The Palm Beach Post from West Palm Beach, Florida • Page 1

f. HOW TO Jehovah's Witnesses plan to fight arena sale referendumiB Jury orders Chrysler to pay $262.5 million in van death2A WEATHER: Partly cloudy and warm with a few isolated showers. High 86, low 76. 2A HIGH-HEEL ANXIETY A stiletto road test PLAY WITrK vnup conn A WWII I www IN FOOD DINING XJ IN ACCENT i ne jrajm jebeaen ro, I FINAL EDITION THURSDAY, OCTOBER 9, 1997 4 88 PAGES 50 CENTS Teen cares for her secret in a closet: A newborn son 'She didn't do the wrong thing, but she did the right The baby is healthy after his mom, who gave birth at home, attended to him daily after high school. By Bruce Lambert The New York Times CENTRAL ISLIP, N.Y.

When Stephanie Clark went into her daughter's bedroom looking for a pair of pants on Tuesday, she was shocked to find a tiny baby boy there, nestled in a blanket on the closet floor. "I screamed in surprise," she said Wednesday at her home in Central Islip. "I didn't know whose baby it was. I called 911. They said, 'Whose baby is I said, 'I have no The infant, it turned out, was Clark's own grandson and he had been hidden in the bedroom for 17 days.

She said she never heard him cry. The Suffolk County police were dispatched. An ambulance took the 2'2-week-old baby to the Stony Brook University Medical Center, where he weighed in at 4 pounds small enough to fit in the palm of a hand. Doctors said he was several weeks premature but was in stable condition. Clark's 17-year-old daughter, Shanta, acknowledged Wednesday the baby was hers.

"Nobody knew," she said as she sat on a couch at home. "I delivered it myself." For months, Shanta had kept her pregnancy a secret from her family, her boyfriend and her classmates at Central Islip High School. She did not identify the boyfriend. The baby was born at home Sept. 21.

The young mother said she had been sleeping when the baby started coming out. She carried the newborn, its umbilical cord still attached, to the kitchen, where she boiled water to sterilize scissors to cut the cord. "I had him, I cleaned him up, I Please see NEWBORN64 thing She did what a mother should do. STEPHANIE CLARK Shanta's mother Shanta Braves 7, Marlins 1 Botched poison plot 1WO FT EE L1EJLP forces talks in Mideast Netanyahu and Arafat meet in the middle of the night after Israeli agents try to poison a Hamas leader. With U.S.

help, Jordan gets a life-saving antidote for the man. By Larry Kaplow Palm Beach Post Staff Writer JERUSALEM They finally met at 2 a.m; Wednesday, unannounced, near the corral-like gate system that separates Israel and the Gaza Strip. Called the "overnight summit" by Israeli media, the long-sought talks between Prime Minister Benja-i I fjt. i. "i Netanyahu min Netanyahu and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat were the result of a botched assassination attempt, a paralyzed cleric and a hard push by the United States.

Their agreements were minor only to work together against terrorism and continue meeting. But it was their first meeting in eight months. The peace talks, in which Palestinians seek to form a nation in the territories now occupied by Israel, had stagnated amid Israeli land grabs and two Palestinian terrorist attacks. The two men finally agreed to meet after they had been battered and weakened by two weeks that were unpredictable even by Middle East standards. The latest crisis came with the approach of the Jewish new year.

On Sept. 25, two Israeli agents, posing as Canadian tourists, found Hamas leader Khaled Meshal in ALLEN EYESTONEStaff Photographer 1 ,200 chances ago. The Marlins come home for Friday's Game 3 of the best-of-seven series tied 1-1. In the American League Championship Series Wednesday, Baltimore beat Cleveland 3-0. IN SPORTS ATLANTA Marlins first baseman Jeff Conine loses his glove as the Braves' Kenny Lofton beats Charles Johnson's throw on a first-inning bunt.

The error was Johnson's first since June 23, 1996, more than Cruise to see pope in Cuba no party trip Arafat Jordan and injected him with poison. The agents were caught by Jordanian police, and King Hussein irate that this was the thanks he gets for bringing his country to peace with Israel held them for leverage. He demanded and received, with help from the White House, reports say, an Israeli antidote for the poison, saving Meshal's life. than 500 people have called a Coral Gables travel agency to book passage on the cruise liner. "We are getting people from New Jersey, New York, Maryland, Colorado, Fort Lauderdale, Boca Raton and a couple from West Palm Beach," Nina Meyer, managing director of Vision Travel, said Wednesday.

Meyer said 60 of the ship's 528 cabins were reserved with non-refund- Please see Shipboard entertainment in the Palace Theatre, usually host to Broadway revues and off-color comics, will be under the supervision of the archdi-ocesan music director. Some lounges will be converted into prayer chapels. The only organized land excursion is a 3-mile walk to a Sunday Mass by the pope in Havana's central Plaza of the Revolution. Still, people are clamoring to get aboard. Since the Archdiocese of Miami announced details Tuesday, more trip.

We'll pray all the way from here to Havana," said Bishop Gilberto Fernandez, one of the Miami organizers of the cruise to witness Pope John Paul H's visit to Cuba. Instead of a welcome-aboard cocktail party, the first night's highlight will be a prayer service for refugees who have drowned in the Florida Straits trying to escape from Cuba. The ship's glitzy Winner's Circle casino will be closed during the Friday-to-Monday trip. brganizers plan to close the ship's casino and pray 'from here to By Bill Douthat Palm Beach Post Staff Writer MIAMI Casino gambling, exotic shows and free-flowing champagne will be missing from the shipboard itinerary when the Norwegian Majesty sails to Cuba in January. "This is not going to be a luxury Hussein also would win freedom for the founder and spiritual head of llamas, the quadriplegic, deaf Please see NIIDEASTA4 "How can you take a lifetime out in 60 days?" Inside Goodbye, Bill's: Tux shop booted after 48 years UNC coach to retire Legendary basketball coach Dean Smith will step down after 36 seasons.

SPORTS, 3C HOROSCOPE 2D 2A 2A 11C 6B 4D LOTTERY PEOPLE SCORES STOCKS THEATERS ANN ABBY 2D BUSINESS SB CLASSIFIEDS 2E COMICS 16D DEATHS EDITORIALS 22A FLA. NEWS 7A FOOD 1FN CROSSWORDS Clinton campaign's top political official returns Senate's fire By David E. Rosenbaum The New York Times WASHINGTON At times combative, at times whimsical, Harold Ickes Wednesday parried every thrust and swipe from Republican senators investigating campaign finance practices, never giving an inch or wavering in his loyalty to President Clinton. "We did what the law permitted," said Ickes, the Chief political officer in the White House during last year's election campaign, implying that in politics, legal and proper are synonymous. Later he embellished this refrain.

"We were littered with lawyers," he said. Ickes has been deposed and interviewed countless times on campaign finance matters. His testimony on Wednesday, before the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, broke no ground that had not been covered before. Among the points he made were these: MHe knows nothing about a proposed plan in TV LISTINGS 15D TV SPORTS 2C SECTIONS PALM BEACH Weather, INTERACTIVE By Sanjay Bhatt Palm Beach Post Staff Writer WEST PALM BEACH Bill Suther was hemming pants and renting tuxedos long before Morris Costigan was of drinking age. Decades before Costigan's O'Sheas Pub opened next door on Clematis Street, Bill's Tuxedo Rentals was measuring sleeves for Bobby and JFK, and dressing the stars in the B.L Stryker television show.

But on Oct. 2, Suther's third landlord in nearly 50 years sent him an eviction letter. "I reluctantly must give you 60 days notice to vacate," landlord Joe Crossen wrote. Suther's younger and grittier neighbor, O'Sheas Pub, wants the space. The pub signed a lease with Crossen on Wednesday to take over the 2,400 square feet at 531 Clematis St.

Please see BILL'S44 news, sports and views i tfj A' I www. OoFHl. com FOR HOME DELIVERY SERVICE 8204663 1-800-654-1231 Copyright 1997 Palm Beach Post Vol. 89 No. 171 6 sections 7 JENNIFER PODISStaff Photographer Bill and Opal Suther, whose Clematis Street shop has rented tuxedos since 1949, are being evicted so O'Sheas Pub can expand.

i Please see INVESTIGATION.