Bulk Rate
U.S. Postage
PAID
Portland, OR
Permit No. 1610
(Che
Volume XXX.
Number 21
kwh (0bs
Committed to Cultural Diversity
Established in 1970
www.portlandobserver.com
Wednesday
__________________________________ V
50*
May 24, 2000
; ■
Blazers triumph despite Laker homecourt advantage
A s « X L \|T |] l B u .SS
Shaq, Kobe and the rest o f the Los A ngeles
Lakers w on 67 regular-season gam es to earn
hom ecourt advantage throughout the NBA
playoffs.
The Portland Trail Blazers took it aw ay with a
20-0 third-quarter run that negated any reason
fo ra Hack-a-Shaq repeat.
“ I’ve never seen anything like that,” the
Prime Minister’s Daughter
to Run for Office
TO K Y O - The daughter o f Japanese Prime
M inister K eizoObuchi, w ho fell into coma
w hile in office and died this m onth,
announced that she w ould run for her
father’s seat in the com ing elections. Yuko
Obuchi, 26, said she w as eager to finish the
w ork o f the late leader, w ho filled his own
father’s seat in the pow erful low er house
o f parliam ent also at 26. Public sym pathy
for Obuchi is expected to give an electoral
boost to the ruling Liberal D em ocratic
Party and probably will help Yuko Obuchi
carry on her fam ily’s political dynasty.
U.N. Investigates Corpses
in Sierra Leone
ROGBERI JUNCTION, Sierra L eone-T he
United N ations is trying to determ ine
w hether several m utilated corpses found
in the bush w ere also m em bers o f the U.N.
co n tin g en t. S ierra L eonean sold iers,
how ever, buried the decaying bodies
before U.N. officials arrived at Rogberi
Junction, 50 m iles northeast o f the capital,
Freetow n. The soldiers believed they
buried eight bodies but said they w ere not
sure because the corpses had been hacked
into pieces.
Church Rules Out Shroud
of Turin Exams
V A TICA N C IT Y -C ity officials said that
they have ruled out for the m om ent any
new scientific tests on the Shroud o f rurin,
which many believe is C hrist’s burial cloth.
T he shroud bears a faded im age o f a
bearded man and w hat app ear to be
bloodstains that coincide w ith C h rist’s
crucifixion wounds. But C arbon-14 testing
has suggested that the cloth dates to the
13'h or 14lh century. Som e argue that the
test results may have been skew ed by
contam ination.
Portland Trail Blazers' Rasheed Wallace (30) finds an outlet over Los Angeles Lakerss A.C. Green,
left, and Kobe Bryant during the third quarter.
L akers' Robert Horrv said. "Y ou d o n ’t know
w hat happened, w here it cam e from ."
W ith Rasheed W allace on his best behavior,
and at his best on the court, the Blazers routed
the Lakers 106-77 M onday night to even the
best-of-seven W estern C onference finals 1-
1. The series d o esn 't resum e until Friday in
Portland.
“No one said it was going to be easy,”
Shaquille O 'N eal said. "Now w e’ve got our
hands full.”
W allace, thrown out ofG am e 1 forgetting two
technical fouls, had play offcareer highs o f 29
points and 12 rebounds. A graceful, powerful
6 -fo o t-11 handful around the basket, he also
has range. He m ade three 3-pointers in the
decisive run.
“ I think everybody realizes how much o f a key
he is to us,” P ortland's Steve Smith said.
“ W e’ve got to have him on the floor, and 1
think if you look at the w ay he played, w e're
real ly going to struggle without him out there.”
The w ay the Blazers played the third quarter
there w as no reason for the "H ack-a-Shaq”
strategy that sent O ’Neal to the line a playoff-
record 25 tim es in the fourth quarter o fG am e
1. O ’Neal was 5-for-17 from the line, but it was
academic.
O ’Neal, averaging 30.8 points in the playoffs,
had 23 points and 12 rebounds, but 14 o f his
points cam e in the fourth quarter, w hen the
Lakers never got closer than 18.
“ D efensively, w e did a lot o f good things out
there,” Portland coach M ike D unleavy said.
“W e w ere aggressive, much m ore so than w e
w ere last gam e.”
K obe Bryant w as the only oth er Los A ngeles
player in double figures w ith 12 points, but he
w as only 2-for-9 from the field.
*
The Lakers lost at hom e for the first tim e in
eight p lay o ff gam es and the second tim e in 26
gam es since losing to the B lazers on Jan. 22.
( Please see ’Trail Blazers' page B3 )
w ifm tm w itiw
China, EU Reach WTO
Deal
B E IJIN G -C hina and the European Union
reached a m arket-opening trade deal after
the C hinese prem ier intervened, clearing
Beijing’s largest remaining hurdle tojoining
the W orld Trade O rganization. T he d ea l's
most imm ediate impact would likely be on
a contentious debate in the U.S. C ongress
o n g r a n tin g C h in a m u c h -s o u g h t
p e rm a n e n t lo w - ta r if f a c c e ss to th e
American market.
Gunmen Claim to Seize
Power in Fiji
SUV A , Fiji - A fter m onths o f sim m ering
ethnic tensions, seven m asked gunm en
storm ed parliam ent and took the prim e
m inister and his C abinet hostage, saying
th e y w e re se iz in g p o w e r fro m th e
dem ocratically elected governm ent on
behalfon indigenous Fijians. The gunmen
fired at least tw o shots inside parliam ent
and then locked up P rim e M in ister
Mahendra Chaudhry, his Cabi net m misters
and lawmakers o f the rul ing coali tion in the
legislature’s upper chamber.
W orld Bank A pproves
Loans to Iran
W A S H IN G T O N - T he W orld Bank
approved the first international loans to
Iran in seven years, despite strong U.S.
opposition and com plaints that Iran is
r a ilro d in g 13 Je w s on tru m p e d -u p
espionage charges. The $232 m illion in
loans had been on hold since 1993 because
o f concern over hum an-rights abuses in
Iran.
Plaque dedicated to honor Mt. St. Helens victims
AsSCCIAIEftPRISS
Tears w ere shed at the dedication o f a plaque
bearing the nam es o f those w ho died in the
m ost destructive volcanic eruption in U.S.
history.
T he reading o f the 57 nam es Thursday at
Hoffstadt Bluffs, overlookingtheToutle River
27 m iles east o f Interstate 5, w as the first
formal com m em oration o f the victim s o f the
cataclysm ic blast from M ount St. H elens on
M ay 18,1980.
Follow ing the cerm ony at a Cow litz County
visitor center, Sheryl Bales, 23, and her mother,
M adelin Varner, 60, both o f Longview , said
eruption anniversaries have been hard on
those who lost loved ones in the eruption.
T hey lost Karen V arner, their sister and
daughter, respectively, and her boyfriend,
Terry Crall, w ho were both 21 and planning to
be married..
“ It’s nice that they put them together” on the
plaque, Bales said. “It’s nice that th ey 're
rem em bered. It w o n ’t take aw ay the pain.”
W ith in the M ount St. H elens N ational
V olcanic M onument, h alf a dozen past and
present forest w orkers gathered at the David
A. Johnston Ridge O bservatory, nam ed fo ra
U.S. G eological Survey observ er w ho died in
the eruption.
K risty Sum m ers o f Sheridan. O re., a former
G ifford Pinchot N ational Forest interpreter
and m em ber o f the C onfederated Tribes o f
G rand Ronde, gave the group bits o f tobaeeo
to scatter at 8:32 a m., the tim e when the
m ountain blew its top.
1
P hotos com i rsv ot Associ i i i nPm ss
“W e c a n ’t control nature and this is what
brings people here," she said. “ M ankind can
try to control M other Earth, but in her own
w ay she holds the last card, the trump. She
can take, but she can give."
Paul N iekell. 45. lost his mother and stepfather
Ellen and Robert W illiam Dill, o f Kirkland,
who were believed to have camped somewhere
near the volcano. Their rem ains have never
been found.
“T h ere's not a day that goes by that I d o n ’t
(Top) Blown-down trees, still pointing away from the blast where they felt 20
years ago, fram e the north side o f Mount St. Helens at Loowit Viewpoint. (Left)
At 8:32 Sunday morning, May 18, 1980, Mount St. Helens' summit and much o f
its north flank crumbled in a hugh landslide, triggering massive explosions that
ripped through the sliding debris.
think o f them ." s; id Nickell, a new spaper
reporter in G rants Pass. Ore . at the tim e o fth e
eruption. “ I w as at a softball gam e and I d id n ’t
even occur to me there would be a personal
connection."
Most o f the 350 people who attended the
ceremony were public officials who responded
to the volcanic disaster.
Nickell said many surv iv ors remain bitter about
co m m en ts by au th o rities w h o in itially
portrayed those who died as thrill-seeking
law breakers who ignored w arnings to stay
away. As it turned out. only three o f the
victim s are known to hav e been in restricted-
access zones.
Still, he said after the ceremony at Hoffstadt
Bluffs, "I feel good about being here."
The explosion, w hich flattened 230 square
m iles o f forest and destroyed 200 hom es with
a force estim ated to be equal to that o f a 24-
m egaton nuclear bomb, was much bigger
than anyone predicted. N ickell conceded.