ArticleIP_1403.txt

   
   
      
         
            

            A
Jordanian soldier shot and killed seven Israeli schoolgirls who were on
a field trip to the "Island of Peace," a border strip shared by the two
countries. Early reports indicate the man, identified as Ahmed Mustafa, was
deranged. Some Israelis blame Jordan's King Hussein for inciting the attack by
releasing a vitriolic letter that accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu of provoking Palestinian violence. Conversely, some Palestinians
blame Israel for escalating tensions in the region by expanding Jewish housing
in East Jerusalem and failing to relinquish enough of the West Bank. The
massacre prompted Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to speak to Netanyahu after
having refused his phone calls for days. (3/14)
            

            

               Albania is imploding . (Primer: It's between Italy and Greece.) Nine
pyramid investment schemes collapsed, which wiped out the life savings of
thousands of Albanians, which led to protests, which led to rebellion, which
led to police giving loyalist civilians assault weapons, which led to gunfire,
looting, and roving bands of robbers. Inmates are escaping from jails, and the
president has lost control of the army. There is talk of importing a
peacekeeping force, à la Yugoslavia, but no talk of U.S. soldiers. "Albanians
themselves were unsure whether to call the violence a civil war, a revolution,
a popular uprising or just plain chaos," said the New 
               York

               Times . (3/14)
            

            A
suspect has been charged with the murder of Ennis Cosby . A $100,000
reward offered by the National 
               Enquirer led to a tip, which led
police to the gun and the killer's cap, which led to the arrest of Mikail
Markhasev, an 18-year-old Russian émigré with a criminal background. Markhasev
also matches the description provided by the woman who allegedly saw the
gunman. Early reports linked Markhasev to a Russian car-theft ring, but police
now say the killing looks like a random robbery attempt gone awry.
(3/14)
            

            

               TCI , the country's biggest cable-TV company, plans to raise its rates
by 7 percent . This comes after TCI recently hiked its rates by 13 percent.
Critics say the price increase proves 1) last year's telecommunications bill
failed to keep cable rates down as promised, and 2) competition from
satellite-dish TV services isn't deterring rate hikes either. Other cable
companies are expected to follow suit if TCI gets away with the rate increase.
(3/14)
            

            The
anti-anti-cloning backlash is underway. At a Senate hearing, Republican
senators worried that a ban on human-cloning research might prevent lifesaving
medical breakthroughs, and researchers and ethicists said there is no need to
legislate hastily, since it will take a while to refine the sheep-cloning
technique to work in humans. This comes after President Clinton banned federal
funding of human-cloning research and two lawmakers filed bills to ban human
cloning. The Sunday Times of London reported that a Belgian scientist
had cloned a human, but the report was soon debunked when the scientist
explained that he had merely fertilized an egg in vitro and then caused it to
split, producing twins. Meanwhile, an elderly Milwaukee couple are soliciting
women to conceive and bear their grandchild, using frozen sperm from their dead
son. (3/14)
            

            The
TWA Flight 800 missile theory is back. A group headed by former ABC
newsman Pierre Salinger published a massive report in Paris 
               Match
claiming that a U.S. Navy missile blew up the plane. The key evidence cited in
the report: 1) a red residue on the plane's seats showing "chemical elements
consistent with solid missile fuel" and 2) a government radar tape showing a
fast projectile on a collision course with the plane. Federal investigators
said that lab tests show the residue is from standard glue used in plane seats.
They also seized the radar tape, examined it, and said it shows no missile. The
Washington 
               Post groaned that the TWA mystery "has become the
aviation equivalent of the Kennedy assassination"--i.e., no amount of disproof
satisfies the conspiracy theorists. (3/14)
            

            

               Update on the Democratic fund-raising scandal : 1) President
Clinton said FBI agents denied him advance warning about Chinese
influence-buying efforts by telling his aides to keep the information secret.
The FBI then issued a statement contradicting Clinton. Pundits oohed and aahed
over the quarrel. The next day everyone insisted it was just a
misunderstanding. Attorney General Janet Reno said she tried to tell National
Security Adviser Tony Lake about the Chinese scheme 10 months ago but was
unable to reach him by phone, so she asked the FBI to tell the White House,
which led to the above fiasco. 2) The FBI warned six members of Congress last
year that China had targeted them for illegal campaign donations through
foreign companies. 3) The New York Times reported that the
administration endorsed a project in China that was financially important to
the Riady family just after a Riady-controlled company put Webster Hubbell on
its payroll. White House special counsel Lanny Davis said Clinton may have
known three years ago that his friends were subsidizing Hubbell.
(3/14)
            

            

               Playboy says it has corroborated a report that Timothy McVeigh
confessed to the Oklahoma City bombing. The magazine claims its article is
based on documents "prepared under the direction" of McVeigh's lawyer, but that
these documents are different from those previously cited by the Dallas

               Morning 
               News . According to the article, McVeigh said he alone
drove the truck bomb to the site--but he flunked polygraph tests, and his
lawyers were skeptical. The New York Times reports that "details in the
article contradict physical evidence already presented in open court."
(3/14)
            

            
               Five
female soldiers say Army investigators pressured them to falsely
accuse their superiors of rape. Four of the five say they had sex with
their instructors, but that it was consensual. The women claim they were
promised helpful transfers if they told investigators what they wanted to hear
and threatened with retaliation if they didn't. The announcement was organized
by the NAACP, which suspects racism in the investigation because all the
accused officers are black, and most of the accusers, white. (3/12)
            

            

               Political fallout from the scandal: 1) The Senate expanded its
investigation to include "improper" as well as illegal conduct in the 1996
elections. This brings soft money and other much-criticized practices under
scrutiny. It is seen as a rebuke to Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott and a
victory for Democrats, Sen. Fred Thompson (who will chair the investigation),
and campaign reform. 2) Clinton's job rating fell from 60 to 55 points in a
Washington Post poll, apparently because pollees disapproved of his use
of the White House for fund raising. (3/12)
            

            

               Republican fund-raising hypocrisy watch: 1) The Washington

               Post reported that a Republican House committee counsel hit up
investment firms for $100,000 contributions to the GOP shortly after working on
financial-deregulation legislation. 2) Democrats released documents indicating
that Republicans sold big political donors meals with the party's leaders in
federal buildings in 1995. 3) The Washington 
               Post reported that
for $5,000, the National Republican Senatorial Committee is offering donors a
chance to give Trent Lott and other senators "advice" at a forum next month.
(3/12)
            

            Germany
told the United States it would expel an American spy . Initial reports
indicated the Germans were angry because the agent was conducting economic
espionage against Germany. But U.S. officials now say that the agent was
gathering intelligence on another country--most likely Iran--and that the
Germans ordered the diplomat out because they're tired of the United States
using their country as a spy nest and keeping them in the dark about it.
American officials are asking Germany to let the agent stay. (3/12)
            

            Russian
President Boris Yeltsin ordered a shake-up of his Cabinet. Yeltsin
pledged to keep only two aides: Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin and Deputy
Prime Minister Anatoly Chubais. The betting is that Chubais, a free-market
advocate whom Yeltsin promoted just last week, can now put allies in key jobs
and restart economic reforms. The Washington 
               Post declared that
Yeltsin is back in the saddle and is launching a much-needed second wave of
economic reform. But the Chicago 
               Tribune warned that Chubais will
fail, because he is a lousy manager and everyone in Russia hates him.
(3/12)
            

            Gangsta
rap artist Christopher Wallace, a k a Notorious B.I.G. , was assassinated
in an apparent drive-by shooting. Police have no leads, but everyone suspects
the shooting is a payback for last year's drive-by assassination of rival
rapper Tupac Shakur. Wallace, who represented the East Coast rap community, had
a long-running feud with Shakur, who represented the West Coast rap community.
Police fear an escalating war between the two sides. (3/10)
            

            President Clinton ordered
federal agencies to hire welfare recipients . The idea is to set an
example for business leaders. The announcement appeased some critics who have
accused Clinton of hypocrisy for failing (until now) to take this step. But
skeptics pointed out that there are few openings for low-skilled workers (since
the government is shrinking), and unions objected to giving welfare recipients
preference in the competition for those openings. (3/10)