Section B · Page 6
The University Daily Kansan
Nation/World
Tuesday, November 24, 1998
White House seeks other options
Impeachment vote may be determined by GOP defectors
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The White House said it would respond this week to House Judiciary Committee questions about the Monica Lewinsky affair. Aides to President Clinton also said they were open to proposals, short of impeachment, that would punish the president.
Incoming House Speaker Bob Livingston, R-La., reiterated his hope that the scandal, which polls indicated worked against Republicans in the Nov. 3 election, could be put to rest by the end of the year.
Without predicting the outcome, Livingston said that if the full House is required to vote on articles of impeachment, the issue could be disposed of quickly.
Because the issues have been on the table for the past year, debate
could be limited to two or three hours. Livingston said Sunday on NBC's Meet the Press. The House then could vote on the issue and be done with it, he said.
"If we did not have the votes to sustain the charge, that would be it." Livingston said.
Republican lawmakers have acknowledged that 15 to 20 from their own ranks would vote a g a i n s t impeachment if
Clinton: Looking for middle ground to conclude inquiry.
impeachment the Judiciary Committee sends the issue to the full House. That would be enough to defeat the measure if Democrats stand united against impeachment.
House approval of impeachment would send the matter to the Senate.
But it is thought there is almost no chance that the chamber would come up with the two-thirds vote needed to remove Clinton from office.
"The impeachment process has failed," Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., a member of the Judiciary Committee, said on CNN's Late Edition. "No one is really expecting that there will be a vote in favor."
"Right now, with the political landscape, I would say no," Rep. Lindsey Graham, R.S.C., another committee member, said on ABC's This Week when asked whether impeachment would ever reach the Senate.
White House special presidential counsel Greg Craig, appearing on NBC and CNN, said officials were ready to explore a middle ground of a resolution to censure Clinton for his affair with Ms. Lewinsky and his efforts to cover it up. The president was open to a reasonable proposal that would bring the issue to a rapid conclusion, he said.
Both Craig and White House
adviser Paul Begala stressed there were now no negotiations with Congress about censure, although Craig said he had spoken with some individuals to find out their views.
Begala, on CBS, said Clinton would review responses yesterday to 81 questions submitted by the Judiciary Committee about the Lewinsky affair. He said the responses would be sent to Congress during the week.
"We're going to file a timely and complete response," Craig said. "We intend to hit all the questions."
The committee must study those answers and schedule hearings for additional witnesses before deciding when it will vote on referring articles of impeachment to the full House.
Mergers, renewed confidence spur Dow surge
The Associated Press
NEW YORK — The Dow surged to a new high yesterday, capping a nearly 2,000-point rebound from the summer's scary slide, as merger fever returned to the stock market.
Extending a nearly nonstop rally that began less than two months ago, the Dow Jones industrial average rose 214.72 points to 9,374.27, toping the July 17 record of 9,337.97.
The Standard & Poor's 500 index also set its first record since July. But most broad-market indexes remained shy of new highs as smaller-companies' stocks continued to lag behind the blue chips that dominate the Dow and S&P 500.
The rally came as a series of billion-dollar takeovers and negotiations for two blockbuster deals signaled a return to the merger frenzy that energized the market in the spring and early summer.
Financial shares rose as Germany's Deutsche Bank said it was discussing the final details of a $9 billion deal to take over Bankers Trust, and Internet shares led the technology group higher
as America Online said it may buy Netscape Communications in a $4 billion deal.
While the sudden spurt of merger activity helped spark yesterday's rally, analysts said it was the renewed confidence in the stock market that had hatched yesterday's dealings.
"It spells real faith in the long-term strength of the marketplace," said Arthur Hogan, chief market analyst at Jeffries & Co., noting that most of yesterday's deals would be paid for with stock rather than cash.
"If you're taking over for stock, it means you believe your stock is as good as currency, that the value of your stock is going to be at or near that price for some time," said Hogan. "That goes with the belief that the economy and the stock market will be healthy and strong for some time. You don't see these types of deals announced in questionable times. You wouldn't have seen it in October."
The return to record terrain follows a volatile four-month journey that took the Dow as low as 7,400 on Sept. 1 and to 7,467 on Oct. 8, the day the market's recovery began.
But the rebound has been so continuous and so rapid — the Dow has not fallen as much as 100 points since Oct. 1 — that many analysts are growing fearful of another sharp selloff.
"We've got a mania for stocks right now, and you can't really make a rational explanation for what we have witnessed over the last six weeks," said Richard A. Dickson, a technical analyst at Scott & Stringfellow in Richmond, Va., noting that economic and financial instability overseas still posed a big risk.
"What has improved fundamentally enough to justify what is close to a 30 percent gain from the market's lows?" Dickson asked. For now, however, there is no sign that the rally is through. "Manias never end well ... I am dubious but not stupid. I'm not going to step in front of this."
Before the rebound began, it had seemed that the spread of financial turmoil around the world would send Wall Street to its first losing year since 1990. Now, several major indexes are poised to extend an unprecedented streak of three straight years with gains of 20 percent or more.
AOL negotiates $4 billion purchase for Netscape rights
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — America Online Inc. said yesterday it was negotiating to buy Netscape Communications Corp. in a deal that would bring together the world's largest computer Internet provider and the pioneer company whose software first popularized the Web.
But the deal, which was negotiated all weekend, is not complete. A person close to the negotiations told The Associated Press it was unlikely the deal, estimated at $4 billion, would be finalized yesterday.
AOL cautioned in a statement that "there can be no assurance that an agreement will be reached or a transaction consummated."
summated."
day. Netscape opened at $44 but dipped to $42. AOL opened at $89.75 but was down to $87.25. Sun Microsystems Inc., the third company involved in the negotiations opened at $69.50 and climbed to $71.63.
Under one scenario, according to the source, AOL would run Netscape's "Netcenter" Web site, which receives roughly 20 million visitors monthly and distribute Netscape's popular browser, the software that lets people view information on the Internet.
Sun would benefit in two ways:
It would take control of
Netscape's business-level "server" software, and it would enjoy widespread distribution among AOL's 14 million subscribers of its Java technology for running Internet programs.
AOL said its talks with Sun involved "a possible development and marketing agreement for e-commerce
and new Internet devices, which would involve Netscape products."
The three companies have been negotiating for at least two weeks. If the deal is completed, it would create an alliance that would change the landscape of the nation's technology industry.
It also could spell trouble several ways for Microsoft Corp., the industry giant whose Internet software competes directly with Netscape's.
Microsoft—with its own, far less-successful online service and its own business-level software also competes against AOL and Sun Microsystems, which makes powerful workstation computers used by graphic artists and engineers.
AOL, for example, now distributes Internet software by Microsoft to its subscribers. But a shift in allegiance to Netscape could dramatically restore Netscape's share of the browser market to its highest levels since Microsoft launched raids so aggressive that the federal government is suing it for alleged antitrust violations.
Georgia repeals anti-sodomy legislation
Appeal overturns 12-year-old ruling
The Associated Press
ATLANTA — The Georgia Supreme Court threw out the state's anti-sodomy law yesterday, 12 years after the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the statute with a landmark ruling that said there was no right to privacy in sexual contact.
The Georgia court voted 6-1 to overturn the conviction of Anthony Powell, who was found guilty of sodomizing his 17-year-old niece in 1996 but acquitted of raping her.
Yesterday's majority opinion, by Chief Justice Robert Benham, said the state law "manifestly infringes upon a constitutional provision ... which guarantees to the citizens of Georgia the right of
privacy."
The U.S. Supreme Court had taken the opposite view, holding in 1986 that consenting adults had no constitutional right to private homosexual conduct.
Former state Attorney General Michael Bowers, who defended the law before the U.S. Supreme Court in the 1986 case, said he was surprised by yesterday's action.
"I'd like to see their reasoning," he said. "It's obviously the law now, but I can't imagine how they can make such a ruling. I would be very surprised if you don't see a legislative move to alter that."
The state cannot appeal yesterday's ruling because the Georgia Supreme Court is the ultimate authority on the state's constitution. Legislators would have to amend the constitution before being able to pass a similar law.
Twelve other states have sodomy laws that make consensual oral and anal sex between
heterosexual or homosexual couples a crime, while six other states have anti-sodomy laws that apply only to homosexuals.
Justice George H. Carley was the lone dissenter in today's ruling, writing that the majority on the court "usurped the legislative authority of the General Assembly to establish the public policy of this state."
But the majority ruled that the state had numerous other statutes prohibiting sexual assault, child molestation and public sex.
"I think that Georgia is preparing itself to move into the 21st century as a just state," said Lynn Cothren, an Atlanta gavin activist.
"He said he was happy and relieved and glad for the chance to get on with his life." Brenda Joy Berstein, one of Powell's attorneys, said yesterday morning.
Powell spent 14 months in jail before making bail last year pending his appeal.
Arctic cold wave blamed for 65 deaths across Eurone
BUCHAREST, Romania — An early season Arctic cold wave and accompanying blizzards were reported yesterday to have killed at least 65 people across Europe.
Fountains in front of the Eiffel Tower were completely frozen, and about 100 homeless people staged a sit-in at the headquarters of the state-run medical assistance service in Paris to demand better protection in winter.
Authorities reported the death of a 91-year-old Italian man who was found in his unheated home in Calabria, southern Italy. The cold also was blamed for the deaths of a husband and wife killed by carbon monoxide poisoning — apparently from a defective heater — at their home in rural Lombardy, Italy.
Weather played a role in at least 24 deaths in Romania and Bulgaria during the past three days. In Poland, 36 people died, most of them homeless or those who passed out in the cold after drinking alcohol,
The cold wave hit on Nov. 16, making it one of the coldest Novembers in Poland in recent years. Weather forecasters predict higher temperatures in the next few days, but it was uncertain whether they would climb above zero.
The lowest reported temperature was 15 degrees below zero early Sunday in Ostroleka, in northeast Poland.
In Romania, at least 21 people have died from the cold and in weather-related accidents on snow-covered roads since Friday. Temperatures plunged to 14 degrees below zero early yesterday.
Some 15 major roads were blocked by snowdrifts as high as five feet.
About 200 people spent more than 48 hours stranded in their cars after winds whipped snowdrifts across main highways in southern Romania. Army vehicles rescued most drivers, but six people froze to death during the weekend after being trapped in their cars.
The Associated Press
In Bucharest, dozens of cars
police said.
In Bulgaria, three people died in the northwestern region of Montana, the daily 24 Chassa reported. Some areas were without power, phones and running water.
In France, the death toll from the cold snap rose yesterday to six people, three of them homeless men.
smashed into other vehicles and skidded in the icy conditions. The Emergency Hospital in Bucharest said it treated 80 people for fractures and frostbite during the weekend.
---