The Post: Briefly

Thursday, March 11, 1999

THE POST

Athens, Ohio An Independent Daily Newspaper Ohio University

Briefly

Dolores Ochoa/AP
Red Cross volunteers help an unidentified man exposed to tear gas during the first day of a nationwide strike over economic reforms in Quito, Ecuador. The strike was held yesterday as a reaction to President Jamil Muhuad's declaration of a 60-day state of emergency.

Microsoft helps China to set up online programs

SHENZHEN, China - Bill Gates moved to step up Microsoft's presence in China's fast-growing Internet market yesterday with one deal to get Chinese consumers onto the Web and another to help the government get online.

The deals underscore Microsoft's determination to crack one of the world's most restricted but potentially lucrative markets for Internet products and services.

Only a small fraction of China's 1.2 billion people own personal computers, let alone have Web access, and Internet use is tightly regulated by government authorities. The proposals unveiled by Gates, the chairman of Microsoft, would make it easier and cheaper for Chinese consumers to log on to the Internet.

One Microsoft venture, dubbed ''Venus," would let Chinese consumers view the Internet through their television sets, similar to Microsoft's Web TV in the United States.

Chinese consumers would need to buy a small, low-cost device, possibly a set-top box, that uses a version of Microsoft's Windows CE operating system, which runs the basic functions of gadgets other than personal computers. Users also would need a keyboard, joystick or mouse but would not need to shell out for a computer.

"It will really open up Internet usage in a dramatic way," Gates told reporters at a signing ceremony in the southern border city of Shenzhen.

The devices are expected to go on sale later this year, said Phil Holden, a group product manager for Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft.

The idea is part of a two-fold Microsoft strategy to sell more Internet software in China.

In a second deal, Microsoft donated Internet software to China Telecom, the state telephone monopoly, and the State Economic and Trade Commission to help put their operations online. Microsoft officials did not disclose the worth on the donated software.

Washington sympathetic to air passengers' rights

WASHINGTON - Bolstered by passenger tales of alleged mistreatment by airline companies, the Clinton administration and Congress are moving to improve protections of air travelers' rights.

"We were the victims, and we were being shamed for not having the proper attitude," Barbara Plecas of Walled Lake, Mich., told lawmakers yesterday, recounting how she and fellow Northwest Airlines passengers - just arrived from Tampa, Fla. were stuck on a Detroit Metropolitan Airport tarmac for seven hours during a snowstorm last January.

Another passenger, Patricia Shank of Frederick, Md., told the House Transportation Committee of being confined for nine hours last January on a Virgin Atlantic plane that never took off for London from Washington's Dulles International Airport. When she declined to take another plane the next day, the airline refused to return her luggage, which was flown to London.

Committee Chairman Bud Shuster, R-Pa., has introduced a bill, one of several "passenger bill of rights" measures going through Congress, that would require airlines to pay compensation to passengers kept waiting on a runway more than two hours, provide explanations for delays and cancellations and give refunds for flights canceled for economic reasons.

Vice President Al Gore and Transportation Secretary Rodney Slater introduced the administration's plans for legislative and regulatory action.

"Our Fair Treatment Initiative ... empowers passengers with all the information they need to make good decisions," Gore said.

The administration's proposed legislation would require airlines to:

Disclose their flight delay and cancellation policies;

Provide food and restroom facilities during delays;

Draw up evacuation procedures for extended delays and bumping;

Provide notices on lower-priced ticket outlets;

Double the maximum compensation for mishandled baggage to $2,500 and for being bumped from a flight to $800;

Tell the Transportation Department monthly about complaints about their service.

Taxpayers pay $383 million to rescue boaters

WASHINGTON - The federal government spends more than $383 million a year to rescue capsized boaters, stranded hikers and injured campers but doesn't seek reimbursement - even from people whose risk-taking behaviors put them in danger.

In Michigan, where at least 95 ice fishermen have been rescued from lakes in one area alone this winter, lawmakers are considering charging for rescues of people who were reckless or ignored warnings.

But the U.S. Coast Guard and the National Park Service, two federal agencies that handle thousands of rescues a year, reported they don't want to send out bills because it might discourage those in need from calling for help.

"One of the last things we want is somebody who would not want a rescue because of the potential of having to pay for it and, therefore, losing a life," said Coast Guard Cmdr. Mike Lopinsky.

In December, the Coast Guard and local agencies spent $85,000 to rescue 18 fishermen from an ice floe that broke off in Michigan's Lake St. Clair and was sinking in a snowstorm. The operation, conducted in gusty winds that drove wind chills below zero, required several boats and a helicopter.

Officials said the fishermen used bad judgment by going out on the lake before the ice was safe.

The same month, the Coast Guard spent $130,275 to rescue three balloonists who failed to circle the world and ditched their craft Christmas Day off Oahu, Hawaii. The balloonists included Richard Branson, the British chairman of the Virgin records, soda and airlines empire, and U.S. millionaire Steve Fossett.

After the rescue, Branson said he would pay if asked. But the Coast Guard didn't ask.

The National Taxpayers Union, a Washington-based group that advocates less government spending, said such individuals should foot the bill when they intentionally put themselves in danger.

New House bill draws support for steel-states

WASHINGTON - A House committee, under pressure to respond to a recent surge in steel imports, yesterday sent a controversial bill establishing quotas to the House.

The Ways and Means Committee reported the bill "adversely" on a voice vote, meaning a majority of its members opposed the measure but agreed to let the full House consider it. A vote is expected as early as next week.

The measure is likely to draw considerable support from steel-state Republicans eager to help struggling workers who believe import limits are needed to prevent additional U.S. layoffs. But the bill faces a troubled future in the Senate and with the administration, which threatened a veto yesterday.

The bill would limit foreign-made steel imports to the levels they were before July 1997, when worldwide conditions began changing to cause a dramatic surge in amounts arriving from other nations. The measure also would set up an import notification system to better track shipments into the country.

The quota bill is sponsored by Rep. Pete Visclosky, D-Ind., while the notification provision was added by Rep. Ralph Regula, R-Ohio, the chairman of the House steel caucus.

Other Ohioans, including Democrats Jim Traficant and Dennis Kucinich, and Republican Bob Ney, had a hand in the deal making that led to the committee vote.

Although the move was a win for the steel industry, the committee debate highlighted rifts within Congress about how best to tackle the import surge.

Even some Democrats who agreed the steel industry needed legislative help believed the quota measure went too far and would violate international trade agreements, as established under the World Trade Organization.

Farmers look to Congress for agricultural regulations

WASHINGTON - An Ohio Farm Bureau delegation fanned out yesterday across Capitol Hill, looking for indications of action on a wide range of agriculture issues.

Chief among their concerns was low prices for grains and livestock.