
pendence declaration Arafat made in
exile-they did say they might do so with
out prior notice.
“The Palestinian people have the
right to declare the state whenever they
want,” Nabil Shaath, a top aide to Arafat,
said Wednesday.
That came a day after Barak made his
clearest ever offer of statehood to the
Palestinians, but said it could come only
through negotiations - and that talks
would resume only once the violence
stopped.
“This situation cannot continue and
Israel will put an end to it, be it by politi
cal or other ways,” Barak said Wednesday
at a memorial to former Prime Minister
Yitzhak Rabin, slain by a Jewish extremist
five years ago.
Nation elected more women governors
■ Five women win governor seats,
which is the most the country has had.
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Ruth Ann Minner started working
in the Delaware statehouse as a recep
tionist in the 1970s. Judy Martz
entered Montana politics just four
years ago after helping run a garbage
business.
Now both lieutenant governors
have been promoted to their states’
highest office and have helped give the
nation more women governors - five -
than ever before.
In all, three women were among
the 11 gubernatorial victors in
Tuesday’s elections; the other was
New Hampshire’s Democratic incum
bent, Jeanne Shaheen. They join two
serving Republican governors,
Christine Todd Whitman of New Jersey
and Jane Hull of Arizona.
Two other women ran strong
major-party campaigns, but lost in
high-profile races.
North Dakota’s Heidi Heitkamp, a
Democrat diagnosed with breast can
cer in September, lost to Republican
banker John Hoeven. In Vermont,
Democratic Gov. Howard Dean sur
vived a challenge from Republican
Ruth Dwyer, who opposed a Dean
backed bill that extended marriage
like rights to gay couples.
Martz, a Republican, got 51 per
cent of the vote to 46 percent for
Democratic State Auditor Mark
O'Keefe. A former Olympic speed
skater, Martz was virtually unknown in
Montana politics until picked as run
ning mate for outgoing Gov. Marc
Racicot.
Minner, a Democrat whose stint as
a statehouse receptionist preceded a
lengthy legislative career, won 59 per
cent of the vote to defeat former GOP
lawmaker John Burris.
With one exception, the guberna
torial elections ended with the same
party holding power. Only in West
Virginia will there be a change -
Democratic U.S. Rep. Bob Wise edged
Republican incumbent Cecil
Underwood, at 78 the nation’s oldest
governor.
Underwood’s loss means there will
be 29 Republican governors, 19
Democrats and two independents.
The other five incumbents up for
re-election won: Republican Mike
Leavitt in Utah and Democrats Dean,
Shaheen, Frank O’Bannon in Indiana
and Gary Locke in Washington.
In Missouri, there was an excep
tionally close race to succeed Gov. Mel
Carnahan, the popular Democrat
killed three weeks ago in a plane crash.
The winner was Democratic State
Treasurer Bob Holden, who edged
Republican Rep. Jim Talent in a con
test that wasn't decided until nearly 2
a.m. CST Wednesday.
“I’m just sorry he’s not here for the
rest of the journey,” Holden said of
Carnahan.
The Associated Press
■ Washington, D.C
High voter turnout credited
to intense media coverage
Get-out-the-vote efforts, a
barrage of political ads and
intense media coverage were
cited as explanations for
increased voter participation in
tiiis year's election.
An estimated 51 percent of
Americans old enough to vote
did so on Tuesday, said Curtis
Gans, director of the Committee
for the Study of the American
Electorate.
By comparison, the rate in
1996 was 49 percent, the lowest
since 1924. In 1992, about 55 per
cent voted.
Gans said the higher turnout
likely was because of well-fund
ed, grass-roots mobilization
efforts and media coverage about
the White House race between
Democrat A1 Gore and GOP Gov.
George W. Bush ofTexas.
Still, he said, “We’ve got half
the electorate sitting at home.”
■ Russia
Note found on sailor's body
described crew's desperation
MOSCOW—The mission to
recover remains from a sunken
Russian nuclear submarine has
turned up a second note on a
sailor’s body, Deputy Prime
Minister Ilya Klebanov said
Wednesday, according to the
Interfax news agency.
The note was written shortly
after the submarine Kursk sank
to the bottom of the Barents Sea
on Aug. 12, crippled by explo
sions, with 118 men aboard,
Klebanov told the commission
investigating the sinking, the
report said.
It was not clear if the note
contained information that
would help determine die cause
of the accident But like a previ
ous note found on a sailor’s body,
it gives a terse description of the
trapped sailors’ desperation.
“The general feeling is bad...
the pressure is increasing... we
can't last more than a day,” the
note states in part, according to
Interfax.
■China
China sentencesllto death
over corruption scandal
SHANGHAI - Splashing pic
tures of ill-gotten gains across the
main evening news broadcast,
China announced death sen
tences Wednesday for 11 people,
among them police and govern
ment officials, in the nation’s
largest corruption scandal
In all, 84 people were convict
ed of involvement in a multibil
lion-dollar smuggling ring that
doled out huge bribes to officials
whose influence touched the
apex of power.
TWelve were sentenced to life
imprisonment and 58 received
lesser jail terms in the huge rack
et centered on the shady
Yuanhua Group in the busy
southeastern port of Xiamen,
Among those sentenced to
death were Deputy Mayor Lan Fu
ofXiamen in Fujian province; the
city’s customs chief, Yang
Qianxian, and Zhuang Rushun,
deputy head of public security
for Fujian, the reports stated.
■Australia
Great white shark attack
kills man, injures another
PERTH - One man was killed
and another injured in a shark
attack Monday at a popular
beach in western Australian,
police said
Scores of witnesses watched
as the shark, believed to be agreat
white up to 13 feet long, attacked
about 30 feet off the shore at
Perth’s Cottesloe Beach, which
was crowded with early morning
swimmers.
“I could see this huge shade -
it was really huge,” said Kim
Gamble, who watched from the
balcony of his beachfront cafe as
the shark bit off the man’s leg.
“There was a whole sea of blood,
and it was pulling the person.”
One man was pulled from the
water by other swimmers but
died on die beach, police said.
A second was hospitalized
with injuries to his lower leg.
Neither was immediately identi
fied. Police immediately evacuat
ed the beach, and officials
mounted an air and sea search
for the shark.