News Digest
Page 2 Daily Nebraskan Friday, March 23,2001
Shooting leaves three injured
■ Just three weeks after the deadly
Santana shooting,another San Diego
area high sdiool is attacked.
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
EL CAJON, Calif. — Three people
were injured Thursday in a high school
shooting less than three weeks after two
students were killed and 13 people were
wounded in an attack at a nearby school.
A suspect was in custody and was
taken to a hospital, police Capt. Bill
McClure said.
TWo adults had minor injuries, he
said.
Other details were not immediately
released, but one student said he recog
nized the suspect as a former student of
Granite Hills High School who graduat
ed last year.
"It just seemed like he was planning
on doing it," junior Chris Wesley told
KGTV. He said the gunman fired at least
eight shots and reloaded, apparently fir
ing at random.
Students poured out of the high
school after the midday shooting as law
enforcement officers searched the cam
pus amid confusion over the circum
stances of the gunfire.
"My information right now is that no
one was seriously injured," said Granger
Ward, superintendent of Grossmont
Union High School District "The school
is locked down, and they are going room
by room to bring them out and evacuate
the school."
Granite Hills, with 2,900 students, is
a few miles south of Santana High
School in Santee, where a 15-year-old
student allegedly killed two classmates
March 5. Both schools are in the same
district 17 miles east of San Diego.
San Diego County sheriff’s
spokesman Dan Papp said deputies
were at Granite Hills taking a report
when the shooting happened, but he
didn’t know why. Ryan Carrillo, a sopho
more at the school, told KGTV-San
Diego that he heard gunshots as he
walked to a bathroom near the school
office.
7t sounded like an explosion,
like in a chemistry class or
something
Ryan Carrillo
Granite Hills sophomore
“It sounded like an explosion, like in
a chemistry class or something,* he said
of the first two shots he heard.
After hearing five more shots, he ran
out of the school and into a nearby park.
Students hugged and cried as they
gathered in the park as parents ran
about, frantically searching for their
children.
Mir makes final
rotation of earth
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
KOROLYOV, Russia—After 15
years in the heavens, Mir took its
last tours around Earth on
Thursday, accepting final com
mands that would trigger a fiery,
suicide plunge into the South
Pacific.
On its last day, the aging space
station soaked up die sun’s energy
to power its fickle batteries and
stabilize its alignment If all went
well, Mir would fall harmlessly
into the sea. If not, the conse
quences of 27-and-a-half tons of
blazing debris tumbling from the
sky were frightening.
The chief of Mission Control,
Vladimir Solovyov, put the
chances “that everything will be
all right at98-99percent”
The death of Mir marked the
end of a proud chapter in the
Russian space program; it proved
that long duration space flight was
possible. Its passing came with
much wistfulness and some
protest About 15 demonstrators
briefly rallied Thursday outside
Mission Control, holding up a
portrait of Yuri Gagarin, the
Russian who was the first man in
space.
“Don't Give Up the Russian
Space Industry,” the sign read. But
Mir was doomed. The impover
ished Russian government could
not afford to keep it in orbit - and
in good repair-white fulfilling its
obligations to the construction of
the international spaop station
Inside Mission Control near
Moscow, the mood was strictly
professional Controllers bottled
up regrets over Miris demise as
they pored over charts and figures
in preparation for crucial com
mands that would power the final
descent eariy today.
All the emotions we fed, we
will only be able to express them
tomorrow after the sinking of the
station,” said Andrei Borisenko,
the shift director at Mission
Control. "Today we are working
without emotion and doing our
jobs,”
According to plan, a Progress
cargo ship docked to Mir would
fire its rockets twice, slowing the
station and changing its orbit
from circular to elliptical.
Thai, around 8 a.m. Moscow
time and midnight Eastern time,
Progress engines would fire one
last time, a 23-minute burn to
send the station into the waters
between Australia and Chile. The
area centers roughly at 44 degrees
TODAY TOMORROW SUNDAY
Showers Partly cloudy Partly cloudy
High 50, low 28 High 45, low 24 High 45, low 29
'Today we are
working without
emotion and doing
ourjobs"
Andrei Borisenko
Mission Control shift director
south latitude and 150 degrees
west longitude.
Most of the 143-ton craft
would burn up during re-entry,
but die remaining chunks - the
equivalent of 20 Volkswagen
Beetles - were expected to reach
the Earth's surface, scattered over
a long swath following the sta
tion's descent
Some 1,500 fragments of 40
pounds or more were expected to
fall over the zone, which is 120
miles wide by3,600 miles long.
Space officials said debris
would be traveling so fast that it
could smash through a block of
concrete six-feet thick. Vsevolod
Latyshev, a spokesman at Mission
Control, said Russia would make
no effort to recover the debris.
“What for?” he asked quizzi
cally.
Space officials voiced confi
dence that they could cany out a
safe descent, pointing to their
experience in dumping dozens of
Progress ships and other space
craft into the same area of the
Pacific.
But Mir was by far die heaviest
spacecraft ever dumped, and its
size and shape made it difficult to
exactly predict the re-entry
A fleet of fishing boats in the
zone insisted on staying put
because the tuna were biting, said
Wayne Heikkila, general manager
of the Western Fishboat Owners
Association.
Thirty-five space buffs and
scientists were in the South Pacific
to chase the plunging station; par
ticipants were optimistic that they
would catch sight of Mir in a 200
second window of opportunity.
But to Russians, Mil's demise
was no joke. Mir came to symbol
ize the Soviet Union's fading tech
nological prowess. It was
launched in 1986-just five weeks
before former Soviet leader
Mikhail S. Gorbachev embarked
upon perestroika, the reforms
that doomed the Communist
empire, and just two months
before the Chernobyl atomic
reactor exploded in the world’s
worst midear accident.
Spencer Platt/Newsmakers
lwo eight-foot repikas of the Academy Annuls Oscar statues arrive Thursday in front of Newtorlrfs Le Cirque 2000 restaurantThe
Manhattan restaurant wiV host the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences 12th annual New York Oscar Night celebration of
the 73rd Academy Awards.The celebration wtt be held Saturday in Las Angeles.
Prize offered for short Oscar speeches
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
LOS ANGELES — Winning
an Academy Award: priceless.
Giving a really short speech
when accepting that award:
Worth a $2,500 television.
In an effort to contain
Oscar winners' ramblings, pro
ducer Gil Cates is offering a
high-definition TV set to the
tersest person at Sunday's cere
mony.
“I’ve tried to be charming
and humorous," Cates told
nominees at the traditional
pre-Oscar lunch. *Tve tried
persuasion and bribery. It all
comes down to my belief that
brevity is next to godliness."
He showed clips of past
Oscar speeches as an illustra
tion, including Alfred
Hitchcock’s memorably brief
“Thank you" when he received
the prestigious Irving G.
Thalberg award in 1967.
Nominees, including Jeff
Bridges (“The Contender”) and
Geoffrey Rush (“Quills”), greet
ed the prize offer with laughter
and bemused looks.
The television is Cates' lat
est ploy in the fight against
winners who recite laundry
lists of names instead of cele
brating the joy of the moment
in their allotted 45 seconds.
“No one wants to know
about your makeup man and
your hairdresser and that
stuff,” Cates said in an inter
view. “You make three people
happy and you send a half-mil
lion (viewers) to the refrigera
tor.”
This year, winners will be
able to post unlimited expres
sions of gratitude on the offi
cial Oscar Web site.
Cates is under pressure to
keep the show airing on ABC to
the three hours between 8-11
p.m. EST; after that, ratings
begin to slip.
It’s a mark the Oscar cere
mony rarely hits, however, and
inflation has increasingly set
in. The 1999 and 2000 broad
casts edged over four hours
each, making them the longest
ever.
Brevity alone isn’t the point,
Cates insists.
“It’s not in the service of
making a shorter show, really;
it’s making a better show and a
more interesting show,” he
said. “When people talk about
what the Oscar means to them,
about what really touches their
heart, it’s wonderful to hear
those acceptance speeches.”
His favorite moments
include the then 11-year-old
Anna Paquin nearly hyperven
tilating as she clutched her
1994 supporting actress award
for “The Piano” (“Adorable,”
Cates said) and Roberto
Benigni’s acrobatics as he
vaulted over audience mem
bers to collect his actor trophy
for “Life is Beautiful” in 1999.
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Investors worry as Dow continues fall
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEWYORK—Despondent investors
intensified their selloff of blue chip stocks
Thursday, accelerating the decline in the
Dow Jones industrial average and sending
the stock market’s best-known indicator
into bear market territory.
A last-hour rally allowed the Dow to
recover somewhat, but the index still dosed
with a loss of nearly 100 points.
Investors are in “deep despair,” said
Hugh Johnson, chief investment officer for
First Albany Corp “There is a sense of giving
up. They are extraordinarily depressed and
demoralized.”
The Dow, which dropped by triple digits
in six of die past nine trading sessions, tum
bled to the 9379 level in the opening min
utes of trading, putting the blue chip index
down more than 20 percent from the dos
ing high of 11,722.98 it reached on Jan. 14,
2000. A decline of 20 percent is considered
bear market territory.
The Dow continued to slide in heavy
late afternoon trading, falling more than 380
points. It regained some ground in the final
hour and closed down a more moderate
97.52 at9389.48.
Thursday’s loss means the Dow, which
last week suffered its worst-ever weekly
point drop, has Men 1,468.77, or 13.5 per
cent over the last 10 trading sessions.
Broader market indicators were mixed.
The Nasdaq composite index, down
more than 62 percent from its own high of
5,048.62 reached March 10,2000, advanced
67.47 to 1,897.70.
The market’s broadest measure, the
Standard & Poor’s 500, finished down 4.56 at
1,11738, having made a last-minute recov
ery of its own. Hie S&P 500 has lost more
than a quarter of its value since peaking at
1327.46a year ago.
The Associated Press
■ MewYoffc
Israeli Prime Minister meets
King of Pop Michael Jadoon
NEW YORK—After meeting
with President Bush and U.S.
Secretary of State Colin Powell,
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel
Sharon ended his United States
trip with avisitwith a musical dig
nitary- Michael Jackson.
The prime minister and the
King of Pop chatted Wednesday
night at a reception for Sharon at
the home of businessman Benny
ShabtaL The two were introduced
by Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, who
has formed the Heal the Kids
charity with Jackson.
"The prime minister was very
gracious, it was a very nice visit,
and they had a good rapport,"
Boteach told The Associated
Press on Thursday.
The rabbi said he set up the
meeting because he and Jackson
may travel to Israel for their char
ity this summer to promote
peace
■ New York
Company to produce three
ddk of rapper Eminem
NEWYORK—It’s not the real
Slim Shady - it's an action figure
that looks just like him.
A series of three Eminem
dolls will hit stores in July, said
Carlos Espada, spokesman for Art
Asylum, die Brooklyn, N.Y. com
pany that’s designing die toys.
One is a low-key version of
the rapper as Marshall Mathers -
his real name-dressed in a puffy
white jacket.
A second doll depicts
Mathers as his alter ego, "Slim
Shady,” wearing a hockey mask
and carrying a chain saw-which
doesn’t work. “We haven’t per
fected that yet,” Espada joked
Tuesday.
Details of the third doll were
still in the works.
Each costs $9.99, and for
$12.99, they come with a base.
The dolls will be sold at Tower
Records and specialty stores.
■ Washington, D.C.
Russian relations evened
with departure orders
President Bush sought to
keepU.S. relations with Russia on
an even keel Thursday after
ordering die ouster of more than
50 diplomats suspected of under
cover intelligence activities.
In Moscow, Russia’s foreign
minister said die expulsions, die
most since the Cold War, were
political. But Bush said he was
simply dealing with facts, and die
two nations could maintain a
good working relationship
Six Russians assigned to
Moscow’s embassy in
Washington were directly linked
by U.S. officials to the case of
Robert Hanssen, a FBI agent
arrested a month ago on charges
of selling secrets to Russia. Ttoo of
the six have already left the
United States; the four others
must depart within 10 days.
At the same time, Bush
ordered the Russian diplomatic
contingent sharply reduced, offi
cials said.
A total of 46 Russians, at the
embassy and at consulates across
the country, have until July 1 to
leave, they said.
“I was presented with the
facts. I made the decision. It was
die right thing to do," Bush said.
■ France
Anti-globalization activist's
sentence upheld by court
MONTPELLIER, France—A
French appeals court on
Thursday upheld a radical
farmer’s three-month prison sen
tence for ransacking a
McDonald’s ' to protest
unchecked globalization.
Jose Bove, a 47-year-old
sheep farmer, has become a sym
bol of anti-globalization activists
in France and abroad since he led
an attack on a McDonald’s
restaurant under construction in
die town of Millau in August 1999.
The court in Montpellier
upheld a September ruling that
ordered Bove to spend three
months in jail for vandalizing die
restaurant and fined him $870.
He also was ordered to pay
another $870 for a separate con
viction - for briefly holding three
Agriculture Ministry officials cap
tive in the town of Rodez in 1999.
Sentences also were upheld
for eight co-defendants.