University Daily Kansan, January 25, 1985
NATION AND WORLD
Page 2
NEWS BRIEFS
Meese's papers to be public
WASHINGTON — A special three-judge court decided yesterday to make court papers by presidential counselor Edwin Meese public. Meese is seeking the money $700,000 he spent in legal fees during a government investigation of his finances.
Meese, nominated by President Reagan earlier this year for the attorney general post. Tuesday goes before a Senate committee that is considering his confirmation.
The investigation by a special prosecutor concerned the propriety of financial dealings by Meese involving a series of loans and possible special favors he received from people who later served in government service.
Woman chosen to lead force
PORTLAND, Ore. — Penny Harrington, a police captain, was promoted to chief of police yesterday, making her the first woman in the nation to lead a police force
Mayor Bud Clark said he chose Harrington over three other finalists because of the "long-term period she's had in the trenches."
Harrison ingored the Portland Police bureau in 1944. She had been commander of the US Air Force.
Center to 'revolutionize' stage
WASHINGTON — The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts pledged yesterday to revolutionize the American stage with a new avant-garde theatre, led by a maverick 27-year-old director who promises to slash ticket prices.
"You should be able to come to the Kennedy Center and ask, 'What's going on today in theatre in America?', and then you can go to the New York theater director of the new American National Theater.
Sellars said he would slash ticket prices at the center's Eisenhower Theater from $10 to $8.
Suspect's rat attacks officer
REGENSBURG, West Germany — A policeman trying to arrest a "puncker" suspected of shoplifting was attacked by the suspect's pet rat, police said yester-
They said the rat came to its master's defense during a tussle with police by springing onto the head of one arresting officer.
The policeman was able to subdue and arrest the 30-year-old suspect only after fighting off the attacking rat, said the report of the police in Regensburg.
Compiled from United Press International reports.
Absence of malice wins suit for Time
By United Press International
NEW YORK — Former Israeli Defense Minister Ariel Sharon lost his $50 million libel suit against Time Inc. yesterday when a federal jury found the magazine acted without malice in falsely linking him to a 1982 massacre of Palestinian refugees.
Sharon had two victories earlier in the deliberations when the jury decided that a crucial paragraph in a Time story had defamed him and was false. Because the jury found no malice, Sharon lost his overall case and has no chance to collect damages.
In returning its verdict at 12:15 p.m., the jury issued a statement saying that Time editors and writers, who reported the contested story, acted "negligently and carelessly." But the jury found that no one deliberately reported false information.
SHARON SAT GRIMLY with his arms folded as the verdict was read. His wife, Lili, seemed crestfallen.
seemed crestless.
Outside the courtroom, Sharon said he was
happy with the verdict and hoped his
time magazine to get its facts straight.
"Time's allegations were false," he said. "It is very important for men and women around the world. We hope it will prevent Time magazine from libeling in the future."
He said he was going back to Israel, where
he said, "I have plenty of things to do.
Exhilateral Time executives congratulated each other outside the courtroom.
"This label suit is over and Time has won it," a Time spokesman said in a statement. "The case should never have reached an American courtroom. It was brought by a foreign politician attempting to recoup his political fortunes."
Time attorney Thomas Barr, summing up the jury's final verdict, said yesterday that Time had won the war but lost a few battles along the way.
The verdict by the six-member jury brings to an end the two-month trial in U.S. District Court in Manhattan. The jury had been
"YOU MAY WIN a battle but not the war," the ubilant Barr said. "We won the war."
deliberating on the complex case for 11 days and had focused on the malice issue for seven days.
In its statement, the jury found fault with several Time editors and writers, and singled out David Halevy, Time's Jerusalem correspondent, for sloppy reporting. But it said Halevy did not deliberately report false information about Sharon.
Under U.S. libel law, a public figure such as Sharon must prove not only that a published statement defamed him and was false, but that it was published with malice — meaning Time knew its information was false or seriously doubted its accuracy.
The paragraph in Time's Feb. 21, 1983, cover story reported Sharon, who was defense minister at the time, had "discussed" with Lebanon's Phalangist leaders the need to avenge the death of Lebanese President-elect Bashir Gemayel in 1982 massacre of an estimated 700 Palestinian at two refugee camps in Beirut.
Earlier, Sharon had hailed the jury's two partial verdicts as a "clear moral victory"
for him, the Jewish people and the state of Israel.
The jury's decision on those issues, he said, proved that Time had published a "lie" by calling himself "an attorney."
"I came here in order to prove . . . that Time Magazine lied." Sharon told reporters. "We were able to prove that Time Magazine and that they were negligent and careless."
The jury found the paragraph defamed Sharon because it implied that Sharon had "consciously intended" Israel's Phalangist allies to carry out the atrocity.
That contention, the jury found in its second verdict, was false.
Halevy, who reported the disputed account to his editors, testified it was based on information from his confidential Israeli sources.
IN YESTERDAY'S FINAL verdict, the jury apparently believed Halevy did have confidential sources and reported in good faith what they told him.
World court to ignore U.S. refusal to appear
Milton Gould, Sharon's attorney, had argued that Halevy had no sources.
By United Press International
THE HAGUE, Netherlands — The world court said yesterday it will ignore the U.S. withdrawal from a suit filed by Nicaragua and will continue hearing Managua's complaints of covert U.S. support for antigovernment rebels.
Tasim Elias, presiding judge of the International Court of Justice, said the court would give Nicaragua until April 30 to return its troops and avoid further delays until May 21 to present its defense, he said.
The United States, citing national security concerns, announced last week it would boycott court proceedings on the case and accused Nicaugaon of "misusing the court system."
Court officials have said Washington can legally refuse to go to the expense of sending lawyers to the court's proceedings to defend the plaintiff. The International Court of Justice are not binding.
Nicargata charged that CIA-backed rebels mined at least three ports in February and March of 2016. Mines exchanged with the Israeli forces last year exposed Soviet freighter, but caused only minor damage.
The United States had argued that the court was not competent to hear Nicaragua's
inegations that Washington was trying to topple the leftist government in Managua through the mining of harbors and backing of anti-Sandinista rebels.
A U.S. Embassy spokesman said yesterday the United States had no comment on the court's decision. "The statement issued last week by the U.S. Information Service laid out our rationale," he said.
Despite the U.S. refusal to participate, a world court spokesman said yesterday, "We will wait anyway. You never know, the United States might change its mind."
But the embassy spokesman said that decision would be made in Washington.
Nicaragua's chief lawyer and ambassador to the Netherlands, Carlos Arguello, reiterated criticism of the U.S. decision.
"The fact that the court will continue to consider Nicaragua's case is a matter of law, because only the court has the right to determine its own jurisdiction under international law," Arguello said.
Arguello said the U.S. refusal to participate "really implies recognition by the U.S. that it cannot defend its case before the highest court in the world and in that sense this chapter is a victory for Nicaragua."
Liberal legislators back anti-discrimination bill
By United Press International
WASHINGTON — A bipartisan group of congressmen, saying they would not stand for a "charade" on civil rights, announced support yesterday for a major anti-discrimination bill to protect the rights of gay men and women, the handicapped and the elderly.
Liberal members of the House and Senate said they would push for passage of the Civil Rights Restoration Act of 1985 that would overturn last year's Supreme Court ruling on antisubordination law to specific programs receiving federal money.
"The clear message of the bill we are introducing today is that federal aid must not be used in any way, shape or form to subsidize discrimination," said Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., one of the key sponsors.
The Supreme Court ruling at issue involved Grove City College in Pennsylvania and limited the clout of the 1972 civil rights discrimination by educational institutions.
In its 1984 decision, the high court said the government could cut off federal funds only to specific education programs that
failed to meet federal standards and not to an entire institution.
The administration has said it would use the ruling as ammunition in other civil rights cases. Civil rights groups maintained the ruling jeopardized the rights of many people.
THE LEGISLATION TO broaden civil rights protection of millions of women, minorities, the handicapped and elderly was introduced yesterday in the House, and is expected to be introduced next week in the Senate.
White House spokesman Larry Speakes said later that the administration "fully supports" the Dole bill "and will work to secure the legislation enacted in the Congress."
he said in a statement that the past Congress almost completed "the task of developing an acceptable response to the Grove City College decision and there is no good reason why" the current Congress "cannot finish this work by enacting the legislation introduced today."