Cluster bombs open as they drop, releasing 202 bomblets the size of soda cans. At least 5 percent fail to go off, and State Department officials estimate that as many as 11,000 of the bomblets may be scattered across Kosovo. “Where they land is random,” says a U.S. mine expert. “You can’t even survey them.” In the northern Adriatic, where allied pilots dumped bombs rather than land with them, fishing has been temporarily banned, and much of Italy’s scenic Lago di Garda is also off-limits. The potential for disaster, says defense analyst Anthony Cordesman, was well known: “The problem dates back to the Vietnam War and represents a continuing design flaw the Air Force has failed to correct for nearly four decades.”
PROTESTSChina: Echoes of Tiananmen
Li Hongzhi comes across as a simple country fellow, but to China’s Communist Party, he’s public enemy No. 1. The founder of the spiritual practice called Falun Gong, or Buddhist Law, was in New York last week as more than 10,000 of his followers were detained across China in the largest crackdown since the Tiananmen Square protest a decade ago. In an interview with NEWSWEEK, Li dismissed charges that he aimed to destabilize China–“I have taught people to be good,” he said–and repeated calls for a dialogue with Beijing. But his denial of involvement in protests in April was also a veiled warning: “If they had been organized, there wouldn’t have been thousands of people out there, there would have been tens of millions.” And as Chinese authorities denounced his blend of Buddhism, Taoism and mystical beliefs as superstition, Li was quietly defiant. “They can lock people up,” he said, “but they can’t lock up their hearts.”
EXCLUSIVEWho Accessed Lee’s Computer?
Lawyers for wen ho Lee, the scientist suspected of spying for China, are set to meet with Justice Department officials this week to try to head off criminal charges against their client. Justice lawyers have told Lee’s defense team they don’t now contemplate espionage charges. Instead, the Feds are focusing on Lee’s alleged transfer of nuclear codes from a secured computer to an unsecured one, where a third party, presumably Chinese agents, could access them. There’s evidence of one intrusion, but the FBI still can’t prove that a foreign government hacked into the files. Lee maintains his innocence, and sources say Lee’s children told a grand jury they accessed their father’s computer from home to play Internet games. Moreover, the sources say Lee created three separate passwords to protect the transferred codes.
THE BUZZIf He Can Make It There …
When Rudy Giuliani starts his Senate run in earnest, we’re sure to hear much crowing over his Manhattan miracle. Has the mayor earned the right to boast? The buzz on the Big Apple, from Brooklyn to the Bronx:
Dubuque on the Hudson… Rudy’s nixed drugs in clubs and dancing (!) in bars. Result: Scenesters say the night life’s way tamer, lamer.
Singapore on the Hudson New Yorkers fear the NYPD’s wrath. Must cracking down on crime mean innocent folk get harassed, bullied … and shot?
…But Yup, Crime’s Down Those very same New Yorkers love the safe streets. Maybe martial law’s a fair trade-off for security.
Can’t Pay for Prep School? Oops. While Rudy’s busy busting turnstile hoppers, the public schools stay overcrowded and in dire shape. Priorities?
He’s Got Your Back During a recent heat wave, 200,000 lost electricity. Rudy sued Con Ed. Next heat wave: No outages.
Mo’ Money Current cost of living: Entirely insane. Just when rents seemed surreally high, they got higher. And oh, those Realtors’ fees!
ENVIRONMENTCritical List
The snail darter had its 15 minutes; now the honeycreeper is ready for its close-up. Of the 900-plus plants and animals on the endangered-species list, only half have had recovery plans filed with the Fish and Wildlife Service, which is too understaffed to monitor them all. But last year, University of Washington zoologist Dee Boersma organized a review of more than 200 species to identify critical areas; she plans to submit a report this fall. One hot spot: Hawaii, where nonnative species have killed off some 100 plants, and the honeycreeper, a jungle bird, is down to single digits.
NEW MATHA Formula for Love and War
The last thing a divorcing couple needs is a case of math anxiety. But recently, two New York academics won a patent for a mathematical formula they say makes dividing up worldly possessions a cinch. Adjusted Winner, the creation of mathematician Alan Taylor and political scientist Steven Brams, gives each party to any dispute-marital, corporate or diplomatic-100 points to “spend” on items they want. The algorithm then calculates how to distribute the goods so that everyone ends up spending equally. In a divorce case, some of the couple’s properties may have to be sold, but both sides, Brams and Taylor say, get what they value most, not just what’s financially fair. “I don’t talk about the math,” says mediator Norman Lavery, who has used Adjusted Winner. “I say, ‘Let’s try something a bit different’.”
VITAL STATSOr Maybe It’s the Marshmallows
If you think flying off to an exotic locale is the perfect getaway, you haven’t flown lately. Rural families still dominate the nation’s campgrounds, but upscale boomers are increasingly avoiding airport check-in lines to join the nearly 18 percent of Americans who camp out. The allure: cushier campsites with pools and arcades. Where campers call home:
SUMMER FUNHey Mom, My Llama Won a Blue Ribbon!
Agriculture is still king at today’s 3,238 state and county fairs, even if the largest, like Texas’s 24-day, 3.4 million-visitor event, depend on city slickers who don’t know silage from Shinola. Among high-tech pavilions and laser shows, tradition survives:
Recipe contests: Best Jams and pies have taken a back seat to corporate-sponsored cookoffs, like Spam’s 77 separate contests nationwide. Hot trend: Spam cheesecakes.
Animal races: Livestock is more varied at today’s fairs: while good old pig races are the mainstay, competitors these days range from the Vietnamese potbellied variety to llamas and skunks.
Butter sculpture: A practice since the early ‘20’s, butter sculpting has become high art. The queen of dairy statuary, Duffy Lyon, celebrates her 29th year with a Last Supper at the Iowa State Fair.
Best produce: Alaska’s 20-hour summer days produce standout veggies, like last year’s 89-pound cabbage.
Diaper derbies: Children don’t just run off to the midway anymore. Kansas hold mini-tractor pulls, while Colorado has borrowed mutton-busting–six seconds on a sheep–from the rodeo.
CRIB SHEETNo Strikes, One Big Walk
The bulk of major league baseball umpires (whose deal has a no-strike clause) will resign on Sept. 2.
Their contract ends in December, and many umps (especially the fat and incompetent ones) fear MLB will let them go. By resigning, they collect severance pay (up to $400,000 each) they’d lose out on if fired.
By ditching just before the postseason, the umps give MLB two bad choices: rehire them immediately (on the umps’ terms), or hire far less seasoned minor-league umps (a risky move at playoff time).
Yup. But it’s failing: MLB’s got replacement umps hired and waiting in the wings. And there are cracks in the hefty blue line: many umps have rescinded their resignations.
TRANSITIONApostle of Peace
He was called “commander of the Faithful” and ran his country with ruthlessness and cunning. But when Morocco’s King Hassan II died last week at 70, he was remembered as an apostle of peace. He survived attempted coups and provoked a brutal war, yet worked behind the scenes to foster dialogue among Israel, Egypt and the Palestinians–sure enough of his power and his Muslim faith to take daring risks in the name of peace.
David Ogilvy, dead at 88, counted among his iconic ad campaigns The Man in the Hathaway Shirt and Schweppervescence. “The consumer is not a moron,” the British-born Ogilvy often said. “She is your wife. Try not to insult her intelligence.”
President Eisenhower put Frank M. Johnson Jr. on the Alabama federal bench in November 1955–three weeks before Rosa Parks ignited the Montgomery bus boycott. Johnson, who died last week at 80, sided with her, the first in a decades-long series of decisions to bury Jim Crow for good. Segregationists firebombed his mother’s house, and federal marshals protected Johnson and his family for almost 20 years. In court he never wore a robe or raised his voice; he didn’t need to.
Conventional WisdomBURIAL AT SEA EDITION
AS THE SATURATION LEVEL FINALLY RECEDES, WE MAY BE LEARNING MORE ABOUT OURSELVES THAN JFK JR. AT LEAST HE KNEW WHO HE WAS. THE REST OF US TOO OFTEN IMPOSE OUR FANTASIES ON STRANGERS.
C.W.
JFK Jr. + Didn’t live to “comb gray hair.” Even Kennedy haters thought he was a good guy.
Teddy + Eloquent patriarch always there for family, finally getting due as Senate’s lion in winter.
Bessettes + Classy daughters, classy family, unspeakable tragedy.
Media - Yes, a big story. But did we really need 24/7 coverage when nothing was happening?
China - May be starting war with Taiwan. But hey, let’s cut back to Hyannis Port.
Umpires - Thought they’d strengthen their case by quitting. Talk about a bad call.
