Time Warner being acquired
by AOL for about $166 billion
1NEW YORK — Time Warner,
the world’s largest media and
entertainment company, is being
acquired by America Online for
about $166 billion in stock in
what would be the biggest corpo
rate merger ever.
The merger announced today
marks the biggest bet yet that the
Internet will be one of the most
dominant features in the media
landscape of the future.
“This really completes the digi
tal transformation of Time Warn
er,” Time Warner’s chairman,
Gerald Levin, told analysts in a
conference call this morning.
“These two companies are a nat
ural fit.”
At a time when traditional me
dia companies are struggling to
reinvent their Internet strategies,
the merger would give Time
Warner — the leading provider of
media content such as movies,
music and magazines — a huge
and powerful platform for reach
ing people online. AOL is the na
tion’s largest online company
with some 20 million subscribers.
The deal also gives AOL a key
tool for distributing its services:
access to Time Warner’s large ca
ble network system, the nation’s
second largest after AT&T’s with
13 million cable subscribers.
Judge orders Elian Gonzalez
to remain in the United
States until March
2 MIAMI — A Florida judge on
Monday ordered 6-year-old
Elian Gonzalez to remain in the
United States until March, a rul
ing that delighted the Cuban boy’s
relatives in Miami and defied a
federal government order that he
be sent back to Cuba by Friday.
Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Rosa
Rodriguez issued a temporary
protective order so she can hear
arguments filed by Elian’s Miami
relatives, who are seeking tempo
rary custody of him. The order re
quires Elian to remain in the area
until the March 6 hearing.
Waving a copy of the ruling,
Lazaro Gonzalez, the great-uncle
who is seeking temporary custody
of Elian, yelled “Victory for
Elian!” in Spanish before going
inside the family’s home in Little
Havana.
“Today is a great day for Elian,”
said his attorney, Spencer Eig.
“[The ruling] will provide Elian
Gonzalez his day in court.”
If Lazaro Gonzalez is appointed
Elian’s guardian, he could seek
political asylum for the boy.
Gore announces new money,
commitment to combat AIDS
3 UNITED NATIONS — With
AIDS the No. 1 killer in sub
Saharan Africa, killing 10 times
more Africans than war, Vice
President Al Gore pledged Mon
day to put the continent’s AIDS
crisis on the world’s security
agenda and outlined a new U.S.
effort to fight the epidemic.
Presiding over the first Securi
ty Council meeting to address a
health issue, Gore announced that
the White House has asked Con
gress for $150 million for vaccine
research and prevention pro
grams in Africa and will convene
a meeting of business leaders in
Africa to start developing preven
tion programs in the workplace.
“We tend to think of a threat to
security in terms of war and
peace,” Gore said in the first
speech by a U.S. vice president to
the 15-member body. “Yet no one
can doubt that the havoc wreaked
and the toll exacted by HIV/AIDS
do threaten our security.”
AIDS is now the leading killer in
sub-Saharan Africa, a region where
poverty and wars have already tak
en a heavy toll. In 1998, 200,000
people died as a result of armed
conflicts in Africa, compared to
about 2.2 million from AIDS.
U.S. Ambassador Richard Hol
brooke scoffed at reporters’ sug
gestions that Gore was using his
U.N. appearance to further his
campaign for the Democratic
nomination for president.
“None of what he’s doing here
today has any direct impact on
the present phase of the primary
season, which is intense and be
ing conducted in two states
which are far away from here,”
Holbrooke said.
Clinton urges quick vote on
China trade to avoid politics
4 WASHINGTON — President
Clinton, stung by the collapse
of global trade talks at Seattle,
urged Congress to vote “at the ear
liest possible time” on a trade
deal with China to keep it from
becoming embroiled in election
year politics.
Clinton launched a drive Mon
day to line up votes for granting
China permanent normal trading
relations with the United States as
part of a deal to allow the world’s
most populous nation to join the
World Trade Organization.
“This agreement is a good deal
for America,” the president said.
U.S. companies would gain better
access to China’s market in every
sector from agriculture to
telecommunications to automo
biles as Beijing cuts tariffs on
American goods by half or more
over five years, he said.
The China agreement likely
will be the last major trade initia
tive of Clinton’s presidency. Clin
ton named Commerce Secretary
William Daley and Steve Ricchet
ti, deputy chief of staff in the
White House, to lead the congres
sional effort.
The campaign faces stiff resis
tance from organized labor, envi
ronmental groups and their De
mocratic allies, who believe that
low wages and lax pollution stan
dards in China will undercut
American workers. Religious
groups are expected to raise objec
tions about China’s human rights
problems.
Talks recess with no accord
between Israel and Syria
5SHEPHERDSTOWN, W.Va. —
Peace talks between Israel and
Syria recessed Monday without
agreement on new borders or any
other major elements of a land
for-peace treaty despite rigorous
American mediation.
As the two delegations packed
to go home, State Department
spokesman James P. Rubin said
they would resume negotiations
on Jan. 19, probably in the Wash
ington area. “We are on the right
track,” he said. He gave no indica
tion how the gaps might be closed
quickly.
The basic shape of a treaty has
been clear since Prime Minister
Ehud Barak took office last July.
Israel would surrender virtually
all the Golan Heights, a strategic
plateau on the Syrian frontier, for
peace, provided security mea
sures are found to take the place
of the highland Israel has held
since the 1967 Six-Day War.
Syria insists on a pullback to
the Sea of Galilee, thereby letting
it recover a stretch of land it cap
tured in the 1950s. Another sce
nario would push Israel back to
borders set in 1923. Or patches of
land might be swapped. But
Barak has not specified what line
he wants drawn between Israel
and an Arab country with which
Israel has fought three major wars.
In Tel Aviv, an estimated
100,000 Israelis massed in pour
ing rain to protest Barak’s appar
ent willingness to cede the Golan
Heights for peace with Syria.
The Associated Press
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