News Digest
Gates says little
in Microsoft trial
1 WASHINGTON — Bill Gates
was out of his element, to be
sure. Given to blunt talk as the
combative chairman of Microsoft
Corp., Gates had to weigh his
words cautiously under the prob
ing of two government adver
saries.
For almost three days this
summer, in a windowless confer
ence room at Microsoft head
quarters near Seattle, Gates resist
ed them. It was 20 hours of
verbal jousting between the
world’s richest man and the gov
ernment’s top lawyers bent on
proving him a predatory monop
olist.
Gates, admired and loathed for
Microsoft’s remarkable influence
within the technology industry,
won’t testify to defend his com
pany during the historic antitrust
trial in Washington, now enter
ing its second week.
But he is such a central figure
that government lawyers plan to
show videotapes Tuesday of
hours of his pretrial depositions,
then to release the tape to televi
sion stations as evidence in the
case.
In the tapes, Gates discusses
his fears that Internet software by
rival Netscape Communications
Corp., coupled with a new pro
gramming language called java
that doesn’t require Windows,
threatened his lucrative Win
dows operating system.
The government contends Mi
crosoft struck back against
Netscape, first by offering illegal
ly to divide the internet software
market, and then with a no-holds
campaign to “crush” the compa
ny wielding its role as the maker
of Windows, used by more than
80 percent of the nation’s desk
top computers.
The spectacle of millions of TV
viewers watching Gates on tape
bobbing and weaving through
tough questions could be a pub
lic-relations disaster for Mi
crosoft, even if Gates testifies to
nothing incriminating.
Worldwide deflation
worries economists
2 NEW YORK — In Brazil, once
the problem child of hyperin
flation, prices for food and cloth
ing are sliding. Apartment own
ers who refused to lease units
during the days of high inflation
are now slashing rents.
In Japan, food, beer and house
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ago. And prices for commercial
land are oF a staggering 63 per
cent from 1992.
In China, the government has
ordered companies trying to get
rid of excess goods to halt price
wars.
From Asia to Latin America,
consumers once victimized by
surging prices are experiencing a
new phenomenon: lower prices
on a broad range of items, from
crude oil, gasoline and farm com
modities to computers and new
cars.
“For the first time in decades,
there is widespread price defla
tion going on in much of the
world,” said Allen Sinai, chief
global economist at Primark De
cision Economics.
Tumbling prices offer relief to
consumers weary of paying more
every year for many products.
But just like inflation, its flip
side, deflation, or falling prices,
can pose risks and uncertainties
for consumers, companies and
the global economy.
With the Asian financial tur
moil pushing many economies
into recession or at the edge of
one, analysts worry about the
consequences of a serious bout of
deflation, the kind that would
pull prices down not only for
food and clothing, but also for
stocks, houses and other assets.
Cleric supports abortion
for some rape victims
3CAIRO, Egypt — A top Mus
lim cleric has called on the
government to permit abortions
for unmarried rape victims, a rul
mg that is the hrst ot its kind in
Egypt.
Sheik Nasr Farid Wasel,
Egypt’s grand mufti, did not ad
dress whether abortions should
be permitted for married rape
victims. In Egypt, abortion is ille
gal unless the pregnancy is life
threatening.
Adel Ahmed, the deputy
health minister, said the govern
ment has no immediate plans to
change its law on abortion.
Wasel, one of Egypt’s top two
clerics, also ruled that govern
ment clinics should be allowed
to perform operations on rape
victims to reconstruct their hy
mens and “restore" their virgini
ty
It can be difficult for women
who are not virgins to find hus
bands in Egypt’s conservative Is
lamic society.
The ruling, which was issued
last week, has no legal weight,
but Wasel is deeply respected by
conservative Muslims.
"The girl who is raped and los
es her virginity sustains great
moral and psychological dam
age,” Wasel told the government
owned Rose el-Youssef weekly,
which hit newsstands on Sun
day.
“The government, which
failed to provide her with protec
tion, should do everything possi
ble to help her restore not only
her honor but her virtue,” Wasel
said.
Israelis protest
Mideast peace deal
40FRA, West Bank — Jewish
settlers demonstrated across
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The News Director produces a local newscast and is responsible for
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the West Bank on Sunday, vow
ing to scuttle a new Mideast
peace deal that gives more land
to Palestinians.
The protests came hours before
Prime Minister Benjamin Ne
tanyahu returned to Israel, hop
ing to convince hard-liners that
the deal he made with Palestin
ian leader Yasser Arafat was the
best possible. Netanyahu was ex
pected to face a no-confidence
motion Monday in parliament.
Arriving back in Israel to a red
carpet welcome, the Israeli leader
said security concessions won
from the Palestinians during the
nine-day summit outside Wash
ington would justify ceding more
West Bank land.
“We are returning after a long
and difficult effort to bring ... se
curity and peace to Israel,” he
said. "We achieved such a deal
— we achieved the best deal.”
Arafat, meanwhile, said in
Cairo that he hoped the new ac
cord would be “accurately and
faithfully” implemented. Arafat’s
comment, made at Cairo airport
after briefing President Hosni
Mubarak on the accord, reflects
Arab skepticism that Netanyahu
will live up to the agreement to
withdraw from another 13 per
cent of West Bank land.
Arafat also briefed officials in
Algeria on the new pact Sunday.
He then flew to Morocco and was
to travel later to Saudi Arabia.
At least 20 settlers — once Ne
tanyahu’s staunchest supporters
— were arrested and two police
officers were hurt in Sunday’s
widespread demonstrations, in
cluding one outside Israel’s inter
national airport after Ne
tanyahu’s arrival.
Memorial begun for
Oklahoma City bombing
5 OKLAHOMA CITY — Thou
sands came to the site of the
Oklahoma City bombing Sunday
to break ground for a memorial
to the 168 people who died, with
Vice President Al Gore digging
the first scoop of dirt.
“The people who died here
were victims of one of the cru
elest visitations of evil this na
tion has ever seen,” Gore said.
“But we offer them today not
pity but honor, for as much as
any soldier who ever fought in
any war, they paid the price of
our freedom.”
After speeches by Gore, Attor
ney General janet Reno and oth
er officials, Gore took a shiny
shovel and dug it into the ground
where the Alfred P. Murrah fed
eral Building once stood.
He handed the shovel to young
Clint Seidl, who was in the sec
ond grade when his mother died
in the 1995 bombing. She
worked for the Secret Service,
and Clint said he wants to do the
same. Gore said several agents
wanted to talk with Clint after
the ceremony.
Gore told those who ever want
ed to demean the work of federal
workers to “come here and be
silent and remember.”
One after another, people
grasped the shovel Gore passed
to them and, dressed in their
Sunday best, took a turn tossing a
chunk of soil into a pile.
"Being down here always
takes us back,” said Diane
Leonard, whose husband died in
the April 19, 1995 bombing that
also left 500 injured.
The $24.1 million memorial
will include a reflecting pool, an
interactive museum and 168
stone chairs built atop glass
bases, one for each of the people
killed.
A portion of the chain-link
fence that surrounds the bomb
site will be kept as part of the
memorial. The fence has become
a shrine, with visitors leaving
mementos.
The fence holds "the real story
of our democracy. This is how
we feel," Gore said.
While many survivors and rel
atives had gone into the ceremo
ny with mixed feelings, some
said it was time to move ahead.
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