NATION/WORLD
The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, September 22, 1998 - 5
Iran
appeals
to U.N.
or tks
The Wiashington Post
UNITED NATIONS --Iranian
President Mohammad Khatemi,
whose country stands on the brink of
war with Afghanistan's dominant
Taliban movement, appealed to the
United Nations yesterday to bring all
the feuding Afghan factions into
negotiations to permit "the tyran-
nized and destitute Afghan people to
freely determine their own destiny."
With 200,000 Iranian troops
massed on the Afghan frontier,
Khatemi spoke to the annual opening
of the I.T.N. General Assembly as for-
eign ministers or their deputies from
eight countries, including the United
States, met on the sidelines here to
seek ways of preventing the Afghan
civil war from escalating into cross-
border conflict with Iran.
The meeting ended in agreement to
ask I akhdar Brahimi, UN. Secretary
General Kofi Annan's special envoy, to
go back to Afghanistan to seek ways of
stimulating a dialogue and to call on the
ialiban to permit an international inves-
4igation of the killing of Iranian diplo-
Hurricane Georges
pounds Caribbean
AP PHOTO
Iranian President Mohammad Khatami shakes hands with United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan, right, at the
United Nations yesterday. Khatami said his country wants good relations with the outside world.
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) A
menacing hurricane Georges cut a
swath through the northeast C(aribbean
yesterday, packing winds as high as 130
mph and churning up 20-foot seas.
Thousands took shelter from the storm
in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin
Islands.
The hurricane toppled power lines,
mangled trees and blew away roofs in
St. Kitts, Antigua and other islands
early yesterday.
No injuries were reported by late
afternoon, but officials said they feared
for the worst if Georges strikes any
densely populated areas.
"This hurricane has the characteris-
tics of being the strongest that we have
confronted in Puerto Rico in decades;'
warned Gov. Pedro Rossello. "Our peo-
ple have very difficult days to come."
At 5 p.m.. Georges' center was esti-
mated near 18.0 north latitude and 65.6
west longitude, 40 miles southeast of
San Juan, Puerto Rico, after passing St.
Croix, one of the U.S. Virgin Islands,
where all power was knocked out.
Maximum sustained winds had
increased to 115 mph by 5:30 p.m. with
gusts as high as 130 mph, upgrading
Georges to a category 3 hurricane, the
U.S. National Hurricane Center said.
Moving west-northwest at 16 mph,
the storm packed hurricane-force winds
up to 85 miles from the eye, mostly to
the northeast.
'The Ilurricane C'enter warned the
storm winds while diminished from
a monstrous 150 mph recorded Sunday
remained "extremely dangerous;'
and director Jerry Jarrell said there
were indications Georges was intensi-
fying.
Advance teams from the U.S.
l'ederal Emergency Management
Agency, the FBI and the American Red
Cross arrived in the Virgin Islands and
Puerto Rico. Both territories declared
states of emergency and called up
National Guard troops.
The first strong winds were felt
around 3 p.m. in the San Juan area,
where almost half of Puerto Rico's 3.8
million people live.
Rossello banned liquor sales and
ordered more than 330 shelters
opened. Banks and schools closed,
airlines canceled flights to and from
the U.S. mainland, and ferry service
was suspended. People were ordered
o1ff the beaches.
More than 9,700 people left their
homes for shelters in San Juan,
Arecibo, Mayaguez and other cities.
With up to 15 inches of rain
expected in Puerto Rico's mountains,
the threat of mudslides drove many
mountain residents to shelters in San
Juan.
"The roof of my house is made of
wood and cardboard, and I'd rather be
here before it goes flying," said Miguel
Mercado Romero.
In St. Croix, raging winds bent palm
trees to one-third of their height, shook
parked cars and destroyed part of the
boardwalk. Gov. Roy Schneider, speak-
ing on WVWI-AM radio, said a 50-foot
sailboat had been driven aground. In St.
Thomas, also part of the U.S. Virgin
Islands, winds were at about 75 mph
and increasing.
mats and punish those responsible.
The desire for Afghan stability and
animosity toward the Taliban, which
seeks to impose an extremist Muslim
theology on Afghanistan, has posed
something of a uniting issue for the
US. and Iranian governments after 19
years of mutual hostility. Yesterday's
meeting provided the setting for one
of the highest-level contacts between
officials of both countries since rela-
tions were severed after the !979
Islamic revolution.
theological differences that Iran
claims have led to the Taliban
killing and kidnapping Iranian citi-
zens. The United States has
opposed the Taliban's alleged
involvement in drug trafficking,
human rights violations and, most
importantly, support of terrorism
including the harboring of Osama
bin Laden, the Saudi multimillion-
aire whom the United States blames
for masterminding the bombings of
the U.S. embassies in Kenya and
Washington launched cruise missile
attacks last month against a Bin
Laden base in Afghanistan.
But while there has been consid-
erable speculation that the election
of Khatemi, a moderate among the
Shiite clerics who control Iran,
might present an opportunity for
improving relations, U.S. officials
stressed that yesterday's events
were concerned with Afghanistan
and were not connected to any
efforts to promote a Washington-
Iran and the Taliban have serious Tanzania. In retaliation, Tehran dialogue.
Clinton seeks to define global scope of terrorism
U.Nn
Continued from Page 1
Rather than focus on specific actions to com-
bat terrorism, Clinton sought in his 1.N.
speech to define the global scope of the prob-
1em and dispel the idea that it is caused by an
inevitable clash of cultures and a Western dis-
regard for poorer nations.
"It is a grave misconception to see terrorism
hs only, or even mostly, an American problem,"
Clinton said. "Indeed, it is a clear and present
danger to tolerant and open societies and inno-
cent people everywhere."
Ile listed terrorist incidents around the world
over the past decade, including killings in
Northern Ireland, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Sri
Lanka and Argentina, as well as the bombings
last month at the U.S. embassies in Kenya and
Tanzania that killed 12 Americans.
"Some people believe that terrorism's princi-
pal fault lines center on what they see as an
inevitable clash of civilizations," he said. "It is
an issue that deserves a lot of debate in this
great hall. Specifically, they believe there is an
inevitable clash between Western civilizations
and Western values and Islamic civilizations
and values. I believe this view is terribly
wrong.
Clinton sought to picture the U Jnited States
as a friend, rather than a foe, of Islam. le said
Islam is one of the fastest growing faiths in the
United States, where there already are 1,200
mosques.
"'here is no inherent clash between Islam
and America," he said.
Feds look
1nto Ford
floor mats
WASHING ION (AP) - A federal
safety agency is investigating whether
drivers floor mats on some late model
Ford F-150 pickup trucks can creep up
on the gas pedal, potentially leading to
motorist s losing control of pickups.
lorty-nine consumers complained
the mats slid out of position on some of
the popular pickups from model years
1997 and 1998, the National IHighway
Trafi Safety Administration said in a
monthly report on its auto investiga-
tions released yesterday.
There are an estimated I million of
the- best-selling pickups on the road.
However, Ford spokesperson Karen
Shtfughnessy said only about 15 per-
cent ofthose pickups have the mats.
TJhere were no reported crashes or
injuries, the report said.
"Were aware of the investigation
and were cooperating with NI HTSA$,
said Shaughnessy
lord Motor Co. officials told the
agency that their floor mats are made
so there is enough clearance between
the mat and the gas pedal. Ford also
said floor mats that are not produced by
the company are often bought by con-
suxners and 11 of the complaints
involve those mats
Ford documents given to the agency
show company concern that mechanics
at dealerships or consumers may not be
properly installing the mats, the report
said.
* Ford made a design change in July
1997 to minimize the likelihood the
floor mat could interfere with the pedal
and Ford issued two service bulletins to
mechanics to emphasize proper floor
mat installation, the report said.
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