6B
Nation/World
Friday November 6,1998
Starr announced as major witness
Clinton to address allegations formally
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The chairman of the House Judiciary Committee announced today that prosecutor Kenneth Starr would be his only major witness in impeachment hearings, and he asked President Clinton to formally admit or deny allegations about his conduct with Monica Lewinsky.
Rep. Henry Hyde, R-III, said he was sending the president a letter today asking him to admit or deny certain facts that appear to be established by the record put together by Starr. While Hyde said the president is free to dispute whatever he wants. Clinton's agreement to those allegations would allow the committee to narrow the issues and bring the matter to a close more quickly.
Presidential press secretary Joe Lockhart said Clinton's lawyers still were digesting Hyde's letter
and had no immediate comment. On talk of expediting the inquiry, Lockhart pronounced the streamlined hearings to be a mostly positive development but suggested the White House wanted to wait and
see Hyde's words turn to action.
"The track record to date isn't good on this particular issue," Lockhart said.
Starr, who has been sought more by Democrats seeking to focus on the prosecutor's
Hyde: Says he is sending a letter to President Clinton;
conduct, would testify Nov. 19.
Hyde told Republican committee members Wednesday that he also was considering calling an expert witness, who would help the panel decide whether Clinton committed perjury.
Speaking at a Chicago news con
ference, Hyde raised the possibility of the impeachment case ending in a censure. He cautioned that any such deal could come only after the House approved articles of impeachment.
At the White House, Lockhart measured Hyde's announcement against the three standards that Clinton had set for any impeachment proceeding; expeditious, constitutional and fair.
situations in the office.
"It looks like a process that will be done promptly and expeditiously, so that's positive. On the constitutional front, I still think there has not been a serious attempt to answer our concern that the standards of impeachment ... haven't been discussed so we still feel like we've come up short there." Lockhart said.
"On fairness ... I think it depends on how things play out."
Hyde said his committee's inquiry would not be affected by Democrats' surprisingly strong showing in Tuesday's election.
"It would be easy, we could just look away from this awful mess
and let it disappear, but our duty demands that we look forward," Hyde said.
He said he hoped to have the committee's work wrapped up by year's end with Clinton's cooperation.
If the cooperation isn't forthcoming, he cautioned, he would continue as long as it took, to vindicate the rule of law and to follow the truth, wherever it led them."
Explaining the streamlined hearings, Hyde said, "The most relevant witnesses have already testified at length about the matters in issue."
During Starr's testimony, he also might answer questions about other parts of his investigation of Clinton, including the firing of the White House travel office staff or alleged misuse of FBI files by White House staff, Hyde said.
Scientists make first step in tissue replacement
WASHINGTON — Researchers have isolated and grown human embryonic master cells in a laboratory, a key step toward possibly someday creating heart, kidney and other tissue to replace diseased parts of the body.
Reaching a goal sought by hundreds of scientists for years, researchers at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, and at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore independently cultured human stem cells, the foundation source of cells that form all of the body's parts during gestation.
The Associated Press
The scientists also demonstrated that the cell lines would transform into specific cell types, with specific functions, such as muscle, bone or nerves.
"It opens the possibility for some
dramatic new transplantation therapies," said James A. Thomson of the University of Wisconsin author of a study to be published in the journal Science.
The research demonstrates for the first time that it's possible to culture human cells that have the ability to develop into a wide variety of human tissues, said John Gearhart of John Hopkins, author of a study that will be published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
"For the first time, we can start considering this as a source of cell or tissue types for transplant," Gearhart said.
Although it may be a decade or more before any patient benefits from the work, Gearhart and Thomson said that stem cells potentially could be used for such purposes as:
Growing nerve cells to repair
spinal injuries and restore function to paralyzed limbs.
Growing bone marrow to replace blood-forming organs damaged by disease or radiation. Bone marrow replacement has become an increasingly common therapy for some types of cancers.
- Making the islet cells that produce insulin and, thus, creating a lifelong treatment for diabetes.
This could be a cure, said Thomson.
- Making blood cells genetically altered to resist specific diseases, such as HIV, to replace diseased blood cells.
Growing entire whole organs is another ball game, and science is far from ready to attempt that, said Gearhart.
Both Thomson and Gearhart said using their discovery to treat patients was years away, but they argue the work could progress
faster if the government lifted its ban on financing human embryo research.
Although researchers long ago isolated stem cells from mice and other laboratory animals, work on human stem cells has been slowed by controversy. Some anti-abortion groups oppose human embryo research because they consider such an embryo to be a human life.
David O'Steen, executive director of the National Right to Life committee, said his group believes that "members of the human family certainly should not be used for harmful experimentation, or destroyed based on their method of creation." He did not specifically address the new research.
"Within my lifetime there will be therapies based on this work," said Thomson. "If there was public funding, it would come a lot sooner."
Afghanistan militia refuses to extradite suspected terrorist
The Associated Press
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan—Afghanistan's hard-line Taliban militia vowed to protect suspected terrorist Osama bin Laden at any cost, saying there was no evidence the millionaire was behind the U.S.
embassy bombings in Africa.
bin Laden: is wanted in connection with two bombings
outside the United States. The State Department also announced a reward of up to $5 million for bin Laden's capture.
A representative for the Taliban religious army, which rules 90 percent of Afghanistan and imposed a strict version of Islamic law, said they would protect the Saudi dissident, who was living in the country.
"The United States is hostile to Osama, and it is wrong for them to do anything without any proof, and they have no case against Osama," said Abdul Hai Muttimayan, who was reached by satellite telephone in Kandahar in southern Afghanistan.
"We cannot allow any harm to come to Osama because he is a Muslim and a guest."
Washington blames bin
Laden's group, al Qaeda, for the bombings of U.S. embassies in East Africa that killed 224 people, including 12 Americans, and injured an estimated 5.000 people.
The United States retaliated Aug. 20, firing Tomahawk cruise missiles at suspected bin Laden training camps in eastern Afghanistan. At least 26 people were killed, but damage to the area was not considered extensive.
The Taliban said bin Laden would not be extradited. They have set up a judicial inquiry to accept evidence of bin Laden's involvement in terrorist activity and promised to prosecute him if the evidence warrants it.
In Pakistan, an Islamic militant group threatened yesterday to retaliate if bin Laden was arrested and described him as a hero to Muslims worldwide.
"It is a challenge to the entire Muslim world. Bin Laden is a hero of the Muslim world," said Omar Warsi, a leader of Pakistan's militant Sunni Muslim group, Sipah-e-Sahaba, or Guardians of the Friends of the Prophet. "If anything happens to him, America will be responsible."
Many Sipah-e-Sahaba followers are fighting in neighboring Afghanistan alongside the Taliban.
Embassy officials said no fresh security warnings followed Wednesday's indictment. Security measures already in place include cement barricades blocking the road leading to the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad and razor-sharp barbed wire topping the brick-walled compound.
Tropical Storm Mitch plows through Florida
The Associated Press
MIAMI — A revived Tropical Storm Mitch lashed southern Florida with heavy rain and wind yesterday, just weeks after the region endured the wrath of Hurricane Georges.
Hardest hit were the Florida Keys, where tornadoes touched down, mobile homes flipped, trees fell and power lines snapped. One highway death was attributed to heavy storms.
The scenic island chain also bore the brunt of Georges, which destroyed or damaged 4,000 homes when it struck Sept. 25.
"The water is getting ready to come over the jetty," said Key Largo resident Charlene Rowell, whose family owns Rowell's Marina, where Mitch already had destroyed 11 boats and damaged dozens more.
The onetime hurricane had weakened significantly after killing at least 9,000 people during a rampage through Central
America last week. But it revived itself to tropical-storm strength while plowing through the Gulf of Mexico toward Florida.
By Wednesday, several tornadoes had touched down in Key Largo and one in Islamorada, said Becky Herrin, a representative for the Monroe County Sheriff's Office.
"It's just Mother Nature doing her thing," said Lee Severino, general manager of the Hampton Inn in Islamorada, which had minor damage to its roof. "This year, we've had two tornadoes and a hurricane come through. I hope we're done."
seven people were treated Wednesday for storm-related injuries.
Wind gusts reached about 70 mph near Miami, where flooding slowed morning commuters.
State officials opened three storm shelters Wednesday in the Keys, housing some 200 people. More than 100 people stayed overnight in the Key Largo shelter, said Irene Toner, operations manager for Monroe County Emergency Management A tropical storm warning extended from the Florida Keys north to Tarpon Springs on Florida's Gulf coast, and north to New Smyrna Beach on the Atlantic coast. Western Cuba also was under a tropical storm warning, as were the northwestern Bahamas.
roe County Emergency Management.
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The nation's unemployment rate held steady at 4.6 percent in October despite sluggish growth in employers' payrolls and the seventh job decline at factories in nine months.
The unemployment rate held at the same rate as September, though employers added just 116,000 positions to payrolls, the Labor Department said today.
Though the payroll figure was at least 80,000 smaller than economists had anticipated, they said the report showed that the American economy was holding up fairly well against the slump in Asia and other developing nations.
"Job growth is softening," said economist Oscar Gonzalez of John Hancock in Boston. "Considering that we are carrying the global economy on our shoulders, we are still running pretty fast."
Though the unemployment rate remains low by historical standards, it is up significantly from April and May, when it touched a 28-year low of 4.3 percent.
The weak payroll number boosted stock and bond prices because it provided unanticipated evidence the economy is weakening. That leaves open the strong possibility of another interest-rate reduction from the Federal Reserve next week.
Separately, major retailers in New York reported that consumer spending remained healthy in October. Though merchants remain cautious about the prospects for holiday sales, they said October receipts were strong, especially at discount stores such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Kmart Corp.
At mid afternoon, the Dow Jones average of industrial stocks was up about 40 points. It had started the day by declining
Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said today that he saw evidence that investor fright was lessening. That's partly what had prompted the Fed to twice cut short-term rates — on Sept. 29 and Oct. 15. But Greenspan said nothing to directly signal whether the central bank would cut rates a third time when it meets next on Nov. 17.
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