Balloonists ride winds
By John Daniszewski,
Lo sA ngcl e sTi me s
CAIRO, Egypt _ Balloonists
Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones in
their shimmering silver Breitling
Orbiter 3 descended safely Sunday
in a remote Egyptian oasis,
completing the dream of becoming
the first balloonists ever to circle the
globe and the longest nonstop flight
ever without refueling.
Their 9-ton, helium-and-hot-air
craft, nearly as tall as a 20-story
building, achieved the goal of
circumnavigation that had eluded
balloonists in at least 17 attempts
since 1981.
The landing after nearly 20 days
aloft was in the Dakhla Oasis, 350
miles southwest of Cairo, shortly
after I a.m. EST, flight controllers
said. Touchdown was north of Mut,
the capital of the oasis that was once
an outpost of ancient Rome.
They were an unlikely pair.
Piccard, a 41-year-old Swiss
psychiatrist with a penchant for
hypnosis, is the son and grandson of
aeronautical and nautical pioneers,
and aimed to add his own world
record to his family’s impressive list
of accomplishments.
Jones, 51, a British grandfather of
three and a balloon-flying instructor,
Bomb in Caucasus market kills
at least 60, injures 100
By Robyn Dixon,
Los Angeles Times
MOSCOW _ Hellish scenes
unfolded Friday in the heart of the
northern Caucasus. Russia's most
volatile region, when a bomb
exploded in the middle of an outdoor
market, killing at least 60 people and
injuring more than 100.
As Russian television showed
horrific images of bloodied victims
being wheeled on vegetable carts
from the market in the city of
Vladikavkaz, the blast sent shock
waves all the way to the Kremlin,
underscoring Russia's impotence to
rein in violence and terror in the
region
Security officials in Vladikavkaz,
the capital of North Ossetia,
immediately ruled out gang warfare
between rival mafia groups, claiming
that the bomb was beyond the scale
of local racketeers and must have
been planted by outside terrorists.
However, there were no leads on
who was responsible.
"It was an awful sight. The
devastation and death created
something like a circle of hell about
30 meters (100 feet) in diameter,”
said local journalist Igor V. Lyanov,
who was at the scene after the
explosion.
“People were really terrified. In the
first few minutes after the explosion,
many people rushed for the gates to
get away from the scene as soon as
possible,” he said, adding that many
survivors feared being called as
witnesses.
The northern Caucasus has been
riven by ethnic hatred, mafia
assassinations,
violence,
kidnappings and warfare since the
fall of the Soviet Union. Vladikavkaz
is about 40 miles southeast of
Grozny, the capital of Chechnya,
where Russia waged war against
guerrilla separatists from 1994 until
1996.
Lyanov described grisly tableaux
after the bomb exploded about 11:30
on a busy market morning. “There
were puddles of blood everywhere,
limbs and unrecognizable chunks of
human flesh scattered about, with
shreds of bloodied, dirtied clothing
meshed with the debris of market
stalls,” he said. The area was also
strewn with twisted metal from
shattered stalls and vehicles.
Police on the scene said it was
difficult to know exactly how many
people had been killed because
bodies were shattered by the power
of the blast. The corridors of
hospitals were crammed with carts
bearing the injured and dead, as more
and more victims arrived.
“It is like being at war. It seems
like we’re on the front line here,
said Lana Guzoyeva, assistant to the
chief doctor at the city’s largest
hospital. “The injured keep arriving,
and most of them are very critical
cases. Some don’t have legs and
arms. Some have broken skulls and
terrible torn wounds all over their
bodies.”
Police estimated that the bomb
is a man described by his wife as “not
an adventurer.” He joined the
expedition only at the last minute in
December, when a spot opened up for
him.
The powerful jet stream sped the
Orbiter across North Africa at 125
mph at an altitude of 36,100 leet. The
balloonists began their descent after
crossing the Egyptian border from
Libyan airspace. The race to circle the
globe intensified two years ago, when
U.S. brewer Anheuser-Busch offered
a $1 million prize for the first team of
balloonists to circle the Earth by the
end of the 20th century.
Having transcended political
barriers, zigzagged around storms and
found a providential breeze through
a Central American calm, the Orbiter
clinched the around-the-world record
at 4:54 a.m. EST Saturday, when it
crossed the “finish line" of 9 degrees
27 minutes west longitude over
Mauritania.
By then the pilots had flown 19
days. I hour and 49 minutes, and had
covered more than 26,000 miles, each
taking six-hour shifts at the controls.
“I am with the angels and just
completely happy.” Piccard exulted.
"Just a fabulous way to finish,” Jones
added.
Asked if they had had any chance
for celebration inside their cramped,
was equivalent to between 15 and 22
pounds of TNT. A brick wall of the
market's central trading hall, about 50
feet high, was flattened by the blast.
In a two-story haberdashery
opposite the market, all the windows
were shattered. Shop ownerTamerlan
Gudiyev said he feared his business
would be ruined.
"Who will want to come and do
business and invest in the city where
innocent people arc slaughtered by
the dozen in broad daylight?”
Gudiyev asked. "I fear that war has
come to our threshold. I am scared
witless. I want to run aw'ay from this
dead marketplace and this dead
shop.”
As dozens of police, rescue
workers and security officials
combed the wreckage, thick crowds
of people surrounded the market,
some of them weeping, concerned
about missing relatives. Rescuers
used market pushcarts to ferry the
injured to ambulances and later used
the same carts to clear the debris.
The northern Caucasus region is
highly unstable. Deep tensions have
run between North Ossetia and
neighboring Ingushetia since a brief
war between them in 1992, but the
mistrust and hatred go back centuries.
Friday’s attack came as Russia and
Chechnya were negotiating a meeting
between Russian Prime Minister
Yevgeny M. Primakov and the
Chechen president, Aslan
Maskhadov. after the kidnapping of
a Russian Interior Ministry official,
Maj. Gen. Gennady Shpigun, at the
door of his plane in Grozny two
weeks ago. There were reports that
the meeting would take place within
days.
Chechnya, devastated by war, is
disintegrating as competing warlords,
each with his own private army, vie
for control. Since the Chechen war
ended, the northern Caucasus has
slipped further out of the grip of the
central authorities, who have proved
powerless to stop a wave of
kidnappings and violence in
Chechnya, the neighboring republic
of Dagestan and across the region.
Russian forces are stationed
throughout the northern Caucasus but
not in Chechnya, from which they
were withdrawn in 1966 after the war
ended. All over Russia, markets like
the one in Vladikavkaz are controlled
by mafia racketeers, and violence is
not uncommon. However, local
authorities discounted any suggestion
of gangland violence in Friday’s
attack, asserting that terrorists from
outside North Ossetia were involved.
Speaking haltingly in a televised
address, President Boris N. Yeltsin
vowed after the bombing to wage a
ruthless fight against terrorism. “I am
deeply shaken by this barbaric act,
which has killed and injured dozens
of people. I think it is an attempt to
destabilize the situation in the
northern Caucasus and to sow
hostility and hatred,” Yeltsin said in
a telegram he sent offering
condolences to North Ossetian
President Alexander Dzasokhov.
World and Nation Thursday, March 25, 1999 - The Behrend College Beacon - page 7
pressurized capsule, Jones said: "I
think what I am going to do is phone
back the control room in a minute and
tell my wife I love her. and then have
a cup of tea like any good
Englishman.”
Piccard burst into tears Friday,
when it became clear from
meteorological reports that they
would be able to complete the circuit
of the Earth. "We can hardly believe
our dream has finally come true. We
almost got lost in the global problems
and then the slow winds of the Pacific
and the bad heading over the Gulf of
Mexico," the two pilots said in a
message to their control room. "But
each time, with God’s help and the
great teamwork, the balloon got back
on course for success. We are the
privileged two of a wonderful and
efficient team that we would like to
thank with all of our hearts.
Their feat left better-known
balloonists graciously envious.
Richard Branson, the celebrity
businessman who founded Virgin
Records and Virgin Atlantic Airways
and who has made three failed
balloon attempts to circle the Earth,
called their trip “one of the greatest
achievements.”
"They have had to put up with the
elements. They have had to pul up
with technological problems. And
Conservatives shield
abortion stand from right
By Thomas B. Edsall,
The Washington Post
Key leaders of the conservative
establishment have begun an
aggressive defense of George W.
Bush's abortion stand in an effort to
blunt attacks on the Texas governor's
presidential campaign from the
Republican Party’s right wing.
Just as such candidates as
conservative activist Gary Bauer,
publishing heir Malcolm S. "Steve'’
Forbes and television commentator
Patrick J. Buchanan are beginning to
gear up to use abortion to slow the
momentum behind Bush, such anti
abortion luminaries as Christian
Coalition chairman Pal Robertson and
David N. O’Steen, executive director
of the National Right to Life
Committee, have stepped in to defend
Bush’s abortion position.
"Governor Bush has a pro-life
record and has taken a pro-life
position," O’Steen said in a statement
calling on other GOP candidates and
abortion opponents to "refrain from
attacking pro-life presidential
candidates.” Robertson, appearing on
CNN’s Larry King show, said he
"totally” agrees with Bush's approach
to abortion; that until the composition
Snowstorm stalls search in Yosemite case
By Eric Bailey,
Los Angeles Times
LONG BARN, Calif. _ Attempts to
crack the case of three Yosemite
sightseers who vanished a month ago
slowed Saturday as a snowstorm
stalled a search of rugged terrain
where their burned out car and two
charred bodies were found.
Investigators continued to gather
evidence from the car, but called off
an extensive hunt after three inches
of snow fell on the Tuolumne County
forest where the the vehicle was
torched and abandoned.
Law enforcement officials said it
will be at least Monday before they
can identify the bodies discovered in
the trunk of the red Pontiac Grand
Prix. An FBI official said the wait was
Secret Mickey
Washington this
By A 1 Kamen,
The Washington Poi
WASHINGTON _ What was Walt
Disney Chairman Michael Eisner
doing on Capitol Hill Tuesday that
was so hush-hush his office refused
to even confirm he was in
Washington?
Readers have sent in several
sightings so far. Eisner and Disney
officials were seen briefing
lawmakers on high-tech and other
issues. Eisner spent some time
chatting with Rep. Thomas M. Davis
111, R-Va., a sensible thing to do since
they have had to pul up with
themselves," he said. "They’ve done
all three magnificently."
American millionaire Steve
Fossett. who had teamed with
Branson in a failed attempt in
December, credited Jones and
Piccard with winning "one of the
greatest competitions in aviation
history.”
We've done it," said Bight director
Alan Noble, who sprayed champagne
on meteorologists and reporters
gathered at the flight control center
at the airport in Geneva. It was
Piccard's third attempt to circle the
globe in a Breitling Orbiter in three
years.
The first in 1997 ended in disaster
almost as soon as it began, with a
helium leak that forced him to splash
down in the Mediterranean. The
second bid got farther, from
Switzerland to Myanmar in
Southeast Asia last year.
Unlike those problem-plagued
flights. Orbiter 3's journey seemed
remarkably charmed. Part of its
success undoubtedly was because of
Piccard's personal diplomacy,
winning permission from authorities
in Beijing to use a corridor of Chinese
airspace for a faster, more direct route
to the Pacific.
That permission, which was
of the Supreme Court changes, "we
might as w'ell take the incremental
approach
The abortion issue is a critical
hurdle facing all the Republican
presidential candidates. Among GOP
activists who dominate caucuses in
lowa and other suites and who play a
huge role in party primaries
even where, opposition to abortion is
much higher than it is among general
election voters.
As a result, those seeking the
nomination must negotiate a
minefield in which it is virtually
mandatory to oppose abortion to win.
However, in preparation for the
general election campaign, many
strategists say it is essential for the
nominee to avoid Hiking rigid stands
that could prove fatal with more
centrist voters.
A kev stumbling block has been the
question whether a candidate would
demand that judicial appointees
explicitly oppose abortion, a
commitment many anti-abortion
groups want candidates to make.
Bush has not made that commitment.
His policy as governor, according to
campaign aides, is to appoint "judges
who share Ins philosophy that judges
should interpret the law and not
causal because dental records for the
three females. Carol Sund, 42. her 15-
year-old daughter Juliana and Silvina
Pelosso. 16. a family friend from
Argentina, had to be flown in from
the agency's crime lab outside
Washington.
Those records will be required to
identify the bodies, which were
burned beyond recognition. But
authorities believe they are two of the
missing trio.
“To find the car was both a relief
and a very sad thing for us,” said
James M. Maddock, the FBl’s top
agent on the case. "Obviously
everybody held out the hope, no
matter how remote, that we would be
able to find somebody alive. There is
relief in the sense that it brings closure
for the families and also brings us an
Davis is co-chairman of the House
Information Technology Working
Group, and Eisner is much interested
in such matters.
Other readers reported Eisner was
at the White House in a one-on-one
with Vice President Gore in the
afternoon, no staff allowed,
complaining about National
Telecommunications and
Information Administration chief
Larry Irving’s letter to the Federal
Communications Commission last
month.
Seems Irving’s letter, reflecting
administration policy, urged keeping
of history
extended to all balloonists, was
almost withdrawn after the Branson-
Fossett team in December strayed out
of the defined corridor and then
declined a Chinese request to land.
Piccard and Jones lifted off March
1 from Chateau d’Oex in the Swiss
Alps, flying south and west to
Morocco before catching a jet stream
that sent them soaring across North
Africa, the Arabian Peninsula. India,
China and onto the Pacific, which
they crossed in six days.
East of Central America, the
balloonists lost their favorable w inds
and became stalled between Mexico
and the Caribbean, threatening the
entire enterprise. It was the voyage's
most pessimistic moment, until the
pilots caught an air current that
nudged the craft back on course
across the Atlantic.
It was not only the longest balloon
flight ever, but the longest nonstop
flight by any aircraft without
refueling, said a statement by the
Orbiter’s sponsor, Breitling. The
Swiss maker of watches and precision
equipment has never revealed how
much it has spent on the around-the
world quest.
The Orbiter beat the previous flight
record of 17 days, 18 hours and 25
minutes aloft, which was set two
weeks ago by British pilots Andy
legislate from the bench
A statement released by Bush's
exploratory committee said that his
"consistent position on abortion is he
is pro-life with the exception of rape,
incest and the life of the mother." But
the statement continued, the Roe vs.
Wade decision legalizing abortion
"will not be overturned until hearts are
changed. Until then, we should focus
on ways to reduce abortion.”
On another key issue, whether the
Republican Party's official platform
position on abortion, which supports
a human life amendment, should be
retained, the Bush statement was
vague: "The Republican Party should
maintain its pro-life tenor.”
While Bush and his supporters have
been taking steps to moot the abortion
issue, the early jockeying over
abortion has revealed weaknesses in
Elizabeth Dole’s consideration ol a
presidential candidacy.
In the crucial week alter Dole
announced formation ot her
exploratory committee, not only has
she been unwilling, or unprepared, to
spell out a position on this issue so
crucial to GOP presidential politics,
no one on her staff has been av ailable
to explain the factors guiding her
thinking.
opportunity to identify the people who
are responsible for this."
Authorities said they conducted an
extensive sweep after the rental ear
w'as discovered Thursday, but have so
far failed to find a third victim. With
snow on the ground Saturday, they
were concerned that searchers might
inadvertently trample any potential
evidence, thus the decision to delay
the hunt.
Investigators completed their study
of the car Saturday, and it was moved
in the afternoon. A team of FBI
fingerprint experts plan to go over the
car again in the coming days. Forensic
experts found numerous personal
items in and around the car, Sheriff
Richard L. Rogers said, but he
declined to say w-hat they were.
Tips have poured in at a rale ol
Mouse
week
in place the regulatory framework on
broadcast television networks. The
Disney folks apparently don’t like the
restrictions on things like ownership
of local stations and such (Disney
owns ABC-TV), pointing out that
Internet and cable competitors don’t
have to jump similar regulatory
hoops.
Eisner, who recently co-hosted a
fund-raiser for Gore rival former
senator Bill Bradley, D-N.J., in Los
Angeles, might have been trying to
let Gore and the administration know
there are alternatives to Gore-ism.
Later Tuesday, Eisner was in the
Elson and Colin Prescott before their
balloon came down in the Pacific.
Piccard, whose bald and boyish
countenance has captured the Swiss
imagination, follows in a line of.
adventurers. His father. Jacques, now
7b, in 1960 set the record for the
deepest ocean descent by reaching a
depth of 35,797 feet in a bathyscaph.
The deep-oceangoing craft was
invented by Bertrand Piccard s
grandfather, physicist Auguste
Piccard.
Along with U.S. Navy Lt. Don
Walsh. Jacques Piccard descended
into the Mariana Trench in the Pacific,
the lowest point on the Earth's
surface. Auguste Piccard was the
father of pressurized flight. In 1931,
he rose more than 51,000 feet into the
stratosphere in an airtight cabin
attached to a balloon, the first human
ever to fly so high.
Jones, a former Royal Air Force
pilot, began ballooning in 1986 and
became involved in the Orbitcr
project in 1997. He was only named
to join the flight with Piccard on Dee.
9. alter a disagreement over flight
tactics between Piccard and the
previously
scheduled British pilot, Tony Brown
prompted Brown to step aside.
Bush’s
wing
As soon as Dole announced,
icquests for explanations of her stand
on abortion and a host of other issues
began to Hood in from interest groups,
potential supporters and the media.
But Dole's chief strategist. Kieran
Mahoney, was on vacation in Italy, and
her communications director. Ari
Fleischer, had not started work and
could not speak for her nascent
campaign.
Friday, aftei repeated requests over
the previous three days, Joyce
Campbell, an aide to Dole, said: "We
are not going to have any lurlher
information for you. The campaign
declines any further comment" on
abortion.
Thu lack of preparation has worried
some prospective supporters. "For
someone who is supposed to be a
perfectionist, this is just incredible,"
said a consultant who has been
looking at Dole's campaign with an
eye to trying to get on board.
While Bush is seeking to insulate
himself on abortion, his adversaries
are unlikely to back away Irom
attempting to use abortion as a wedge
issue to weaken Bush’s support among
conservative Republicans.
about 300 a day since the discovery
of the car. Penny Mann, who owns a
gift shop in nearby Twain Harte. said
the trio walked into her store on Feb.
16 and browsed. "I saw that photo in
the newspaper and 1 told my husband,
■That’s her. That’s the woman I saw.’
” Mann said Saturday. She tried to
report the
sighting to the FBI, but couldn't get
through the hot line, which was
continuously busy. She eventually
gave up, but last Sunday tried again
and succeeded in making a report to
the FBI.
Officials say the last confirmed
sighting of the Eureka woman and her
two young companions was the
evening of Feb. 15 in a restaurant at
the lodge where they were staying
outside Yosemite.
talks
banquet room at the Rayburn House
Office Building, as the featured
speaker at the monthly John Quincy
Adams Society dinner. The society,
founded by moderate Republican
Rep. Amo Houghton, N. Y., had about
15 lawmakers and dozens of other
folks there to hear Eisner’s chat about
telecommunications and the
entertainment industry.
All this so far seems pretty
straightforward for the head of a
megacompany, hardly worth a
Mickey Mouse demand for secrecy.