News Digest
Suspect links USS Cole bombing to bin Laden
■The confession adds to the
evidence that the terrorist's
organization was involved.
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
ADEN, Yemen — A key sus
pect in the attack on the USS
Cole told authorities in his con
fession that he believes the sui
cide bombers acted on the
orders of Os&ma bin Laden,
Yemeni sources close to the
investigation said Monday.
The suspect’s comments pro
vide another in a series of cir
cumstantial links between the
Saudi exile and the deadly attack
on the U.S. warship.
The sources did not identify
the man, but described him as
one of the three chief suspects in
custody.
He and up to seven others are
expected to be tried, perhaps as
early as this month, in the Oct 12
bombing of the American
destrdyer that killed 17 U.S.
sailors and wounded 39 during a
refueling stop in Aden.
Yemen’s prime minister has
said authorities have identified
one of the bombers and were
close to identifying the second.
Authorities have yet to estab
lish a firm connection between
the attack and bin Laden, but
U.S. law enforcement officials
have said several threads link the
„ suspects held in Yemen to the bin
Laden organization.
Bin Laden, who is living in
Afghanistan, has virtually
declared war on what he sees as
the anti-Islamic United States,
and U.S. officials consider him
their No. 1 terrorism suspect
The jailed Yemeni man’s
brother was described as a
prominent Arab Afghan, as
Islamic fighters who helped push
Soviet forces out of Afghanistan
in the 1980s are known.
The sources, speaking on
condition of anonymity, said the
suspect confessed that he helped
his brother run one of two safe
houses where visiting fellow Arab
Afghans would meet
Authorities were searching
for the brother, the officials said.
The brother’s safe house,
they said, was in Sa’da province,
near the Saudi border, and the
other safe house is in Saudi
Arabia, though the sources did
not say where. The two brothers’
home is elsewhere in Sa'da, they
said.
The suspect in custody told
authorities that an unidentified
Syrian man supervises bin
Laden’s activities in Yemen and
Saudi Arabia.
The Syrian, he told police, is
among 12 to 20 Saudis, Yemenis,
Egyptians, Syrians and other
Arabs who are close to bin Laden
and live with him in Afghanistan.
According to the sources, the
suspect said all the Afghan Arabs
who came to his brother’s safe
house worked for the Syrian.
The two alleged suicide
bombers were among a group
• that the suspect told investiga
tors visited the safe house before
the attack on the Cole, the
sources said.
It was not clear when the visit
took place, and the identities of
the two bombers have not been
released.
The suspect said that the
Afghan Arabs who came through
his safe house were all either
preparing attacks or hiding out
from authorities, so it was natu
ral for him to assume the two
who authorities believe were the
suicide bombers were planning
something.
He told authorities he had
not known what the target would
be, sources said.
Bin Laden, who is of Yemeni
descent, recruited Arabs in
Yemen to the war in Afghanistan
in the 1980s and is believed to
draw on them and other Arab
Afghans to support a global mili
tant Islamic terror network.
According to the sources, the
suspect also provided details
about bin Laden’s network. They
described his confession as say
ing that:
■ If a member of the inner
circle drops out of sight, an attack
is being planned or carried out.
Even within the group, nobody is
allowed to ask questions about
where the missing man has gone.
■ Only the most trusted of
bin Laden’s associates are
allowed to train in using C-4, the
plastic explosive used in the Cole
bombing.
It was unclear whether the
suspect had signed the confes
sion. Prosecutors in Aden and
police ministry officials refused
comment on what the sources
said.
Study suggests
weight worries
many children
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
CHICAGO—Influenced by their parents and the
media, a disturbing number of children and teen
agers are worrying about their weight in hopes of
looking model-thin or bodybuilder buff, a study says.
A second study linked being overweight with low
self-esteem m guts as young as 5, while a third sug
gests that watching TV at mealtime may contribute
to children’s unhealthy eating habits.
The reports, published in the January issue of die
journal Pediatrics, comeamid growing concern
The first study, from Brigham and Women’s
Hospital in Boston, is based on questionnaires given
to 12,057 children ages 9 to 14 in 1996 and 1997.
Weight concerns were found in children who
weren't overweight In the first year, 9 percent of the
girls and 4 percent of the boys had extreme weight
concerns, such as worries over gaining 2 pounds.
An additional 6 percent of girls and 2 percent of
boys became highly weight-conscious during the
study.
Girls have been encouraged “to form unrealisti
cally thin body ideals” by the mass media, said Alison
E. Field, who led the study.
A similar message about sculpted male bodies “is
taking its toll on boys, making them more suscepti
ble to being overly concerned about weight,” she
said.
The responses suggested that parents who were
dieters or valued leanness strongly influenced their
children.
In addition, youngsters who reported spending
lots of time trying to emulate popular media figures
were more prone to chronic dieting and extreme
weight concerns.
Another study suggests that even very young
children are aware of society’s fixation on thinness.
The study of 197 5-year-old girls included 48 who
were overweight
Those who were overweight reported signifi
cantly lower body self-esteem than those of normal
weight
Such girls may be prone to early dieting, which
could impede their growth, said the study’s authors
Kirsten Krahnstoever Davison and Leann Lipps
Birch of Pennsylvania State University.
While parents should not ignore a child’s weight
problem, they should avoid negative messages and
seek constructive solutions, the authors said.
One solution might be turning off the television
during meals, a third study suggests.
It found that children whose families routinely
watched TV at mealtime ate more salty snack foods
and sodas, and fewer fruits and vegetables than
those who turned the televisions off.
{• ,,, , . ; ,, ,,,, _ _4
TODAY TOMORROW
Sunny Partly cloudy
high 44, low 35 high 56, low 38
David Silverman/Newsmakers
Ariel Sharon, second from left, the leader of Israelis right-wing opposition Likud party, and Likud parliamentarian Yehoshua Matza admire a campaign
photo of Sharon as he campaigns in Jerusalem's Mahane Yehuda produce market Monday for the upcoming February 6 elections.
Israelis protest peace plan's terms
■ At least 100,000 rallied against the
Clinton proposal to give up a disputed
holy site.
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
JERUSALEM — Israelis turned out
in force Monday against the conces
sions required by President Clinton's
Mideast peace plan, surrounding the
high stone walls of Jerusalem’s Old City
to protest a proposal to cede its disput
ed holy site.
“Jerusalem, I pledge my allegiance
to you,” banners and light projections
on the walls declared, looming over a
crowd of at least 100,000 that included
many wrapped in or waving Israel’s
Star of David flag.
Thousands of police mobilized to
keep order, and the guardian of an
Islamic shrine at the site, fearing an
incursion by the demonstrators,
denounced the rally as “provocative.”
The chief Palestinian negotiator,
meanwhile, objected to efforts to for
mulate a “declaration of principles”
that would be based on the Clinton for
mula and guide future talks.
“We will not accept any kind of
pressure,” negotiator SaetiErekat
insisted, a day after Clinton urged the
Palestinians to compromise and not
hold out for the impossible.
Erekat said U.N. resolutions calling
for an Israeli withdrawal from war-won
land and a return of Palestinian
refugees must remain the basis of talks.
In Cairo, a meeting of Israeli and
Palestinian security officials with CIA
chief George Tenet broke up without
result, Palestinian officials said.
The Palestinians had demanded
that in exchange for a resumption of
security cooperation, Israel lift its
blockade of Palestinian towns and vil
lages in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Israel refused, the Palestinians said.
In the Gaza Strip, a 34-year old
Palestinian was killed by Israeli fire
close to the Netzarim junction.
The army said soldiers opened fire
because the man carried a “suspicious”
bag and came too close to the soldiers.
A clash between stone-throwing
Palestinians and Jewish settlers at the
West Bank village of Hares left a 27
year-old Palestinian dead. Palestinians
said he was shot in the chest in a con
frontation that started with villagers
stoning a settler's car.
Gunmen ambushed an Israeli car
in the West Bank, north of Jerusalem,
“We will not accept any
kind of pressure.”
Saeb Erekat
__negotiator
hitting a 12-year-old passenger in his
thigh and elbow, settler spokesman
Yehoshua Mor-Yosef said. The army
confirmed the attack.
More than three months of Israeli
Palestinian violence has killed 362 peo
ple - most of them Palestinian.
Clinton was sending mediator
Dennis Ross to the region Thesday for
separate talks with Israeli Prime
Minister* Ehud Barak and Palestinian
leader Yasser Arafat.
Clinton, pressing for at least an
understanding before he leaves office
Jan. 20, has proposed that Israel accept
a Palestinian state in 95 percent of the
West Bank and all of Gaza.
Israel would cede control over the
Old City hilltop shrine revered by
Muslims and Jews, and in exchange the
Palestinians would drop a demand that
nearly 4 million Palestinian refugees
and their descendants be granted the
right to return.
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Bush defends cabinet nominee
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
AUSTIN, Texas — President-elect Bush
defended his embattled nominee for labor
secretary Monday despite learning she’d
sheltered an illegal immigrant in her home.
Bush also said he wasn’t considering
pardoning President Clinton because he
hasn’t been indicted for anything.
“I've got confidence in Linda Chavez,”
Bush said of his choice for the Labor
Department. “I strongly believe that when
the Senate gives her a fair hearing, they’ll
vote for her."
At the same time, he said his team was
continuing to review information on
Chavez, as on all his nominees.
Asked whether he would pardon
Clinton, Bush said: “No, I wouldn’t pardon
somebody who’s not been indicted.”
Some Republicans, even those who
have been sharply critical of Clinton in the
aftermath of his impeachment, have sug
gested Bush pardon him to move the coun
try beyond the scandals of his presidency.
The independent counsel investigating
Clinton’s conduct in the Monica Lewinsky
matter has said a decision about whether to
pursue the case against him will come
shortly after he leaves office Jan. 20.
Clinton, a lawyer, is facing disbarment
proceedings in Arkansas over his sworn tes
timony in which he denied having sex with
Lewinsky.
Bush indicted a reluctance to let
Clinton’s legal troubles cloud his own presi
dency, saying “I think it’s time to get all of
this business behind us” and let Clinton
“move on and enjoy life and become an
active participant in die American system.”
But “the suggestion that I would pardon
somebody who has never been indicted,
that doesn’t make any sense to me,” Bush
added.
The Associated Press
■ Nebraska
Judge throws out confession
by woman accused of murder
BROKEN BOW — A judge s
threw out the confession of a
local woman accused of
killing a Loup County ranch
er.
The woman told police
that she did not remember
killing her sometimes
boyfriend but that she had a
dream where she saw herself
beside his bed with a revolver.
District Judge Ronald
Olberding ruled that Maxine
Betts was illegally coerced by
State Patrol investigators to
confess to killing Ralph
Quador, who lived alone on
his ranch 10 miles east of
Taylor.
The judge said police offi
cers made false statements
and false promises to Betts to
get to her make comments
that the prosecution cited as a
confession.
Quador was shot six times ,
in his bedroom last January.
Betts was the last known
person to speak to Quador,
and she reported his death to
authorities.
Betts was arrested in May
on the day she mentioned her
dream to police.
However, the gun and
ammunition she said were in
her dream did not match
those used in the killing, court
records said.
■ Louisiana
Formergovemorsentenced
for taking payoffs for licenses
BATON ROUGE — Former
Gov. Edwin Edwards was sen
tenced to 10 years in prison
and fined $250,000 today for
extorting payoffs from busi
nessmen applying for_river
boat casino licenses.
Edwards, 73, showed little
emotion as the decision was
read. His daughters and wife
sobbed behind him.
“A long sentence is effec
tively a death sentence,” said
Edwards’ lawyer Dan Small,
who immediately filed notice
of appeal.
■ Italy
Congressional Gold Medal
awarded to Pope John Paul II
VATICAN CITY — Pope
John Paul II was awarded the
Congressional Gold Medal on
Monday, joining a select list
that also includes George
Washington, Bob Hope and
Mother Teresa.
U.S. House and Senate
leaders presented the medal
to the pontiff during a cere
mony in the Apostolic Palace’s
fresco-covered 17th-century
Clementine Room.
The legislation to award
John Paul the medal hails the
80-year-old, Polish-born
pope for using “his moral
authority to hasten the fall of
godless totalitarian regimes.”
■ Texas
Court orders Ford, Firestone
to release internal documents
CORPUS CHRISTI — A
woman paralyzed in a rollover
crash of a Ford Explorer with
Firestone tires reached a set^ -
tlement Monday under Which
Ford and Bridgestone/
Firestone agreed to make
public thousands of pages of
internal memos and reports.
“We’re talking about an
incredible, locked-up vault of
information,” said Mikal
Watts, a lawyer for 43-year
old Donna Bailey.
“This case will go a long
way toward uncovering some
of the secrets around these
tire failings.”
Bailey, a former rock
climber and weight lifter who
was paralyzed from the neck
down in a wreck last March,
had sued the companies for
more than $100 million.
Under the settlement, she
also received an undisclosed
sum of money - “enough to
take care of her for the rest of
her life,” Watts said.