News Digest
-1- ^ ^ ^ Edited by Eric Pfanner
Bush boasts of domestic
strategy amid protests
PHILADELPHIA (AP) - President
Bush, warming up for die election
year, boasted about his programs for
America’s domestic problems Thurs
day but expressed concern about a
spread of “moral emptiness” in the
nation.
Democrats ridiculed his domestic
strategy as nothing more than “props
and photo opportunities.”
And, outside a downtown hotel
where Bush addressed a Republican
fund-raiser, upwards of 2,000 people
gathered to demonstrate against the
president’s positions on a variety of
issues. One person complaining about
the planned closing of the Philadel
phia Naval Yard held a sign saying,
“Bush and (Defense Secretary Dick)
Cheney raped Philadelphia.”
At a Veterans Administration
Hospital, Bush said he worried that
his appearances would be considered
“just show business ... the basic
photo op ... so you’ll be on the six
o’clock evening news.” He said that
was not the case. “I am interested.”
Flying to Philadelphia at mid-af
ternoon, the president first visited a
drug-treatment program where he cited
figures from the National Institute on
Drug Abuse showing that overall drug
use fell 11 percent over an 18-month
period.
“This is good news, there’s no
question about it,” the president said.
“But, let’s face it, most of the most
difficult work still lies ahead.” ♦
Bush said the battle against drugs
cannot succeed “in a society that feels
Brian Shellito/DN
weak or no longer cares.
“People think the problem in our
world is crack or suicide or babies
having babies. Those are symptoms,”
the president said. “The disease is a
kind of moral emptiness, though.”
This is a reconstruction of a drawing that appeared in a Soviet newspaper, Komsomolskaya Pravda, on
Wednesday, symbolically explaining the current Soviet power structure.
STATE COUNCIL uSrS^L
Presidents ol tho Republics UibH borraenev
Council of
the Union
Supreme
of the Republics
i ... ■ I ■ ■ ■— —« - .. ... .I
Source: Komsomolskaya Pravda # AP
Soviet reformers say threats remain
MOSCOW — Soviet reformers told
Secretary of State James Baker on
Thursday that disarray in their ranks
and ancient ethnic tensions are the
greatest threats to a peaceful transi
tion to democracy in the Soviet Un
ion.
Moscow Mayor Gavriil Popov said,
too, that the forces that backed the
three-day coup against Soviet Presi
dent Mikhail S. Gorbachev in August
“will always be a threat.”
But he quickly added that “the
biggest threat however, is not so much
the reactionary forces, but the inabil
ity of us reformists to really come
together and work out our problems.”
The wary, somewhat pessimistic
view of the future was echoed by
former Foreign ^Minister Eduard
Shevardnadze ahd Russian Foreign
Minister Andrei Kozyrev.
Kozyrev talked of the danger of
“excessive nationalism,” a reference
to the tensions between the republics
as they break the once-strong hold of
the Soviet central government.
Their emphasis on the dangers that
lie ahead was in sharp contrast to the
upbeat statements the day before by
Gorbachev and Russian President Boris
N. Yeltsin.
Gorbachev and Yeltsin talked of
progress toward political and eco
nomic change. Their warnings of hard
limes ahead were in the context of a
need for massive aid from the West
— short-term to meet the challenge
of the harsh Russian winter and long
term to rebuild the crumbling na
tional economy.
Kidnappers say they back
deal but renew demands
BEIRUT, Lebanon — Shiite
Muslim kidnappers said Thursday that
they back efforts to arrange a com
prehensive hostage deal, but renewed
demands that jailed comrades in Europe
be freed as part of any swap.
Despite such obstacles, there was
optimism that the hostage ordeal could
end with a phased release of Arab
prisoners held by Israel, Israeli POWs
and the 11 Westerners missing in
Lebanon.
Palestinian and Israeli representa
tives were negotiating over the return
of the remains of an Israeli service
man in exchange for Israel’sallowing
a deported Palestinian to return home,
,a Palestinian official said.
The body of Samir Assad, a ser
geant captured in Lebanon in 1983,
was flown to Vienna, where the Red
Cross-sponsored talks were taking
place, in preparation for its return to
Israel, said Qaiss al Samarai. He is a
member of the ruling politburo of the
Democratic Front for the Liberation
of Palestine.
Samarai spoke in Damascus, Syria.
United Nations Secretary-General
Javier Perez de Cuellar, in Tehran for
talks with Iranian officials, said he
believed there was momentum to
ward a resolution of the hostage is
sue.
Senators say
Thomas avoids
their queries
WASHINGTON — Frustrated
Democrats accused Supreme Court
nominee Clarence Thomas of evad
ing questions Thursday about his re
treat from past positions and unrea
sonably refusing to say how he would
approach future cases.
- “That’s the most inartful dodge
I’ve ever heard,” Thomas was told at
one point by Sen. Joseph Biden, the
Judiciary Committee chairman, after
the nominee said he “could not sit
here and decide” whether unmarried
couples had a right to privacy.
Thomas eventually said sexual
relations and childbearing by unmar
ried couples were protected by a pri
vacy right, but not before Biden said,
“It’s getting more like a debate to get
information.”
Despite such complaints there did
not appear to be a solid opposition to
the nomination.
Thomas continued to turn aside
questions about his views on abor
tion, finally telling Sen. Herb Kohl,
D-Wis., “Whether or not 1 have a
view is irrelevant.”
A 1 i •
On the subject of changing posi
tions, Kohl asked Thomas, Why is it
inappropriate for us to make an evalu
ation of your career based on all of
what you have written and said?”
Republicans on the committee came
to his defense, as did President Bush
who said at the While House that
Thomas was “doing a bcauti ful job up
there.” i
Bush, asked at a news conference '
about the credibility of Thomas’ claim
not to have an opinion on the land
mark 1973 court decision legalizing
abortion, said simply, “That’s a ques
tion for the Senate to decide.”
Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, com
plained that Thomas had been asked
about abortion 70 times, compared to
the 36 questions about the issue that
were asked last year at David Soutcr’s
confirmation hearing. Souter was
confirmed despite his refusal to an
swer such questions.
“I don’t understand why you are
being treated any differently than these
other confirmable people,” Hatch said.
mm l *11
ADortion-counseiing Din
is approved by Senate
WASHINGTON — The Senate
approved legislation Thursday revok
ing a ban on abortion counseling by
federally financed clinics and allow
ing taxpayer-paid abortions for women
who are victims of rape or incest.
The measure, adopted 78-22, faced
a veto threat from President Bush
over both provisions.
With his promised rejection of the
bill, abortion foes did little to thwart
passage of the legislation. They have
resorted to that tactic frequently in
recent months,in a Congress that in
creasingly favors abortion rights but
still lacks the strength required to
override a presidential veto.
“The president’s regulations .. .
are not morally defensible,” Senate
Majority Leader George Mitchell, D
Maine, told reporters about the ad
ministration’s abortion-counseling ban.
“And that is why he has chosen not to
defend them. Obviously, the White
House strategy is not to have either a
debate or a vote squarely on that
issue. It is to obscure the issue.”
The abortion provisions were part
of a bill providing S204 billion for the
departments of Health and Human
Services, Education and Labor for
fiscal 1992. The new fiscal year be
gins Oct. 1.
Orbiting ozone observer
Shuttle probe
seeks answers
to shrinkage
of Earth’s layer
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. —
Space shuttle Discovery bolted into
orbit Thursday evening with five astro
nauts and an observatory designed to
scrutinize the shrinkage of Earth’s
ozone layer.
Discovery thundered away from
its seaside pad at 7:11 p.m. EDT,
flames spewing from its twin booster
rockets. The 100-ton spaceship pierced
a hazy sky as it darted out over the
Atlantic Ocean and up the East Coast.
“It’s the moment we’ve been wail
ing for,” said Don Wuebbles, an
atmospheric scientist who has been
working on the project for 13 years.
“After 13 years, how can I put it in
words?”
The launch was delayed 14 min
utes because of a temporary loss of
communication between the launch
site and Mission Control at Johnson
Space Center in Houston. The count
down clock was held at the five-min
ute mark as engineers assessed the
interruption.
Scientists watched breathlessly
from Kennedy Space Center as Dis
covery sped out of sight with the first
craft to be launched in NASA’s Mis
sion to Planet Earth, a decades-long
probe of the environment from space.
“We’re at a point in human history
where we can affect the global envi
ronment, and we shouldn’t fly blind
on that,’’ NASA’s chief scientist
Lennard Fisk said.
Discovery’s scheduled course upon
liftoff was up the East Coast as far as
Cape Haueras, N.C., where the shuttle
was to arc sharply out over the Atlan
tic on its way to a 336-mile-high
orbit. That would give people along
the seaboard, especially in the South,
a rare view of the ascending space
—
snip provided the skies arc clear.
Creighton is to maneuver Discov
ery to an altitude of 351 miles, one of
the highest for a shuttle, about seven
hours into the flight. Flight control
lers left as much as possible off the
ship to ease the climb.
If all goes well, astronaut Mark
Brown will use Discovery’s mechani
cal arm to release the observatory late
Saturday. The satellite is to be boosted
to its final destination 372 miles above
Earth by on-board thrusters.