I
Israel puts financial freeze on Palestine
■As more violence erupts,
Israeli and Palestinian prime
ministers fail to resume peace.
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
JERUSALEM - After rocket
ing Palestinian command cen
ters, Israel announced Thursday
it is freezing millions of dollars in
tax transfers to the Palestinian
Authority in an attempt to pres
sure Yasser Arafat to abide by
truce agreements.
An envoy for President
Clinton met separately with
Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister
Ehud Barak but failed to nudge
them toward resuming peace
talks. Instead, more angry words
of blame over the past seven
weeks of violence flew between
die two sides.
Two Palestinians were killed
Thursday by Israeli fire in sepa
rate incidents near the West
Bank town of Hebron.
In a rock-throwing clash in
the West Bank refugee camp ofA1
Fawar, an 18-year-old
Palestinian was shot and
wounded in the chest. The vic
tim’s relatives said he bled to
death when an ambulance was
turned away at Israeli check
points. The Israeli army said that
because of an Israeli blockade of
Palestinian towns, the patient
was to be transferred to an Israeli
ambulance, but there was con
fusion about the meeting point.
Later Thursday, a 30-year
old Palestinian man was killed at
an Israeli checkpoint near the
town of Beit Ummar. Palestinian
witnesses said soldiers shot the
man without provocation. The
army said the man was killed
when he tried to seize a soldier’s
weapon.
The deaths brought the
number of people killed in the
latest round of Israeli
Palestinian fighting to 223. The
vast majority of the victims have
been Palestinians.
On Thursday, thousands of
Palestinians joined the funeral
procession for a German man,
68-year-old chiropractor Harald
Fischer. He was killed in an
Israeli rocket and machine-gun
fire attack on the West Bank town
of Beit Jalla that came in
response to Palestinian shooting
Wednesday night on the nearby
Jerusalem neighborhood of Gilo.
German Foreign Minister
Joschka Fischer, who is no rela
tion to the victim, said he was
“shocked and horrified" by the
killing. Israel promised an inves
tigation and said Germany
would be allowed to participate
in the probe.
Israel enforced its blockade
of Palestinian towns for a third
day Thursday, barring residents
from entering or leaving their
communities. On the outskirts
of the West Bank town of
Hebron, Israeli soldiers stopped
a Palestinian food truck. One
soldier took the driver's keys and
slashed the truck’s tires. The
army said tire-slashing was
against policy.
Barak defended himself
against growing criticism at
home that the army was not
responding harshly enough to
Palestinian shooting attacks on
Israelis. Four Israelis, including
two civilians, were killed in
ambushes this week.
Israeli helicopters rocketed
three West Bank offices of
Arafat's Fatah movement and an
armory Wednesday night in
retaliation for shooting attacks
on Israelis. Israel believes Fatah’s
Tanzim militia is responsible for
much of the violence.
“If we thought that instead of
200 Palestinian fatalities, 2,000
dead would put an end to the
fighting at one fell stroke, then
‘The transfer of funds has been stopped as part
of our demand that the other side, too, will
abide by agreements
Ebud Barak
Israeli prime minister
perhaps we would use much
more force,” Barak told Israel
radio.
Instead, Barak announced
Thursday that Israel was with
holding millions of dollars in tax
revenues it owes the Palestinian
Authority. “The transfer of funds
has been stopped as part of our
demand that the other side, too,
will abide by agreements,” Barak
said.
On average, Israel had been
transferring $60 million a month
in collected tax revenues to the
Palestinian Authority, including
money withheld from the
salaries of Palestinian workers in
Israel.
In the past six weeks, Israel
has passed along only about $7.5
million, said Salam Fijad, a rep
resentative of the International
Monetary Fund in the
Palestinian areas. Fijad said the
taxes Israel collects make up
about two-thirds of the
Palestinian Authority’s total rev
enues.
Arafat said that withholding
the funds is “part of the Israeli
war against us.”
The Palestinian leader met
with Clinton's envoy, Dennis
Ross, for nearly two hours
Thursday in Gaza City. Arafat
said Clinton, whose term ends in
two months, “is insisting to
achieve something (concerning
peace talks) before his depar
ture.”
Asked whether there could
be a peace agreement before
then, Arafat said: “We hope so.”
Senior Palestinian officials have
said confrontations with Israel
would continue, even if talks
resume.
Barak, who met with Ross
late Wednesday, said he would
only return to talks once vio
lence was drastically reduced.
Gore awarded manual recounts
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
A1 Gore won his fight
Thursday to expand manual
recounts in Florida, even as
advisers said he likely won't over
take George W. Bush’s 300-vote
lead before the Republican secre
tary of state certifies their
marathon White House race
Saturday. GOP lawyers asked
courts to stop the counting and
"the disintegration” of America’s
presidential election system.
The vice president and his
team aggressively defended the
hand recounts in Democratic
leaning counties, laying the
groundwork for Gore's case to
continue the vote-counting if he
fails to pull ahead of the Texas
governor before the secretary of
state’s deadline.
“The choice really is whether
the voters are going to decide this
election by having every vote
count or whether that process is
going to be short-circuited with
out all the votes being examined,”
Gore said in a radio interview.
The Florida Supreme Court
later handed Gore a modest vic
tory, authorizing officials in Palm
Beach and Broward counties to
recount ballots by hand. The
effort, which officials said will
take about six days, had been
stalled on order of Secretary of
State Katherine Harris.
The ruling did not say
whether any votes found in the
recounts can be added to Gore’s
totals — the heart of a legal clash
that has thrust the presidential
campaign into limbo. The jus
tices are all Democratic
appointees.
Within minutes, Palm Beach
election officials decided to start
recounting Thursday night.
After two foil days of counting
in 86 of 609 precincts, Gore had
gained 21 votes in Broward
County on the state’s southeast
coast.
"The Florida Supreme Court
“Once these votes are counted, we will know the
final result of Florida’s election and the nation’s
election. Win or lose, this election will be over.”
Don Evans
Bush campaign chairman
has spoken: the counts can con
tinue,” said Gore chairman
William Daley.
Bush supports the secretary
of state’s weekend deadline and
wants a declaration of a Florida
winner after the last overseas
absentee ballots are due Friday at
midnight
“Once these votes are count
ed, we will know the final result of
Florida’s election and the nation’s
election,” Bush campaign chair
man Don Evans said. “Win or
lose, this election will be over.”
Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who
thus far has been unable to deliv
er the state for his brother, agreed:
“Saturday morning we'll know
who won the state," he said.
Democrats begged to differ.
Gore’s attorneys asked a state
judge in Tallahassee to have hand
recounts rolled into the election
totals, even if the vote-counting
isn’t finished by Friday night
They argued that Harris, a
Bush supporter, acted arbitrarily
when she refused to update vote
totals with the results of manual
recounts after a TXiesday dead
line.
Bush looked to a federal
appeals court in Atlanta to shut
down the canvassing altogether,
calling manual recounts inaccu
rate and prone to political mis
chief. Both sides said the case
could be headed to U.S. Supreme
Court.
“Eight days after Florida’s
presidential vote, the entire
nation is witnessing the disinte
gration of a process that was
designed to elect America’s presi
dent,” reads the Bush brief in the
federal appeal. “The Florida man
ual recount process is being used
to eliminate any possibility of an
orderly, rational and final end to
the election."
The federal court also agreed
to consider a related case filed by
three Bush supporters from
Brevard County. They claim their
rights are being violated because
their counties are not recanvass
ing votes by hand.
Some scenes were chaotic,
bordering on the comical.
Broward County sheriff’s
deputies took custody of 78 tiny
bits of paper after Republicans
demanded that the scraps be
held as evidence of potential bal
lot tampering. The paper, from
the holes in punch-out ballots,
was placed by police in an enve
lope marked, “Crime. Found
Property.”
Joked elections supervisor
Jane Carroll, herself a Republican:
“Let the chads fall as they may.”
Later, a lawyer burst into the
county’s hurricane emergency
center and served subpoenas on
startled county election officials.
“The nation is watching you,"
said Republican activist William
Scherer, who filed a lawsuit on
behalf of fellow attorney Steven
Stoll.
The vice president began the
day 300 votes behind Bush in
Florida, with about 2,600 over
seas absentee ballots to be count
ed Friday night
Gore has hoped the addition
al hand recounting would vault
him ahead of the Texas governor
in the race for the state’s 25 elec
toral votes and the White House.
Thousands greet
Clinton in Vietnam
■The president was the first in
office to visit Hanoi, promises
to'build a better future.'
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
HANOI, Vietnam - President
Clinton began a historic visit
Thursday to Vietnam, stirring
painful memories back home of
America’s longest and most
unpopular war and promising a
former enemy “to build a different
future.”
Clinton arrived in the com
munist capital late at night, the
first U.S. president ever in Hanoi, a
city once bombed by American
warplanes. The welcoming cere
mony was put off until morning,
but that didn’t stop thousands and
thousands of Vietnamese from
turning out at midnight to catch a
glimpse of Clinton’s limousine
and jam the square in front of his
hotel.
Even though the visit received
scant advance publicity, the
Vietnamese lined the streets,
some just looking on and others
waving and clapping when the
president’s motorcade passed.
“This only happens once in a
thousand years,” said homemak
erTranThiLan, 50.
Clinton was to be formally
welcomed today by President
Itan Due Luong at an honor guard
ceremony in the courtyard of the
French-built presidential palace
on Ba Dinh Square.
Reaching out to a generation
of students born after the war,
Clinton will speak at Hanoi
National University to describe
his vision for a new chapter in
U.S.-Vietnamese relations. State
run television, in an unprecedent
ed move, was to broadcast the
address live.
More than 50 U.S. corpora
tions sent executives to Vietnam
during Clinton's visit in hopes of
gaining a foothold in what they
believe is a vast untapped market
of 78 million people.
As a young man, Clinton
“opposed and despised" the
Vietnam War, organized protest
marches and avoided the military
draft. As commander in chief
three decades later, Clinton
acknowledged that “a lot of people
still bear the wounds of war” in
both countries.
The war cost 58,000American
lives and tore the nation with suf
fering and turmoil The U.S. mili
tary buildup began in 1961, grow
ing to 60,000 combat troops with
in four years and to 543,000 by
1969. U.S. forces in 1973 made a
humiliating withdrawal that still
haunts the Pentagon. North
Vietnam’s army captured Saigon
in 1975, leading to the unification
of the country under communist
controL
The losses to the Vietnamese
people were staggering; 3 million
dead and thousands missing.
In a cautious rapprochement,
Clinton lifted a trade embargo
against Viemam in 1994 and the
next year restored diplomatic
relations.
He opened the U.S. Embassy
in Hanoi in 1996 and in 1998
issued his first waiver of a law that
bars trade relations with commu
nist nations that deny citizens the
right to emigrate.
In July, the United States and
Vietnam signed a sweeping trade
agreement
“I think it’s a new chapter,”
Clinton said.
“The thing what makes
America work over time is our
ability to visualize new futures
and achieve them.”
Weather
TODAY
Partly cloudy
high 34, low 22
TOMORROW
Partly cloudy
high 33, low 21
SUNDAY
Partly cloudy
high 39, low 21
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MLK's chief organizer
loses battle with cancer
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
ATLANTA - Hosea Williams, the fiery
lieutenant to Martin Luther King Jr. who
was at the forefront of the civil rights
struggle for more than three decades,
died of cancer Thursday. He was 74.
Williams died at Atlanta’s Piedmont
Hospital, where he was admitted for an
infection Oct. 20. He was diagnosed with
prostate cancer three years ago and had a
cancerous kidney removed last year.
“We were with him when he was
absent with body and were present when
the Lord took him,” said Williams' daugh
ter, Elisabeth Williams-Omilami. “He was
selfless. What he did for this earth will
now reveal itself because the fruit of the
seeds he sowed will begin to emerge.”
The chief organizer of King’s marches
and demonstrations, Williams helped
lead the “Bloody Sunday” march in
Selma, Ala., in 1965. Another leader, John
Lewis, called Williams a patriot.
“Hosea Williams must be looked
upon as one of the founding fathers of the
new America,” he said. "Through his
actions, he helped liberate all of us.”
Williams was also at the Memphis, Tenn.,
motel where King was shot in 1968.
He recalled his anger that day during
a 1993 interview with The Associated
Press: “I was wishing I could pull some
molecules out of the air and make me a
weapon and just wipe out every white
person near, because I thought they had
shot Dr. King at that time.”
He continued: "I said to myself,
‘America, racists, economic exploiters,
you sure have messed up now... because
there lies the only one among us, the
main one, who has tried to keep us calm.
Now you’ve killed him.’ ”
The shot, he said, ended King's dream
because it fragmented his lieutenants.
Williams was born Jan. 5, 1926, in
Attapulgus, Ga., the illegitimate son of a
blind girl who fled a state training school
when she discovered she was pregnant.
He was raised by his grandfather,
whom he described as a tough man who
had killed at least three people, including
one on church steps on a Sunday morn
ing.
World/Nation
The Associated Press
■ Washington, D.C.
Drop in com exports
concerns U.S. Grains Council
The government is report
ing a steady drop in exports of
corn, evidence that the mishan
dling of genetically engineered
grain on Midwest farms is start
ing to damage U.S. markets
overseas.
The Agriculture
Department on Thursday
reported net sales of 517,700
metric tons for the week that
ended Nov. 9, about half the
weekly rate in October. Japan,
by far the biggest U.S. customer,
purchased less than 150,000
tons during the week, less than
half its normal amount.
■ Russia
Space station to end
15-year run in February
MOSCOW- Russia’s Cabinet
decided Thursday that the
space station Mir will end its 15
years of pioneering achieve
ments and white-knuckle
mishaps with a fiery plunge into
the Pacific Ocean in February.
Mir’s successes and tribula
tions mirrored the epochal
changes that shook Russia dur
ing its time aloft, and ditching it
in a remote comer of the sea 900
to 1,200 miles off Australia will
extinguish a potent symbol for
many Russians.
But Mir is deteriorating, for
eign investors who bought the
station an eleventh-hour
reprieve this year haven’t met
their commitments, and Russia
wants to concentrate its rev
enues on the 16-nation interna
tional space station, which
received its first crew last
month, Russian Space Agency
chiefYuri Koptev said.
■ Washington, D.C.
United States, Yugoslavia
to reopen embassies
After an exchange of diplo
matic letters, the United States
and Yugoslavia will re-establish
a relationship that soured in the
conflict over Kosovo: They will
reopen their embassies in each
other's capital within the next
few days.
In an interview Thursday
with state radio in Belgrade,
President Vojislav Kostunica
said Yugoslavia was “returning
to the world swiftly, its head
high up, and with dignity.”
He also said his government
would focus its relations mostly
on Europe and Russia, while
also forging ties with “the most
powerful country in the world -
the United States,” and others.
■Yugoslavia
Country ready to renew
diplomatic relations
BELGRADE - Yugoslavia’s
federal government announced
it was ready to restore diplo
matic relations with the United
States, Germany, France and
Britain, the Tanjug news agency
reported Thursday
The state-run agency quot
ed a statement issued by the
government’s Information
Ministry as saying “The federal
government today decided to
renew diplomatic relations of
the federal republic of
Yugoslavia with the Republic of
France, the Federal Republic of
Germany, the United Kingdom
of Great Britain and Northern
Ireland and the United States of
America.’’
The United States, Britain
and France welcomed the
move.
■ Florida
Air Force F-16 collides
with Cessna, killing one
SARASOTA - An Air Force F
16 collided with a small plane
Thursday and crashed in flames.
One person aboard the small
plane was killed, while the fighter
pilot parachuted to safety onto a
golf course and walked to some
one’s house to use the phone.
Pieces of the small plane, a
Cessna, landed on the golf
course.
The wreckage of the fighter
jet started a fire in the woods a
few miles away.
No injuries were reported on
the ground.