Page 6 • Wednesday, July 21,1999 News SLA fugitive released on bail LOS ANGELES (AP) — Friends of Symbionese Libera tion Army (SLA) fugitive Kath leen Ann Soliah posted her $1 million bail yesterday, allowing her to return to Minnesota to await trial on charges she plant ed bombs under police cars during the 1970s. Defense attorney Susan B. Jordan told a judge that some 250 people — including artists, lawyers, doctors, bankers, bakers and landscap ers — had contributed large and small amounts to raise the $1 million, and Soliah would not violate their trust. “If she absconded, one of these 250 people would know about it before the electronic monitoring people,†Jordan said. Soliah, 52, had been un derground for 23 years before she was captured last month in St. Paul, Minn., where she had been living as Sara Jane Olson, a doctor’s wife, a moth er of three and a local stage ac tress. Bail was posted during a hearing before Superior Court Judge Larry P. Fidler, who ac cepted a plan to have Soliah electronically monitored in St. Paul. She was to be freed later yesterday after processing by her jailers. Her husband. Dr. Gerald Peterson, and mother were in court. She flashed a big smile in their direction as she was being led away. Soliah was indicted in 1976 on conspiracy to murder and explosives charges. Prosecu tors allege that in 1975 she placed bombs under two Los Angeles police cars in retalia tion for a 1974 shootout with police in which six SLA mem bers were killed. The bombs did not go off. If convicted, she could get up to life in prison. The SLA was the radical group that kidnapped news paper heiress Patricia Hearst, who later went to prison for taking part in an SLA bank robbery. Soliah’s lawyers said there is no evidence linking her to the attempted bombings and there will be no effort to plea- bargain. No trial date has been set. FBI agents acting on a tip generated by the TV show “America’s Most Wanted†captured Soliah. Columbia mission postponed Shuttle launch shelved following hydrogen-leak scare CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — The first U.S. space flight to be commanded by a woman was postponed until tomorrow following a hydrogen-leak scare in the fi nal moments of the countdown for shuttle Columbia. The countdown yesterday was stopped with just seven seconds to go — less than a half-second before the shuttle engines were to ignite. A launch controller detected what ap peared to be a dangerous buildup of hy drogen gas in Columbia’s engine compart ment and ordered the cutoff of the countdown. The reading turned out to be wrong, and it would have been safe to fly, launch director Ralph Roe said. “We are convinced this is not a real leak,†Roe said, “and we have no serious concern with launch.†Roe said NASA will try again early to morrow. “We’ll be ready whenever,†mission commander Eileen Collins, an Air Force colonel, said. As commander, she was the last one out of the spaceship, which was filled with more than 500,000 gallons of ex plosive liquid hydrogen fuel and liquid oxygen. Collins said it was a huge disappoint ment for her and the crew as well as for the numerous female notables gathered for the early-morning launch. The shuttle holds the world’s most powerful X-ray telescope, a $1.5 billion in strument designed to study stars, galaxies and quasars. The Chandra X-ray Observatory is al ready 3 year late getting up because of technical problems. The VIPs at the Cape included the U.S. Women’s Soccer Team; Hillary Rodham Clinton and daughter Chelsea; 15 mem bers of Congress, 13 of them women; Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala; Sally Ride, the first Amer ican woman in space; and Judy Collins, who wrote a song for the occasion. The soccer players are not expected to return. Clinton’s plans are up in the air. So are many of the others’. It was the first time in years a count down was called off so close to launch. Off the radar The Federal Aviation Administration was able to partially track the progress of Kennedy’s plane before it disappeared. Below a certain altitude, radar cannot detect aircraft. Here’s what current radar data shows. 9— 9:40:24 p.m. Altitude 1,900 feet. 2,000 The aircraft gradually descended from a flying altitude of 5,600 feet to 2,500 feet. The normal 1,000 rate of descent is about 500 feet per minute. sea level Note: not to scale 9:40:20 p.m. Radar plotted the plane’s altitude at 2,200 feet when it was 10-11 miles off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard. 9:40:34 p.m. Last radar record. Altitude 1,100 feet, about nine miles off the coast. The rate of descent was 4,700 feet per minute, steeper than previously believed. 9:40:29 p.m. Altitudep' 1,600 feet. Aquinnah) Water depth: 100-1000 ft. Atlantic Ocran 20-100 ft. Sources: U. S. Coast Guard, FA A AP/Tonia Cowan, Matthew Perry, John Jurgensen FAA alerted to lost flight Friday night Divers concentrate on 15 possible crash sites AQUINNAH, Mass. (AP) — Guided by sonar readings, divers searched sev eral sites for John F. Kennedy Jr.’s plane yesterday while federal officials ac knowledged they were asked to locate the Piper Saratoga II less than a half- hour after it vanished from radar. Throughout the day, divers plunged into the waters off Martha’s Vineyard from small patrol boats, a Navy salvage ship. Coast Guard cutters and inflatable rafts. They focused on 15 sites, includ ing a reef identified on nautical charts as Devil’s Bridge. “The divers are systematically exam ining targets and moving on,†said Greg Hernandez, a spokesperson for the Na tional Oceanic and Atmospheric Ad ministration, which had two sonar- equipped ships scanning the ocean floor for signs of the plane’s wreckage. On the fourth full day of the search, the Federal Aviation Administration ac knowledged it was asked in a phone call from an intern at the Martha’s Vineyard airport to help locate the plane Friday night. The plane was carrying Kennedy, 38; his wife, Carolyn Bessette Kennedy, 33; and her sister, Lauren Bessette, 34. Kennedy, the pilot, planned to drop off his sister-in-law on the island and con tinue to his cousin’s wedding in Hyan- nis Port. The caller, 21-year-old Adam Budd, expressed no great urgency as he tele phoned an FAA station in Bridgeport, Conn., at 10:05 p.m. Friday, FAA offi cials said. He said he called at the re quest of an unidentified couple who had come to the airport to meet Lauren Bessette. “Kennedy Jr.’s on board. He’s, uh, they want to know, uh, where he is,†Budd is quoted a saying in an FAA tran script of the call. Budd asked if the agency could track the airplane, but the person at the FAA station questioned him repeatedly about who he was and finally said: “We don’t give this information out to peo ple over the phone.†Budd ended his call with: “It’s not a big deal. †As it turned out, the plane had gone down about 9:40 p.m. Radar data shows the plane was diving at up to 10 times the normal rate just before it disap peared a few miles short of Martha’s Vineyard. No action was taken until a much more urgent call was made to the Coast Guard at 2:15 a.m. by a Kennedy fami ly friend. An FAA spokesman said the agency does not provide information on private citizens and private aircraft over the tele phone, and that the person on the other end of the call acted appropriately. Meanwhile yesterday, at the Keqnedy compound in Hyannis Port, some fam ily members went boating in Nantuck et Sound. The family’s flag was lowered to half staff Monday; yesterday, neigh bors followed suit. BRADLEY ATCMSON/TMBm Junior poultry science majors Jack Higgins (right) and Stacy Granbergbancm wings of 850 day-old chicks Tuesday at the Poultry Science Building. Thebiit| are tagged to keep track of information such as age and growth rate. Clinton signs Y2K bi WASHINGTON (AP) — President Clinton signed into law yesterday a bill designed to limit lawsuits related to the Y2K computer problem and save American businesses bil lions of dollars in legal costs. In a statement accompanying the signing, Clinton expressed reservations about the act and said that his administration fought for several changes. “I hope that we find that the Y2K Act succeeds in helping to screen out frivo lous claims without block ing or unduly burdening le gitimate suits,†Clinton said. “We will be watching to see whether the bill’s provisions are misused by parties who did little or nothing to remedi ate in order to defeat claims brought by those harmed by irresponsible conduct.†The bill passed overwhelmingly in the House and Senate as one of U.S. business CLINTON leaders’ top legislative prioritiestfcj Under the law, a business will havef- after its officers learn of a computed Year 2000 problem to repair theproblif fore lawsuits can be filed. The law is aimed at limitingfrivolo^ suits by setting a ceiling on punitive(1)3 that small businesses face; narrowingi' tent of an aggrieved class inadass» lawsuit and ensuring that most deleft will be held liable only for the sharer damages that they cause. “This is a narrow, time-Iimitedlegfi aimed at a unique problem,†Clintorf “My signature today in no way reflect: port for the Y2K Act’s provisions in at 1 er context.†The Y2K problem refers totheppsl that some older computers, designed:! years as two digits, might fail whetl Year’s Eve changes to Jan. 1 becausj might mistake the year 00 as 15 than 2000. Barak reiterates pullback plan WASHINGTON (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Ehud the middle of next month.†Barak assured Yasser Arafat yesterday he intends to In Gaza, which the Palestinian Authority now con- withdraw promptly from a portion of the West Bank trols, Arafat called the 15-month timetable unaccept- even while pursuing an overall Middle East settlement, able. He demanded “immediate and speedy imple- “There is no reason to wait,†Barak said as he con- mentation†of the U.S.-guided Wye River accord he eluded a series of meetings here with the Clinton ad- struck with Israel last October to acquire a further 13.1 ministration and members of Congress. percent of the West Bank. The new prime minister’s visit produced promises of Arafat also insisted on implementation of accords increased U.S. military assistance, top-of-the-line jet designed to set up negotiations on such thorny issues fighter planes and strengthened securi- as the future of Jerusalem and Pales- ty ties. “Thc*rf* itz nn tinian hopes for a state. It also resulted in parallel statements i lo fiu -j f u iiy agree with him,†Barak by Vice President A1 Gore and Secretary M^scnn tn wait sa ^ at a ^°^ nt news conference with of State Madeleine Albright deferring wef i. Gore after lunch at the vice presi- decision-making to Israel and its Arab ]/\/g clO intend tO dent’s residence. “There is no reason neighbors. _ to wait. We do intend to implement “The United States should not come implement the the Wye accords. 1 will check with up with its own decisions how to re- him.†solve these issues,†Gore said. â€In terms vVye dCCOrdS. David Leavy, a White House of trying to spell out the terms, that is Ehud Barak spokesperson, said in response to not our role.†. . Arafat’s remarks, “There’s clearly Similarly, Albright said, “It’s obvi- Israeli prime minister a sense Q f ur g e ncy. We’re going to ously up to him (Barak) and others to " work to do whatever we can to set deadlines or framework periods of time. It’s not move forward with the peace process.†something that we’re doing.†As Barak made the rounds on Capitol Hill, meeting But she voiced approval of the 15-month time frame with Republican and Democratic leaders and members Barak set to determine if there could be final settle- of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Albright told ments with the Palestinians, Syria and Lebanon. reporters, “We have no illusions about the fact that “I think that having this kind of a framework time there are very many difficult decisions that have to be is important,†she said at a news conference in which made. Part of it is creating an environment in which she announced she would travel to the region “around the parties are comfortable.†To the moon Mem bein£ Apollo 11 astronauts celebrate 30th anniversary of first lunar lat WASHINGTON (AP) — The men of Apollo 11, celebrating the 30th anniversary of the first landing on the moon, credited the competition of a space race with the Soviet Union for the success of America’s lunar program. Neil Armstrong, the Apollo 11 commander and the first man to walk on the moon, Edwin “Buzz†Aldrin and Mike Collins said in a televised discussion that the United States was pushed by competition from the Soviets to dare what seemed to some impossible — to send men to the moon and return them safely to Earth by the end of the 1960s. “I don’t think we would have gone to the moon in the time that we did without, competition,†Aldrin, the second man to walk on the moon, said. “Competition got us there in a hurry but left us without a clear vision†for future space ac tivities. Cooperation would have been preferred, Armstrong said, “but in many cases, competition is more ef fective. †Collins, who stayed in lunar orbit NASA recovers sunken capsi CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Af ter 38 years at the bottom of the At lantic Ocean, Gus Grissom’s Mer cury space capsule was reeled in today by an underwater salvage team and lifted aboard ship. Among the items found inside: seven Mercury dimes the astronaut carried into space as souvenirs. The long-awaited recovery coin cided with the 30th anniversary of man’s first moon landing. And it was aboard the Apollo 11 command ship Columbia while his crewmates land ed on the moon, said the Cold War race with the Soviets provided the drive and speed of the moon effort. “If you want a quick way of do ing something, then you go the route of competition,†he said. Just as the Cold War helped America win the space race, the space race helped America win the Cold War, Armstrong said. Since then, Armstrong said, as tronauts have come to know many Soviet cosmonauts and have devel- just one day shy of the ni vers ary of Grissom’s 1: suborbital flight aboard Lit0\ 7, which made him the American in space “I’m quite relieved that sule came out of the water piece, and I’m anxious to get to Florida,†expedition leade Newport said in a statement:: by the Discovery Channel, wt nanced the search. AQUIf bodie Mn-lav sterda> oped a respect “like you woutr ai '' les e for players on the other team'll A Iar th The spacemen answered* ae b ht and ftopsies K Jr. w avyhad The be ce after children’s questions during appearance, carried live ond and NASA’s internal televisicj work. It was part of a daylong tion of the July 20,1969 missil . completed a multibillion dollatfj'onal to put men on the moon. l® n s Pen The celebration also indinW^wes awarding of medals to the j| Alter c nauts and a White House viti: 'ceSan jotted 1 President Clinton.