The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current, February 12, 2001, Page 2, Image 2

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    Survivor
search
persists
■ Families and officials arrive
awaiting news of the nine
missing passengers.
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
HONOLULU — Families of
Japanese fishermen and students
whose ship was sunk by a U.S.
submarine arrived Sunday to
anxiously await die outcome of a
search for their missing loved
ones and to ask the Navy why the
collision happened.
Thirty-four family members
and officials arrived from Osaka
on two flights Sunday, two days
after the USS Greeneville
rammed the Ehime Maru as it
surfaced, sinking the fishing ves
sel within 10 minutes. The miss
ing include three crew members,
two teachers and four students
from Uwajima Fisheries High
School in southwestern Japan.
The Ehime Maru’s captain,
Hisao Onishi, questioned why the
26 survivors waited 50 minutes to
be rescued. The ship sank about 9
miles from Diamond Head and 20
miles southeast of Peari Harbor
A Coast Guard helicopter and
plane reached die scene about 35
minutes after the collision. Patrol
boats arrived about 15 minutes
later, said Coast Guard
spokesman Lt Greg Fondran.
Adm. Thomas Fargo, com
mander in chief of the U.S. Pacific
Fleet, said choppy waters and the
submarine’s round hull made
opening the hatches too danger
ous. Vtoves were three to four feet
with a six-foot swell at the time, he
said.
His head bowed and brushing
back tears, Onishi said Saturday
that seas were calm enough that
water did not enter the life rafts.
“I could see several people on
the (submarine) tower," Onishi
said. “They lowered a rope ladder
from the conning tower, but none
of our crew members were res
cued by the submarine.... They
were just looking until the Coast
Guard arrived,’’ he said
"We did our best to find other
survivors,” Onishi told reporters
in Japanese. “\Afe just couldn't find
the nine missing.”
By Sunday, about five Coast
Guard and Navy aircraft and four
vessels had searched4,675 square
plflS.
Somber U.S. officers spoke
Sunday to the Japanese families
through a translator. During their
meeting one older woman, her
head on the shoulder of another,
sobbed.
They were greeted by
Yoshitaka Sakurada, Japanese
vice minister of foreign affairs; Lt.
Gen. Thomas R. Case, deputy
commander of U.S. Pacific mili
tary forces; Rear Adm. Kirkland H.
Donald, deputy chief of staff of
the U.S. Pacific Fleet After leaving
their planes, they boarded two
buses to travel to their hotel
Weather
TODAY
Partly cloudy
high 40, low 25
TOMORROW
Partly cloudy
high 49, low 24
Tim Boyle,/Newsmakers
Bertha Fuentes prepares an Oscar for the Academy Awards for shipping at the ILS. Owens manufacturing plant in Chicago. Owens has been manufacturing the Oscar statuettes
for 18 yean. Nominations for this years Oscars will be announced Tuesday morning.
Another Clinton impeachment pursued
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON — Former
President Clinton could face a
fresh impeachment inquiry as a
result of his last-minute pardon of
fugitive financier Marc Rich, a
senior Republican said Sunday.
Sen. Arlen Specter, a senior
member of the Judiciary
Committee and a former
Philadelphia prosecutor, did not
specify what specific charges
Clinton might face, but he said
that based on his legal research, he
believed a former president “tech
nically could still be impeached.”
Replied a Clinton spokes
woman: “Give me a break.”
Legal experts were divided on
whether the Constitution allows
Congress to pursue such a case -
either over a president’s use of his
pardon power or against a presi
dent who has left office.
A Senate Republican leader,
Oklahoma’s Don Nickles, rejected
the idea of a new impeachment
case against Clinton but raised the
possibility of using other methods
to reduce the former president's
pension, office rent allowance and
other administrative expenses.
Specter, appearing on "Fox
7*m not suggesting
that it should be
done, but President
Clinton technically
could still be
impeached
Sen. Arlen Specter
judiciary committee member
News Sunday,” said, “I’m not sug
gesting that it should be done, but
President Clinton technically
could still be impeached.” He
added, “I don’t think that trial
would take too long.”
Specter said Clinton "avoided
a conviction on impeachment the
last time around because he had
not lost the confidence of the
American people, and we didn’t
want to shake up the government
but he’s not in office anymore.”
In impeachment proceedings,
the House brings charges and the
Senate tries the case.
Specter said "someone” in the
House could soon talk about pos
sible articles of impeachment, but
the senator added, "No, I don't
have anybody in mind.”
His spokesman, Bill Reynolds,
declined comment on Specter's
comments after the senator’s
nationally televised appearance
and said he was trying to contact
Specter for further details.
Clinton’s spokeswoman, Julia
Payne, said: “Give me a break -
what’s dear here, fay the continued
piling-on of the Republicans on
President Clinton, is that what
they'd like to impeach is the eight
great years of progress and pros
perity the American people
enjoyed under him.”
Clinton was impeached by the
House in December 1998 on two
articles of perjury and obstruction
of justice in connection with his
affair with White House intern
Monica Lewinsky. In February
1999, the Senate voted to acquit
Clinton; Specter opposed remov
ing the president from office.
Rich was among 140
Americans pardoned by Clinton
two hours before he left office on
Jan. 20.
Rich had lived in Switzerland
since just before he was indicted
in the United States in 1983 on
charges of evading more than $48
million in taxes, fraud and partid
paring in illegal oil deals with Iran.
Republicans have noted that
Rich’s former wife, Denise, was a
major contributor to the
Democratic Party and to Hillary
Rodham Clinton’s Senate cam
paign. Denise Rich also donated
an estimated $450,000 to die for
mer president’s library founda
tion, a Democratic source has
said.
Democrats have not defended
Clinton’s decision.
Clinton has insisted that Rich
deserved the pardon. “Once the
facts are out there, people will
understand what I did and why,
even if they may not agree with it,”
he said last week.
Specter said Clinton could be
stripped of “the emoluments of
office, such as the substantial
stuns being spent on the library,
such as the bodyguards, such as
his pension.”
At the Judiciary Committee
hearing Wednesday, Specter plans
to try to build support for a consti
tutional amendment that would
give Congress the power to over
turn a presidential pardon by a
two-thirds vote. The president’s
power to pardon is absolute under
die Constitution.
Powell to include stop in Syria on Middle East trip
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON — Secretary
of State Colin Powell said Sunday
he was adding a stop in Syria dur
ing his upcoming trip to the
Middle East for discussions Math
President Bashar Assad.
Damascus was not included
when Powell announced on
Friday a five-day trip that begins
Feb. 23.
Powell already planned to see
Israel’s new prime minister, Ariel
Sharon; Palestinian leader Yasser
Arafat; and leaders of Egypt,
Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Kuwait
He also will stop in Brussels,
Belgium, for meetings with NATO
allies.
“Syria is an important nation
in the region, an important player
in this whole process, and so I
thought it was very, very appro
priate for me, as pan of this quick
trip through die Middle East, my
first trip, to also stop in Syria for
just a few hours," Powell said on
CBS’ “Face the Nation."
At his State Department news
conference last week, it was
noted that Syria was not on
Powell’s itinerary. “Don’t read
anything," he said, adding, “I
reserve the right to change my
mind. Iam the secretary of state; I
can change my mind."
The visit to Damascus is
important because Syria sup
ports Hezbollah guerrillas in
Lebanon who have carried out
sporadic attacks against Israelis.
Further attacks could provoke a
deadly response by Sharon, who
is committed to bolstering Israel’s
security and has not shied away
from using force in the past The
former general in 1982 led an
invasion into Lebanon.
Bush and his advisers intend
to take Arab-Israeli diplomacy in
a new direction, linking the
intractable dispute over the
Palestinians’ future to other U.S.
interests in the Persian Gulf.
Powell, asked about the pos
sibility of Sharon forming a coali
tion government, replied: “I don’t
think it should be the role of the
American president or the
American secretary of state to tell
them what kind of government
best reflects the will of the Israeli
people.”
One goal of the trip is to
ensure continued support of
pressure against Iraqi develop
ment of weapons of mass
destruction.
Saddam Hussein's neighbors
“are the ones who are being
threatened, not the United States,
and we are helping his neighbors
deal with the threat that he pres
ents to them,” Powell said on
CNN’s “Late Edition”
The secretary of state did say
he thinks there “certainly have
been some fractures” in the
alliance assembled against Iraq
during the GulfWar.
Powell said on CBS that it was
his responsibility to Bush “to try
to rally again to make sure we
keep the finger pointed where it
deserves to be pointed, on the
Iraqi regime and not the Iraqi
people.”
Daily Nebraska
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The Daily Nebraskan (USPS144-080)
is published by the UNL Publications
Board, 20 Nebraska Union, 1400 RSL,
Lincoln, NE 68588-0448, Mond^ through
Friday during the academic year, weekly
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All MATERIAL COPYRIGHT 2001
THE DAILY NEBRASKAN
Managing Editor Bradley Davis
Associate News Editor Kimberly Sweet
Assignment Editor JilIZeman
Opinion Editor Jake Glazeski
Sports Editor Matthew Hansen
Assistant Sports Editor David Diehl
Arts Editor Samuel McKewon
Copy Desk Chief: Daneli McCoy
Copy Desk Chief: Jeff Bloom
Ait Director Melanie Falk
Ait Director Delan Lonowski
Photo Chief: Scott McClurg
Design Coordinator Bradley Davis
Web Editor Gregg Stems
Assistant Wob Editor Tanner Graham
General Manager Daniel Shattil
Publications Board Russell Wilibanks
Chairman: (402)436-7226
Professional Adviser Don Walton
(402) 473-7248
Advertising Manager NickPartsch
(402)472-2589
Assistant Ad Manager Nicole Woita
Classified Ad Manager Nikki Bruner
Circulation Manager ImtiyazKhan
Death toll continues to rise as cleanup persists
■ Soldiers, using large cranes to move debris,
have recovered nearly 18,000 bodies.
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
BHUJ, India — Authorities clearing moun
tains of rubble in western India have recovered
400 decomposed bodies and a heap of gold coins
from the debris of homes destroyed by the
nation’s worst earthquake in 50 years.
The bodies were found Saturday and Sunday
throughout the Bhuj-Kutch district, said Anup
Kumar Singh, deputy inspector general of police
in Bhuj, part of the hardest-hit area, Gujarat
state.
Over the past few days, soldiers have been
able to dig deeper into the rubble using both
hand tools and large cranes. The work is less del
icate than while they were searching for sur
vivors, and they have more heavy equipment
available.
k
The quicker work likely means a rapid
increase in the confirmed death toll from the 7.7
magnitude quake that struck on Jan. 26, devas
tating more them 900 villages in the Bhuj-Kutch
district.
The Gujarat state government says it has
recovered nearly 18,000 bodies -15,785 from the
Bhuj area, Singh said. Unofficial estimates put
the death toll at around 30,000.
Soldiers working in Bhuj on Saturday discov
ered a collection of more than 3,000 rare gold,
copper and brass coins from a collapsed house,
along with the body of the owner, Press Trust of
India quoted army Maj. R.C. Joshi as saying.
Many other bodies across the area were found
adorned with expensive jewelry, Joshi said.
The coins had inscriptions in the Urdu,
English and Afghani languages. They will go to
the state government, which is expected to keep
them in a museum.
Fresh tremors, meanwhile, shook parts of the
state early Sunday. No injuries were reported.
.World/Nation
The Associated Press
■ Florida
American-made'Destiny1
added to Alpha space station
CAPE CANAVERAL —
Wearing goggles and red, white
and blue socks, two space com
manders opened the door
Sunday to Destiny, theAmerican
made science laboratory and the
newest and priciest addition to
die international space station.
The moment the hatch was
raised by astronauts Bill Shepherd
and Kenneth Cockrell, space sta
tion Alpha became the largest
orbiting outpost ever in terms of
habitable volume.
"The lab looks and feels and
smells great, and looks like all the
hard work has really paid off,” said
Cockrell, space shutde Atlantis'
skipper. “It’s a beautiful piece of
hardware in here.”
Shepherd, die commander of
space station Alpha, signed for
die delivery of the $1.4 billion lab
oratory, which was installed by
the visiting shutde astronauts on
Saturday.
■ Pennsylvania
Onlookers bid farewell
to 30-year-old stadium
PITTSBURGH—A cloud of
dust went up and Three Rivers
Stadium came down.
Sunday marked the end of
one of the nation’s best-known
stadiums - site of one of football’s
most famous plays and a
Pittsburgh pro sports resurgence
in the 1970s.
Thousands of onlookers
cheered the implosion of the 30
year-old home of die Pirates and
Steelers. Experts loaded 4,800
pounds of dynamite into die sta
dium to dear the way for separate
baseball and football stadiums
nearby. The $5.1 million implo
sion lasted about 19 seconds.
“This is a very bittersweet day
for me,” Mayor Tbm Murphy said
“I remember being here at the last
baseball game of the ’95 season
when we weren't sure that we
were even going to have a team
anymore.”
Three Rivers opened in 1970
at a cost of $36 million.
■ Florida
Make of tea canister helps
in case against mayor
MIAMI — Police have
acknowledged that the tea canis
ter Mayor Joe Carollo allegedly
threw at his wife during an argu
ment was cardboard, not the hard
pottery they originally reported.
Carollo was charged with one
count of misdemeanor simple
battery for allegedly injuring his
wife, Maria Ledon Carollo, and
spent a night in jaiL
Police initially said that a tea
canister seized by investigators
was made of terra cotta.
Carollo disputed that descrip
tion Friday, and later the police
department agreed.
“The material the item is
made of is some type of hard
pressed cardboard,” said an
unsigned statement Saturday.
“The tea container, however, did
have a terra cotta-type colon”
Carollo's attorney, Ben
Kuehne, expressed satisfaction
with the police admission.
“They have some explaining
to do,” Kuehne said. “How can you
look at cardboard and call it a
terra-cotta container?”
■ New York
Proposed law argued
by Mary Tyler Moore
ALBANY, N.Y. — Westchester
County’s most famous TV mom is
taking on Gov. George Pataki’s
proposal to allow more teen
agers to hunt big game.
Mary Tyler Moore, who
gained feme in the 1960s sitcom
“The DickVan Dyke Show,” is sup
porting an effort by The Fund for
Animals to shoot down Pataki’s
proposal even before it formally
reaches the Legislature.
The measure would lower the
age to legally hunt deer and bear
to 14 from 16. Young hunters
would have to complete the
state's 10-hour hunter safety
course and hunt with a parent or
have written permission from a
parent to go out with another
licensed adult
“The government should not
be in the role of promoting and ,
placing firearms in the hands of
children,” Moore said. “Basket
balls, baseballs and books are a
much better alternative.”