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nation & WORLD A4 THE DAILY HERALD (www.HarkTheHerald.com) FRIDAY, JUNE 1.2001 GLOBAL BRIEFING By CATHERINE TSAI Israel stones and shoots JERUSALEM (AP) Jewish ' settlers, enraged by mounting Israeli deaths in West Bank drive-b- y shootings, turned to vigilante tactics Thursday stoning and shooting at Palestinian cars. Zvi Shelef, 63, became the fourth settler killed this week when Palestinians fired on his car Thursday in the northern part of the West Bank. Later Thursday, a Palestinian, Ahmed Salah Abu was killed and another critically injured in a clash with Israeli forces near Ramallah, hospital doctors said. The Israeli military said soldiers fired in the air. u, Nurses prepare for strike Associated Press Writer DENVER Timothy McVeigh asked a judge Thursday to delay his execution, accusing the government of withholding evidence in a "fraud upon the court" that denied him a fair trial in the Oklahoma City bombing. U.S. District Judge Richard Matsch scheduled a hearing for five days before Wednesday, McVeigh's scheduled June 11 execution. The judge ordered prosecutors to respond by Monday - evening. The request was a sharp reversal for McVeigh, who had aban7 doned his appeals in December and asked for an execution date for the 1995 bombing that killed 168 people and injured hundreds of others in the nation's worst act of domestic terrorism. A few hours before the hearing, McVeigh met with his lawyers at a federal prison in Terre Haute, Ind., and decided to go ahead with the request. Attorney Robert Nigh said it wasn't an easy choice. "He was prepared to die," Nigh said. The attorneys said the FBI is withholding information even now, three weeks after the Justice Department began turning over more than 4,400 pages of FBI documents McVeigh's defense should have had before his 1997 trial. The lawyers said they were given FBI material as recently as Wednesday and just five days ago received 11 computer discs con taining 16 hours of audio and visual material. Four former, FBI agents have come forward to suggest information was withheld, a fact noted in McVeigh's court filing. His attorneys also said some evidence may have been "intentionally destroyed" or not documented. The government's false statements that everything had been obtained and produced worked a fraud upon the court and defeated Mr. McVeigh's right to a fair trial and sentencing," the court filing says. Attorneys said a delay would give McVeigh time "to make fair use of the evidence so recently pro, duced." John General Attorney Ashcroft said none of the FBI doc NursMINNEAPOLIS (AP) es at seven Twin Cities hospitals prepared to strike when their shifts ended Friday as their union and employers made a effort Thursday to agreeon new contracts. Five other hospitals had reached tentative agreements with nurses and were awaiting ratification votes. About 5,400 members of the Minnesota Nurses Association at the remaining seven Twin Cities area hospitals were set to strike starting at 5:30 a.m. Friday. If any of those hospitals were to reach a tentative agreement, a strike would be delayed until a ratification vote. While represented overall by the union, each hospital's nursing staff votes separately on contracts. Changes in digital world worth hassle, FCC boss says last-ditc- h By KALPANA SRINIVASAN Associated Press Writer Like leavWASHINGTON Americomforts of the home, ing cans will find the shift to new digital technology frustrating and scary at times, says the new vr- Faisal Husseini, 60, dead Faisal JERUSALEM (AP) Husseini, treated by 'much of the world as the Palestinians' foreign minister, was a welcome guest on Israeli talk shows, diplomatically explaining his people's claims to Jerusalem in the Hebrew he had learned in Israeli jails. Yet the patrician PLO leader, whose genteel airs projected moderation, would also scuffle in dusty pinstriped shirts with riot police to protest Israeli rule in the city. Such contradictions prevailed until his last days he died Thursday at age 60. Husseini, scion of a wealthy Palestinian clan with centuries-ol- d roots in Jerusalem, died of a heart attaqk in a hotel in Kuwait City. The WICHITA, Kan. (AP) FBI said Thursday it will not further investigate an Internet hoax woman in which invented a young woman, began an online diary of her battle with leukemia and then killed her off. Hundreds of people sent cards and gifts as they followed the fictitious Kaycee Nicole's nearly fight with cancer through an online diary dubbed "Living Colours." FBI spokesman Jeff Lanza said the bureau would not probe the case further because it doesn't meet the agency's threshold for financial crimes. aO-year-ol- d two-year-lo- Teen wins Spelling Bee WASHINGTON (AP) quipped with nerves -E- of steel and an inner dictionary that just Minwouldn't quit, a nesota boy won the 2001 Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee, surviving 16 rounds and outlasting 247 other young competitors. Sean Conley of Shakopee, Minn.,, who finished second in last year's contest, won by spelling "succedaneum," which means, appropriately, "one that succeeds to the place of another." for Sean went five breathless rounds with Kristin Hawkins, a who, like Virginia eighth-gradSean, was participating in the national bee for the third time. Sean, who attends a private school in Anoka, Minn., will take home $10,000, while Kristin will get $5,000. word-for-wo- : The Associated Press guard: Armed federal agents warn away onlookers as a blue van believed to be carrying accused spy Robert Hanssen arrives at the U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Va., on Thursday. On Spy suspect pleads innocent By KAREN GULLO Associated Press Writer new modern record for arraignments." "That plea entitles him to a presumption of innocence," Cacheris said of Hanssen. He declined comment on the possibility of further plea discus- Veteran ALEXANDRIA, Va. FBI agent Robert Hanssen pleaded innocent Thursday to charges of spying for Moscow, setting the stage for a fall trial that could deal with some of the nation's most closely guarded intelligence secrets. Looking haggard in a green jumpsuit with the word "prisoner" on the back, Hanssen stood next to his lawyer in the federal courtroom here, just across the Potomac River from Washington. He said "not guilty" when asked how he pleaded to the charges, and plans were set for an Oct. 29 trial. Thursday's arraignment fol- lowed futile plea discussions between Hanssen's lawyers and prosecutors. The long lead time for a trial could permit a new round of plea bargaining. The federal indictment accuses Hanssen of 21 counts of espionage. "We will be filing motions in federal court attacking this indictment," his attorney, Plato Cacheris, told reporters on the courthouse steps after what he estimated was a court session. "We've just set a two-minu- te ty sions. The government alleged that Hanssen passed U.S. secrets to Moscow for 15 years in exchange for $1.4 million in cash and diamonds. The FBI said it obtained original Russian documents that detailed Hanssen's alleged activities, including letters he allegedly wrote to his Russian handlers and secret codes he allegedly used to signal when and where he would drop documents. The FBI has not disclosed the source of the documents. Asked whether the Justice Department would bring in Russians as witnesses, Cacheris said, "We look forward to any Russians that want to come over and testify." Hanssen has been detained at an undisclosed location since his arrest Feb. at a Virginia park as he allegedly delivered a package for pickup by his Russian handlers. As he waited for the arraignment to begin, he chatted with his attorneys, smiling broadly on occasion and nodding. Apparently no family members were present in the courtroom. Asked why, Cacheris said, "They're here in spirit." Hanssen has a wife and six children. Hanssen could face the death penalty ph charges that he identified Soviet agents secretly working for the United States who were subsequently executed. He also is accused of passing secrets about satellites, early warning systems, plans for retaliation attacks and against large-scal- e communications intelligence. Those charges also carry potential death sentences. Cacheris has said the plea discussions stalled because the government refused to waive the death penalty in exchange for Hanssen's cooperation in providing to authorities a full accounting of his activities. Asked about this Thursday, Cacheris said he doubted the death penalty would be constitutional in any event. Going to trial raises the prospect of prosecutors having to reveal in open court sensitive information about U.S. counterintelligence activities. For instance, Hanssen allegedly disclosed how the United States was intercepting Soviet satellite transmissions and the means by which the United States would retaliate against a nuclear attack. two-wa- two-wa- pager. Having such a communications array brings unwanted consequences, too: People now are reachable at all hours. "I actually find it's harder to get my life cut off from work because I'm on all these electric dog leashes that ring and buzz and grab me every time I head out the door," Powell said. As consumers make this switch one that can be compared to the Industrial Revolution in Powell's view government will play a role as well. . However, the FCC has taken a more hands-of- f approach in recent years to its oversight of emerging technologies, such as d Internet access delivered over cable lines. high-spee- rd soft-spoke- n er Old Americans still work WASHINGTON (AP) More senior citizens are working during what might have been their retirement years, as older Americans help fill a need for employees in fields while also seekhealth care. for cash ing The number of Americans 65 and older working or seeking work increased 10 percent between March 1999 and March 2000 to 4.5 million, the Census Bureau said in a report being released Friday, low-skill- t head of the Federal Communications Commission. Great companies will fail and s will worry, but ultimately consumers stand to benefit, FCC Chairman Michael Powell said Thursday. "It will be messy and it will be confusing, and we will get a lot of it wrong and we'll have to start over," Powell said in an interview with The Associated Press. "But that's the creative process, that's the evolutionary process." People already have increasingly broader options to get in touch with each other, he said. instant mesThey can call on wireless a sage, phone, y send a as page or call on a regular land-lin- e always telephone. With all those choices, consumers are trying to figure out how to use technology to best serve their needs, he said. "The average family is not a little I.T. department, but they are almost starting to have to be," Powell said. "I.T." stands for information technology. In his own household of four, Powell has two computers, three cell phones, two phone lines, a satellite TV and a fax machine not to mention the chairman's own gadgets, among them a handheld computer and y policy-maker- not-guil- Web hoax not pursued raise doubt about McVeigh's guilt or establishes his innocence. He has said the FBI produced "every relevant document in its possession" and turned them over to the defense. Ashcroft also said the Justice Department would oppose efforts to overturn McVeigh's conviction or death sentence, or to force a new trial. "Based on the overwhelming evidence and McVeigh's own repeated admissions, we know that he is responsible for this crime arid we will continue to pursue justice by seeking to cany out the sentence that was determined by a jury," said Ashcroft, who cut short a European trip and plans to return to Washington on Saturday. uments ' i Survey raises concerns over AIDS infection rates By ERIN McCLAM Associated Press Writer Social worker ATLANTA Anthony McWilliams says he a new genersees it every day ation of gays and bisexuals numb from years of endless AIDS statistics and warnings about the epidemic. "It becomes blah, blah, blah noise to them," said McWilliams, a counselor for AID Atlanta. "It's just not getting through to them. They need to hear it a new way." Two decades after the discovery of AIDS, a new government survey suggests gay men and bisexuals too young to remember the disease's explosive first years Disease Control and Prevention. Left unchecked, the infection are contracting it at alarming rates. rates could lead to a resurgence The survey shows 4.4 percent of AIDS after years of progress to . . of gay and bisexual men ages 23 to 29 are newly infected each year with HrV, the virus that causes AIDS. For blacks in that group, the figures are staggering: One in seven becomes each year roughly the same infection rate currently found among adults in South Africa. "The numbers we're publishing right now are more like the findings you see in the '80s than the findings you see in the '90s," said Linda Valleroy, who led the survey for the U.S. Centers for HrV-positi- control it. "We have to stop and take a look at the devastation that potentially could occur among these young men," said Dr. Helene Gayle, the CDC's AIDS chief. "These are precious and important lives" ' AIDS prevention grftups called the figures extremely disturbing, saying the country needs to devise new ways to reach young adults at risk. "These are young people who didn't see their friends dying, didn't lose lovers and , friends and people who were important to them," said Marty Algaze, a for Gay Men's spokesman Health Crisis. "It's very scary. This is a new generation of people who should know better, but don't." Health officials were particularly concerned about the infection rates among young black gays and bisexuals, saying the stigma in the black community of having HrV or AIDS may be keeping testing rates low. The study included nearly 3,000 gay and bisexual men who were tested anonymously for HIV from 1998 to 2000 in Baltimore, Dallas, Los Angeles, Miami, New York and Seattle. |
