9 - ...Thpa Mit'hignnails ii a_- ;pntphpr v1 4Q07iii. i i.IlJII1l3-IU.,Upii.Fi.lIlL1 Lp...i A G-0 O NATION WORLD Jewish families settle among Arabs The families moved in just days after Secretary of State Madeleine Aibright leaves the region The Washington Post JERUSALEM - Protected by scores of heavily armed police, three Jewish families settled into an Arab neighborhood of East Jerusalem yesterday, stir- ring outrage among Palestinians who see their pres- ence as a betrayal of the Oslo peace accords. The move sparked fears of a new crisis in Palestinian- Israeli relations just days after the departure of Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. The Israeli Jews moved into homes purchased from Arabs by Irving Moskowitz, a wealthy Miami devel- oper who plans to build a Jewish housing complex on the hilltop known as Ras Amoud, which is situated between Jerusalem's Old City and the massive Jewish burial site on the Mount of Olives. The controversy over the new arrivals, whose neigh- bors greeted them late Sunday night with curses and showers of stones, erupted just as some had dared hope that relations between Israel and the Palestinians might finally be on the mend. Amid signs that the Palestinian Authority, with Albright's prodding, has begun to coop- erate with Israel on security matters, the Jewish state yesterday eased travel restrictions on Palestinians stem- ming from suicide bombings in Jerusalem in July and earlier this month that killed 20 victims. Citing national security, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said publicly that he will not allow Moskowitz to proceed with the new development, a pledge he reiterated yesterday. But Israeli officials said Netanyahu has no legal authority to evict the new tenants from homes purchased legally by Moskowitz from willing Arab sellers. Palestinian officials cited that declaration as evi- dence that Netanyahu has sanctioned the settlers' arrival in an effort to preempt Palestinian claims to East Jerusalem as a future capital. Several yesterday described it as yet another step in the process Netanyahu began in March when he authorized con- struction of a massive Jewish housing development on an East Jerusalem hilltop known to Jews as Har Homa and to Arabs as Abu Gheneim. Under the 1993 Oslo accords - the peace accord between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization - discussions on the future of Jerusalem and the final shape of Palestinian self-gov- ernment are supposed to be reserved for so-called final status talks that have yet to get underway. "It's a way to dictate sovereignty," Ahmed Tibi, an East Jerusalem resident and close adviser to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, said in an interview yesterday. "If it is just an issue of real estate or housing and Netanyahu believes in the principle of reciprocity, would he give permission to a businessman from the Islamic Jihad to buy a building in Tel Aviv? ... He should take a decision now to evacuate these people on the basis of keeping order, or bloodshed will result." A developer and retired physician who lost scores of relatives in the Holocaust, Moskowitz acquired the land from Arab owners and plans to build 70 homes for Jews and a shopping complex on the site. He has the backing of Jerusalem's right-wing mayor, Ehud Olmert, and other senior Likud party fig- ures, including Infrastructure Minister Ariel Sharon, who told an audience here Sunday night that he favors the development because it would rule out the possibility of a contiguous Palestinian capital in the city. In July, Jerusalem's city government approved the plan, which then was challenged by two left-wing members of the city council. AROUND THE NA Weld gives up fight for nomination WASHINGTON - William Weld gave up his battle to be ambassador to Mexico yesterday with a scathing attack on Washington politics and a defiant declaration that he wouldn't "go on bended knee" before Jesse Helms or anyone else. 4 "Washington sure is a funny town," Weld said during a White House news conference in which he criticized a Senate system in which a conservative fellow Republican could block even a hearing on his nomination. "I can go back to New England, where no one has to approach the government on bended knee to ask it to do its duty," said Weld, who resigned as governor of Massachusetts in Weld July to pursue the Mexico City post. "I've had enough of Washington for the next little while." President Clinton accepted Weld's withdrawal during a meeting in the Oval Office and didn't try to talk him out of it, White House officials said. Instead, the president scored the rejection of Weld without a hearing. "At a time when we have been making strides towards a bipartisan foreign li- cy, the treatment that my nominee received reflected the divisiveness that dwoAmC well serve the American people," Clinton said in a statement. ----q President combats fraud in Medicare The Washington Post WASHINGTON - President Clinton yesterday took an unprece- dented step to curb Medicare fraud, placing an immediate moratorium on all new home health care companies seeking to provide services until the government creates better ways to pro- tect itself against "scam and rip-off artists." The moratorium represents the first time in its history that Medicare, the vast government insurance program for the elderly and disabled, has stopped admitting an entire segment of the nation's health care industry. It erects a sudden dam in what has become by far the fastest-growing part of Medicare, with nearly 100 new companies sign- ing up each month. As part of a broader effort to crack down on fraud in the program, Clinton also announced that all existing home health companies will have to reapply periodically to remain eligible for Medicare payments. Through the moratorium on new companies and the new reviews of existing ones, the president is respond- ing to recent evidence that the govern- ment is wasting billions of dollars on home care, a part of the health care sys- tem that has proliferated as elderly patients have been released from hospi- tals sooner and sicker than in the past. About 4 million Medicare patients, about 10 percent of all beneficiaries, receive some type of care at home, ranging from cancer treatments to help in bathing and getting out of bed. Yet federal investigators estimate that $4 of every $10 that Medicare pays for such services are unwarranted because of accidental overbilling or outright fraud. "These kind of practices amount to a fraud tax on all the taxpayers of the country," Clinton said yesterday. Investigators and some legislators have said the program has not been careful enough to pay only legitimate bills from companies that are qualified to carry out the work. At a House sub- committee hearing this summer, one former home health executive, now serving a federal prison sentence, testi- fied that she had used employees whose salaries had been paid by Medicare to do work in real estate and pharmacy businesses that she also owned. As part of the budget agreement reached this summer, the president and Congress agreed to better scrutinize home health care providers. They agreed that dompanies will have to post surety bonds and keep a certain amount of cash on hand - efforts to make sure they are financially stable. But, in the face of increasing pres- sure to weed out abuse, Clinton went beyond those provisions yesterday. Air Force fighter jet crashes in show WASHINGTON - The Air Force, celebrating its 50th anniversary, was bruised by the spectacular loss of an F- 117A stealth fighter at a Maryland air show and the mysterious disappearance of one of its long-haul C-141 trans- ports. The crash of a Navy jet in the Persian Gulf brought to 10 the number of ser- vicemen presumed lost in U.S. military air accidents in a two-day span. Aviation experts say there was no apparent connection between the three weekend incidents given the disparate type of aircraft and geographic separa- tion. But the coincidence of timing came as the Air Force sought to her- ald its successes in the kickoff of its 50th anniversary celebration yester- day. Defense Secretary William Cohen paid tribute to the pilot of the F-I 17 but did not mention the other incidents as he addressed the Air Force Association, a booster club. He said Maj. Bryan Knight dOis- played "courage and competence" and "helped divert a much larger disaster" Sunday by steering his fighter jet away from heavily populated areas outside Baltimore, Md. Cost of cigarettes low in United States In France, a pack of cigarettes costs about $3.50 - most of that tobaccc taxes. In England, cigarettes cost aboul $5.25, with the tax exceeding $4:' Comparisons with the United States where cigarettes cost on average about $1.90, have surfaced in the tobacc tlement debate amid growina concerr that the deal won't lift cigarette 'rices enough to seriously discourage smoking - particularly by price-conscious teens As Congress and the White I4ous consider whether to bulk up the 059. billion accord, tobacco representatie say the industry is near -its limit an may be forced to back away if the price of peace goes higher. _ $0 I AROUND TH E WORto Sinn Fein party enters peace talks BELFAST, Northern Ireland -The IRA-allied Sinn Fein party entered Northern Ireland's peace talks for the first time yesterday, frightening off all five pro-British Protestant parties. Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams, sur- rounded by party comrades, passed through gates that had been locked to them when the talks on Northern Ireland's political future began in June 1996. "We do think that this could be the beginning of the end of conflict on this island, if the political will is there to build agreement," Adams said. Sinn Fein was admitted after the outlawed IRA stopped its violent campaign against British rule of Northern Ireland eight weeks ago. Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble, whose party represents a crit- ical third of Northern Ireland opinion, boycotted the talks at Castle Buildings, a drab office block within the British administrative center in east Belfast. As expected, the two most hard line Protestant parties, Ian Paisley' Democratic Unionists and BoB McCartney's United Kingdon Unionists, failed to show up y r day. Two small but influential partie linked to pro-British paramilitar: gangs also refused to participate.. Albright urges renewed peace taks BEIRUT, Lebanon -On a visi to Beirut under tight sec*y Secretary of State Madelein Albright said yesterday that sh found "a willingness and desire" t resume Mideast peace talks in Syria Lebanon and Israel. She urged Lebanese leadrs t resume negotiations with Israel bu said she recognized that thosd -talk should be in line with Israel's talks wit Syria, which dominates Lebanon's pol itics. - Compiledfrom Daily wire report 1 '0 OVER ONE MILLION OF THIE BEST MINDS IN AMERICA AL HAVE AREADY CHOSEN THE BEST RETIREMENT SYSTEM. TIA'RF I I S The Michigan Daily (ISSN 0745-967) is published Monday through Friday during the fall and winter terms by students at the University of Michigan. Subscriptions for fall term, starting in September, via U.S. mailimae- $85. Winter term>(January through April) is $95, yearlong (September through April) is $165. On-campuu- scriptions for fall term are $35. Subscriptions must be prepaid. 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