6 The Daily Collegian
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A brief look at our world
State
Pennsylvania suffers
under wintry storm
PHILADELPHIA (AP) A
powerful, early-season winter
storm sprinted across the state
over the weekend, leaving
downed trees, damaged homes
and power outages in its wake.
Saturday's storm, referred to
as an Alberta Clipper because of
its origin in Canada, whipped up
wind gusts of 75 mph, toppled a
60-foot tall oak tree and flooded
streams. In Aston, Delaware
County, officials reported quar
ter-inch hail.
No injuries were reported,
officials said. But at least 75,000
Philadelphia-area customers lost
power over the weekend, PECO
Energy Co. spokesman Michael
Wood said.
Jordan murder trial
promises to be long
LUMBERTON, N.C. (AP) He
calls himself Lord D. A.A.S. U'al
lah now, but prosecutors still
know him as Daniel Andre
Green.
He is the young man charged
with killing Michael Jordan's
father, and his capital murder
trial is scheduled to begin today.
The trial promises to be long
and arduous, with jury selection
expected to take up to a month.
Prosecutors have summoned two
jury pools of 500 each to find
people with no opinion of the
highly publicized case.
Michael Jordan, whose Chica
go Bulls play tomorrow in Orlan
do, is not expected to attend.
Prosecutors are seeking the
death penalty, for Green, who
turns 21 this month. The defen
dant has converted to Islam and
changed his name, but court doc
uments continue to refer to him
as Green.
Space shuttle ferries
more equipment
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP)
Space shuttle Atlantis
punched through low clouds yes
terday on its return mission to
Russia's orbiting station, this
time with a docking port and
construction crew.
NASA had feared bad weather
at the shuttle emergency landing
strips across the Atlantic might
delay the flight for the second
day in a row, but skies cleared
sufficiently at one of the touch
down sites in Spain.
Launch managers decided the
low clouds over the Kennedy
Space Center were no obstruc
tion.
Atlantis rose from its seaside
pad at 7:30 a.m., after the Russ
ian space station Mir soared 245
miles above. The shuttle slipped
into orbit eight minutes later.
Atlantis' primary payload is a
Russian-built docking port that
the five astronauts will attach to
the Mir station to make future
shuttle dockings safer and easier
to accomplish.
World
Nigerian political
prisoner executed
LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) Blind-
folded and dangling from a rope,
Nigerian playwright Ken Saro-
Wiwa spoke eight final words
before his body went limp: "Lord
take my soul, but the struggle
continues."
Because of faulty equipment,
it took five attempts to hang the
anti-government activist in Port
Harcourt on Friday morning.
At one point, according to the
daily newspaper AM News, Saro
,, Wiwa asked his executionprs:
"Why are you people treating me
like this? Which type of country
is this?"
The 54-year-old playwright
was one of nine Ogoni ethnic
minority activists hanged Friday
in the southern oil port; several
papers reported yesterday that
Saro-Wiwa was hanged first.
A secret tribunal convicted
Saro-Wiwa on Oct. 31 of ordering
the murders of four political
rivals who were shot at a 1994
political rally. A military ruling
council upheld the sentences
Wednesday.
Neither side budges
in budget balancing
By ALAN FRAM
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON, D.C. The
Clinton administration-refused yes
terday to commit to a seven-year
balanced budget as the Republican
price for averting the twin crises
this week of a partial federal shut
down and a halt to government bor
rowing.
In what amounted to a day of
broadcast budget bargaining, lead
ers swapped conditions for com
pleting a pair of bills allowing the
government to continue borrowing
and spending money, which Presi
dent Clinton has threatened to veto.
Federal spending authority
expires at midnight today and fail
ure to extend it will force nearly
half the federal work force to go
home tomorrow morning and cur
tail government services. Borrow
ing authority also lapses this week,
which could rattle financial mar
kets.
Senate Majority Leader Bob
Dole, R-Kan., went on ABC's "This
Week With David Brinkley" and
A young Israeli couple embrace during a mass peace rally held yesterday to honor slain Israeli Prime
Minister Yitzhak Rabin in Tel Aviv. The site, Kings of Israel Square, will be renamed Yitzhak Rabin Square.
Serbs give up Croatian lands
By JULIJANA MOJSILOVIC
Associated Press Writer
ERDUT, Croatia Rebel Serb
leaders agreed yesterday to submit
the last of their holdings in Croatia
to government authority, averting
the risk of renewed war in the for
mer Yugoslav republic.
"This is a historic signing," said
U.S. Ambassador Peter Galbraith.
"For the first time in this conflict
an issue has been solved by a sig
nature and not by a bullet."
The agreement, signed in this
Serb-held town in eastern Croatia
in the presence of Galbraith and
chief U.N. envoy Thorvald
Stoltenberg, averted the risk of a
new outbreak of fighting and a col
lapse of broader Balkan peace
talks underway in the United
States.
"The agreement provides for a
peaceful solution. I generally hope
State Legislature looks at gun laws
By PAMELA SAMPSON
Associated Press Writer
HARRISBURG Pennsylvania
may soon have a revised version of 1995, which went into effect in The conference committee may
a new gun law that supporters say October, was heralded as a model meet today and adopt the report
would resolve confusion over when gun law for states wanting to curb recommending changes to the gun
criminal background checks would firearms violence while preserving law. If that happens, the Senate
take effect for people buying rifles the rights of gun owners. could vote to approve the report
and shotguns. But shortly after the act became the same day, said Stephen Mac-
Lawmakers may meet today to law, gun dealers criticized its Nett, counsel to Senate Republi
consider changes drafted by a leg- vagueness and lawmakers conced- cans.
Dateline
said, "If the president would agree
to a balanced budget in seven
years, then we could make very
good progress" in completing the
bills.
That sentiment was echoed by
House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-
Ga. Appearing on NBC's "Meet the
Press," he called for "a letter from
the president that said, `I accept in
principle getting to a balanced bud
get in seven years, not the details,
but in principle."'
White House chief of staff Leon
Panetta wasted little time in turn
ing them down.
"That cannot be part and parcel
of an agreement" on the two short
term bills, he declared on CBS'
"Face the Nation," though he didn't
rule out discussing it as part of a
long-range budget-balancing deal.
Clinton would eliminate the deficit
in nine years, but has never defini
tively rejected a seven-year goal.
White House press secretary
Mike McCurry said late yesterday
afternoon that Clinton desired an
Oval Office meeting with congres
sional leaders today to overcome
that this will have a contagious
effect for the whole area,"
Stoltenberg said.
The two negotiators left immedi
ately for the Croatian capital of
Zagreb, where the government was
expected to sign it later yesterday.
Croatia had threatened to attack
the remaining bit of Serb-held ter
ritory, known as eastern Slavonia,
if rebels refused to accept the plan.
Such an attack on territory that
borders Serbia could have drawn in
the Serb-led Yugoslav army on
behalf of the Croatian Serbs.
In a show of force, the Croatian
army had moved crack troops and
heavy artillery toward the front
line over the last several days. Wit
nesses also reported seeing a large
column of Yugoslav army troops
and guns headed toward the Croat
ian border late Saturday night.
In May and August, Croatian
troops recaptured most Serb-held
islative committee convened to ed some fine-tuning was in order. A
resolve technical problems with conference committee of six law
the law. makers was assigned to take on
The Uniform Firearms Act of that task.
the impasse. But he issued a condi
tion: Republicans must first erase a
provision from the temporary
spending bill boosting monthly
Medicare premiums in January,
rather than letting them fall as
under current law.
Gingrich defended the higher
premiums, saying Clinton's prefer
ence to reduce them is "totally
irresponsible" because officials
say Medicare will go bankrupt in
seven years unless savings are
found. The increases are a key part
of the GOP's plan to squeeze sav
ings from the system, and letting
the premiums fall would make it
politically harder. to boost them
later.
The tough talk left it highly like
ly that 800,000 federal employees
would be sent home tomorrow,
when most agencies' authority to
spend money expires. Also looming
is the expiration Wednesday of the
government's ability to borrow
money, although Treasury Secre
tary Robert Rubin has said he
would avoid an unprecedented
default by using money in some of
territory taken in a 1991 war, and
sent about 180,000 Croatian Serbs
fleeing. The United States had
warned Croatia not to attack again
and was scrambling to secure a
peace deal as soon as possible.
The two sides agreed Oct. 3 on
basic principles for the return of
the territory, but had disagreed
over how long the transition should
be. Serbs wanted a three-year peri
od of U.N. monitoring. Croatia
insisted on no more than one year,
and had asked for a NATO pres
ence, similar to that which would
enforce peace in 'neighboring
Bosnia.
Galbraith and Stoltenberg
refused to discuss details of the
agreement.
But chief Serb negotiator Milan
Milanovic said it called for a one
year transition period, with the
possibility of a one-year extension
"if either side demands."
House Speaker Newt Gingrich of Georgia meets reporters Friday to
discuss the ongoing budget proceedings. Despite internal Republican
differences, the House passed temporary spending and borrowing
bills, escalating a veto showdown with President Clinton.
the government's cash-heavy trust budget by 2002. That measure,
The latest day of bipartisan the House and Senate floors on
intransigence came as GOP House Wednesday, also faces a veto by
and Senate bargainers tried to Clinton, who says its spending and
hammer out the final pieces of tax reductions are too,4teep.
their plan for cutting taxes, trim- Yesterday's focus, however, was
ming spending and overhauling the veto battle between Clinton and
Medicare and other social pro- Republicans over short-term bor
grams on the way to a balanced rowing and spending authority.
Israeli
knowledge of plot
By DAN PERRY
Associated Press Writer
TEL AVIV, Israel In the latest
evidence of a stunning intelligence
failure, the Shin Bet security
agency acknowledged yesterday
that it had advance information
about the assassin of Prime Minis
ter Yitzhak Rabin.
In a highly unusual move, the
secretive agency sent a fax to
Israel's Army radio saying authori
ties were told of a plot in June by a
friend of Yigal Amir, who con
fessed to shooting Rabin. The Asso
ciated Press obtained a copy of the
fax.
In other developments yester
day:
—Amir's brother Hagai, appear
ing in court, said he received
weapons from a sergeant in an elite
army unit, who is the seventh per
son arrested in the killing. A judge
ordered Hagai Amir held for 12
more days.
—As the official mourning peri
od ended, more than 200,000
Israelis streamed into Tel Aviv's
newly renamed Yitzhak Rabin
Square in a defiant replay of the
Nov. 4 peace rally where Amir shot
Rabin. The demonstrators carried
flags, candles, cardboard doves
and signs reading "Enough Death."
It was believed to be the biggest
gathering ever in Israel.
—lsraeli troops began pulling out
of the West Bank town of Jenin,
carrying out the Palestinian self
rule agreement signed by Rabin
and Yasser Arafat in September.
The pullout is to be done today.
Key witness to testify in
Senate White House probe
By PETE YOST
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON, D.C. Early
in the Whitewater affair, a
White House lawyer obtained
confidential documents from a
key facet of the investigation,
hastily returning them after the
Justice Department launched a
probe to detymine how presi
dential aiike : insed the material.
For five bPSix days in mid-
November 1993, then-Associate
White House Counsel Neil
Eggleston had a report that
detailed a series of defaulted
federally backed loans by
David Hale, a Little Rock judge
who was emerging as a central
figure in Whitewater.
The report by the Small Busi
ness Administration triggered a
criminal investigation of Hale,
who was indicted just two
months before the White House
obtained the information from
the SBA, according to docu
ments reviewed by The Associ
ated Press.
At the time, Hale was alleg
ing publicly that he had been
pressured in 1986 by Clinton,
then the:Arkansas governor, to
tin improper SBAlguaran
=o of $300,000 to the
Yy
inntewater partners.
Monday, Nov. 13, 1995
which Republicans hope to bring to
security had
—The ruling Labor Party picked
acting Prime Minister Shimon
Peres as its new leader, replacing
Meanwhile, the Shin Bet
acknowledged that Shlomo Halevy,
a friend of Amir, provided an accu
rate description of the assassin
after being told of plans to kill
Rabin by a mutual friend. Halevy
told his army commander of the
plot but did not reveal Amir's name
or say that he knew him, pretend
ing instead that he overheard two
men discussing the plot in a bus
station bathroom, the Shin Bet said.
Halevy said one of the plotters
was 25, short, black-haired, a mem
ber of the militant Jewish group
Eyal and a student at Bar Ilan Uni
versity a description that fits
Amir.
Security sources, speaking on
condition of anonymity, said
Halevy's information was turned
over to the Shin Bet, but after a
superficial check, the agency
decided to ignore it.
Israel radio reported that Halevy
learned about Amir's plot from a
Haifa woman, identified as Hila
Frank. The radio said she was
questioned and released by police
Saturday. Theories that Rabin was
the victim of a right-wing plot were
bolstered yesterday when police
told a magistrate's court in Tel
Aviv they had evidence linking the
detained army sergeant to the
assassination.
Hagai Amir, the gunman's 27-
year-old brother, told the court he
received weapons from the soldier,
Eric Schwartz, but returned them.
The loan, which was never
repaid, is at the heart of White
water prosecutor Kenneth
Starr's criminal investigation.
Hale has since pleaded guilty to
federal charges, and is Starr's
most important cooperating
witness.
Three people familiar with
the matter, including a White
House source, said yesterday
that Eggleston obtained the doc
uments after being told by his
boss, counsel Bernard Nuss
baum, to look into the fact that
the SBA was abobt to turn over
material on Hale's company to
Congress.
All three sources spoke on
condition of anonymity.
Eggleston's actions mark the
third known time • the White
House has obtained confidential'
information from an ongoing
investigation of Whitewatpr.
Eggleston is scheduled to tes
tify tomorrow before the Senate
Whitewater Committee about
getting the documents from the
SBA and what he did while he
had them,
When he returned the report
to the SBA Eggleston said he
hadoopied a n attachment to the
report detailing I - Iftle's various
loans, but insisted he had
"shredded" the copy:.