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WORLD Page 14 THE BATTALION Thursday, Ma Pope completes controversial iournev to Bethlehei i ■ BETHLEHEM, West Bank (AP) — Journey ing to the cradle of Christianity on Wednesday, Pope John Paul II knelt at the traditional spot of Jesus’ birth and kissed a golden bowl of Palestinian soil — a highly charged gesture seen by Palestinians as a recognition of their dreams for statehood. As a beaming Yasser Arafat looked on, the pontiff POPE JOHN PAUL ti proclaimed Palestinians’ “natural right to a homeland” and visited a camp for refugees exiled from their homes since the 1948 Mideast War. Soon after he left, Palestinian frustrations turned violent: 1 lundreds of camp res idents hurled stones at baton-wielding Palestinian police in a battle that lasted for nearly halfan hour. Police at the Dheisheh camp pushed the pro testers back, but then retreated under a hail of rocks. Some minor injuries were reported in the melee, a show of dissatisfaction with Palestinian leadership and the slow pace of peace. Earlier in the day, John Paul called for international action to end Palestinian suffering. “Your torment is before the eyes of the world,” he declared. “And it has gone on for too long.” However, the day in Bethlehem—the city John Paul said was at the heart of his pilgrimage — also had a strong spiritual note. In Manger Square, near Jesus’ traditional birth grotto in the Church of the Nativity, a golden-clad pontiff leaning on a silver staff celebrated Mass before thousands of faithful. Later, he descended into the grotto and knelt before the star marking the spot where Mary is believed to have given birth. In the soft glow of candles, the pope sat in silence as his aides re spectfully slipped out of the grotto. Despite the Vatican’s portrayal of the papal trip as purely spiritual, the pope touched on con tentious issues of clear consequence to the region. He kissed a bowl of Palestinian soil — a gesture normally reserved for sovereign states — and walked hand-in-hand in Dheisheh with Arafat, the Palestinian leader. The Palestinians, in turn, lost no time driving home the message of their aspi rations of independence. “Welcome to our land,” Arafat told the pope at a formal reception that kicked oft'the only day the pope was spending in Palestinian territory. He called the pope an “esteemed guest of Pales tine, and its eternal capital, Jerusalem.” Israel claims all Jerusalem as its capital, while Palestinians want the city’s eastern sec tion as the capital of a future Palestinian state. After meeting Arafat, the pope traveled in his bulletproof popemobile to Manger Square for an ecstatic welcome. Along the route, Pales tinian girls hurled flowers, festooning the hood of the popemobile. In the square, draped with Palestinian and Vatican flags, shouts of “Viva Baba!” rang out. Baba is the Arabic adaptation of the word pope. Clad in a golden robe, John Paul waved his hand in greeting and blessed the crowd, saying “Peace be upon you” in Arabic. As organ strains signaled the start of Mass, he leaned heavily on his silver staff, bowing his head in solemn prayer. Hands trembling as he preached from a tent like altar between an ancient church and a mod em mosque, the pope said Bethlehem lay “at the heart” of his millennium pilgrimage — a visit he had hoped to make as far back as Christmas 1978, two months after he assumed the papacy. “This is a place that has known the yoke and the rod of oppression,” John Paul said. “How often has the cry of innocents been heard in these streets?” As the pope finished his homily, the Muslim call to prayer rang out from a mosque in the square, the first such interruption of a papal Mass. The crowd and the pontiff alike waited silently for the call to prayer to end. A few fidgeted uncomfortably, and a nun shook her head in apparent disbelief. A moment later, the crowd applauded when Jerusalem’s Latin Patriarch, Michel Sabbah, spoke of the juxtaposition of Islamic and Chris tian prayers as symbolizing unity between the two faiths. Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navar ro-Vails later said the overlapping of prayers in the square was “mutual and respectful.” Earlier, the Palestinians greeted John Pai^l with conscious symbols of statehood as his Is raeli Blackhawk helicopter touched down under chilly gray skies near Arafat’s presidential palace. The Palestinians presented him with a golden bowl of soil, to which the pontiff bit' to his lips. Along with the Vaticanantks played the Palestinian national song. In his arrival speech, the popes “legitimate Palestinian aspirations need for peaceful negotiations to real: “The Holy See has always recogt the Palestinian people have a natural: homeland,” the pope said, speaking:, voice — a symptom of Parkinson’s! progressive neurological disorder. Navarro-Vails parried suggestionsl was endorsing a Palestinian state, sayn state has not yet been proclaimedandte icon would consider the issue when tot: The visit sounded a cheerful note., of several hundred, gathered in acoitny boys’ school, cheered and applaudedasi and Arafat walked hand-in-handotitole But the violence erupted aflertkeylelt Abdel Rahman Ahmar, a leaderofarakj faction, said the camp’s anger was fell Arafat and at the Israeli-Palestinianpa; from which he said refugees havereapefcia go Out To Thursdays uv Tfte^ Battalion^ Freshly made Sandwiches, Soups & Desserts FREE CHIP & DRINK! w/purchase of any sandwich Present coupon before ordering Expires 04/09/00 2416 Texas Ave. S • College Station 696-DELI Fax: 693-6606 Hours: 10 a.m.-7:00 p.m. Mon.-Sat. Delivery available. $20 minimum I.A DAHRIINEttA FLAJNCH: Thursday is Aggie Date Night Buy 20 oz. Sirloin Dinner for only $15.95 and receive your choice of a 1/2 of Rotisserie Chicken or 7 oz. 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Expires March 26, 2000. The Best Pizza in Town, Honest! Northgate 601 University Dr. Between Papa Johns & Subway 268-7668 We Accept Aggie Bucks Kroger Center Near Golds Gym 2416 Tx Ave. S 696-5464 A- '- yCTTT' T: Caffe? CaprL mciMommmcmm 1905 South Texas Ave., College Station • 695-9675 the Place to eat for more info, ask a friend FREE Mozzarella Garlic Bread Appetizer with this coupon. Exp 4/30/00 222 n. main in historic cfausntaMn hr (.fan 409-822-267’S LUNCH BUFFET $795 $ | 00 Qpp w/coupon j ! $ 2 00 OFF ! ! Dinner 1 1 w/coupon Lunch Hours M-F 11 a.m. - 2:30 p.m. Dinner Hours Sun.-Th. 5:30 p.m. - 9:30 p.m. Fri.-Sat. 5:30 - 10:30 We provide transportation for groups of 5 or more on Sat. and Sun. afternoons Lunch & Dinner Boxes To Go Starting at $4.95 Lunch from $ 4 95 Dinner from $ 6 9 Not valid with any other offer Activists criticize water forum’s joint declaratio THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Activists criticized a joint declara tion by water officials from 130 coun tries Wednesday because it didn't classify access to water as a human right, and lacked any concrete mea sures to ensure a clean world water supply. In their four- page closing decla ration, government officials at the Sec ond World Water Forum agreed that every person should have “ac cess to enough safe water at an afford able cost.” “If you say it’s a human right you change the whole framework,” said Maude Barlow of the Canadian itor International, an Americani organization promoting thepri tion of water resources. The officials stressed the for institutional, technologicalj nancial innovations’' fromthef: sector. “If you say it's a human right you change the whole framework. Then you can't trade it [water] as a commodity and make a profit.” — Maude BaHow Canadian Council Somfi gates at i rum declaratr will pit the pri\: tion of it ter indi the exp the poor. “Foot pie are ing to pr( the profil tract the vate set 1 said mem del Mike i Ri Phot wrea Rang stan< Council, a civil rights interest group. “Then you can’t trade it [water] as a commodity and make a profit.” Officials discussed recommenda tions from the 4,500 environmental ists, business people, scientists and water experts attending the confer ence, but did not endorse them. They listed challenges for their own governments to address, such as securing food supplies, protecting ecosystems and managing risks in cluding floods, drought and pollution. “It’s a shame the governments have not adopted the most simple pledge,” said Lisa Borre, vice president of Mon- Director General of the South At Department of Water Affairs Forestry. “We are democraticallyek governments and cannot leave of majority of our people.” With the world’s peeled to double in the next 25)<< many experts believe the i needed for water will have to® 1 from private investors. The water congress was the largest meeting everofesp and government officials. Thei world water forum will Japan in 2003. A R The Best Scot In Town Hwy 30 @ Earl Rudder Fn/vy (9) 764-7592 KTSft Late shows Thursday, Friday, and Saturday Nights. All shows after 11:00 pm are only *4.50 BARGAIN MATINEE: All shows before 6 p.m. are only '4.50 Adults: '6.50, '6.00 (Sun.-Thurs) Children and Seniors are '4.50 at all times. 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T*, pro«eds from this tlmdratert 0 "* the necessary expenses to gP W Sydney next fell. zhbcT “Colleg tradition of can be hear American V But cons changed soi The cou ago that put atea“publi sidies and tl of their vie\ The 199: group at the along its ids evidence W vative advo When \\ in 19 in fees i ad on to can For a schqol a total fund i