TIME: Almanac 1995

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<text id=94TT0061> <title> Jan. 24, 1994: The Week </title> <history> TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1994 Jan. 24, 1994 Ice Follies </history> <article> <source>Time Magazine</source> <hdr> CHRONICLES, Page 21 THE WEEK:JANUARY 9-15 </hdr> <body> NATION Clinton's European Adventure On his first European trip in office, President Clinton delivered a well-received speech in Brussels in which he stressed U.S. commitment to Europe and pledged to keep 100,000 troops there. Brussels was the site of a two-day nato summit, and the alliance agreed to Clinton's Partnership for Peace plan. The initiative provides for the possibility of former Warsaw Pact countries' joining NATO gradually over an unspecified period. The President toured Prague with Czech President Vaclav Havel and then arrived in Moscow, where he urged Russians to continue reforming their economy. In the Kremlin, Clinton signed an agreement with Boris Yeltsin and Leonid Kravchuk, the President of Ukraine, dealing with Ukraine's nuclear weapons. Counsel for Whitewater After nine Democratic Senators urged him to take the step, President Clinton finally agreed to call for the appointment of a special counsel to investigate his involvement with the Whitewater Development Corp. in Arkansas. Senate minority leader Bob Dole and other Republicans who had long insisted on the appointment of a special counsel continued to call for a congressional investigation as well. No Vote Suppression Federal and state investigators announced that they had found no evidence of vote suppression in last year's gubernatorial election in New Jersey. Edward Rollins, the campaign manager for Governor-elect Christine Todd Whitman, had boasted that the campaign made payments to keep blacks away from the polls. He later recanted the remarks. Whitman takes office this week. Wilder Withdraws Virginia Governor Douglas Wilder used his State of the Commonwealth address to announce that he had dropped plans to run for the U.S. Senate. He would have battled arch-nemesis Senator Charles Robb for the Democratic nomination in a contest that many had expected to be a mudslinging embarrassment to the party. Arrests in Kerrigan Attack The bodyguard of U.S. figure-skating champion Tonya Harding and two other men were arrested for the brutal assault on Harding's rival Nancy Kerrigan in Detroit. According to his lawyer, bodyguard Shawn Eric Eckardt told investigators that he had taken part in the plot to injure Kerrigan but denied being "smart enough" to plan it. More Combat Jobs for Women Lame duck Defense Secretary Les Aspin overruled the Army and Marine Corps to approve a policy that will expand the presence of women in ground-combat forces. Women still won't engage in fighting, but Aspin has ordered that they be allowed to take dangerous support jobs that have been closed to them. The two services have until May 1 to provide a list of what these jobs will be. Davidians on Trial In San Antonio, Texas, the trial began of 10 men and one woman who are members of the Branch Davidian cult and who are charged with murder and conspiracy to commit murder in connection with the death of four federal agents. The agents were shot during a raid on the cult's compound near Waco in February 1993. Cheating at Annapolis In the largest cheating scandal since it adopted its honor code in 1951, the U.S. Naval Academy is attempting to determine how many members of its current graduating class had advance knowledge of the questions on an engineering exam given in December 1992. As many as 140 cadets out of a class of 1,100 may be implicated. Trying Again in Vidor In the predawn darkness, four black families quietly moved into an all-white housing project in Vidor, Texas. The project had been seized by federal authorities after previous attempts at integration failed when whites drove away several black families by harassing them. Mrs. Bobbitt in the Dock In Manassas, Virginia, the now infamous Lorena Bobbitt went on trial for severing her husband's penis with a kitchen knife. She testified that her husband John Wayne Bobbitt often beat her and forced her to have anal sex. Mistrial for One Menendez After 19 days, the jury deliberating the charges against Erik Menendez said it was hopelessly deadlocked. The judge declared a mistrial, so Menendez, accused along with his brother Lyle of murdering their parents, will have to be tried again. Lyle's jury is still in deliberations. WORLD NATO Threatens Air Strikes... At their Brussels summit, the 16 members of NATO again threatened to use air strikes against Serb forces in Bosnia to protect Sarajevo. The allied leaders repeated a promise they made last August to "prevent the strangulation" of the city. They also said they would study measures to relieve the eastern Bosnian town of Srebrenica, where Canadian U.N. peacekeepers are trapped, and to reopen the airport in the northeastern Bosnian town of Tuzla. nato officers said that it was unlikely air strikes would be launched before next month and that U.N. Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali would have to authorize each individual strike. President Clinton cautioned, "We should not say things that we do not intend to do." ...As Serbs Pound Sarajevo As if to underline their disdain for the West's threat, Serb artillerymen continued their relentless shelling of Sarajevo, killing at least 16 people and wounding 40 others. Bosnian government soldiers launched an attack of their own, killing three Serbs. U.N. officials closed the Sarajevo airport when a 128-mm rocket hit a runway just hours after the airport had reopened to allow relief flights to land. Ukraine to Be Nuke Free? Ukrainian President Leonid Kravchuk signed an agreement in Moscow with President Clinton and Russian President Boris Yeltsin to dismantle his country's nuclear arsenal, the world's third largest. Ukraine will turn 1,800 warheads over to Russia for destruction. U.S. government payments for the weapons' enriched uranium, along with promised aid, will total more than $1 billion. The balky parliament in Kiev must still ratify the pact, so the fate of the missiles remains in doubt. Mexican Cease-Fire President Carlos Salinas of Mexico declared a unilateral cease-fire in the government's battle against rebellious peasants in the southern state of Chiapas. He offered amnesty to any guerrillas who laid down their arms and ordered the 15,000 troops sent to the impoverished state to fire only if fired upon. Manuel Camacho Solis, formerly the Foreign Minister, was appointed peace envoy to meet with the rebels. Israel, P.L.O. Start and Stop Negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians reopened in the Egyptian town of Taba, but three days later, delegates again halted the talks. "On the civilian issues, we are coming closer. On the security issues, there is a lot to be done," said Major General Amnon Shahak, head of the Israeli delegation. BUSINESS Low, Low Prices Wholesale prices edged up a negligible 0.2% last year, and consumer prices posted the smallest gain in seven years--only 2.7%. Analysts predict continued low inflation in 1994. Meanwhile, spurred on by purchases of cars and home-related goods, retail sales last year soared 6.2%, the biggest annual advance since 1989. Rules for the Info Highway Vice President Al Gore unveiled the Administration's grand design for the coming information superhighway. Though a bit stingy with details, Gore said the Administration will push for legislation that encourages deregulation and greater competition among traditional rivals, allowing telephone and cable-TV companies to enter each other's business, for example. He also indicated that the Administration will press the telecommunications industry to provide both affordable "universal service" to all households and free access to the info highway to schools, libraries and hospitals. Initial industry reaction was favorable. Paramount Board Favors QVC The board of Paramount Communications recommended that shareholders reject Viacom's latest bid and again advised that they accept QVC Network's offer, estimated to be more generous by about $600 million. A Break in the B.C.C.I. Probe An agreement with Abu Dhabi's ruler, a principal backer of the Bank of Credit and Commerce International, has given new life to the global fraud investigation of the rogue bank. Sheik Zayed bin Sultan al-Nahayan has agreed to allow B.C.C.I.'s No. 2 man, Swaleh Naqvi, to be extradited to the U.S. for trial on fraud charges, and to give prosecutors access to other former officers and to bank records. In turn, the U.S. has promised the sheik that he will not face criminal or civil charges in the U.S. and that a $1.5 billion lawsuit against him will be dropped. Blue-Chip Layoffs Persist The troubled Westinghouse Electric Corp. said it would shed 6,000 employees, or 11% of its work force, over the next two years. GTE Corp., the nation's largest local phone company, said it would cut 17,000 jobs, or 13% of its work force, over the next three years. SCIENCE Snapshots from Space The before-and-after pictures said it all: images of distant stars and galaxies that had been fogged and blurry were suddenly breathtakingly clear. Not only was nasa's Hubble repair mission an unqualified success (boosting the agency's chances of getting funding for its next big project, the space station), but astronomers now have a scientific tool of unprecedented power. Discoveries--black holes, white dwarfs, new solar systems--could pour in for years to come. Sonic, the Hedgehog Gene Scientists have identified a new class of genes--to be called hedgehogs by convention--that control a master switch in DNA molecules that tells cells whether they are to become skin, bone or muscle. The new genes are being named for hedgehog species, such as Indian and moonrat. One of them is even called Sonic, after the hedgehog hero of a popular video game. -- By Philip Elmer-DeWitt, Christopher John Farley, Sophfronia Scott Gregory, Michael Quinn, Jeffery C. Rubin, Alain L. Sanders HEALTH REPORT THE GOOD NEWS -- Nursing a baby can significantly lower chances of getting breast cancer later in life, a new study shows. Mothers who begin breast feeding in their teens and continue for at least six months reduce the risk of cancer before menopause almost by half. -- Spinal-tissue injuries frequently lead to paralysis, but researchers in Japan say they have cut the spinal cords of newborn rats and reattached the severed ends without inflicting permanent damage. After a few months, these rats were running and climbing nearly as well as uninjured ones. -- Rats navigating a maze make only half as many errors when given a new "smart" drug called BDP, which affects receptors in the brain. If proved safe, the drug could be used to treat Alzheimer's patients. THE BAD NEWS -- Thirty years after the Surgeon General's first warning about the hazards of smoking, cigarettes and other tobacco products still kill more than 420,000 Americans each year. -- Health officials report that the deadly hantavirus that last year killed 32 people in the Southwest has made its first appearance east of the Mississippi, in a Florida drug-treatment center. -- The number of foster children in the U.S. has doubled, to 442,000 in the past 10 years. As a group, they receive the worst health care of any American children. -- Elderly Americans who have many sex partners or are otherwise at risk to contract aids are one-sixth as likely to use condoms as a comparable group in their 20s. Sources--GOOD: New England Journal of Medicine; Nature; Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. BAD: Coalition on Smoking or Health; Florida Department of Health; Archives of Internal Medicine; American Medical News DIAGNOSING BILL GATES In its Dec. 27/Jan. 3 issue, the New Yorker ran a long piece about autism called "An Anthropologist on Mars," and in the following issue the magazine ran a long piece called "E-Mail from Bill" about Bill Gates, chairman of Microsoft. In some ways, the articles were strangely and intriguingly similar. AN ANTHROPOLOGIST ON MARS Some autistics possess an "excellent ability of logical abstract thinking." E-MAIL FROM BILL A Microsoft executive is quoted: "`Bill is just smarter than everyone else.'" AN ANTHROPOLOGIST ON MARS Autistics suffer "impairment of social interaction with others." E-MAIL FROM BILL A former girlfriend is quoted: "`People who know Bill know that you have to bring him into a group because he doesn't have the social skills to do it on his own.'" AN ANTHROPOLOGIST ON MARS Many autistics show "repetitive or automatic movements, such as spasms, tics, rocking." Some autistic children "rock back and forth." E-MAIL FROM BILL "While he is working, he rocks...(H)is upper body rocks down to an almost forty-five-degree angle, rocks back up, rocks down again. `They claim I started at an extremely young age,'" said Gates. AN ANTHROPOLOGIST ON MARS Autistic children sometimes suffer "sudden panics or rages, and scream or hit out uncontrollably." E-MAIL FROM BILL "If he strongly disagrees with what you're saying, (Gates) is in the habit of blurting out, `That's the stupidest f----ing thing I've ever heard!' People tell stories of Gates spraying saliva into the face of some hapless employee." AN ANTHROPOLOGIST ON MARS Autistics "do not make eye contact." E-MAIL FROM BILL "`He did not look at me very often but either looked down as he was talking or lifted his eyes above my head to look out the window.'" AN ANTHROPOLOGIST ON MARS The home of one autistic family had a "well-used trampoline, where the whole family, at times, likes to jump and flap their arms." E-MAIL FROM BILL "He has planned a full-size trampoline for a house he is building." INSIDE WASHINGTON FROM THE MAN WHO BROUGHT YOU WILLIE HORTON... FLOYD BROWN IS BACK. He's the conservative who created the original Willie Horton ad in 1988 and made a video rehashing the Gennifer Flowers mess in 1992, and he is now covertly feeding information and hard-to-find documents to reporters and congressional Republicans looking into the Whitewater affair. Brown's associate David Bossie has been to Little Rock several times digging for dirt. Evidently some Whitewater tale tellers prefer to deal with Brown & Co., figuring Brown can be trusted to protect their sources. WINNERS & LOSERS WINNERS CHRISTINE WHITMAN N.J. Governor-elect's campaign cleared of vote suppression SEN. CHARLES ROBB Virginia Democrat's rival, Gov. Wilder, won't oppose him in primary NASA Results of Hubble mission are spectacular--and the best p.r. for a space station LOSERS HILLARY CLINTON Whitewater special counsel named despite her opposition TONYA HARDING Figure skater's bodyguard is implicated in attack on Kerrigan HOWARD STERN No late-night TV gig as New Year's Eve show repels Fox's owner DISPATCHES INDUSTRIAL FLEA MARKET By JEFFERY C. RUBIN, in Fontana, California "These foundations are a wonder to behold," says George Trentz wistfully as he stands before a row of crumbling concrete walls, virtually all that remains of the former Kaiser Steel Corp.'s mill in this town, an hour's drive east of Los Angeles. The plant, once 20 stories high and 100 yds. long, has been reduced to a ruin, and as workers with acetylene torches continue their cutting, Trentz watches the factory where he worked for years literally disappear before his eyes. If it were simply another smokestack victim of America's decline in manufacturing, it would just be allowed to sit and rust. Something stranger is happening, though: the plant has been sold to the Chinese, and they are taking it apart rivet by rivet and shipping it back to their country, where they will rebuild it to help satisfy China's insatiable industrial appetite. Thought to have expanded at a torrid rate of 13% in 1993, China's economy has been the fastest growing in the world for two years in a row. Looking at the piles of rubble and scrap, it is hard to imagine that when it opened in 1978, the Basic Oxygen Process Shop No. 2, known as "the BOP shop," was among the most formidable steelmaking facilities in the world. The two huge Voest-Alpine furnaces could produce up to 2.8 million tons of high-grade carbon steel annually. But soon after Kaiser built the plant (at a cost of $287 million), the company encountered new environmental regulations and rapidly rising union wages that made the mill noncompetitive with overseas producers. Within five years Kaiser shut the plant down. For a decade the BOP shop came to life only occasionally as a movie set--in 1990, for example, the finale of Arnold Schwarzenegger's apocalyptic Terminator II was filmed here. Then, in late 1992, the Shougang steel corporation of Beijing agreed to pay $15 million for the plant. Soon after, 290 engineers and laborers arrived from China to begin packing up their new possession. After being cut or unbolted, each piece--some are bigger than a boxcar--is numbered and labeled in Chinese characters to ensure that the 60,000-ton jigsaw puzzle can be reassembled correctly back home in China. The furnaces now hang oddly in the open air, but within weeks they will be lifted from their cradles and made ready for transport to the port at Long Beach. "China could build a new steel mill like this one," says Wang Shengli, who is overseeing the project. "We bought this one because we can have it operating sooner than if we built our own." The mill will be put up in the southern Guangxi region; the cost of dismantling, moving and reconstructing it will be at least $400 million. The Fontana mill is the largest plant bought in the U.S. and taken home by the Chinese, but it is hardly the only one. In North Carolina the Chinese picked up a secondhand nuclear-plant control room, in Pennsylvania they purchased a used microchip-making facility, and in Michigan they bought an auto-engine assembly line. If China's economy keeps going along as it has been, the steel, microchips and engines made in these newly exported plants may ironically come back to America one day--as imports. </body> </article> </text>