All Bright in Gaza
The New York
Times , Washington Post , and Los Angeles
Times all lead with the agreement reached by the Palestinians and
Israel to resume peace processes outlined in the Wye River accord signed last
fall. The agreement requires the withdrawal of Israeli troops from parts of the
West Bank and calls on both sides to refrain from taking unilateral action,
which ensures the Palestinians won't declare statehood and the Israelis won't
build settlements in the West Bank or Gaza Strip. It also lays out an ambitious
plan to achieve permanent settlement between the two sides in one year.
All three papers praise Madeleine Albright's shuttle diplomacy: Albright is
given credit for salvaging the agreement, which hit a snag on Thursday after
Israel refused to release an extra 50 prisoners as part of the deal. Uncowed by
the posturing and brinkmanship attributed to both sides, Albright quickly
switched gears, from passive envoy to diplomacy maven. The WP explains
that Albright, heeding an Israeli request that the U.S. play a back-seat role
in the negotiations, had been reluctant to interfere but plunged into the fray
with decisive mediation. Meanwhile, the NYT reports that Albright,
positioned in front of a painting of the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, seemed
anxious to stress that her role was minimal, insisting she was neither a
mediator nor a facilitator, but a "handmaiden" (her word). The NYT notes
that Albright's starring role has given her a much-needed boost as she travels
to Syria to try to jump-start negotiations between that country and Israel.
All three papers front stories about independence-election results in East
Timor, where voters overwhelmingly chose to break away from Indonesia. The
NYT and the WP focus on the violence expected to follow the
official announcement: Anti-independence militias who have been terrorizing
citizens of East Timor for nine months have said they will reject the results
of the referendum. Both the NYT and the WP report that foreigners
and journalists have left the country or have plans to leave. Only the
LAT points out that as many as 100,000 Timorese, fearing for their
lives, could flee the country, too. The LAT draws a connection between
the arrival of Indonesian army troops, sent to "restore peace," and the
imminent refugee crisis: It was the army that trained, paid, and supported the
anti-independence militias who're leading the killing rampage.
The top-front NYT story is basically a recap of the law-enforcement
controversy plaguing Janet Reno, who pledged yesterday to find the truth behind
the now-public FBI tapes that show agents firing combustible tear gas rounds at
a building on the Waco compound. The NYT does report that a second
videotape, released yesterday, supports the government's claim that the tear
gas canisters did not penetrate the bunker, and that Sen. John D. Danforth, a
Republican from Missouri, has agreed to lead Reno's investigation into a
possible FBI cover-up. Neither of the other papers fronts the story, but the
WP carries a similar story inside, and reminds us that Danforth, best
known as Clarence Thomas' chief defender, will need to pass a background check
before being officially appointed. No word on who (the FBI?) will perform that
background check.
The WP off-leads with the $10 billion class-action suit brought by
employees at the Department of Energy's Paducah, Ky., uranium plant. The suit
accuses former managers of misleading workers about the whereabouts of
radioactive material stored at the plant, thereby exposing them to illegally
high doses of radiation. The WP also reports that its own investigation
into conditions at the plant, which prompted a full-scale probe by Energy
Secretary Bill Richardson last month, has spurred other discoveries. Last week,
a computer with dangerously high radiation readings was almost donated to a
local school or nonprofit group.
The LAT off-leads with a report on the "soft growth" of jobs in
August, which represented the smallest increase since May but drove
unemployment down to 4.2 percent, giving investors hope that the Fed won't
raise interest rates at the next policy meeting, in October.
A WP front-pager reports that damages awarded to 500,000 Floridian
smokers in a class-action suit could not be paid in a lump sum, saving the
tobacco industry from a multibillion dollar verdict that might have forced some
of the small companies to fold. It was bad news for anti-tobacco activists, but
good news for stockholders: Philip Morris gained $2.25 a share.
Inside, the NYT reports that a cancer patient's will to live is
influenced most strongly by physical distress and can fluctuate wildly in the
weeks before death. Both right-to-die opponents and right-to-die proponents
have found ways to embrace the study. An opponent points out that if the desire
to die can be controlled with treatment, it should not be taken at face value;
a proponent points out that if the desire to die is caused by reasons other
than pain, it should be heeded.
More flak on the SAT. After mentioning that The Washington Post Co. owns
Stanley Kaplan, the expensive SAT test-prep company, a WP editorial
dismisses ETS's new "Striver" category as "troubling." The idea, explained in
Wednesday's Today's Papers, is that the new system would recognize SAT
achievement relative to a test-taker's social and economic background. What
does the WP think about SAT achievement relative to a test-taker's
(undisclosed) access to Kaplan? No easy answers here.
