M 8 -The Michigan Daily - Friday, September 18, 1998 NATION/WORLD Russia ready to discuss debts E Some foreign countries business here have laid off as many foreignas 75 percent of their employees in ,expected to pull all the past month. Some companies are Investments out of likely to pull out altogether, said an official of the American Chamber of :troubled nation Commerce in Russia. Los Angeles Times "In some ways, the (American) MOSCOW -- A top official in business community feels like it Russia's new government said yester- was hit by a neutron bomb and day the country will reverse its deci- we've all been irradiated, which sion to freeze foreign debt payments means that in 30 days, 60 days, 90 -and is ready to negotiate a new pay- days, some of us are going to die," ment plan with foreign lenders. chamber president Scott Blacklin "Russia is ready for a dialogue, told a news conference. and in this connection the govern- "And the rest of us will recover, -ment would not like foreign partners but will have to lay around and to take tough measures against us," throw up for a while." said Deputy Prime Minister President Boris Yeltsin, who has Alexander Shokhin. kept a low profile during much of "We call on banks to refrain from the crisis, briefly appeared before seizing Russian banks' assets television cameras and said it will abroad." take another week to fill the remain- Shokhin's conciliatory remarks ing vacancies in the 30-member came exactly a month after former Cabinet. Prime Minister Sergei Kiriyenko One key post that is still empty is announced that Russia would deval- the minister of finance. ue the ruble and impose a 90-day Apparently trying to counter per- moratorium on paying foreign sistent rumors that he is ill, Yeltsin debts. got out of his limousine on the way The move sent the ruble plummet- from the Kremlin to his country ing and brought down Kiriyenko's estate and visited a store on a busy government. commercial street. The new prime minister, Yevgeny The president spent about 15 min- Primakov, took over a week ago and utes inside talking to customers and continued to assemble his Cabinet and clerks about the variety of goods and formulate an economic recovery plan prices. yesterday. He was apparently satisfied on both But the Russian economy kept on counts, although the same could not be reeling, said for regular shoppers. The ruble fell to 14.6 to the dollar "The shelves here are visual aids at the official rate. And the shat- for a pensioner studying virtual tered stock market fell 12.16 per- nutrition," an elderly woman at the cent to hit an all-time low of 51.7 on store told NTV television later in the Russian Trading System index. the day. "There is nothing afford- The index peaked at more than 570 able here, even to many of those last October. who have jobs." Some foreign companies doing The government's decision to try MIT fraternit drinking .Ldeath 0 BOSTON (AP) - Prosecutors took the extraordinary step yesterday of charg- ing an MIT fraternity -- the organiza- tion, not its members- with manslaugh- ter in the case of a student who drank himself to death at a party a year ago. Tne c ase against the MIT chapter of Phi Gamma Delta is believed to be the first in the nation in which a fraternity has been charged with homicide, District Attorcy Ralph Martin said. The fraternity was indicted on charges of manslaughter and hazing in the death of Scott Krueger, an 18-year- old student who fell into a coma last September after a drinking binge at the Mass Achusetts Institute of Technology frat he was pledging in Boston's Fenway neighborhood. No individual fraternity members will face charges, not even those who bought the alcohol. Manslaughter normally is punishable by a $1,000 fine and 1 11/2 years in jail, and hazing caries a $3,000 fine and 1 1/2 years behind bars. But because there is no way to put an organization behind bars, the most the fraternity faces is a fine. "My office determined that the indictments should be aimed at the fra- ternity that promoted and orchestrated the activities that ultimately led to Scott Krueger's death, not at the people who were sent on a purchasing errand," Martin said. Officers at the Phi Gamma Delta national headquarters in Lexington, Ky., were not available for comment, a staffer said. 'Ihe fraternity chapter was shut down after Krueecr's death. le was found in a coma Sept. 27 in the basement room where he was living and died two days later. In other cases around the country involving fraternity drinking deaths, indi- viduals have been charged with honii- cide. But the fraternities themselves have usually faced charges involving only alcohol violations. Krueger's parents, Bob and Darle e Krueger, said the indictment puts the responsibility on those who should pay for their son's death: the organization that sanctioned the partying. The couple said they may also so MIT as well as the fraternity. Darlene Krueger accused the school of leading the couple to believe that on-campus housing was provided for all freshmen. She said many freshmen end up in frater- nities days after their arrival on campus. "We entrusted MIT with our son and they failed us miserably," she said. "If such a death could occur at ML. it could happen anywhere," sa Rosalind Williams, MIT's dean of stu- dents and undergraduate education. "Dangerous drinking is a problem that needs to be addressed on many fronts and by all concerned." MIT recently announced that all freshmen starting in 2001 will be required to live in campus residence halls. In August, a Sigma Alpha Epsilon chapter at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge pleaded no contest to chasing alcohol for underage drin4W and agreed to pay $22,600 in a plea bar- gain over the drinking death of a 20-year- old pledge. After a first-year student at Frostburg State University in Cumberland, Md., drank himself to death at a fraternity party, eight people were fined $1,000 each and placed on five years' probation last November for selling alcohol without a license. Russian citizens withdraw their savings from banks around the country during the nation's grave economic crisis. Russian officials announced yesterday that they would begin an effort to repay the nation's foreign debts. to repay foreigners who invested in government bonds, known as GKOs, is an important step in restoring Russia's international credibility -- and in potentially obtaining more foreign aid. "The method Russia used in mid- August to try to solve its financial problems does not conform to international pr actice," Shokhin said. "However, a return to the situa- tion as it was before Aug. 17 will not be on the agenda." While officials hope to negotiate a payment plan and undo some of the damage done by the debt mora- torium, plans to solve the govern- ment's fiscal problems by printing more rubles is likely to send the cur- rency plunging even further, experts speculate. Race panel finds 'white privilege' ziggy Marley & The Melody Makers WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Clinton is receiving a report from his commission on race today urging him to help educate Americans on "white priv- ilege" and how it disenfranchises every group that came here without it. To lead the nation toward racial harmony, the com- mission's report tells Clinton, he must confront the "continuing existence of prejudice and privilege" that has created a system that relegates to people of color an inferior status to that of whites. The commission said it decided an apology for slavery was "much too narrow" to address black Americans' experience with discrimination. With its report, the president's advisory board on race wraps up its yearlong investigation of race in America. "It is, we believe, essential to recall the facts of racial domination. ... We as a nation need to under- stand that whites tend to benefit, either unknowingly or consciously, from this country's history of white privilege," the report said. That said, they noted that racial attitudes among whites have improved steadily over the past 40 years. "It is fair to say that there is a deep-rooted national consensus to the ideals of racial equality and integra- tion, even if that consensus falters on the best means to achieve those ideals," the report's final draft said. Clinton was to receive the report today in a meet- ing with the board, which will then be disbanded. The president has said he might continue the board's work through a permanent council, a step the board recom- mended. He will use the report as a basis for his own report on race in America. Among proposals, the board: Recommended that Clinton's "mend it, don't end it" policy on affirmative action, which it supported, be studied further. "This is an area clearly in flux," the board said. "Leadership is needed to forge public consensus." . U Flagged for study police misconduct involving minorities, stereotyping in media, environmental justice, federal employment, bilingual education, access to tech- nology, conflicts between nonwhite ethnic groups. Brought to Clinton's attention the practice of racial profiling, in which police use race to identify potential criminals. It is employed most often in traffic stops, a crime known casually as "driving while black." 0 Urged Clinton to review the disparity in sen- tences for crimes involving powdered cocaine and its concentrated form, crack. 'the board said longer sen- tences for crimes involving crack, largely involving poor, black or Hispanic offenders, are "morally and intellectually inde fensible." Christopher Edley, a Harvard law professor advis- ing Clinton, said the commission's work will be helpful. "It addresses ... the kinds of dialogue and public education efforts that will help create the moral fopn- dation for policy changes," Edley said. "The presidrnt sees this as an old and deep problem that no sirs report or collection of policy-ideas will solve, but U is an important step" Clinton was receiving a separate report today from the Council of Economic Advisers that lists social 4nd economic indicators of various racial and ethic groups. The race board suggested the report as a means of measuring the impact of prejudice. The second report showed that whites and Asians enjoy greater advantages economically and have bet- ter access to health care and education. It found that the social and economic progress of blacks slo between the mid-1970s and early 1990s, the econom-- ic status of Hispanics has declined in the past 25 years and American Indians are the most disadvantaged th- nic group by far. The race board said white privilege manifests itselfin small ways, among them being able to buy cars at lower prices, escaping scrutiny for possible criminal behavior, getting prompt service "while minorities and people of color are often still refused service or made to wait." 7:30pm sharp2 September 22 House panel passes Internet decency bill. WASHINGTON (AP) Renewing efforts to curb Internet pornography, a House panel cleared a bill yesterday that would require operators of com- mercial Websites to restrict young peo- ple's access to "harmful" material. Last year the Supreme court struck down the 1996 Communications Decency Act, Congress' attempt to limit youth access, as too broad and likely to keep such material from adults who have a right to see it. Rep. Mike Oxley, (R-Ohio) chief sponsor of the bill, said the measure lim- iting access by people under 17 can sur- vive a court challenge because it is a "more reasonable product" than the 1996 law. The House Commerce subcommittee on telecommunications, trade and con- sumer protection approved the bill by voice vote and sent it to the full com- mittee for further review. The Senate passed a version spon- sored by Sen. Dan Coats (R-Ind) as part of the 1999 spending bill for the depart- ments of Commerce, Justice and State. Oxley's House bill would require operators of commercial adult Websites to limit access by minors. Internet ser- vice providers would escape liability for adult-oriented material they do not pro- duce, but they would be required to inform consumers about devices avail- able commercially to block children's access to material "harmful to minors." According to the bill, the phrase means any communication, picture, image, article, recording, writing or other matter of any kind that an average person applying contemporary commu- nity standards would find is designed to appeal to the "prurient interest." Violators could face civil and crimi- nal penalties. The bill said access to such Web sites could be controlled by "Ulimaely7s parents area the best people to protect kids online." -Alan Davidson Center for Democracy and Technology requiring use of a credit card, debit account or adult personal identification number, among other methods. Oxley said "common sense" and more than 40 years of research into child development have shown that exposure to sexually explicit images cause significant harm to children. "It is our responsibility to protect young people from the corrosive, debasing effects of the voluminous graphic adult content readily available on the World Wide Web," he said. Rep. Rick White (R-Wash) cautioned against giving the public a false sense of security that government can solve the problem. "That will never be the case;" he said. Rep. Christopher Cox (R-Calif) said pornographic Internet sites originating outside of the United States would not be covered by the bill. "Enacting a criminal scheme that doesn't get at-the problem is more government and less relief than our parents and kids are epti- tIed to," he said. An Internet civil liberties organiza- tion, the Center for Democracy Technology, also weighed in with c- cism that the bill as' constitutionally flawed and ineffective. "Ultimately, parents are the best peo- ple to protect kids online," said Alan Davidson. The STUNG CHEESE INCIDENT L * IMPACT JAZZ DANCE THEATRE.