N E W S D 1 G E 3 T
Encyclopaedia Britannica
posts on Internet, free
1 CHICAGO — The Encyclopae
dia Britannica, afraid of be
coming just a dusty relic of the
pre-computer age, is making its
32-volume set available for free
on the Internet.
From a-ak (an ancient East
Asian music) to Zywiec (a town
in Poland), the Rolls-Royce of en
cyclopedias was there in its en
tirety starting Tuesday at the com
pany’s retooled Web site,
www.britannica.com.
The 231-year-old company
dumped door-to-door sales three
years ago and hopes now to make
money selling advertising on its
site. The move may have been in
evitable in an era when students
doing homework are more likely
to get their information from a
computer than from a book.
The privately held company
won’t reveal revenue figures, but
sales of its print volumes —
which cost $1,250 a set and are
now sold mostly to schools and
other institutions — have seen a
steep decline, admitted Don Yan
nias, chief executive of Britanni
ca.com.
In an Internet-dominated mar
ket, “you have to be free to be rele
vant,” said Jorge Cauz, senior
president ofBritannica.com Inc.,
the new company that holds the
Chicago encyclopedia publisher’s
digital properties.
Body Slams and Tea Cozies:
Martha and WWF go public
2 NEW YORK — Would Martha
Stewart stand a chance against
Stone Cold Steve Austin? It might
be a one-sided bout in the
wrestling ring, but on Wall Street,
Martha is proving to be a con
tender.
Companies associated with
Stewart and pro wrestling both
had hugely successful initial pub
lic offerings Tuesday, richly re
warding entrepreneurs who have
succeeded in capturing devoted
audiences through TV, maga
zines, the Internet and merchan
dising.
Shares of both World Wrestling
Federation Entertainment Inc.
and Martha Stewart Living Omni
media Inc. soared well above their
offering prices in heavy trading,
though both ended off their high
levels for the day.
Stewart rang the opening bell at
the New York Stock Exchange,
starting a frenzy to buy up shares
in her company that left the stock
the eighth-most traded on the
NYSE.
Omnimedia’s shares ended at
$35.62 1/2, off from their high of
$49.50 but well over the offering
price of $18 per share.
The WWF also had a body slam
of an opening. It ended at $30 per
share after going as high as $35,
way over its offering price of $17.
WWF was the fourth-most traded
stock on the Nasdaq Stock Mar
ket.
11-year-old pleads guilty in
gang rape of girl
3 ST. PAUL, Minn. — An 11
year-old boy has pleaded guilty
to participating in the gang rape of
an 8-year-old girl in an aban
doned house.
The boy pleaded guilty Mon
day in juvenile court to second
degree criminal sexual conduct.
He could be sent to a juvenile in
stitution until he turns 19.
Two other boys, ages 10 and 13,
have also been charged in the
gang rape. They are awaiting com
petency hearings next month.
“We are glad that at least one
aspect of the case was resolved
without having to go to trial,”
Ramsey County Attorney Susan
Gaertner said.
Authorities say seven boys
were involved in the September
attack. Four of them are younger
than 10, including the girl’s 9
year-old brother, who is accused
of luring the girl into the house,
raping her and encouraging the
others to participate.
Under Minnesota law, those
four boys are too young to be held
legally responsible for criminal
acts.
House bill bans moneymaking
cruelty to animals
4 WASHINGTON — The House
voted Tuesday to make illegal
the production and sale of “crush
videos,” which show the torture
and killing of small animals.
The legislation, passed 372-42,
would impose sentences of up to
five years for those trafficking in
videos for fetishists who enjoy
watching women, barefoot or in
high heels, crushing insects, kit
tens, hamsters or monkeys.
Rep. Elton Gallegly, R-Calif.,
the measure’s chief sponsor, said
state laws against cruelty to ani
mals are unlikely to stop those in
volved in the interstate or over
seas, marketing of such videos.
They are sold frequently through
the Internet.
He said more than 2,000 crush
video titles sell for as much as
$300 apiece.
“An entire industry has sprung
up appealing to these unusual
sexual fetishes throughout the
world,” said Rep. Bill McCollum,
R-Fla.
“This is an odious and rather
sick practice, and it’s appropriate
that the federal government step
in to attempt to stop the interstate
commerce in these videos,” said
Wayne Pacelle, senior vice presi
dent of the Humane Society of the
United States.
The bill met opposition both
from liberals worried about free
speech rights and conservatives
objecting to putting yet another
federal law on the books.
Once-secret report reveals
Cold War nuclear locations
5 WASHINGTON — The Penta
gon for the first time is ac
knowledging Cold War locations
of nuclear weapons outside the
United States, including naval
depth bombs, ready for arming, in
Cuba during the 1962 missile cri
sis with the Soviet Union.
The names of nine places
where bombs or bomb compo
nents minus their nuclear charges
were located between 1951 and
1977 are revealed in a 332-page
official Pentagon history. The
names of 18 other locations were
blacked out by government cen
sors before the document was re
leased to Robert S. Norris, a pri
vate specialist on nuclear
weapons and author of numerous
books on the topic.
Using other documents, Norris
and his co-authors said they
could identify 17 of those other
locations, ringing the globe from
Canada to Iceland to South Korea
and Japan.
The nine nuclear weapon loca
tions named in the Pentagon doc
ument are Cuba, Puerto Rico,
Britain, West Germany, the U.S.
territories of Guam, Johnston Is
land and Midway, and Alaska
and Hawaii, which were U.S. ter
ritories in the early years of the
Cold War.
Even with material blacked out,
the “History of the Custody and
Deployment of Nuclear
Weapons,” published in February
1978 as a top secret document, re
veals new; information about the
location, timing and types of U.S.
nuclear weapon deployments.
Habibie withdraws as presi
dential candidate after legisla
tive setback
B JAKARTA, Indonesia — In
donesia’s president withdrew
as a presidential candidate
Wednesday, local television news
reported, hours after lawmakers
rejected a speech in which he de
fended his 16 months in office.
In a session that dragged from
Tuesday into the early hours of
Wednesday morning, the 700
member People’s Consultative
Assembly also voted to recognize
East Timor’s vote for indepen
dence, paving the way for the
half-island territory to become the
world’s newest nation.
SCTV television’s report of
President B.J. Habibie’s decision
not to seek re-election came a few
hours before Indonesia’s legisla
ture convened to elect a new head
of state.
Amien Rais, the speaker of the
assembly, told SCTV that Habibie
made the decision after meeting at
his home early Wednesday with
top politicians and that he would
announce his decision to the na
tion before parliament recon
vened later Wednesday for the
election.
“You will hear the announce
ment this mofning,” Rais told re
porters after early morning
prayers at a mosque in Jakarta.
Leaders of Habibie’s Golkar
Party also met privately to decide
whether to replace him with an
other candidate.
Shortly after midnight Tues
day, the legislature rejected in a
close vote Habibie’s recent “ac
countability” speech about the
successes and failures of his ad
ministration. Although that did
not exclude him from the elec
tion, many people had expected
that his party would have no
choice but to seek a replacement
candidate.
Albright wants to increase
U.S. aid to Nigeria
7 ABUJA, Nigeria — Secretary of
State Madeleine Albright,
demonstrating support for Nige
ria’s return to democracy after 15
years of dictatorship, recom
mended Tuesday that U.S. aid be
increased to Africa’s most popu
lous nation as much as four times
current levels.
Nigerian President Olusegun
Obasanjo and Albright also dis
cussed the possibility of Nigeria
extraditing drug lords who use
the country as a transit point in
the flow of Asian heroin to the
United States.
Albright praised Nigeria as a
“potential engine of economic
growth and keystone of peace and
stability.” With more than 120
million people and extensive oil
reserves, Nigeria dwarfs virtually
all other sub-Saharan African
countries in terms of demograph
ics, resources and potential influ
ence.
“Your rapid transition away
from military rule has caught the
attention of the world,” she pro
claimed. “Imagine how your last
ing success will inspire others
making the difficult transition to
democracy.”
Albright is the first secretary of
state to visit Nigeria in almost 13
years, reflecting past U.S. displea
sure over long years of heavy
handed military rule that preced
ed Obasanjo’s accession last May
after his election victory.
German police end EgyptAir
hijacking without bloodshed
B HAMBURG, Germany — Po
lice commandos captured the
alleged hijacker of an EgyptAir
flight after he forced it to land
Tuesday evening in Hamburg,
freeing 55 people aboard four
hours after the plane was com
mandeered over Turkey.
A man armed with a knife
seized control of Flight 838 short
ly after it took off from Istanbul’s
Ataturk airport at 6:16 p.m. (8:16
a.m. PST) en route to Cairo, au
thorities said. The motive for the
hijacking was not known.
Police at Hamburg airport over
powered the alleged skyjacker
when he stepped off the Boeing
737-500 onto the tarmac,
spokesman Hans-Juergen Pe
tersen said.
He said the passengers, who
were not injured, boarded buses
and were taken to the terminal.
Police were questioning the sus
pected hijacker, Petersen said.
One of the co-pilots suffered a
minor neck injury during the or
deal, Petersen said. Cairo airport
sources had said the cockpit crew
resisted the hijacker and one co
pilot was injured.
A second man was briefly de
tained as he came off the plane,
but he was later released when it
became clear that he was not in
volved in the hijacking, Petersen
said.
The plane landed at Hamburg
at 8:45 p.m. (11:45 a.m. PST) and
was directed to a remote part of
the airport, a quarter-mile from
the terminal.
Turkey’s Anatolia news agency
and NTV television reported that
the hijacker first demanded to go
to Hamburg, then asked to go to
London instead.
An EgyptAir official in Cairo
said the pilot, Capt. Hazem Aba
di, told the hijacker that the plane
did not have enough fuel to reach
London and headed for Hamburg.
The plane had 46 passengers,
seven crew members and two
EgyptAir sky marshals aboard, the
airline said.
RO. Box 3159, Eugene OR 97403
The Oregon Daily Emerald is published daily
Monday through Friday during the school year and
Tuesday and Thursday during the summer by the
Oregon Daily Emerald Publishing Co. Inc., at the
University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon. A member of
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of the Erb Memorial Union. The Emerald is private
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