' I
News Digest
Bombing suspect to get charged
■ Investigators are prepared to charge
two people they claim are involved in
the attack of the USS Cole.
THE ASSOCIATE) PRESS v
ADEN, Yemen—Yemeni investigators
are ready to charge at least two people in die
apparent terrorist attack on the USS Cole, a
source said Sunday, six weeks after an explo
sion tore through the warship as it sat in
Aden^s harbor.
Charges are expected to be filed as soon
as this week, the source said. The suspects
could be sentenced to death if convicted.
But any charges are unlikely to mean die
end of the probe. U.S. investigators suspect
an international conspiracy was behind the
bombing.
Seventeen U.S. sailors were killed and 39
more injured on Oct 12, when two suicide
bombers steered a small boat laden with
explosives alongside the Cole and detonat
ed it while the destroyer was refueling.
U.S. and Yemeni officials have said the
attack appeared to be a carefully planned,
well-financed operation, and the bomb
materials were expertly prepared.
The Yemeni source close to the investi
gation would not identify the two men he
described as main suspects. But last week,
other sources said authorities had detained
six Yemeni men they believe were key
accomplices, including the operation’s
apparent leader in Yemen.
American officials have said they believe
the operation was carried out by a network
of small cells of two or three people, proba
bly from one or more anti-American Islamic
organizations, including Yemen's Islamic
Jihad, Egypt’s al-Gamaa al-Islamiya and
Osama bin Laden's followers.
Bin Laden, an exiled Saudi millionaire,
lives in Afghanistan. U.S. officials believe he
ordered the 1998 bombings of U.S.
embassies in Kenya and Tanzania killing 224
people.
Officials have suggested the Cole attack
ers were from various Arab countries,
including Yemen, Egypt and Saudi Arabia,
and that they may be operating from both
Afghanistan and Yemen.
A Yemeni security official, also speaking
on condition of anonymity, said investiga
tions revealed that an Egyptian suspect
whom he identified as Hamdi fled Yemen a
month before the bombing along with five
others. He said all six had links to Islamic
jihad, but he did not elaborate further.
The first Yemeni source said the charges
planned against at least two suspects
included carrying out the attack, threaten
ing state security, forming an armed gang
and possessing explosives.
Conviction on all four charges would
carry a minimum sentence of 10 years in
prison, the source said, adding that the sus
pects could be executed if convicted of
threatening state security or carrying out
the bombings.
Most executions in Yemen are by firing
squad and are performed in public.
The prosecution will review the case by
Tuesday before filing charges, the source
said. The prosecutor declined to comment
Sunday.
In Yemen, a court generally sets a trial
date within a few days of charges being filed.
That date usually is within a week.
According to Yemeni law, the trial will take
place in Aden, where the attack took place,
die source said.
In the weeks after the attack, Yemeni
investigators rounded up scores of people
for questioning. The suspects ranged from
known Islamic fundamentalists to people
who lived near any of the Aden buildings the
bombers used as staging grounds.
Yemeni authorities also have detained
lower-level Yemeni security.
Cuban exiles
hold vigil for
Elian Gonzalez
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
MIAMI—About 100 Cuban exiles holding can
dles and carnations marked the first anniversary
of Elian Gonzalez’s arrival in the United States with
a bayside vigil Saturday.
Only Lazaro Gonzalez, the boy’s great-uncle,
and a cousin were representing Elian’s Miami rela
tives, who fought a seven-month legal battle to
keep the 6-year-old from being returned to Cuba.
“In the name of Elian, I thank everyone pro
foundly for remembering his beautiful mother,
who with her own life, was able to bring that boy to
a country of liberty, where they cruelly stripped
him of that liberty and took him to a system where
everyone tries to flee,” lazaro Gonzalez said.
Elian was one of only three survivors among 14
people who tried to sail a small boat from Cuba to
Florida. His mother, Elisabeth Brotons, was
among those who died when the boat capsized.
The vigil was held along Biscayne Bay behind a
Catholic church. The crowd stood facing a framed
photo lit by gas-powered torches of Brotons.
“We feel very sad like all of you in remembering
the grave (fate) of Elisabeth, Elian’s mother,”
Lazaro Gonzalez said. “We are entirety convinced
that Cuba is not doing this for that woman.”
He was taken in by relatives in Miami and
adopted as a symbol by Cuban-Americans who
oppose Fidel Castro’s communist regime. But the
boy’s father insisted Elian was taken from Cuba
without his permission, and after a months-long
court battle, armed federal agents seized the boy
from his great-uncle’s home April 22. He later
returned with his father to Cuba.
Saturday’s event, organized by the anti-Castro
group Democracy Movement, culminated with
the crowd casting hundreds of multicolored car
nations into the bay, shouting “Viva Cuba Libre!”
and singing the Cuban national anthem.
Participants then attended an evening Mass.
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1 DAILY NEBRASKAN
Owing Sung-Jun/Newsmakers
Members of the Federation of Korean Trade Unions, wearing headbands reading Tight,'shout slogans Sunday during an anti-government rally in Seoul,
South Korea. About 20,000workers marched in central Seoul on Sunday to oppose a government-led restructuring plan that they fear would lead to
mass layoffs.
Money woes plague S. Korea
Layoffs, bankruptcies afflict nation not known for its problems
I Tlfc nJJWlWI w rnfcw
SEOUL, South Korea — Tens of
thousands of layoffs. Violent labor
protests. Conglomerates facing bank
ruptcy as scores of smaller firms go
under
Surely this isn't the same South Korea
that was rebounding strongly from the
Asian economic crisis, which swept
across the region three years ago and
triggered fears of a global financial emer
gency. Think again.
“Nobody knows how desperate we
are,” said Koh Hyong-choon, a 38-year
old father of two Mho expects to lose his
job at a money-losing chemical factory
here. The factory is set to close soon.
South Korea, long a symbol of Asian
business prowess, faces a surprising
return to some familiar problems in an
eerie echo of the 1997crisis. Today, South
Korean corporate titans such as Hyundai
and Daewoo are deep in red ink, and
some 100,000 workers are expected to
lose their jobs by year's end.
South Korea isn’t as bad off this time
around, and its plight seems unlikely to
spread to other countries, economists
say. But the woes are raising concerns
about the durability of Asia's fragile
rebound, Mtith Indonesia, the
Philippines and Thailand still struggling
to recover from rising debt, political
instability and financial mismanage
ment
The 1997 recession was triggered
“Nobody knows how desperate we are
Koh Hyongchoon
South Korean factory worker
when Thailand devalued its currency
and set off a chain reaction across the
region. Thousands of financially weak
companies in South Korea collapsed.
Unemployment soared in a nation
where workers were accustomed to life
time jobs. South Korea required big
bailout loans overseen by the
International Monetary Fund.
South Korea, a major global exporter
of autos and electronics, has since lured
back foreign investors, greatly shored up
its foreign currency reserves and pressed
ahead with wrenching financial reforms.
Now, those reforms are causing hard
ship, demonstrating the fragility of the
recovery and arousing the enmity of
unions and thousands of uneasy work
ers.
Underscoring the predicament,
some economists fear the South Korean
economy will shrink again if the govern
ment fails to speed up reforms by shut
ting down heavily indebted companies.
Typical is Koh’s employer, Korea
Synthetic Chemical a bank-owned con
cern that loses an average of $17 million
a year and probably will close by year's
end, stranding hundreds without jobs.
South Korea’s jobless rate is expected
to rise by half a percentage point to 4 per
cent, or 910,000 people this year—well
below the 9 percent peak in February
1999.
That’s no consolation to Koh, who
supports his family on his $1,000 month
ly salary, which includes housing and
other subsidies.
Major labor unions have vowed to
resist layoffs, raising the prospect of a
round of labor protests similar to those
during the IMF crisis, when hundreds of
thousands of workers were driven out of
jobs and held rallies against what they
called inept corporate management
This month, two large street protests
in Seoul each drew up to 20,000 workers.
One turned violent resulting in 100 peo
ple injured in clashes with riot police.
Despite problems, South Korea’s
economy is expected to grow around 9
percent this year, after expanding 10.7
percent last year in a dramatic turn
around. But experts warn the economic
situation could deteriorate unless the
government moves decisively to restruc
ture bloated big businesses that subsist
on large bank loans.
Clinton vows to review Peltier case
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON — The White
House says President Clinton will
review all pending requests for exec
utive clemency before he leaves
office in Januai^, including that of
Leonard Peltier, the American
Indian activist convicted of murder
ing two FBI agents in South Dakota.
The president "will focus on all of
the clemency cases after the election
and that will be one of them,” White
House spokesman Daniel Cruise
said Sunday.
Also Sunday, the White House
released the transcript of Clinton’s
Nov. 7 interview with radio station
WBAI-FM in New York City in which
the president was asked about the
Peltier case.
Clinton said then he would
review all clemency applications
“and see what the merits dictate ...
based on the evidence.”
Asked specifically about Peltier,
Clinton said he has “never had time
actually to sit down myself and
review that case.”
“I know it's very important to a
lot of people, maybe on both sides of
the issue,” he said. “And I think I owe
it to them to give it an honest look
see.”
On June 26, 1975, FBI agents
Ronald A. Williams and Jack R. Coler
pursued a robbery suspect into the
Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in
South Dakota. A shootout erupted
with activists from the American
Indian Movement.
Two suspects were acquitted and
a third freed for lack of evidence.
Peltier, after fleeing to Canada
and being extradited to the United
States, was convicted and sentenced
to consecutive life terms in 1977,
despite defense claims that evidence
against him had been falsified.
Peltier, 56, is serving the terms at
the U.S. Penitentiary in
Leavenworth, Kan. He has suffered
from health problems in recent
years.
In June, a parole examiner rec
ommended that Peltier's sentences
be continued until his next full
parole hearing in 2008.
The Associated Press
■Austria
Bodies of cable car victims
returned to United States
VIENNA — The bodies of
eight Americans killed in a cable
car fire two weeks ago were flown
home Saturday aboard a U.S. mil
itary aircraft, local media report
ed.
A contingent of the Austrian
army provided an honor guard,
and the coffins were flown from
Salzburg Airport, about 100 miles
west of the capital, Vienna, air
port spokesman Richard Schano
told the Austria Press Agency. He
did not give the destination of the
flight.
The Americans killed in the
Nov. 11 accident - including a
family of four and a newly
engaged couple - were among
155 people who died when a fire
engulfed a cable car traveling
through a mountain tunnel at the
Austrian resort of Kaprun.
The Americans were all
members of military-affiliated ski
clubs in Germany. Other mem
bers of the same group escaped
the Nov. 11 accident because they
chose to go shopping rather than
skiing.
■New York
Retailers given early holiday
gift as shoppers spend
New York —The first week
end of the holiday shopping sea
son turned out to be a pleasant
surprise for worried retailers: The
consumers who crowded malls
and logged onto e-commerce
sites spent more than expected as
they snapped up the season’s
must-have items.
Sweaters, coats and other
apparel items, bouncing back
from a months-long slump, were
the top sellers in stores and
online. In fact, clothing turned
out to be the most popular cate
gory on the Internet Friday, fol
lowed by consumer electronics.
Scooters and robotic pets were
the big standouts in toys.
“Sales looked pretty decent,”
said Michael P. Niemira, vice
president of the Bank of Tokyo
Mitsubishi on Sunday, estimating
the weekend’s sales will be about
5 to 6 percent higher than last
year. “It's a good start to the sea
son. But where it goes from here
remains to be seen.”
The solid sales followed
months of sluggish business for
many retailers.
■Omaha
Buffett, Gates slated to play
in public bridge tournament
Billionaires Warren Buffet
and Bill Gates will be among the
more than200 people competing
this week in the “Sectional
Tournament at the Clubs,” a
local-level bridge tournament
that runs through Dec. 4.
Buffett, chairman of
Berkshire Hathaway Inc., invited
Gates, chairman of Microsoft
Corp., to play in the event, tour
nament director Jim Nadi said.
They will be joined by
Buffett's longtime bridge partner
and two-time world champion
Sharon Osberg, an executive vice
president for Online Financial
Services Group at Wells Fargo in
San Francisco.
Nash said Bob Hamman of
Dallas will play with Gates.
Hamman has been the World
Bridge Federation’s top-ranked
player for 15 years.
Gates is a relative newcomer
to bridge, and Hamman is play
ing with him to help promote the
game, Nash said.
Because of a reporting error,
the number of Institutional
Review Boards was listed incor
rectly in a story about fetal tissue
and stem cell research in
Tuesday's Daily Nebraskan.
There are four Institutional
Review Boards - one at the
University of Nebraska-Lincoln,
one at the University of Nebraska
at Kearney, one at the University
of Nebraska at Omaha and one at
the University of Nebraska
Medical Center.
Because of a reporting error,
the minimum grade point aver
age to be eligible for the Teach
For America program was incor
rect in Monday’s Daily
Nebraskan. A 2.5 grade point
average is required to be eligible
for the program.
