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[06] U-S RESCUE TEAM DEPARTS (L/O) BY SCOTT BOBB (IZMIT, TURKEY)

INTRO: Rescue efforts have virtually ended following the devastating earthquake in Turkey 10 days ago and most foreign emergency teams are returning home. The latest to leave is a team of American firefighters from the southeastern city of Miami, Florida. The team has been working for the past week in the city of Izmit, 80 kilometers east of Istanbul, as we hear in this report from Correspondent Scott Bobb.

TEXT: Tired rescue workers from the Miami team loaded their dogs and equipment and dismantled their tents on the tarmac of a go-cart racing track that has been their base for the past week. Most of the workers have slept only a few hours a day since they arrived and several nap on their duffle bags as the last crates are packed. The spokesman for the group, Rafael Pozo, says in the 10 years he has been involved in emergency rescue work, he has never seen so much devastation.

[07] N-Y ECON WRAP (S & L) BY BRECK ARDERY (NEW YORK)

INTRO: Stock prices in the United States were down today (Thursday) because of apparent profit-taking. VOA Business Correspondent Breck Ardery reports from New York.

TEXT: The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 11- thousand-198, down 127 points or more than one percent. The Standard and Poor's 500 index closed at 13-hundred-62, down 19 points. The NASDAQ index lost one percent. Analysts say there was no negative economic news to move the market and the sell-off in stocks was mostly profit-taking after the rallies of earlier in the week. Steve Frank of the Walter Frank securities firm says the selling did not seem to be related to any fundamental factors.

[08] THURSDAY'S EDITORIALS BY RALPH ECKHARDT (WASHINGTON)

INTRO: Israeli Prosecutors have announced a plea bargain agreement with a man accused of murder in the United States, and U-S editorial writers are voicing their opinion of the matter. Also in (Thursday's) editorial pages are opinions about the U-S central bank's interest rate hike. Now, here with a closer look and some excerpts is _____________ and today's Editorial Digest.

TEXT: Nearly two-years ago 19-year-old Alfredo Tello was murdered in a suburb of Washington D-C. Police followed a trail of blood spots from the body to the nearby home of Samuel Scheinbein. But the 17-year-old Scheinbein had fled to Israel, where he is considered a citizen because his father was born in pre-Israel Palestine. Israel had outlawed extradition of Israeli citizens, but agreed to try the accused killer. In an unexpected move, Israeli prosecutors say they have agreed to ask for a 24-year prison sentence in exchange for a guilty plea to first-degree murder by Mr. Scheinbein. A plea-bargain that by American standards is lenient. "The Washington Times" says the result is -- No justice.

VOICE: Mr. Scheinbein . could easily win limited freedom as early as 2003 and parole in 2013. Given the sentence he is accused of meting out to Alfredo Enrique Tello, it is incomprehensible that Mr. Scheinbein should enjoy anything approaching freedom. If tried in his hometown, as he should have been, Mr. Scheinbein could have been sentenced to life in prison. . He has escaped real justice.

TEXT: "The Washington Post" says residents of the area in which the murder was committed are entitled to be more than a little angry about the plea agreement.

VOICE: Israel, of course is entitled to have more liberal sentencing policies than Maryland, but the remoteness of such policies from events in Maryland is a good reason to have tried Mr. Scheinbein in the state whose laws he broke and whose citizen he murdered. While there is some comfort in the fact he will be punished, the terms of his recommended sentence are a legitimate disappointment.

TEXT: In the state where the murder was committed, "The Baltimore Sun" says the plea bargain represents good faith efforts by Israeli prosecutors to make the best of bad Israeli law. A new law has been enacted, but does not apply retroactively.

VOICE: It is regrettable and wrong that Scheinbein is not to be judged, sentenced and incarcerated under Maryland law. Still Samuel Scheinbein's likely sentence is no slap on the wrist. It could be no more severe were the victim Israeli.

TEXT: Tuesday, the U-S central bank, The Federal Reserve, decided to raise interest rates one-quarter point. The bank board said the rate hike was needed to cool the country's economy to keep inflation from developing. The New York newspaper, "Newsday", says the bank's action will not cool the economy much, and that is fine because it does not need much cooling.

VOICE: .[the rate hike] is unlikely to cost anybody a job or discourage many major purchases for very long. . It is like taking a couple of aspirin tablets because you sense a headache coming on: It will ease the pain if one is on the way, but will not do harm if one is not.

TEXT: "The Miami Herald" says the bank's biggest problem is to maintain the economic boom while getting more of its benefits down to wage-earning Americans, the 52-percent who do not own stocks. But "The Herald says:

VOICE: . Historically the Fed [bank] has not considered that one of its goals. Today . market pressures are building for wage increases. . Though any inflationary impact of wage increases would be offset by productivity increases that have been rising at an annual rate of two-point-two-percent. With the nation's corporate profits and executive salaries also at record highs, a round of wage increases on production lines is not just to be expected but justifiable. . Let us hope . the economy is allowed to continue to expand. Main Street's wage earners -- who have taken two blows [with interest rate hikes] in two-months without a congressional, or Wall Street, eyebrow rising -- are right to be wary. It is their jobs, raises and hopes of a new truck in the garage that are at risk.

TEXT: "The Los Angeles Times" says Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan should be listened to.

VOICE: Tuesday's hike in short-term interest rates by the Federal Reserve, though a small one, was sobering economic news, and the pressures behind the increase are even worse news. But Greenspan's underlying message, delivered with perhaps too much subtlety to be clearly heard by the markets, is one of caution about the health of the economy. . Clearly, with the adroitness with which he has guided the U-S economy through eight years of growth, Greenspan has earned the respect of markets here and elsewhere. Now, they need to listen harder to his message, which tells of a bumpy economic road ahead.

TEXT: "The Chicago Tribune" also applauds the way the Federal Reserve is guiding the economy. It says the bank's action is like pouring water on a red hot economy.

VOICE: In the Fed's case, the goal is to keep the remarkable American economy humming along at an optimum level without overheating. A little dousing now and then in the form of a carefully calibrated rise in interest rates just might allow this current economic expansion to reach an historic ninth birthday next spring--and grow even older to the overall benefit of the nation. This adroit Fed (bank), led by Chairman Alan Greenspan, has made it clear it will douse when necessary before the heat gets to dangerous levels.

TEXT: That concludes this sampling of comment from some of Thursday's U-S press.
NEB/RAE/KL 26-Aug-1999 11:50 AM EDT (26-Aug-1999 1550 UTC)
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Source: Voice of America

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