6 The Daily Collegian A brief look at our world State Lawmaker proposes fund for job training HARRISBURG (AP) If Pennsylvania can cut business taxes by $285 million this fiscal year and consider another $6O million reduction next year, then it can afford $1 million for job training, a Philadelphia Democ ratic lawmaker said yesterday. State Rep. W. Curtin Thomas organized a job training rally and lobbying day that drew over 400 people from across the state. Thomas has introduced a bill that would have the state spend $1 million for job training, to help fill a gap left by proposed cuts in federal funds for summer job programs and the Job Part nership Training Act. The cuts threaten 24,000 sum mer jobs in Pennsylvania that private industry cannot replace, said Michael Lawrence, deputy director of job training for the North Central Regional Planning and Development Commission. Sen. Michael O’Pake, D-Berks, said the state should be willing to spend about $1,400 a year to help a young person get a job since it spends $27,000 a year to keep a person in prison. Nation Dog rescues owner by calling 911 line NASHUA, N.H. (AP) A dog named Lyric remembered her training yesterday, using a pre programmed telephone to call for help after her owner’s oxy gen mask came loose. Judi Bayly, who sleeps with an oxygen mask on because of a breathing disorder, said she could have died if her Irish set ter had not been there to help. When Bayly’s oxygen alarm sounded early yesterday, Lyric first tried to rouse her owner. Failing that, she knocked the receiver off a telephone, and bumped a speed-dial button on the phone three times to dial 911. Several buttons on the phone are programmed for the same num ber, so she doesn’t have to be able to choose one. The town’s 911 system auto matically gives dispatchers a caller’s address. “Animals, they really are your best friends,” she said. World Yeltsin allows gun sales to former Yugoslavia MOSCOW (AP) President Boris Yeltsin has approved limit ed arms sales to countries in the former Yugoslavia starting this week, the president’s press ser vice said yesterday. Yeltsin’s decision to allow the sale of arms starting tomorrow was based on a U.N. Security Council resolution adopted in November, which suspended bans on some light weapons and equipment as part of the Dayton accords, the press service said. A ban on the sale of heavy weapons, ammunition, mines, combat planes and helicopters remains in effect, but will be dropped after June 11 if the Security Council does not pass a new resolution. The press service did not say whether Russia would resume full-scale arms sales after the June date. Militants detonate deadly blasts in India NEW DELHI, India (AP) Five people were killed and three wounded in two explosions in the northeastern state of Assam. Tribal militants appar ently set off the blasts, news agencies reported yesterday. The three policemen and a paramilitary soldier of the Home Guards were sent Monday to insure that the bridge was safe for their patrol to cross. Guerrillas from the Bodo Security Force waiting in the woods nearby detonated the bomb when the policemen reached the span, said Press Trust of India. In a second incident linked to Bodo extremists, a bomb explod ed outside a movie theater yes terday and killed one man, Press Trust said. Chinese exercises concern U.S. By ROBERT BURNS AP Military Writer CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. China’s complex military maneuvers are essentially a dry run for an operation to gain control of the air and seas around Taiwan, the top U.S. mili tary officer said yesterday. Gen. John Shalikashvili also said a possi bility exists that miscalculation by either side could lead to actual conflict. But Shalikashvili, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told The Associated Press that the Chinese operation, which began last week with missile test-firings, was “most probably designed to be just an exercise.” Dressed in camouflage battle fatigues, Shalikashvili reviewed military exercises by Marines at Camp Lejeune on Wednesday as China’s military launched war games off Taiwan’s coast, and the island’s government threatened to destroy any attackers. Shalikashvili said the Chinese are demon Clinton signs law of tougher sanctions against Cuba resulting from shooting President Clinton signed into law tougher sanctions against Cuba, hoping to hinder Cuba’s foreign investment and compel Castro to embrace democracy. By SONYA ROSS Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON, D.C. Miriam de la Pena stood watching President Clinton sign tougher sanctions against Cuba into law, wondering if her American born son would have willingly given his life to bring the signing about. “It’s so hard to say,” Mrs. de la Pena said. Then she concluded: “If my son were alive today and he knew that this would bring to light what is happening in Cuba, he would do it again.” Mario M. de la Pena, 24, was one of four activists killed when Cuban fighter jets shot down two unarmed civilian planes near Cuba. The Feb. 24 inci dent led Congress to pass the sanctions that Clinton signed yesterday, with the goal of further choking Cuba’s foreign investment as a warning that Fidel Castro must embrace democracy or suffer. The Helms-Burton Act gives Cuban exiles the right to sue over property they lost during Castro’s Com Loose, decentralized structure allows Hamas to evade peacemaking process By NICOLAS B. TATRO Associated Press Writer JERUSALEM They are few in number. They make bombs from fertilizer, nails and dynamite scraped from old land mines. They issue leaflets with threats written in flowery Arabic. Yet they have shaken Israel with suicide attacks that have killed 62 people since Feb. 25. And they have put the Middle East’s peacemakers on the defensive, prompting them to call a summit on terror today. The success of the crude but lethal campaign lies in the struc ture of the Islamic militant group Hamas a loose network of cells without a strict hierarchy or cen tral base. That structure has allowed the group’s leaders to evade an intense manhunt by Israeli soldiers and Palestinian police. It has also made the peacemakers' jobs all the tougher they may strike a peace with one Hamas unit but face attacks from another. Hamas’ disparate elements share Dateline strating the versatility of their military by combining air, sea and amphibious move ments. “It’s as complex or more complex than any they had done before,” he said. He said they were demonstrating how they would “go through the stages of gaining air superiority and control of the seas.” As the Chinese exercises pick up steam, the Pentagon is mounting an unmistakable show of force by adding a second aircraft carrier battle group to one already deployed off the coast of Taiwan. “Those are very important signals to the Chinese that we hope the situation will return back to normal very soon,” Sha likashvili said. The Chinese have told U.S. officials that the United States has nothing to fear from the exercises. A State Department spokesman begged to differ. “You know we’re concerned, on one level call it the macro level about the fact munist rule. Also, foreign investors who deal in con fiscated property are barred entry into the United States, and products made with Cuban sugar are banned. “I sign it with a certainty that it will send a power ful, unified message from the United States to Havana, that the yearning of the Cuban people for freedom must not be denied,” Clinton said. Clinton signed the bill while surrounded by mem bers of Congress, Cuban-American activists and rela tives of the four men who died. “In their memory, I will continue to do everything I can to help the tide of democracy that has swept our entire hemisphere finally, finally reach the shores of Cuba,” the president said. The signing came as voters cast ballots in Florida’s presidential primary. Republican front-runner Bob Dole, courting the GOP-loyal Cuban-American vote, praised Clinton for signing the bill but criticized him for initially opposing the harshest of the sanctions. “It is tragic that it took the murder of four innocent Americans to overcome opposition to this critical measure,” Dole said. House cosponsor Dan Burton, R-Ind., said foreign investments in Cuba “are already starting to dry up” because of the sanctions, robbing Castro of the cash he needs to keep his government alive. the goal of derailing the Israeli- Palestinian peace process and establishing an Islamic fundamen talist state in all of historic Pales tine Israel, the West Bank and Gaza. Beyond that, there is little cohesion. David Agmon, a retired Israeli general who was the army’s chief anti-terror adviser during the 1987- 93 Palestinian uprising, says Hamas was not one organization but many, with a large number of the cells forming around a local clergyman. “The organizations are based on a local hero or local leader who is perceived to be religiously enlight ened. He starts to teach people around him, and is connected in a sort of network to other such groups,” Agmon said. Hamas’ political groups are sepa rate from its social welfare organi zations schools, charities, med ical centers and from the Izze dine al-Qassam Brigades, the group’s military wing. The Izzedine, named after an Islamic fighter who was killed dur- that these exercises are meant for political purposes, to intimidate Taiwan,” the State Department’s Glyn Davies said. “You know, I mean, ordnance can go astray. There’s shipping in that area, very important commercial shipping. There are 21 million people on the island of Taiwan. We’re very concerned, obviously, that there "The leadership abroad can easily send money and orders to the suicide bomber. . . without the local political leadership knowing about it." Abdel Razzak Majaida head of Palestinian national security ing the British occupation in the 19305, is made up of a few dozen active members broken into semi autonomous cells in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The different elements in Pales tinian areas receive support from abroad, often channeled directly into the specific organization with out going through a central Hamas structure. Izzedine leaders get guidance and orders from Hamas leaders in Iran, Sudan, Syria, Lebanon, Yemen and elsewhere. Donors in the United States, Eng land and Arab oil countries like Saudi Arabia send money to Hamas charities, schools, mosques and medical clinics. "We're concerned, on one level call it the macro level about the fact that these exercises are meant for political purposes, to intimidate Taiwan." Glyn Davies State Department spokesman Welfare bill for 2-year A Senate committee approved a bill that forces welfare recipients to find a job within two years or lose benefits. By PAMELA SAMPSON Associated Press Writer HARRISBURG Welfare recip ients must find a job within two years or lose benefits under a plan approved by a Senate committee despite opponents’ warnings it could deny health care to thou sands of poor Pennsylvanians. The Senate Public Health and Welfare Committee voted 7-2 yes terday to approve a bill that would largely put into law Gov. Tom Ridge’s welfare plan, which he unveiled in February. The bill now goes to the Senate. Opponents say the bill undercuts what little help that the poor receive. But supporters say poor Pennsylvanians who depend on the government will learn to care for themselves. “This bill sends a clear signal that Pennsylvania prefers work Lawmaker proposes privately-run prisons By PETER DURANTINE private firms manage 84 state Associated Press Writer prisons nationwide. ln a pilot program, the state HARRISBURG A lawmak- would choose a minimum-secu er wants private companies to rity prison for a private compa run state prisons and the roads ny to operate, Greenleaf said, that lead to them. The state expects to complete State Sen. Stewart Greenleaf, a new 1,000-bed medium securi- R-Montgomery, said he intends ty prison in Chester, Delaware to introduce a package of bills County, in spring 1997. Gov. later this year that would create Tom Ridge is considering hav pilot projects that put prisons ing a private company operate and state roads in private the prison, hands. Greenleaf said the Correc- Last year, Greenleaf intro- tions Department could save 15 duced a bill that would create to 17 percent by allowing the an agency within the budget private sector to run prisons, office to evaluate which state He said Texas requires private programs would save money if companies to show alO percent put in private hands. savings for the state. Greenleaf says 28 states now Texas currently has seven have laws that allow private privately owned and run pris companies to operate prisons, ons with six publicly owned and and they have been successful privately run prisons preparing at saving money: He says 28 to open. Israeli officials estimate that about 5 percent of the money finds its way into the hands of terror cells. “The leadership abroad can easi ly send money and orders to the suicide bomber himself and a cell leader without the local political leadership knowing about it,” said Maj. Gen. Abdel Razzak Majaida, head of Palestinian national securi ty. “Even the leaflets come from abroad.” Majaida said the external leader ship in Iran, Jordan and Syria often bypassed the local Hamas leaders with whom Yasser Arafat’s government has been seeking an agreement to halt attacks on Israel. The directions from abroad are Wednesday, March 13, 1996 be no accidents,” Davies said of the concern. Davies said U.S. officials were trying to set up a meeting soon between Secretary of State Warren Christopher and China’s for eign minister, Quian Quichen. “We’re work ing on possible dates,” he said. At the Pentagon, Navy Capt. Michael Dou bleday described what he called a “carefully orchestrated” shifting of Navy ships in order to strengthen the U.S. military pres ence near Taiwan. The nuclear-powered carrier USS Nimitz and its accompanying battle group will cross the Indian Ocean and join the carrier USS Independence and its battle group off Tai wan by next week. Nimitz has been on patrol in the Persian Gulf. Its move toward Taiwan will begin only after another carrier, the USS George Wash ington, moves from the Mediterranean Sea through the Suez Canal and into the U.S. Central Command’s area of operations, the Persian Gulf region. over welfare and will help to rein in the cost of a system that is cost ing taxpayers millions more each year and failing in its basic mis sion,” said Sen. James Gerlach, R- Montgomery, the bill’s sponsor. People who receive federal or state assistance would have to work at least 20 hours a week or lose benefits after 24 months, although some exceptions would be made. For example, a woman with an infant would be exempted from the work requirement. Welfare recipients also would be required to sign a contract with goals that would have to be met as a condition of receiving welfare. For example, a parent might be required to make sure dependent children attend school and are immunized. One provision that sparked sig nificant opposition would tighten requirements for people to qualify for Medicaid, the federal-state health insurance program for the poor and disabled. “We’re not just cutting off peo ple, we’re cutting off people with serious medical problems,” said Sen. Allyson Schwartz, D-Philadel phia. general, and the local cells are left to recruit suicide attackers and determine the target and exact tim ing of the operation, Agmon said. Also improvised are the weapons, usually 20 to 30 pounds of dynamite or homemade explosives in a vest or belt with a simple deto nator. The explosive is studded with nails, making it more deadly. The operations are not sophisti cated, and often go amiss. In April 1995, a Hamas bomb factory in Gaza blew up and killed six people, including a wanted militant. Anoth er bomb factory was uncovered by Israel’s Shin Bet secret service in the West Bank last August after two suicide bombings that killed 16 people. The ingredients for their bombs included store-bought fertil izer. The most important ingredient is the person willing to commit sui cide. Israel’s Shin Bet chief, Maj. Gen. Ami Ayalon, told parliament recently that there were hundreds of volunteers waiting to join the ranks of the suicide bombers. allows job hunt
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