Tuesday, February 3, 1998
The University Daily Kansan
Section A · Page 6
Balloon trip still plagued by problems
The Associated Press
GENEVA — Negotiators tried yesterday to prevent a European team's round-the-world balloon attempt from falling victim to China's refusal to let the balloon cross its airspace.
Authorities in Beijing so far have rejected appeals from team officials and Swiss, Belgian and British diplomats to allow the Brettling Orbiter 2 and its three-man crew to cross southern China.
The balloon needs to fly above China to benefit from winds that would propel it at speeds of up to 180 mph toward the Pacific Ocean.
If the Chinese do not rebel, the balloon will have to take a long detour, leaving it without enough fuel to cross the Pacific Ocean, a representative at the team's Geneva control center said.
To follow the meteorologists' ideal flight path, the balloon must descend to 20,000 feet to fly above Pakistan today.
Then, if China agrees, the balloonists will climb to 29,000 feet to enter the heart of the jet stream—and what should be a six-day flight to California.
It is not the first time the team has faced political problems in its bid to be the first to orbit the globe by balloon.
Yesterday, the Iranian army mistook the balloon for an aircraft when it showed up on radar. The misunderstanding eventually was sorted out when the crew contacted the Iranians.
On Sunday, the team encountered problems with the Iraqi authorities. Only after diplomatic exchanges between the neutral Swiss government, the International Red Cross and authorities in Iraq was the balloon allowed to fly above Baghdad and on to Iran.
The three-man crew spent 30 minutes in Iraqi airspace illegally before clearance was given.
Swiss pilot Bertrand Piccard, Belgium's Wim Verstraeten and British flight engineer Andy Elson set out in their silver balloon from the Swiss Alpine resort of Chateau d'Ox on Wednesday.
For the first few days, they averaged less than 9 mph because of technical problems and slow winds.
The crew's luck improved Saturday when they repaired a problem in the rear hatch of the pilot's capsule, pressurized the cabin and thus rose to find faster currents.
Face lift
Mike Hengler, Minneapolis, Minn., sophomore, chisels a sculpture assignment to integrate an animal and a face. Photo by Augustus at the Art and Design Building. Hengler's sculpture is for a Sculpture I Anthony Piazza/KANSAN
Iraq vs. United States, Part II?
Leveling infrastructure is solution, officials say
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Out of patience with Saddam Hussein, the Clinton administration is leaving no doubt of its intention to use military force if Iraq continues to deny U.N. inspectors access to potential weapons sites. Less clear is what air strikes would accomplish.
Defense Secretary William Cohen said air attacks would not topple Saddam or destroy his arsenal of weapons of mass destruction
—an arsenal the Iraqi insist does not exist.
What is the point then?
From the U.S. standpoint, Saddam's continued defiance of the United Nations cannot go unanswered. To ignore him is to allow him to move ahead with his weapons program and to threaten every nation within range of his missiles.
Another possibility is that a credible threat of force would persuade Saddam to back down, at least long enough to defuse this crisis.
"The threat of military force is often one of the most useful ways to get diplomatic
action." Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said Sunday to CNN.
Eliot Cohen, the Johns Hopkins professor who directed the Pentagon study of the effectiveness of the air war against Iraq after it invaded Kuwait, said the U.S. military had some new advantages.
"We've been in Iraq
Saddam: Faces threat of U.S. military force.
for a long time now," he said. "They (the Iraqis) are not as wealthy as they used to be, and there are probably more people who are willing to cooperate with us."
In 1991, Pentagon representatives gave upbeat assessments of the air raids on Iraq. However, Cohen's study of the air campaign found the results were mixed.
The study concluded that the air strikes played a significant role in the swift defeat of the Iraqi military but that it took ground forces to dislodge the Iraqis from Kuwait.
"If you were to take out all the television stations and telecommunications so that he finds it hard to communicate with the Republican Guard or the police, I could imagine it having a serious effect," he said.
Cohen said an air campaign aimed at Iraq's infrastructure could shake Saddam's hold on power.
Former Secretary of State James A. Baker III advocated a similar approach on Fox News Sunday.
"The one thing that I'm convinced would bring (Saddam) to heel is to take out his infrastructure." Baker said.
He said the primary targets should be the bridges and power grid along with the presidential palaces that Saddam had placed off-limits to U.N. inspectors.
Baker, who was secretary of state during the Gulf War, said most of Iraq's ability to develop nuclear or chemical weapons had diminished sharply. However, he said it would be difficult to find biological weapons centers.
Cohen said that the United States must recognize that the problem was Saddam and that it could not let up on the Iraqis until he was gone.
But how to achieve that goal is another question.
Baker said it would be a mistake to think American troops could go into Iraq and capture Saddam.
Peace process further delayed by new clashes
Tear gas injures school girls during fourth day of fighting
The Associated Press
BETHLEHEM, West Bank — Palestinian police trained their rifles on Israeli troops during stone-throwing clashes yesterday in the West Bank town of Bethlehem.
Several tear gas canisters fired by the soldiers landed near a Palestinian girls' school, and 20 girls were taken to a hospital for treatment.
Palestinian police crouched in firing position as Israeli soldiers pursued stone-throwers into Palestinian-controlled territory. The soldiers retreated, firing tear gas toward the stone-throwers and police.
In the school's open courtyard, girls in green-and-white-stripe uniforms coughed and wiped away tears with handkerchiefs while they were evacuated.
It was the fourth consecutive day of clashes between Palestinians and Israeli soldiers in Bethlehem, as frustration grows about the deadlocked peace process.
Yesterday's clashes began when about 20 Palestinian insulted Israeli soldiers with stones near Rachel's Tomb, an Israeli-controlled shrine on the outskirts of the Palestinian-run West Bank town. The soldiers responded with rubber bullets, tear gas and stun grenades. Palestinian police initially pushed back the crowd of stone-throwers.
On Sunday, Israeli troops and Palestinian police briefly trained weapons on one another across the line dividing Israeli and Palestinian-controlled areas near Rachel's Tomb.
Bolivian inmates hold hunger strike
The Associated Press
LA PAZ, Bolivia — Nearly 4,000 inmates on a hunger strike are demanding better prison conditions or early release, and several dozen of them have crucified themselves on fences to get the government's attention.
The hunger strike began with a few hundred inmates last week and had grown to nearly 4,000 by yesterday.
The hunger strike and crucifixions are being organized by convicted cocaine traffickers who want reduced sentences and furloughs, Interior Minister Guido Nayer said. Inmates also are protesting harsh living conditions in often overcrowded Bolivian tails.
The government will not accept the demands. Nayer said.
Bolivia's anti-narcotics law does not allow early release for convicted drug traffickers. Most of the protesting inmates are serving their sentences in Palmasola, 650 miles east of La Paz. Two-thirds of the inmates there are serving sentences of four to 15 years for cocaine trafficking.